A few weeks ago, an insurance broker made the national news. His name is Jerry Goldman and he was the insurance broker for Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. Goldman pleaded guilty to mail fraud for overcharging Hanks and Wilson hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess premiums. Over a 13 year period, Jerry Goldman inflated premiums as much as 600% and presented phony invoices to hide the overcharges. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay about $840,000 in restitution.
When I talk with someone about Texas car insurance I cover a number of items with them including the kind of vehicles they have, who drives which one, and how the cars are driven (see http://50.87.248.161/~wiseinsu/what-type-of-driver-are-you/). Add to this data a person’s credit or insurance score along with their accident and ticket history and I’m able to provide any Texan with an accurate car insurance quote.
About two weeks ago, Cecilia Abadie of Temecula, California, was issued a speeding ticket by a California Highway Patrolman. That’s not unusual, but what followed may be the first ticket of its kind in the country. The CHP officer noted Abadie was wearing Google Glass and gave her a second ticket which is usually reserved for drivers who may be distracted by a video or TV screen.
I was helping a new client with his home insurance earlier this week. I’d made the final modifications to the application and sent it to him to be electronically signed. We reviewed it together by phone and he wanted to ask a couple of questions about a notice on the last page of the application. The notice mentioned he had not received the “best” pricing due to a couple of items that were returned on his insurance score including inquiries.
In case you missed it National Teen Driving Week occurred two weeks ago. The goal of National Teen Driving Week is to improve teens driving safety by getting parents and teens working together. This year’s focus, “5 to Drive” was designed to start at least one conversation between parents and teens on safe driving habits. My hope is that there would be multiple conversations between teens and parents on driving. As a dad who’s helped raise three sons during their driving education process, I can attest there will be multiple opportunities to discuss all of the topics the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) suggests.
The Dallas Morning News published an article in February 2010 of insurance don’ts that I filed away because it’s worthy of being repeated. This list applies to both car and home insurance claims, so let’s take a look at 7 things to avoid doing.
Allstate Insurance Company recently released their annual list of cities with the best and worst drivers. Sadly, no city in Texas was included in the top 10 list for best or safest drivers. The only good news is no city in Texas made it in the top 10 of worst drivers either.
More people are buying new cars as we continue to see the U.S. economy slowly improving. These new car buyers are replacing older cars that they’ve driven longer. Another factor that’s helped people move forward with new car purchases are the low interest rates we’ve enjoyed the past several years.
The Texas Legislature wrapped up their business earlier this year with 4 new laws all Texas drivers need to know about. The laws are intended to save lives and make our road ways safer for drivers and our kids. All of them went into effect on September 1.
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