Tag: home insurance

Insurance Related Bills Before the 2013 Texas Legislature

?There are several insurance related bills before the 2013 Texas Legislative session covering a broad spectrum of issues. There are also a few that aren’t really related to insurance but I’ve included them either because I’ve blogged on them last year or they are related to our overall safety and privacy.

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Foundation Care During Drought Conditions

Drought continues to cling to the western states. Mountain snowfall has been thin through much of the winter months and water levels in many lakes and reservoirs have less water than they did a year ago. Parts of Colorado have been declared extreme drought areas. Our neighbors to the north in Oklahoma and Nebraska are facing rainfall deficits of up to 16 inches with 55.8 % of the United States remaining in drought conditions. Unless spring snow and rainfall picks up, it could be a long hot summer.

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Texas Insurance Update for 2013

Every year, I like to review the current state of personal insurance for Texas. Personal insurance is what most individuals and families concern themselves with. It includes car, home (condo & town homes), renters, and umbrella insurance policies. The goal is to help most people keep their finger on the pulse of what’s happening. An informed consumer is a powerful force!

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Sinkholes and Texas Home Insurance

?On the evening of March 1, 2013, a sinkhole opened up under the home of Jeff Bush in Seffner, Florida. It opened in a matter of seconds resulting in the floor underneath Bush’s bedroom giving way. Attempts to rescue Bush failed and he was presumed dead in the days that followed. The home was demolished a few days later.

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Avoiding Identity Theft During Tax Season

It’s tax season! If you haven’t already filed, you have 38 more days before it’s due. For most filers, this is a busy time. I’m pulling my information together and organizing it for my CPA to make his job a little easier when we meet next week. This is also a busy time for identity thieves. While they never rest, they love this time of year. The amount of data on our returns is truly amazing.

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Does Home Insurance Cover Meteor Damage?

On Friday, February 15th, a meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere at approximately 9:20 a.m. above Chelyabinsk, a town of about 1 million inhabitants in central Russia. The 50 foot wide, 7,700 ton meteor caused a blinding flash of light as it traveled at 40,000 miles per hour or over 52 times the speed of sound. Most of the meteor’s energy was consumed in the upper atmosphere about 9 miles above the earth’s surface. The energy released in the upper atmosphere was equivalent to at least 20 atomic bombs about the size of one exploded above Hiroshima.

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In Home Child Care and Home Insurance

My mother in law has offered child care in her Mesquite home for 2 decades. It’s been a labor of love for her. She loves kids. It’s also been a source of income for her. Many of the kids she’s watched have grown up and are now parents themselves. The number of high school and college graduations she’s been invited to is astounding. The long term reward has not been the income, although that’s been helpful. Her reward is watching the children grow up and knowing she’s played a part in them becoming adults.

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Sweetheart Deals For Home & Car Insurance

?My personal home and car insurance renews in March. Every February I receive several letters from other Dallas area agents offering to save me money on my car and home insurance. None of them know I’m an independent agent. The savings they offer are tantalizing. There’s only one small catch: none of the offers I’ve ever received were real.

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Two ways to insure your home office

?While most people still drive to an office each day to work, there’s been an explosion in the number of people working from home over the last two decades. This was made possible by inexpensive computers and the availability of high speed internet access. What used to be the norm for realtors and traveling sales people has become typical for …

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Swimming pools, trampolines & home insurance

Every week we talk with people about home insurance. Two of the people I talked with last week included a young couple buying their first home in Fort Worth, the other was a long time homeowner in Frisco, Texas who was concerned they were paying too much for home insurance. The conversations about the homes were not that much different and focus on two broad areas…

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