property and casualty
• homeowners insurance
Properly written Homeowners Insurance is designed to cover you for many unforeseen events such as damage to your home caused by a storm, hail, or fire as well as additional living expenses if you cannot live in your home while it is being repaired. Coverage is also available for your personal property if it is stolen or damaged and liability coverage if someone is injured on or off of your property.
There are numerous discounts available on your Homeowners insurance policy. For example, you may qualify for a discount if your auto is insured with the same company that insures your home; if your home has deadbolt locks, a fire extinguisher, smoke detectors or a monitored alarm system.
(back to top)
• auto insurance
Auto insurance is designed to protect you against auto-related claims including injuries to you, your passengers, pedestrians, other drivers, your car, and the property of other people. Liability, Medical Payment or Personal Injury Protection, Collision, Comprehensive, Loan/Lease Payoff, Uninsured & Underinsured Motorist and Rental Reimbursement are among the available coverages.
As with Homeowners insurance, there are numerous discounts available on auto insurance such as having your auto and home with the same company, multi-vehicle, good driver, good student, and alarm discounts. Other discounts include having your policy and billing sent over the internet, and paying your policy in full rather than making payments.
(back to top)
• boat insurance
Boat Insurance provides coverage to repair or replace your boat if it’s accidentally damaged or destroyed by a covered peril. Some examples are fire, theft, windstorm, lightning or vandalism. Coverage can also include, among other things, your personal property on board such as fishing poles, water skis, wakeboards, ski-ropes, and wet suits.
Most boat policies incluce liability coverage so that if you or a family member damages a dock, another boat, or injures someone such as a swimmer or water skier, there can be coverage.
(back to top)
• motorcycle insurance
Motorcycle policies provide coverage for you and your motorcycle by collision, fire, theft, flood, vandalism and damage or injuries to you or a passenger caused by another driver that is uninsured or underinsured. Other coverage available can include coverage for accessories and safety apparel.
(back to top)
• personal property floater
A “floater” is an attachment/endorsement added to a Homeowners policy that is written to cover the loss or theft of a specific item for its appraised value. For example, let’s say you have a diamond ring that is worth $3,000 and it is stolen. Since many policies have a jewelry limit of $1,000 less your deductible, you could have little or no coverage. For a fee you can add a Personal Property Floater to cover the ring and many other types of property such as Fine Art, Furs, Cameras, Sporting Equipment, Postage Stamps, Rare Coins, and Guns.
(back to top)
• flood insurance
Since homeowners policies do not provide protection for flooding, a separate flood policy is necessary if you want, or your mortgage company requires, coverage. Flood policies can be purchased through your local insurance agent and coverage is provided by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which Congress established in 1968. Since coverage is provided through a government program, the quotes will be the same no matter what agent or company provides them. The maximum coverage that is available for a personal dwelling is $250,000 and for personal property the limit is $100,000.
(back to top)
• farm and ranch insurance
The farm and ranch policy recognizes that many people live and work on their farm. Therefore, coverage is available for all different types of farm operations. Coverage can be provided for the dwelling you live in, including your contents and personal property, your barns, other farm outbuildings and equipment such as tractors. Coverage is also available for other types of property such as jewelry, collectables and antiques which require special attention. This type of policy will also provide protection for farm liability up to the stated limits of the policy. Coverage is available for small individual operators or commercial operations.
(back to top)
• personal umbrella
You may already have high liability limits on your auto and home policies, but even with high limits, a bad accident can cause a judgment against you that can exceed these limits leaving you financially vulnerable. What can you do? An umbrella policy can add a large cushion of protection such as $1 million, $2 million or more on top of what your basic policy will pay.
(back to top)
• major medical
Fully-Insured (traditional) plan provided by employer for employees. Plan designs which consist of co-pays and co-insurance will vary with carriers. No single plan will cover all costs associated with medical care.
Self-funded plan, is one which the employer assumes partial financial risk for providing health care benefits to its employees. Rather than obtaining medical coverage from an insurance carrier, the employer elects to fund the risk up to a certain level where a Stop Loss Insurance carrier is brought in. The Stop Loss is designed to limit the employer’s loss to specified amount, to ensure that large, or unanticipated claims, do not upset the financial integrity of the self-funded plan.
(back to top)
• hsa
Established in 2003 by Congress, Health Savings Accounts are designed to help you save for qualified medical and retiree health expenses tax-free. The option of an HSA gives you greater control of how your health car dollars are spent.
HSA accounts are made up of two components: a qualified High Deductible Health plan and HSA Administrator. Together, they can save you a great deal of money on healthcare.
HDHPs have lower monthly premiums than the average insurance plan, as their deductibles are much higher. The money saved on insurance costs can be put into an HSA to cover the higher deductible, after which your higher deductible takes over.
(back to top)
• life insurance
Term life provides coverage for 10-20 years at guaranteed rate with no cash value accumulation. The term policy can generally be converted to a permanent life insurance during this time frame at a higher premium.
Universal Life is designed to meet long term death benefit needs. It offers a high level of death benefit and premium flexibility. Variable Universal Life combines a universal life insurance policy with variable investment options. It provides death protection with a variety of optional guarantee periods. Whole life insurance coverage lasts for your whole life. The policy accumulates cash value due to interest or dividends. Premiums remain stable throughout the life of the policy.
(back to top)
• disability
Long Term Disability Plans provide you with an income if an illness or injury prevents you from working. Disability Income insurance benefits are usually 60% of your income at the time of disability with a choice of elimination period.
(back to top)
• long term care
Long Term Care is needed when you have a chronic illness or disability that causes you to need assistance with the activities of daily living. While most people who need long-term care are age 65 or older, a person can need long-term care services at any age. The goal of long-term care services is to help you maximize your independence and functioning at a time when you are unable to be fully independent.
(back to top)
• medicare supplement
Medicare Supplement is a private insurance plan that helps cover the gaps in Medicare. Plans offered A-L are standard with all carriers. Rates will vary according to age and zip code with carriers. You must have Medicare Parts A and B to purchase a supplement. There are guidelines for guarantee issue.
(back to top)
• medicare part d rx
Final regulations were published in January 2005, which implement the new Medicare Part D voluntary outpatient prescription drug benefit. All Medicare prescription drug plans provide at least a standard level of coverage set by Medicare. Some plans may also offer more coverage for a higher monthly premium.
Individuals can enroll in a Medicare prescription drug plan when they first become eligible for Medicare and each year from Nov.15th through Dec.31st. Beneficiaries leaving employer/union groups may be eligible for a special enrollment period to sign up for a Medicare prescription drug plan.
(back to top)
• annuities
A Variable Annuity is an investment vehicle to help meet retirement needs. It offers a tax-deferred accumulation which allows principal and interest to grow free from the burden of taxes. There are choices of investment options, from conservative fixed accounts to very aggressive stock portfolios. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that variable units, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Variable Annuity offers guaranteed death benefit options. A feature called “annuitization” allows you to customize a payout option that best suits your needs for income payments for a predetermined number of years of your lifetime.
(back to top)
• estate planning
Estate Planning is pre-planning to protect your assets, and includes event checkpoints. Generally, any change in your personal, financial, health condition, or a change in the tax laws, could prompt a change in your estate plan every year.
(back to top)
