There are several changes coming to Texas health insurance in the coming months. The Dallas Morning News has reported several in the works in two recent articles; one involves the loss of an individual plan option and the other addresses requested rate increases. The changes will impact people with individual policies the most.
Imagine you’re driving down Interstate 35 at 70 miles per hour just outside of Dallas when your car begins to spray wiper fluid continuously on your windshield while the windshield wipers are flailing madly away. Or your stereo starts blaring a local radio station and you’re unable to turn down the volume, change stations, or turn it off. Maybe your air conditioner turns on at full blast but you didn’t touch anything, or you start slowing down and you’re unable to accelerate even when the pedal’s floored.
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.
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.
I wrote a condo insurance policy last week for a new client. He’d started out with an offer for a single family home in the Dallas area which fell apart after the home didn’t appraise for the amount he offered. As he thought through what he desired in his next home, he decided to look at condos in the area. It turns out, he found the perfect home, but since it was the first condo he’s ever purchased, he had a lot of questions about condo insurance.
I work with several builders in the Dallas area of differing sizes. Some remodel homes, some build new and custom homes, while others finish out commercial office space. Regardless of the differences in the work they do, they all share several things in common when it comes to their commercial insurance.
One of the questions testers, legislators, and even insurance companies are asking is who or what is at fault when a self-driving car crashes? Will it be the other driver, the autonomous car, or some combination? In addition, what testing procedures will the automaker need to follow when testing the vehicle, and whose insurance covers an accident if the self-driving technology is to blame for the accident?
The 2015 hurricane season has started. It runs from June 1 through the end of November. Accuweather is forecasting another below normal year for hurricanes. They predict 8 tropical storms, 4 hurricanes, 1 major hurricane, and 2 to 3 that will make landfall. This year’s number is slightly lower than last year’s predictions. Like last year, the reason for the below normal storms predicted is attributed to El Nino wind patterns that tilt the spinning air which inhibits the formation of storms, as well as drier than normal air and cooler water temperatures in the Atlantic.
Subscribe to my newsletter by filling the form below.
A confirmation email will be sent to your mailbox: please read the instructions to complete the subscription.
