Insurance Products Available

Homeowners

• Homeowners Insurance covers damage to a home that you, the homeowner, own and occupy, whether on a primary, secondary, or seasonal basis. It includes single family homes, condos, townhouses, wind only, and mobile homes. As long as you occupy the home yourself, it can be considered "homeowners" insurance.  Generally speaking, most homeowners policies are written on a HO-3 form, which provides the broadest spectrum of coverages available to the homeowner.  It covers just about anything bad that can occur to the property with certain exclusions.  This is why the policyholder should always read their new policy carefully because of all the possible exclusions (example: water backup and sump pump overflow). Note: flood coverage is NOT included on a homeowners policy and must be purchased separately. 

Rentals

• Rentals refer to properties that are rented out to tenants to occupy.  The policies are known as dwelling fire policies and while not as comprehensive in their coverages as homeowners policies, still provide the major perils of wind, hail, fire, lightning, and leaking pipes.  These types of policies also offer "rent loss" or "loss of rent" which means if the property is damaged to such an extent that the tenant has to move out, the owner can be compensated for lost rent as a result of a covered peril. 

Personal Auto

• Personal Auto Insurance is primarily for the PERSONAL use of your automobiles.  It covers pleasure use, commuting to work, and what is referred to as Incidental BUSINESS use when a worker runs to the bank or post office for business related matters.  It usually does not cover constant business use of your vehicle for conducting a business.  For example, if someone has a pool cleaning or pest control business and makes 10 stops a day, that is clearly a BUSINESS use and not a PERSONAL use of the vehicle.

Commercial Auto

• Commercial Insurance covers the commercial or business use of vehicles.  It can range from a 1 vehicle landscape business doing 3 stops a day to a complete fleet of vehicles doing work for a large company.  If a business is owned by a partnership or corporation, that immediately places it as a COMMERCIAL AUTO policy needed for coverage.

Flood

• Flood insurance is provided by private insurance companies and the rates are set by the Federal Agency known as FEMA.  Flood insurance is designed to cover losses as result of "rising water."  This is not talking about leaking pipes inside your house but water rising in the neighborhood as a result of much rain or a storm surge from a hurricane.  Flood insurance is available in most parts of the country and there are 2 types of policies.  A Standard policy is for properties located in Flood Zones A or V, and are considered higher risk zones and lenders require borrowers to carry flood insurance in these zones.  A Preferred Risk policy is for properties located in B, C, or X zones and these policies are voluntarily obtained.  

Recreational Vehicle

• Recreational Vehicle Insurance is to cover the small, pull-behind campers all the way up to the large self-propelled motor homes.  The policies provide coverages similar to a personal auto policy, providing liability coverages in the event of a wreck, and physical damage coverage to the recreational vehicle itself.

Motorcycle & ATV

• Motorcycle and ATV Insurance covers a broad range of motorcycles including dirt bikes, street bikes, touring bikes, Harleys, Segways, and three or four wheel all terrain vehicles.  These policies are usually issued on an annual basis and are important to have due to the riskier nature of riding these bikes.

Boat and Personal Watercraft

• Boat Insurance covers liability and physical damage coverage to boats that can goup to 90 miles per hour. Personal Watercraft Insurance is for jet skis.  The coverages again are very similar to a personal auto policy.  Many optional coverages are available to customize these types of policies.

Umbrella/Personal Liability

• Personal Liability Insurance is a policy that provides ADDITIONAL liability protection to what is already provided on a homeowners and auto insurance policy.  This is why they are sometimes called UMBRELLA policies because they cover or overlay the underlying home and auto limits.  In order to be eligible for a personal liability policy, the homeowners policy must have at least $300,000 of personal liability and the auto policy must have at least $100,000/$300,000 bodily injury limits.  Motor vehicle reports are a big factor in determining the proper rate to charge for a personal liability policy.  Limits usually range from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000.

Life

• LIFE Insurance is designed to meet the financial needs of those who survive the death of a loved one.  Life Insurance coverage should be sufficient to pay off mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, student loans, other fixed debt, cover funeral expenses, pay college expenses for children, and cover potential loss of earnings for years.  Since death comes to all of us, this is something we all know we need but tend to put off or not have enough of.  Waiting in this matter to procure coverage can result in devastating financial problems for the survivors.