Insurance Incorporated

There are two parts to your liability coverage on your auto insurance policy: bodily injury and property damage.

Bodily injury liability covers injuries that result from an accident:

1. Emergency aid at the scene
2. Physician medical bill from accident
3. Restitution for lost income
4. Funeral expenses
5. Lawyer fees

Property damage liability covers the property damage caused by the car in accident:

1. Property damage to houses or other buildings
2. Repair or replacement costs for other stationary objects
3. Automobile restoration or replacement expenses

It is highly recommended from our agency that people get at least a minmum of $50,000/$100,000 for bodily injury and at least $50,000 for property damage. Increasing the limits to those amounts from state minmum doesn’t cost that much at all! Having only state law minimum for automobile insurance can easily be exhausted from just one accident. The high cost of medical bills can severely exhaust your limits resulting in the rest of the costs be paid out of pocket. Here at Insurance Incorporated, we want our clients to be protected properly with the right coverage, so that is why we highly recommend having higher limits than state minimum.

If you are a homeowner or have assets we recommend higher limits with a personal liability umbrella of $1,000,000 to protect you and your assets from lawsuits.

It’s no question that insurance claim adjusters have seen them all. According to York Risk Services, a Parsippany, New Jersey-based third-party adjuster, they have handled some unusual claims in the past, such as:

(Keep in mind, this is just from restaurants)

• A husband in Texas filed a claim because he said he became ill after see a fly land in his wife’s salad. He said he suffered hypertension and anxiety that made him unable to eat at restaurants.
• A man sliced his finger while cutting into a steak at a restaurant. He said the knife was too sharp.
• A man claimed he got whiplash in a restaurant after a server dropped a tray and he quickly turned his head.
• A woman filed a claim after saying she got injured when a roll of toilet paper fell on her lap while she was using the bathroom. TOILET PAPER!

Enservio, a provider of contents claims solutions, compiled a list of the Top 10 Weirdest Contents Claims. You’ll be surprised at what people claim. Here’s the list:

1. Flamethrower
2. Multi Person Underwear
3. Dead relatives’ gold filings
4. 3.7 miles of plastic wrap
5. Petrified mastodon tusk
6. Life-size statue of Mike Piazza
7. Half a cow
8. Tub of melted stuff
9. Robot shoes
10. Invisibility potion

As entertaining as these claims are, these are REAL claims!

State Farm Insurance Co. has released its top 10 states for claims involving dog bites, with California on top in number of claims and Florida recording the highest cost per claim.

The Bloomington-based State Farm reported that California led the nation in dog bite claims at 369 in 2010, which represented a total payout of $11.3 million. Ranking second on the list is Illinois with 317 claims for a total cost of $9.7 million.

But Florida, which ranked seventh on the list, registered the highest costs per claim at $38,356 as opposed to the average claim of around $30,000 for California and Illinois.

According to Insurance Journal, State Farm paid out $90 million nationwide in 2010 as the result of 3,500 claims, 33 of which resulted in fatalities.

The Insurance Information Institute estimated that insurers paid out some $412 million in dog bit claims in 2009, the most recent information available.

Top 10 states for State Farm Dog Bite Claims in 2010

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) declared Mainstay Business Solutions to be in default for failing to pay its self insured workers comp claims.  The (DIR) has revoked Mainstay Business Solutions Certificate to Self Insure effective April 18th.  The permissably, self insured professional employer organization (PEO) was essentially shut down by the Employment Development Department earlier this month in a dispute over employment taxes.  The dispute revolves around $16.4 million that EDD claims Mainstay owes for unemployment taxes, interest and penalties. Mainstay disputed that amount, but admitted earlier through its outside public relations counsel that it does owe the state millions.

All assets and liabilities of Mainstay Business Solutions have been ordered to be turned over to the Self-Insurer’s Security Fund who will begin paying claims by no later thant 30 days.

Employers that rely upon Mainstay may find themselves scrambling to replace workers compensation coverage and revise their employment and payroll structure. Employers should be cautious when selecting a Workers Compensation carrier and verify the financial status of the carrier or PEO prior to choosing a policy or plan.

Insurance Incorporated opened there newest office in Fillmore, CA. Insurance Incorporated is a full service Independent Agency. Serving the insurance needs of consumers and business owners since 1958.  Whether you need insurance for auto, home, business, life or health insurance,  Insurance Incorporated can help. 

As independent agents we give you the advantage of saving time and money by shopping your insurance with numerous carriers with one call.  Why shop the old fashion way calling agent after agent gathering one quote at a time, when you can call Insurance Incorporated and receive quotes from the leading insurance carriers, such as Mercury,  Safeco, Hartford, Travelers, Metlife, Golden Eagle, Progressive, Allied to mention just a few. Unlike some carriers that can only quote these companies , we can quote and write your insurance for you. Call 877-898-933 for a free quote on your insurance today!

Failing to disclose all drivers in a household can be dangerous! While it may be tempting not to mention a youthful driver, such as a child or younger brother and/or sister or even a roommate that lives in the same household when applying for auto insurance in order to get a lower rate,  can backfire on you.

The auto insurance application is a contract and the questions that are asked in the application are part of a legal agreement between you, the policy holder and the insurance company and both parties are basing their agreement on the belief that the application reflects truthful representations by both parties. If you misrepresent a fact in the application you could void coverage. For example you are purchasing an auto insurance policy and you live in the same household as your parents and a younger sibling. You apply for auto insurance and decide to include your parents but not to mention the younger sibling.  Later on in the policy period the undisclosed sibling decides to drive your vehicle and gets in a wreck, the insurance carrier could deny coverage, based upon a material misrepresentation on the application in an effort to evade the higher rate.

When applying for insurance if you do not want to cover a particular person in the household you can specifically request to exclude that person. Just understand they cannot drive your vehicle unless you have notified the insurance carrier to add that person back onto the policy,  removing the exclusion and you receive confirmation back from the carrier that the exclusion has been removed prior to allowing them to drive. The insurance carrier will then charge the appropriate premium for the risk on the younger driver.

Be careful on adding and excluding drivers repeatedly on  a policy as some carriers may place a limit on the number oif times they can be added and removed or require you to either include or exclude the person that resides in the same household.

This does not apply to people who do not live in the household that you may lend your car to on a rare occassion. If you lend your vehicle to another person on a regular or frequent  basis you should add them to your policy as some applications ask for all regular drivers of the vehicle.

Consult with your agent or carrier on how best to handle a youthful driver in the household and how your policy is affected.

Insurance Incorporated recently added Metlife to our portfolio of carriers. Giving their auto, home and life insurance customers more carriers to choose from. This allows Insurance Incorported to provide their clients with some of the lowest rates for insurance while providing them with the broadest choice of coverage. We save our customers time by shopping their insurance with over 15 different carriers assuring they are paying the most competitive rates.  Why not give us a try! Log onto www.insuranceinc.com

Insurance Incorporated is pleased to announce it’s newest location in the city of Fillmore , CA. The new office will be located at 421 Central Ave Fillmore, CA 93015. Phone number is 877-893-3236. Ask for Bill Steiger

When applying for business insurance of any type it is extremely important that you provide not only the legal name of your business, but any d.b.a.’s (Doing Business As). Why you ask? Because if  a lawsuit is filed against a name that is not listed on the policy you may find yourself without coverage. This includes sole proprietorships and partnerships. Make sure all parties on a sole proprietorship (spouses) or, partnership are listed on the policy. The cost to include the extra names is usually nothing as long as the names do not pertain to a different set of operations.