BE SAFE! Go home early if you can and avoid driving. At Graf Insurance we will be working from home – send us an email if you need us right away!
Preparedness: have shovels ready, charge cell phones and their external batteries if you have them. Plenty of shovels. Be careful out there, better to shovel lighter loads often than risk shoveling heavy loads – I know, I’ve done it!.
Plenty of snacks and fun things to do for the house bound
Keep walks and stairs clear if you can – it’s the safest way to walk around, rather than down a slippery driveway.
Most important: If you absolutely don’t need it, then don’t go out. It’s not worth the risk.
Attention Hanover customers – see below for emergency claim contact info in case you need…
With severe weather set to impact much of the Northeast
Winter Weather Preparation
September is National Life Insurance Awareness Month!
Now is a great time to review your current needs. Are you and your family properly covered? We are here to help!
Identity theft coverage – Do you have it?
It is on your car policy or your house policy? What does the coverage actually provide? Coverage can vary dramatically from company to company and form to form. Some of the better forms provide a dollar amount to reimburse you for the costs to prepare and notarize documents, lost income from time off to complete fraud related documents, and reapply for credit or loans that have been rejected as a result of identity fraud.
The total amount of reimbursement can vary, as can the loss of income. The loss of income reimbursement usually has a dollar maximum per day, subject to a total maximum for the loss of income itself.
Many other companies offer what they refer to as identity resolution services. This is an 800 # to call. They will provide the phone numbers, mailing addresses and advise as to the procedures you need to do, but it does not provide any monetary coverage to pay for this.
Identity theft coverage can be built into the policy or may be an optional coverage you need to add and pay extra for. Usually the additional premium is very reasonable.
It’s worth a phone call to your insurance professional to have a chat to find out what you have and what is available to you.
Really interesting! Would you wear a device that tracks how much you walk and how often, if it reduced your medical insurance deductibles and co payments?
//www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/08/21/338280.htm
Home inventories are very important and really help with claim settlement.
//www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/08/18/337870.htm
Virtual doctor visits instead of doctor office visits? Is this the wave of the future?
//www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/08/12/337343.htm
Yes we also handle a variety of Disability Insurance options! Here are some interesting Disability statistics…
Thinking about dropping COBRA and going into the Exchange? Think again…
Important: Please read on to page TWO where it discusses the New York State Exchange.
Will your Homeowners policy cover a prank? Maybe not…
This is very interesting and an important difference in coverage between the 04/91 version of the ISO homeowners form and the newer 10/00 version. You jab your buddy in the arm. Did you do it on purpose? Yes you did. Did you really mean to hurt him? Probably not, but under the newer form, that may not matter. You may have NO coverage at all…..
Waiting Period on Medical insurance – New Regulations
Loss of Income – Are you covered IF????
Loss of income – One of the most important of coverages.
Are you properly covered or protected?
There have been several local claims that bring this topic to mind.
What would happen IF….
- The bricks fell off your store front and you could not open for business? Your business is forced to be closed until the repairs are complete and the local Town (or Board of Health) signs off on you to open again.
- There has been a fire in your shop, or next door. You have fire damage. You have no fire damage, but a lot of water damage. You have NO damage, but no power, and won’t for some time.
Does this take days, weeks, months to reopen? Will your business survive for that long being closed? Once open again, how long will it take for business to come back, the way it was before the claim?
We found that out during Sandy. Good news! You have no flood damage! Bad news: your loss of income due to off premises power line damage may not be covered.
Sometimes the effect of not being open for business is a far worse financial impact than actual physical damage from fire, smoke, etc.
It is so very important to review with your insurance advisor what your exposures and operations are. Is your business seasonal? Would you be able to quickly relocate and resume operations? What about if there is no damage to you, but you cannot operate because your main supplier had a fire?
Having the appropriate coverages, limits, and duration of coverage is required to properly protect yourself in the event of such a loss. Even with the best of coverages, it is important to review your exposure and have a contingency plan in place. Insurance can only help fund the repairs, and reimburse for some of the lost income. A plan can keep you prepared, so you can more quickly resume operations. The bottom line is that you want to be back up and running ASAP so you can retain your customers.
