Our agency firmly believes in offering comprehensive insurance and risk management programs. Rather than sell our clients an insurance policy and send them on their way with a “GOOD LUCK! Call me if you have a claim!”, we prefer to assist you in finding ways to manage and minimize your risk. The article below (you, of course, do not have to be an ACE customer to benefit from this information–your insurance company may offer discounts, too!) highlights how taking certain measures to prevent a loss like water damage can yield a substantial return on your investment:

“Ace Private Risk Services, part of the ACE Group, has a new program that will help its insurance clients with high-value homes save money for installing systems to prevent water damage.

The discount plan is part of its ACE Platinum Portfolio insurance program for affluent and high net worth clients. This program is offered through an alliance with Sentinel Hydrosolutions LLC, maker of the Leak Defense System, which automatically detects leaks and shuts off the water in a home.

ACE Private Risk Services’ clients are eligible for a discount of 35 to 40 percent off the price of the Leak Defense System. In addition, ACE will reduce the premium on a client’s home by five to seven percent for clients who install the Leak Defense System.

ACE cites a recent incident it says underscored the value of a water leak defense system. The owners of a secondary home worth more than $2 million were away when a leak occurred in the mechanical room. The water leak defense system sensed the leak, shut off the water to prevent serious damage, and alerted the owner’s security system, which notified the home’s caretaker. The caretaker responded, located the problem, and easily cleaned up the small amount of water that had leaked.

Gary Raphael, senior vice president of Claims and Risk Consulting, ACE Private Risk Services, said that water damage from plumbing leaks accounts for one of the most common and costly causes of loss and this system can pay for itself by preventing or minimizing the damage from plumbing and appliance leaks.

Clients of ACE Private Risk Services typically own high value homes, choose high deductibles on their policy, and often travel for business or pleasure. If even a small plumbing leak occurs while they are away, damage to their home can be substantial. In 2008, the average claim paid for a frozen pipe was more than $36,000, and for leaky appliances more than $13,000, according to ACE. While insurance covered most of the cost, deductible payments by clients often exceeded $2,500…”

Source: Insurance Journal

For more information on becoming an ACE Private Risks customer or to find out if your insurance company offers discounts for this and other loss prevention measures, e-mail jaime@assetsecurityrm.com or call 914-598-3004.

Here’s something to ruin your appetite: An article in the Insurance Journal revealed a research report which found that many restaurant employees engage in activities which are against health code standards. Mmmmm….

The North Carolina State University study reviewed 8 restaurants through video surveillance (“Smile! You’re on candid camera!”) to observe their food safety practices. Results showed that a typical kitchen worker cross-contaminates food with potentially dangerous pathogens… like it’s their job–once per hour. I don’t know about you, but I did not order E. coli with my chicken, thank you very much.

“Cross-contamination happens when pathogens, such as salmonella and E. coli, are transferred from raw food or contaminated source to already prepared food. For example, when a cook uses the same knife to first cut raw chicken and then to slice a sandwich.”

_

Although the study may not be representative of the entire restaurant industry, you don’t want it happening in a restaurant at which you eat or in the one you own.

For a restaurant owner, such practices could threaten more than your reputation–they could result in a lawsuit and affect your insurance premiums. Depending on the severity of the violation, a citation by the Health Department may result in much higher premiums or a straight up rejection of insurance coverage! Ouch.

Americans experience about 76 million foodborne illnesses a year and more than 50 percent of those are attributable to a restaurant or deli experience! The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that these illnesses result in 5,000 deaths each year, but most cases are mild and without long-term repercussions.

The cost of having to deal with a food-borne illness claim is much higherthan the cost of dealing with it properly in the first place. Here are food safety tips to consider for your restaurant:

• Hold mandatory, regularly-scheduled meetings with all employees focusing solely on food safety. Make it fun and engaging (what about doing it “Jeopardy!” style with prizes?
• Address food safety issues with offending employees as soon as you see them happen
• Post information about food safety in kitchens and break rooms that gives employees examples of the consequences of poor food handling–research suggests this significantly reduces risky behaviors
• Workers should not: use aprons and other garments to dry hands
• Workers should not: use the same utensils and surfaces to prepare both raw and cooked foods. Implement an effective system to ensure that workers keep tools used for raw meat separate from other utensils.
• Risky behaviors are most prevalent during busy periods–encourage employees to wash their hands often despite rush times.

Take advantage of free resources online:

• Food Safety Course Videos. Take notes!
• Prevent Food-Borne Illnesses
• Preventing Cross-Contamination in the Commercial Kitchen
• Proper Fruit and Vegetable Washing Procedures
• Ice is Food, Too!
• The Importance of Handwashing
• Preparing Your Restaurant for a Health Inspection
• What to Do During a Health Inspection
• What Health Inspectors Look For
• And more…

APOLOGIES FOR MY ABSENCE! OUT OF THE COUNTRY UNTIL 9 MAY 2010.

At our agency, Asset Security, insurance is about more than picking up the pieces after a loss. We are invested in helping our clients embrace principles that will keep the likelihood of claims low. Risk management practices can be as simple as adopting certain simple safety precautions.

The following Easter safety tips were shared with me by a member of the Insurance Women of Greater Danbury. The bunny I found on my own

Easter Safety Suggestions:

• Be sure that Easter toys and dolls (such as bunnies, chicks, etc) are free of choking hazards. Pieces that can be removed from a doll or toy pose a potential choking danger to small children.
• In order to prevent choking do not give small candies or chocolates to children less than 5 years of age.
• Chocolate Bunny’s are an Easter tradition–however, be very careful when giving such gifts to children who are peanut or nut allergic. Make sure you read the label of contents, as many chocolates, although said to be “pure chocolate”, may have been in contact with nuts or peanuts during their preparation or packaging.

Egg Safety:

• Eggs are a potentially hazardous food, in the same category as meat, poultry, fish, and milk. In other words, they are capable of supporting the rapid growth of disease-causing bacteria like Salmonella. Before boiling eggs for Easter decorating/painting, they must be kept refrigerated.
• Never leave raw eggs in any form at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Don’t eat or cook with cracked eggs or eggs that have been un-refrigerated for more than two hours.
• Hard-boiled Easter (decorated) eggs left in room temperature for many hours or days as a decoration or table centerpiece should be discarded and not eaten.
• Use only clean, unbroken eggs. Discard dirty or broken eggs. When you boil your eggs, make sure the water is hot (185-190 degrees F). Cool your eggs in cold water or just in the air.
• Cleanliness of hands, utensils and work surfaces is essential in preventing spread of bacteria. Always wash your hands when handling your eggs, especially between cooking, cooling and dyeing. Wash hands again, along with all utensils, equipment and counter tops that have been in contact with any raw food before preparing other foods.

Easter Pet Safety Tips

Easter and spring are a great time of year to get outside after winter, and enjoy the blooming flowers and fresh air. For people who celebrate Easter with chocolate goodies and Easter egg hunts, there are some tips to keep in mind to keep your pets safe.

• As with other holidays and celebrations, keeping chocolate way from pets is a must. According to www.bellaonline.com “…for a 10 pound dog, about 10 ounces of milk chocolate, 3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, or just one ounce of baking chocolate could be lethal.”
• Keep an eye out for spring flower mixes and bouquets. Many of those plants are poisonous to all types of animals, including reptiles.
• Beware of plastic grass for stuffing Easter baskets. This filling is not digestible and can cause intestinal damage if consumed by your pets.
• If you create an Easter egg hunt in your backyard, make sure to get all the hardboiled eggs out of their hiding places. If left outside, the egg could rot and then be eaten by your pet. To guarantee this doesn’t happen, substitute real eggs with plastic ones or draw a map of where you’ve hidden them all so you can double check they’ve been found.

Oh, and stay away from maniacal (or is the poor sleepy thing just yawning?) bunnies! Enjoy the holiday and hopefully the nice weather (crossing all ten of my fingers!). Happy belated Passover, too!

[This is an important subject for both private car owners and business owners who use vehicles in their operations]

I follow the term “insurance” on Twitter (@Asset_Security). Any time anyone in the entire Twitter universe mentions the word “insurance” in a tweet, it pops up on my TweetDeck (a Twitter desktop client). How many times do you think I can say a variation of Twitter in one post?

I like to see what tweeters are tweeting about insurance because it allows me to keep my metaphorical finger on the metaphorical pulse of what matters to people. Most tweeters are talking about health insurance (no idea why!……..), but since I deal with the property and casualty realm, that’s what I’m most interested in reading about. In the past few minutes alone, I read a number of tweets that went something like this:

“Turns out the guy who hit my car might not have up to date insurance. And won’t answer his phone. FANTASTIC” and “Guess who’s in trouble? Not me! The [expletive] that hit me doesn’t have insurance. Karma’s a [expletive], brah.”

Sure, if someone else hits you and is found liable for damage to your car and bodily injury you’ve sustained, you’ll be absolved of guilt and of the duty to pay for damages…

…But what if the guilty party doesn’t have enough insurance to cover the damage they’ve caused? What if they have no insurance at all? What if you’re the victim of a hit-and-run?

The insurance dinosaurs thought of all that back in the day and created Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverage (UM/UIM) to protect us in such situations.

All states require motorists to have insurance on their vehicles, but let’s be real: ever since laws have been around, there have been renegades around to break them. If someone hits your car, they don’t have insurance and they don’t have the means to pay for the damage (or it is a hit-and-run), your uninsured motorist coverage would step up. If you forgo UM/UIM coverage, imagine having to pay for someone else’s disaster out of your own pocket?! No thank you.

What about if someone hits you and they have insurance, but they’ve purchased the state minimum*? If you meet in a very bad accident that totals your car, sends you to the hospital, and leaves you unable to work, it is exceedingly likely that the those low state minimums will not be sufficient to fix your car, pay your medical bills and pay you for lost wages! Underinsured Motorist coverage exists for the purpose of picking up where another driver’s low limits left off.

I insist that all of my clients have UM/UIM coverage because we all know that we’re the best drivers in America, but UM/UIM allows you to insure yourself against how bad every other driver can be!

* See below for State Minimum Insurance Requirements. Alaska and Maine have got it goin’ on with some nice, high limits; Florida and Louisiana are seriously slacking!

• Alaska 50/100/25
• Alabama 20/40/10
• Arkansas 25/50/15
• Arizona 15/30/10
• California 15/30/5
• Colorado 25/50/15
• Connecticut 20/40/10
• Delaware 15/30/5
• Florida 10/20/10
• Georgia 15/30/10
• Hawaii 20/40/10
• Idaho 20/50/15
• Illinois 20/40/15
• Indiana 25/50/10
• Iowa 20/40/15
• Kansas 25/50/10
• Kentucky 25/50/10
• Louisiana 10/20/10
• Maine 50/100/25
• Maryland 20/40/10
• Massachusetts 20/40/5
• Michigan 20/40/10
• Minnesota 30/60/10
• Mississippi 25/50/25
• Missouri 25/50/10
• Montana 25/50/10
• Nebraska 25/50/25
• New Hampshire 25/50/25
• New Jersey 15/30/5
• New Mexico 25/50/10
• Nevada 15/30/10
• New York 25/50/10
• North Carolina 30/60/25
• North Dakota 25/50/25
• Ohio 12.5/25/7.5
• Oklahoma 10/20/10
• Oregon 25/50/10
• Pennsylvania 15/30/5
• Rhode Island 25/50/25
• South Carolina 25/50/25
• South Dakota 25/50/25
• Tennessee 25/50/10
• Texas 20/40/15
• Utah 25/65/15
• Virginia 25/50/20
• Vermont 25/50/10
• Washington 25/50/10
• Wisconsin 25/50/10
• West Virginia 20/40/10
• Wyoming 25/50/20

Businessowners, if I told you that you could take out an insurance policy on your income, your ears would perk up in that adorable way dogs’ ears do, wouldn’t they? Let’s explore…

Assuming that you get a chance during the year to slip away and take a vacation, what does your business look like after you’ve been gone a week? If your place relies on you to run smoothly, you may answer “a mess!” If you have a right-hand man or woman to run operations while you’re away, you may answer “as if I never left!”

But… what about if you left for a year? What would your business look like then?

If a devastating loss (i.e. fire, hurricane, flood) occurs, your business could very well be out of commission for an extended period of time. If your doors are shut, so too is your income.

You have, of course, secured all the necessary, standard insurance coverages for your business–General Liability, Business Personal Property and Worker’s Compensation; Business Income Insurance provides reimbursement for lost net profits/earnings.  Further, electing Extra Expense coverage provides money in the event of a loss that is necessary to get you back on your feet. Extra Expense coverage will pay for you to operate your business at a different location if the loss suffered at your original premises is too great.

Check out this video about Business Income Insurance from one of our trusted carriers, Safeco Insurance.

I’m tired of hearing about how much the economy sucks and how terrible the markets are! It’s time for something uplifting, isn’t it? The birds are chirping and the sun is shining and the flowers will soon be blossoming and and and… the price of homes in Fairfield County, Connecticut are up nearly 30 percent (6% across the state)! If that isn’t springtime symbolism, I really just don’t know what is.

My good friend, Dave, a Senior Loan Officer at Hamilton Ladd Home Loans shared an article with me that was printed in the Connecticut Post earlier this month. Read the full article here… and then go sell your house! Or buy one! Happy Spring!

My apologies for being missing last week! It is my goal to deliver a post every Monday (private insurance) and Thursday (business insurance), but I was in Los Angeles meeting with a client who does something very cool (which I’ll discuss soon!).

This week, let’s discuss the partnership you should have with your insurance agent. Sure, it may be an 80-20 partnership (the agent putting in 80% of the work and you, 20%), but taking an active interest in your insurance needs (giving it milk!) is the key to maintaining solid policies (keeping it strong!). It is important to invest a bit of time with your agent to establish an insurance policy that is perfectly attuned to the needs of your lifestyle. Maybe you need 2%… or skim… or whole… or soy! Your agent is the expert on insurance coverages, but you are the expert on what you have and the risks you need covered. Your home and family grow over the years and whether you add, subtract, renovate, move, upsize or downscale to meet your needs, your insurance coverage should also change and grow with you. Your insurance needs its milk to stay healthy, just like you do!…

Homeowners, Condo and Renters Insurance policies provide a certain amount of personal property protection, but your coverage has limits and may not cover valuable additions. The limit on these policies refers to the maximum amount payable for each loss of or damage to unscheduled property. Unscheduled property is that which has not been specifically named for coverage on your policy.

The scheduled personal property endorsement is like the chocolate syrup to your milk–it’s available as an addition to your Home/Condo/Renters Insurance policy. For an additional premium, your policy will cover loss or damage to personal property itemswhose value exceeds the personal property coverage limit available under your standard Home/Condo/Renters policy.

The following is an example of the limits imposed on different categories of property and may not reflect your specific homeowner’s policy provisions:

• $200 on money, bank notes, gold, silver, platinum, coins and metals;
• $1,500 on securities, accounts, deeds, personal records, passports, tickets and stamps;
• $1,500 for jewelry, watches, furs, precious and semiprecious stones;
• $2,500 for firearms;
• $2,500 for loss by theft of silverware, goldware and pewterware;
• $2,500 on property at the residence premises used at anytime or in any manner for business purposes.

Other items you may want to schedule:

• Digital, still and video cameras plus any additional equipment
• Musical instruments
• Fine Art (paintings, drawings, sculptures, vases)
• Antiques
• Sports equipment

Simply, if any of your prized possessions are worth more than the limits specified on your policy, the full amount for the items will not be covered. That is when you may choose to schedule the item, or list it specifically on the policy so that it will be covered. The best way to decide if you should schedule items on your policy is to communicate your concern with an insurance professional. Remember, as your life changes, your insurance needs tend to change along with it. Milk.