Recent heavy rainfall reminds us that not all disasters are brought on by tornadoes.  I was attempting to get groceries at my local grocery store only to find several shoppers standing outside their doors. I was quickly told that the store was closed due to power outages. It made me wonder how much revenue and produce they loose as a result of this type of business interruption. Especially considering this is the second time this year, that I know of, that power has gone out at this grocer. The first time it occurred I had a half-full cart of groceries. Thankfully for them their registers have temporary power supplies that allow them to close out open transactions. But I couldn’t help but wonder the effects of a long lasting outage. Would I be seeing a lot of clearance items the following week on sour milk and not so frozen ice cream? Or worst a complete store closure? Seems far fetched doesn’t it. “ Of those businesses that experience a disaster and have no emergency plan, 43 percent never reopen; of those that do reopen, only 29 percent are still operating two years later.” — The Hartford’s Guide to Emergency Preparedness Planning, created by The Hartford Financial Services Group and now published by J.J. Keller & Associates Power outages, flooding, or other business interruptions like this creates an immediate need for all for all companies to take a closer look at their insurance plans. Would you be sufficiently covered in case of a natural disaster? Call us for advice anytime to review your coverage to ensure you are covered, not just for damages and lost inventory, but also for loss of business income. Until we hear from you, I’ll go and enjoy that coffee cake made with sour milk. What is Included in a Business Interruption Insurance Policy? Business interruption insurance is one of the most valuable policies a business can have, yet it is often overlooked. Contact Us today to learn more about this valuable policy. This Coverage Can Be Crucial To Your Company’s Survival

Most philatelists know that the time, effort and money that goes into accumulating a valuable stamp collection makes it extremely important to protect it in the event of a break-in, fire or other unforeseen event. Some policies provide limited coverage for a stamp collection. Often the amount of limited coverage provided is not enough to cover their value. Here are some tips for properly insuring your stamp collection: You can also talk to us to find out what your homeowners insurance carrier offers, or we can help you find a personal articles floater from a specialty insurer. As an independent agent we’ll provide you pricing options, coverage and limits options for each type of policy, and we’ll make sure that you get the coverage you need. Tips on getting the most from your coverage: For additional information send a letter to Diona or David, stamped with a “Curtis Jenny Inverted Error US Postage” stamp and mail it to Lifelong Insurance in Prosper TX. Just kidding of course. But if you have this stamp, you really do need to call and discuss insuring your collection.

Most people are used to fact that cars need regular maintenance. Your house and your property needs some just as much attention. To help you start with your home maintenance tasks, here is a simple checklist. MONTHLY HOME MAINTENANCE QUARTERLY HOME MAINTENANCE YEARLY HOME MAINTENANCE

As an insurance agent in Texas, and considering my love for classics, I have spent significant time learning the differences between all the classic car insurance policies and what sets them apart from each other. I hear a lot of accurate and inaccurate statements made about classic car insurance. So I will try to address some of those in this blog. The most important thing to understand is Stated Value versus Agreed Value. This is a very critical piece of information when it comes to classic car insurance policies. There are a handful of good Classic car insurance companies writing agreed value policies including American Modern, Hagerty, Chubs, etc. Most of the big names are partnered with bigger players, for instance: Progressive sells Hagerty and Geico sells American Modern. So you are dealing with Progressive but it’s actually a Hagerty policy. Now, agreed value policy is just the beginning. Each of these insurers have different limitations and different options. I’m going to pick on 3 for now just for examples. Hagerty is owned and employs classic car enthusiasts. They know classic cars and therefore can provide some of the best service and the best knowledge on value. Safeco on the other hand, does not. I recently had an issue with a policy I sold where Safeco didn’t think the car was worth the value we were asking for. Hagerty and American Mod on the other hand easily agreed with the value. After all was said and done, I discussed this with Safeco and proved the value to them. In this case, it really helped to have an agent that understood classics working with the carriers. When I talk to my customers about classic cars, I really try to understand what they are doing with their cars. If they have a car that they only take to shows and have lots of memorabilia etc, I will steer them to Hagerty. On the exact opposite, if they are like you and I and drive their cars as often as possible, I will work to write them with American Mod or Safeco. So it pays to really consider how the car is being used. This is not black and white. You will hear stories where person 1 gets insurance from one carrier for x amount of money and x amount of coverage. Person 2 feels he has the exact same car and tries to get the same insurance and is quoted a much higher amount or may even get denied. Not all classic car insurance policies are the same and not all customers are the same. In my opinion, it’s crucial to find an agent that understands what you need. There are a lot of agents out there that are very educated on Home and Auto insurance but don’t understand classics. They will sell you a policy but may not truly know what they are selling. As you can see, the differences in carriers is amount of coverage versus flexibility in use.  I’m sure there are more questions you may have so please feel free to reach out to me either by phone, email or ask here in the comments and I will answer as best I can.

Step 1: Call the police With any auto collision, it’s always a good idea to call the police. But it’s even more important whenever you find yourself in an incident involving an uninsured driver. Getting a police record and an accident report will go a long way toward getting your expenses covered and will help ease the claims process. You’ll additionally want to take photos of the damage, the location where the accident happened, skid marks, and any various other particulars of the scene. Use your mobile devices or borrow one to take pictures. It is also a good idea to sketch a simple diagram of the scene of the accident.  Step 2: Swap Personal Information The police will certainly take the other motorist’s information, but it’s essential for you to do this too. In fact, this step is where you might learn that the other driver doesn’t have any insurance policy at all. Be sure to get all the info you can having to do with the other driver and their car, along with the contact details for any witnesses. Gather the uninsured driver’s  Step 3: Give Us a Call What Lifelong Insurance will be able to do at this point depends on a few things, like how much damage was sustained and the specifics of your policy. If you already have uninsured motorist protection (both bodily injury and property damage), your insurance policy can do a lot for you when you report your claim. And if you don’t have this uninsured coverage, we’ll help you plan your next steps.  Step 4: Medical Expenses If you’ve been injured, you’ll likely incur some medical expenses. Typically, the other motorist’s bodily injury liability coverage would take care of it. But, in this situation, the other vehicle owner neglected their responsibility. Your health insurance may take care of your medical expenses, but you might be left covering your deductible out of pocket. With uninsured driver bodily injury protection, however, your carrier is going to be able to assist you to cover these expenses, including medical bills and lost wages– factors that the other driver’s auto insurance ought to have covered.  Step 5: Take Care of Your Vehicle Just like you would certainly after any collision, talk to either David or Diona and see what you can do about having your auto repaired. If you have uninsured motorist property damage coverage, your repairs will likely be dealt with as though the other driver’s insurance policy were taking care of it. If you don’t, your insurance coverage won’t be sufficient to deal with the total cost of your repairs, and you might have to seek reimbursement through other methods (namely the courts, which could get tricky).