College is a wonderful and sometimes slightly scary time for most parents. Their son or daughter is spreading their wings, stepping out on their own, and beginning to prepare for life as an adult while they figure what their future holds. It is also a time when a son or daughter begins to make decisions for themselves, some of which have adult level consequences.
Car insurance company statisticians and actuaries, along with members of the US Department of Transportation were warning of a coming tsunami of senior drivers in the early 2000’s. One of the predictions was 2015 would be a watershed year of fatal crashes involving senior drivers.
There are a number of things most people don’t know about flooding of flood insurance, such as flooding is the top natural disaster in the US, and that flash floods are the top weather related killer, or that 20% of all flood claims are from low and moderate risk flood zone areas (see https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/texas-floods-and-flood-insurance/). There is one other thing most people don’t know about flood insurance, and that is there are limits on how much a policy will pay on a claim.
There are a number of items I cover with someone when quoting their home insurance including square footage, number of stories, room configuration, floor coverings, and grade of finish out in the kitchen and bathrooms. I also review what updates have been made to the home. The updates insurance companies focus on are plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, and the roof.
I had two conversations with two different clients over the last two weeks about teen drivers and their car insurance policy. One client has a daughter that’s turning 16 so we worked through the steps of when to add her to the family’s policy. The second client has a daughter that’s turning 15 and will get her learner’s permit. In this instance, the mom wanted to know when she should add her daughter to the family’s insurance policy, as well as, whether it make a difference if her daughter takes a driver education class that’s instructor led or parent led.
I received a phone call last week from a woman who was referred to me by a mutual friend. She’s relocating to Dallas after going through a divorce. She’d rented an apartment and needed renters and car insurance. We talked about what she owned for her quote, and she asked me a question I thought was interesting; would she really need renters insurance if the complex didn’t require it as a condition of her lease?
One of the questions the parents have asked is should they remove that son or daughter from their car insurance policy and require them to get their own insurance? While this action may lower the cost of car insurance for the parents, I usually don’t advise parents do this for three reasons; parental liability, denied claims, and expense.
Last week’s post, An Introduction to Condo Insurance (see https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/an-overview-of-texas-condo-insurance/) addressed how to determine the amount of condo insurance needed and what it covers. There’s more to a condo policy, however, than covering the finish out of the home and your personal property or contents. There are other coverage items to consider including personal liability, medical coverage, deductibles, and home owner’s assessment.
Drone, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have made a huge splash in the news over the last year. Amazon has discussed using them for local delivery, one landed on the White House lawn, as well as, their war time use in the Middle East. The commercial uses for drones are seem almost endless as people imagine how they can be utilized. Hollywood has won approval to use them for filming movies, farmers believe they can be used to check on crops, as well as administer fertilizer and insecticides more efficiently and utility companies want to use them to check power lines. Insurance companies are planning to use drones in disaster response situations.
A client called me last month to discuss an accident he’d had and filing a car insurance claim. He’d backed into an object visiting a family member on a trip and damaged the bumper and one of the brake light kits on his car. I provided him with the information he needed to initiate the claim and transferred him to the claims department with his car insurance company.
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