Courtesy of http://www.insuringflorida.org/the-right-insurance-keeps-your-boat-afloat/

Living in Florida means boating season never ends. With the right insurance protection, your boating days can be as carefree as a day at the beach. The type of insurance coverage you get depends upon the boat.

If you have a small boat, such as a canoe or kayak, you may have coverage under your homeowners or renters insurance policy. Coverage is usually about $1,000 or 10 percent of the home’s insured value. That amount of coverage includes the small boat, motor and anything you may use to tow it. It does not typically include liability insurance.

Extra liability coverage for boaters makes good sense. Some insurers exclude liability coverage for jet-skis under standard property insurance policies because of the high rate of accidents and injuries. Check with your insurer to see what’s covered and ask about additional protection that you can purchase through an endorsement. If you own a jet-ski or plan to rent one, check out ourjet-ski safety video.

People who own small boats need to “go large” on safety. According to the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2013 Boating Statistics, eight of 10 boaters who drowned were in vessels of less than 21 feet. And, 84 percent of drowning victims were not wearing a life jacket. Alcohol use is the leading contributor to boating accidents, along with operator inattention and inexperience. Not unlike the statistics for highways.

To cover physical loss for larger boats (and those valued above $1,000), you need broader coverage. With a watercraft policy or an endorsement to your existing homeowners policy, you’ll be covered for every type of loss or damage to your boat, including theft. There are a few coverage exceptions (such as normal wear and tear). Many boat owners choose a discounted package that covers the boat, motor and trailer.

Some people may decide to go without insurance on their boat because it’s paid in full, so no lender is “forcing” them to get coverage. That’s always an option, I guess, if you can afford to sink your investment. Back in 2004, when Florida experienced multiple hurricanes, you probably saw images of boats slammed together near marinas or flung into streets by high winds, resting a block from the ocean. I remember talking to a woman after Hurricane Ivan who said she had just sunk $10,000 into remodeling her yacht, which was found smashed to bits in a parking lot. “That’s not covered under my homeowners insurance, is it?” she asked. She knew the answer before asking the question, and now so do you.

Courtesy of http://www.iii.org/issue-update/dog-bite-liability. About 77.8 million dogs are owned as pets in the United States according to a 2015/2016 survey from by the American Pet Products Association.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year and about 885,000 require medical attention for these injuries; about half of these are children.

Some insurance companies will not insure homeowners who own certain breeds of dogs categorized as dangerous, such as pit bulls. Others decide on a case-by-case basis, depending on whether an individual dog, regardless of its breed has been deemed vicious.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

• Claims: Dog bites and other dog-related injuries accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claim dollars paid out in 2015, costing more than $570 million, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) and State Farm®. An analysis of homeowners insurance data by the I.I.I. found that while the number of dog bite claims nationwide decreased 7.2 percent in 2015, the average cost per claim for the year was up 16 percent. The average cost paid out for dog bite claims nationwide was $37,214 in 2015, compared with $32,072 in 2014. The average cost per claim nationally has risen more than 94 percent from 2003 to 2015, due to increased medical costs as well as the size of settlements, judgments and jury awards given to plaintiffs, which are still on the upswing. California continued to have the largest number of claims in the U.S. at 1,684. Illinois had the second highest number of claims at 931. Arizona had the ninth largest number of claims at 393, but it registered the highest average cost per claim of the 10 states with the most claims: a staggering $56,654. The trend in higher costs per claim is attributable not only to dog bites but also to dogs knocking down children, cyclists, the elderly, etc., which can result in injuries that impact the potential severity of the losses.

Courtesy of http://www.iii.org/article/unclaimed-life-insurance-benefits

3. The life insurance company might not be able to find the policy’s beneficiaries (legitimate claimants). There might be one or both of two problems in this scenario. The first is that the descriptions of the beneficiaries might be insufficiently precise for the life insurance company to locate them. This would be the case, for example, if the beneficiary designation says “my wife” or “my children” without naming them specifically and, ideally, providing a Social Security number and a current address for each one.

Be sure to provide detailed personal identification information about every beneficiary to each life insurer from whom you have coverage for death benefits so that, when the time comes, they can be easily located and their identity confirmed. The other problem is that, even if the company knows who it is looking for, it may be very difficult to track down a beneficiary, especially as it may be many years, or even decades, since the policy was taken out. Keep in mind that, for privacy reasons, until the death occurs, the life insurer cannot even respond to a beneficiary’s inquiry as to whether they are a beneficiary or not.

4. Beneficiaries might not know that a life insurance policy exists under which they are beneficiaries. It may come as a surprise, but sometimes beneficiaries do not know that they are covered by the insured’s individual or group life insurance policy. The insured may have a variety of reasons for keeping this information secret from the beneficiaries, but an unfortunate consequence is that the benefits could end up unclaimed because no one actually realized that they could make a claim. It is wise to tell the beneficiaries of your life insurance (both individual policies and group coverages) that when you die they will be entitled to death benefits. Also provide them with the name and home city and state of the life insurance company and the policy number.

5. The original life insurance company no longer exists (it might have merged, changed its name, moved to another state) and cannot be located by the insured, owner or beneficiaries. The name of the company that sold the original life insurance policy may have changed, possibly making it more difficult for the beneficiary to locate the insurer in order to make a claim. Life insurance companies are not any different from companies in any other industry in this respect—but the multi-decade length of the contract can transform this type of normal corporate development into an extra hurdle for beneficiaries. Some will not know where or how to look for the new insurer, leaving the benefits unclaimed when the insured dies.

Typically, an insurer that is changing its name or location will notify its policyholders of such a change. Keeping a record of any notices regarding changes to the name, location or contact information for your life insurance company, will make it easier for your beneficiaries to make a claim. If a family member dies and you are unable to locate his or her life insurance policy, we have tips available: How can I locate a lost life insurance policy?

Courtesy of http://www.iii.org/article/unclaimed-life-insurance-benefits

Sometimes life insurance benefits are left unclaimed after a policyholder dies. This is an unfortunate problem under any circumstances, but especially now, when many people are struggling financially. What is more, this is an easily preventable outcome. To ensure that your life insurance benefits do not go unclaimed it is important to understand why this might happen. There are five major reasons; we will examine each in turn.

1. The life insurance company and the policy’s owner and/or insured might have lost track of each other. The main mode of contact between you and financial institutions (banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, investment management companies, etc.) is by “snail” mail. As with anyone with whom you wish to keep in contact after you move, you must tell them your new mailing address or they will lose track of you. The U.S. Post Office will only forward first-class mail for a year to a forwarding address, and the sender is not aware that the mail is being forwarded to a new address as the Post Office does not inform the financial institution of the change. So if you move you should immediately inform every financial institution directly of your new mailing address, including your life insurer(s). Of course, the same principle applies to other forms of communication: tell the life insurance company of new phone numbers (cell and land line), email address, fax number, etc.

2. The life insurance company might not know that the insured has died. Life insurance companies typically do not know when a policyholder dies until they are informed of his or her death, usually by the policy’s beneficiary. Even if a policy is in a premium-paying stage and the payments stop, the insurance company has no reason to assume that the insured has died.

Moreover, there are policies that have benefits called cash values, with an Automatic Premium Loan (APL) feature. An APL policy borrows money from the cash value to pay a premium due if the money does not come in by the end of the grace period; thus preventing an unintended lapse of the policy, which would have the disastrous effect of loss of the entire death benefit should the insured die after premiums due were not paid. Under an APL, the policy would continue in full force until all of the cash value had been borrowed, at which time it would lapse.

Also, many policies are in a stage in which no premiums are due. Some life insurance is bought with a single premium or a small number of premiums due (such as 10 or 20 annual payments), but the insured might live a long time after the premium payments end. Thus the life insurance company would stop sending premium notices after all premiums were paid. Moreover, there is no master list of who is alive and who is dead. The Social Security Administration has the closest thing to such a list—a file on its income beneficiaries (those receiving retirement or disability income from Social Security) to record those who are alive and who have deceased, so as to avoid making payments that are not legitimate—but this does not cover everyone. Millions of people, in fact, are not covered by Social Security (federal employees, state employees in four states, railroad employees, etc.), and therefore would not appear on this list.

Employers who sponsor group life insurance to active employees will notify the life insurer if a covered employee dies. And, it is possible that the deceased would also have individual life insurance policies with the same company that issues the group policy, but this becomes less likely when people switch jobs but do not switch individual life insurers. So remember to provide your beneficiaries with the name of, and contact information for, your life insurance company, so they can report your death and file a claim. to be continued…

Courtesy of http://www.iii.org/press-release/spring-is-motorcycle-season-and-time-to-check-your-bike-has-the-right-insurance-coverage-031816

Marking the start of spring, motorcycle enthusiasts gathered this month at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, and will do so again in June in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. But do they have the right insurance coverage? Motorcycle insurance is a must for any avid biker, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

“Auto insurers often offer motorcycle insurance coverage as either a stand-alone policy or an endorsement to a personal automobile policy,” said Michael Barry, vice president, Media Relations, at the I.I.I.

Like auto insurance, some coverages are required for motorcyclists; others are optional.

1. Required coverages: Most states require motorcyclists to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance, to cover bodily injury and property damage costs caused to other people involved in an accident. In addition, uninsured/underinsured (UI/UIM) motorist coverage is recommended, or even required, in many states as part of a motorcyclist’s policy to cover expenses for damage were caused by another driver who either does not have insurance, or whose insurance is inadequate.

   The mandatory minimum limits for these coverages in states where they are required for motorcyclists are generally similar to those required for automobiles.

2. Optional coverages:
   a) Collision—covers damage resulting from a collision with another vehicle, an object or as a result of flipping over.

   b) Comprehensive—covers damage caused by events such as fire, flood, falling objects, theft or vandalism.

   c) First-party medical coverage—covers your own medical expenses if they were incurred in an accident while operating your motorcycle.

   c) Emergency road service—covers towing and roadside assistance costs.

   d) Accessories and customization—covers the repair or replacement of accessories, like helmets and safety jackets, and customized equipment added to the motorcycle after purchase, such as exhaust pipes, saddle bags, and seats.

Beyond the types and amount of coverage purchased, several factors will also affect how much you pay for motorcycle insurance, including:

• Your age and driving record
• Where you live
• The model, make and horsepower of your motorcycle
• Where you store and drive your motorcycle

Courtesy of http://www.insuringflorida.org/hit-and-run-crashes-still-problematic/

Hit-and-run crashes in Florida are holding steady; it is the same challenging problem it always has been. The Florida Highway Patrol reports more than 92,000 hit-and-run crashes in 2015. Those crashes brought 19,000 injuries and 186 fatalities. More than half of those fatalities were pedestrians.

Why do people run away from a crash scene? More often than not, they have had too much to drink and should not have been behind the wheel. Or, they may have a suspended license or let their auto insurance lapse, which is illegal, by the way.

Florida law requires drivers to stop immediately for any car crash in which there is injury to another person. Violating this law is a third degree felony punishable with up to a five-year prison stint (and a mandatory minimum of four years).

Owning up to your mistakes has always been the honorable thing to do. That doesn’t mean it’s always the easy thing to do. But it is – and always will be – the right thing to do.