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Brian Edgren
President
EHL Insurance |
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Happy New Year 2012 to our fantastic EHL clients! Thank you very much for your business over the years. We look forward to serving you in 2012 and beyond. We hope this edition will provide very useful information for you as you seek to lower your total cost of risk. Please contact us with any questions, and feel free to suggest topics you believe would be beneficial for us to cover. As always, thank you for your referrals! Please see page four for our regular bi-monthly ($100) winner as well as the grand prize ($500) winner drawn from all clients and other friends who referred someone to EHL in 2011.
Brian Edgren, President EHL Insurance
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By Jeff Ogard
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One of the most frequent inquiries to our agency goes like this, “xyz just happened. Should I turn it in to my insurance?” Having an off the record conversation with a risk advisor is one of several benefits of insuring with EHL. Clients of direct writing insurance companies, or “one company” insurance agencies find that merely placing such a call means they have automatically turned in the claim, whether or not it’s in the client’s best interest!
There are many types of claims that should always be reported: auto accidents with injuries to any party; auto or property claims involving potential law suits; and any property loss that we know is going to be very expensive (i.e. a falling tree crushes your roof or an extensive fire damages your home).
Towing and auto comprehensive losses are the most frequent incidents we see. There are rarely any down sides for turning in these occasional claims. Examples include: a deer jumps in front of us and smashes the front of our vehicle, a rock chips our windshield, or we need to be towed or have our keys unlocked from inside our car. In addition, collision damage to your vehicle caused by another motorist is generally not a problem to report to your insurance company, particularly if the responsible party and/or their insurance company are not taking care of you in a timely manner.
When does it make sense to consider paying a potential claim out of my own pocket? We never “tell” a client they should not turn in a covered claim. However, many savvy consumers want to know in advance if the increased costs resulting from a claim will exceed the expected benefit. It is a very reasonable question, and typically these two categories warrant consideration:
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at fault collision losses with total damage under $2,500; and
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property (i.e. homeowners insurance) claims where the damage is less than a couple thousand dollars over the deductible |
Many consumers believe that claims surcharges are merely techniques to recover past claims dollars. However, if that was true, larger surcharges would apply to larger claims. In reality, the surcharge for a $1,000 claims payment is the same as the surcharge for a $500,000 payment. The surcharge is merely a pricing tool that recognizes that people with recent claims are more likely to have another, than people with none. Surcharges are also a way to keep premiums the absolute lowest, for clients who have not had a claim in the past five years.
The best time to have conversations on this topic is before a potential loss occurs. Consumers most interested in reducing their total cost of risk will keep the above information in mind as they structure their coverage. By removing collision coverage on older vehicles, carrying high deductibles on property policies, and avoiding smaller yet surchargeable claims, most of our clients are able to reduce their cost of insurance, both now as well as in the future.
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Jim Ledbetter
Commercial Account Manager
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By Jeff Ogard |
A number of our personal insurance clients own and operate small businesses, some from their home, and others from a separate location. One of the benefits of insuring with EHL is our ability to simultaneously address more complex needs. While purely incidental home business exposures can sometimes be handled within personal insurance policies, we often call on our small business experts for help.
Jim is a Commercial Account Manager for EHL Insurance and has been with our company since 2006, and has a total of 18 years of experience helping businesses with their insurance needs. Jim graduated from Olympic High School in Bremerton. He currently is licensed in Property and Casualty in the state of Washington, holds his CISR (Certified Insurance Service Representative) designation, holds his Life & Disability license and is a licensed Notary Public for the state of Washington. An active member of our community, Jim volunteered with the Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue for 10 years. Jim lives in Bremerton with his wife Laura and dog Lollipop. In his free time Jim enjoys playing video games, watching movies, snowboarding and golf.
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By Jeff Ogard
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The single largest policy expenditure for most personal insurance consumers is their auto insurance. Most claims dollars go to repair automobiles and pay medical bills. Health care costs continue to increase, and more complex vehicles are more costly to repair. However, the combination of the aging of the population, safer autos, and increasing societal intolerance of drunk driving are important offsetting factors, leading to stabilization of auto pricing. For most clients, if they have not picked up a ticket or chargeable accident; haven’t bought a more expensive car; or added a young driver to their policy, we expect rate changes to be very modest in 2012.
The same is likely not true for the property insurance markets. 2011 will be among the worst years in the history of the US Industry. Tornados have ravaged many areas, with extreme examples such as Joplin Missouri, being particularly heart breaking. Even in Washington, the mysterious burning of vacant homes has been on a frightful incline ever since concerns with the economy surfaced a few years ago. A 2% increase in auto insurance and a 10 – 15% increase in homeowners or dwelling fire insurance will not be outside of reasonable expectations. Adopting higher deductibles is often a good strategy for mitigating higher property insurance costs, and keeping home budgets in good shape.
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by Jeff Ogard |
Increasingly, our clients who own rental property have been contacting us with the request from their property management company to add the property manager as an additional insured onto their policy. This makes great sense to the property management company. Instead of using their own insurance to protect them from lawsuits arising out of the rental location, they ask to exhaust the property owner’s policy first, by being listed on their policy.
Why do so many insurance companies decline to add the property manager? It is not because it increases the insurance company’s total exposure. If there were $500,000 of liability limits before (that was solely directed toward the owner), there is still a total of $500,000 after adding the additional interest. One reason insurance companies object to this request, is for protection of the policyholder. Every time an additional insured is added, the total limits available are “diluted”, because the liability limits must be shared by all interests.
If you own rental property, and your property manager insists on being added to your insurance as a condition for working for you, you have three choices:
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negotiate an exception so you can keep all the protection for which you are paying;
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ask us to place you with an insurance company who will honor the request; or
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find a new property manager |
We believe that the majority of personal insurance consumers need a personal umbrella policy. This coverage adds limits of $1 mil + in the event of catastrophic lawsuits. In the case of rental property owners, it is even more important that a personal umbrella policy be in place, especially if a portion of your underlying coverage is diverted to a property manager. The umbrella policy is an effective tool to help maintain adequate protection, regardless of whether the coverage on the fire policy is shared with another entity.
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Safeco Insurance has donated $3,000 to the Admiral Theatre Foundation in Bremerton, Wash.
Heidi Dearinger of EHL Insurance in Poulsbo nominated the Admiral Theatre Foundation for a grant through the Safeco Insurance® Agent Giving Program, which honors the civic engagement of Safeco agents while recognizing and celebrating individuals and nonprofit organizations that make a difference in their communities.
“We are grateful to Safeco Insurance for supporting the work of the Admiral Theatre Foundation in our community,” Dearinger said. “During tough economic times, it’s even more vital to support the organizations that provide cultural enrichment.”
Pictured L-R:
Rich Hecker (EHL)
Brian Johnson (ATF)
Nita Hartley (ATF)
Heidi Dearinger (EHL)
Marcus Tucker (Safeco) |
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The Admiral Theatre Foundation supports the Admiral Theatre and strives to make it the primary link in the encouragement and development of the cultural, civic and entertainment horizons of the West Puget Sound. With no other performing arts theater in Bremerton, the Admiral Theatre is a vital part of the community and its cultural development. In addition to hosting more than 120 events annually, the theater has programs including arts group presentations, educational events and a classic film series, and provides increased access to the arts for low- and moderate-income families. EHL Insurance has been a financial supporter of the Admiral Theatre since 2007, sponsoring a variety of performances on the main stage.
“Safeco is proud to honor agencies like EHL Insurance, who make a difference by engaging in the communities where they live and work,” said Brenda Mann Harrison, manager, Safeco Insurance Agent Giving Program. “We also applaud the work of the Admiral Theatre Foundation and all who strive to strengthen their communities each day.”
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 Thank you for recommending EHL to your friends and family! For each person or family you refer to us, we will send you $10 in gasoline gift cards, and enter you in our bimonthly drawing for $100 and our annual drawing for $500.
We are pleased to announce this issue’s winner. Ed Sheridan’s name were drawn from all clients and other friends who referred someone to us within the past two months, and will receive a $100 gift card. Our grand prize winner, drawn from clients and other friends who referred someone to us in 2011 is Jason Parker. Congratulations Jason for receiving a $500 gift card!
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