I recently had a conversation with one of our Dallas client’s regarding her car insurance renewal. She’s in sales and I wanted to confirm if we had her driving type classified correctly. I asked if she commuted to an office and whether or not she met with clients and prospective clients in their office. It turns out she does, and she’s involved in outside meetings almost as much as she’s in the office.
In January, MetLife, the largest insurance company by assets, was deemed as systemically important, or “too big to fail,” by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. In other words, regulators believe MetLife is so big (over $902 billion in assets) and entwined with the financial system that it could threaten the economy if it collapsed similar to what we saw happen with AIG in 2008.
North Texans finally got a taste of winter weather over the past two days when the rain that fell Sunday night froze leaving our streets covered with a half inch of ice. Snow is in the forecast for Wednesday morning which complicates rush hour traffic. We don’t get this weather very often, but it does provide an excellent backdrop to review safe driving practices in all kinds of inclement weather.
There are three bills that have been filed in the current Texas Legislative session; two are directly related to car insurance, while the third is not. Two of the bills aim to tackle the problem of named driver policies and exclusions, while the third bill focuses on the issue of texting and driving.
I had two interesting conversations over the past two weeks. One was with a client I was assisting with their car insurance renewal, the other was with a colleague who was working on a car insurance quote for a prospective client. Both of the conversations are worth sharing here as they provide a great lesson on how even a small claim can impact your car insurance rate.
When was the last time you thought about your insurance? Any kind? Most people don’t think about insurance, whether car, home, or business, except at different times including the purchase of a new car or adding a teen driver, buying a home, when a baby arrives, or when starting or growing a business. Some people may think about their insurance when it renews, and everyone thinks about it if when they have a claim.
I helped a new Dallas client with her car insurance this week. We were able to save her $300 a year over what she’s paying now and give her better coverage. One of the ways we added coverage and kept the price lower is by offering her a discount for agreeing to let the new car insurance company monitor her driving for up to 4 months.
Most Texans give little thought as to what’s happening in any given legislative session in Austin. After all, how does it impact me or what can I do seem to get in the way of work, raising kids, and being with family and friends. I understand, but you might be surprised that when we do speak up, we may just be heard and cause the very change we seek.
Dallas and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, like many municipalities, are working through the task of creating a consistent car for hire policy. The goal is to create a seamless regional approach for cabs, limos, and app based companies like Uber and Lyft. If successful, we can avoid a patchwork approach of different rules and regulations for Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Grapevine, Richardson, Keller, etc.
Have you heard about the new Ford F-150? It would be hard to miss the press on its predominate aluminum body. Ford shaved 700 pounds off last year’s model by switching from steel to aluminum for 97% of the outside of the truck’s body. Doing so helped improve theF-150’s fuel economy from 5% to 29% depending on which engine is installed.
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