5 Things to Know About Life Insurance Awareness Month
Americans are recognizing now, more than ever, the importance of life insurance. The number of Americans who intend to purchase a life insurance policy has reached an all-time high during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and about 70% of Americans admit they need life insurance coverage.
With that said, there is still a major gap between the number of people who need life insurance coverage and the number of people who actually have it. September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, which was designed with the intent to educate Americans about life insurance and assist them in making the right life insurance coverage choices for them.
We’ve compiled a list of things to know about Life Insurance Awareness Month, and the coverage options you have.
1. Life Insurance Awareness Month started in 2004, but life insurance goes back much further than that.
18 years ago Life Happens, an industry education group, created Life Insurance Awareness Month to educate people about the importance of life insurance and how the right policy can provide financial security for their families. In 2019, the campaign featured spokesperson Brooke Shields shared her views on why life insurance is essential to financial health and reached 500 million people.
Life Insurance Awareness Month started in 2004, but life insurance itself dates back to the 1760s. The first life insurance policy was issued by the Presbyterian Synods in Philadelphia and New York City as a means of supporting widows and children of Presbyterian ministers..
Life insurance policies have evolved over the last 260 years and continue to do so to keep up with the needs of modern American families. Life insurance policies are available online, and the number of policies available without a medical exam continues to grow.
2. COVID-19 has prompted many Americans to start thinking about life insurance
The pandemic has shifted many Americans’ focus towards the financial security of their families. According to the “Tough Talks During COVID-19” survey conducted by Life Happens, roughly 67% are reevaluating their finances during the pandemic. Life insurance is now ranking in the top 5 topics at dinner tables across the country.
Life Happens’ survey also states that during the pandemic 66% of Americans gained a better understanding of the value of life insurance, and 25% of Americans purchased life insurance coverage for the first time. On top of that, 49% of those surveyed stated that having an open and honest conversation with their partners and families about their financial future is essential.
3. Now is the best time to get covered.
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, but now is the right time to buy life insurance.
Life insurance, like other types of insurance, requires planning. Once you need the coverage, it’s already too late. Even before the pandemic, the number of American families that stated they would have financial difficulties within one month of the primary wage earner’s death was one in three. And yet, 46% of people remain uninsured, and among the 54% with life insurance policies, many claim they don’t have coverage enough.
Life insurance can’t wait, and there’s no better time to buy than today.
4. Start by calculating your life insurance needs.
Life insurance policies are unique in the sense that they come with no strings attached. The money can be used to cover day-to-day expenses, save up for college, pay off debts, and more. Deciding how much coverage you need is a good first step to getting covered.
Every family’s financial situation is different. Consider how much your family would need to remain financially secure should the primary earner pass. Here are some questions you should consider:
How much debt do I have?
How much do I have in savings?
Who do I want to protect?
How long would they need financial support?
5. Even if you’re already covered, do annual checkups on your policy.
Nearly half (43%) of life insurance policy owners say they either don’t have sufficient coverage or aren’t sure if they do or not. As your family’s lives change, it’s important to ensure your life insurance policy evolves as well.
Beneficiaries should be checked regularly to ensure the correct people are set to receive the policy’s payout. If you were, for example, to get a divorce and remarry, failing to update your life insurance policy could mean your ex-spouse would receive the policy’s payout. If you carry a term life insurance policy, be sure to note when your policy coverage comes to end to avoid any gaps in coverage. Any major life changes, such as a new job, a new child, buying a house, or getting married, might warrant an update to your life insurance policy.
Make sure it is clear to your family where your life insurance policy is held and what steps they need to take in the event they need to collect their benefits.
Life Insurance Awareness Month only happens in September, but the need to secure your family’s financial future is year-round. Being educated about life insurance policies will help you ensure you have the right coverage and your family is protected.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Video-FAQ-9.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-10-04 21:27:402022-10-04 21:27:405 Things to Know About Life Insurance Awareness Month
Every home or apartment renter needs a renter’s insurance policy to cover their belongings. Landlords take out property insurance policies to cover any damages or losses to the physical building itself, however, your personal belongings inside the structure, whether it be a house, duplex, or apartment, are not covered in the landlord’s policy.
You’ll need a renter’s insurance policy bought and paid for by you, the tenant, to cover your personal property and certain liabilities. While 85% of homeowners have a homeowner’s insurance policy, only 57% of renters have renter’s insurance as of 2022.
Why is it that so few renters carry insurance? Many people assume their landlord’s policy covers their belongings. This is not the case. People will also often underestimate the value of their possessions. If you combine the value of just clothing and electronics, it probably wouldn’t take long to tally up thousands of dollars in value.
Liability is another frequently overlooked reason to carry a renter’s insurance policy. If a friend, neighbor, or stranger is injured in your house, they could sue you. If you’re a renter not carrying a renter’s insurance policy, here are the top 6 reasons why you should.
It’s important to have the right kinds of church insurance to bring security and peace of mind. We will cover some of the most common types of insurance a church may need below.
1. Renter’s Insurance is Affordable
According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) latest figures in 2022, the average renter’s insurance policy costs $15 to $30 a month. The actual cost of your policy will depend on many factors such as the amount of coverage you need, your chosen coverage, where you live, and your deductible amount.
2. Personal Property Losses Are Covered in Your Policy
Jewelry, computers, electronics, furniture, luggage, and clothing are all personal property protected in a renter’s insurance policy. The cost to replace most or everything you own can quickly add up, even if you don’t think you own very much.
Most people are surprised by the amount of things protected in renter’s policies. For example, a standard HO-4 policy specifically for renters, will cover personal property losses from:
Damages caused by aircraft
Damages caused by vehicles
Explosion
Falling objects
Fire
Lightning
Civil commotion
Riot
Smoke
Theft
Vandalism
Malicious mischief
Volcanic eruption
Weight of ice, snow, or sleet
Windstorm
Hail
Steam or water damage from plumbing, household appliances, heating, fire-protective sprinkler systems, or air conditioning.
Any losses from earthquakes and floods will not be covered in standard renter’s policies. You will need to take out a separate policy or rider for these perils. In areas prone to hurricanes, a separate rider might be needed to cover wind damage.
A deductible may need to be paid on your renter’s insurance policy before you can receive coverage.
3. Many Landlords Require Renter’s Insurance Policies
Your personal property is not included in your landlord’s insurance policy. Many landlords require proof of renter’s insurance policies in order to rent to a tenant.
Your landlord may be able to provide assistance in finding a renter’s insurance policy, should you need help. You may be required to provide proof of insurance by the landlord themselves, or, it could be required by the landlord’s insurance company. Many insurance companies agree that some responsibility can be shifted away from the landlord if the tenants are covered.
4. Liability Coverage is Provided
Standard renter’s insurance policies include liability coverage. In the event someone is injured in your home, protection is provided. The policy will pay any legal expenses and court judgements up to the chosen policy limit.
At least $100,000 of liability coverage is provided in most renter’s insurance policies. There is also usually a smaller amount allotted for medical-payments coverage. Higher coverage limits are available for purchase if necessary.
Keep in mind that losses caused by intentional acts or negligence won’t be covered in your renter’s insurance policy. Falling asleep with a lit cigarette and causing a fire, for example, will most likely not be covered by the policy.
5.Your Belongings are Covered When You Travel
You can travel with confidence knowing wherever you are, your belongings are covered. Whether your belongings are in your car, in your home, or with you while traveling, they are covered from loss due to theft and other covered losses anywhere you travel. Check your policy details or ask your insurance agent for more information on what is considered “other covered losses.”
6. Additional Living Expenses May Be Covered
If a covered peril renders your home uninhabitable, additional living expenses may be covered by your renter’s insurance policy. These additional living expenses can include costs associated with temporary living arrangements, food, and more. The length of time additional living expenses are covered and any caps in the amount the company will pay can be found in your policy.
Is Renter’s Insurance Worth Having?
Yes. Although a common reason for neglecting to buy a renter’s insurance policy is affordability, you can’t really afford not to have renter’s insurance. A renter’s insurance policy provides liability coverage, protects your belongings, and can even cover your personal items while you’re traveling.
What Does Renter’s Insurance Cover?
A long list of items are included in a renter’s insurance policy. But the most common ones are furniture, electronics (including tablets and computers), and articles of clothing.
How Much Does Renter’s Insurance Cost?
Renter’s Insurance costs on average $18 – $21 per month in the states of West Virginia and Kentucky, according to LendingTree.
The Bottom Line
Renter’s insurance covers your personal belongings, whether they are in your car, in your home, or with you while traveling. Renter’s insurance also provides liability coverage in the event someone is injured in your home or if you cause accidental injury to someone in your home.
It’s important to understand all that your policy covers, and ask your agent about deductibles, available discounts, and coverage limits.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Video-FAQ-8.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-10-04 21:17:102022-10-04 21:17:10Top 6 Reasons to Have Renter’s Insurance
A church is a gathering place for people to worship, however we often find several types of events taking place at the church location such as weddings, funerals, dinners, and other community activities.
When there are gatherings of people inside the church building, this can make the church liable for the health and safety of the visitors. It’s not uncommon for lawsuits to happen due to activities surrounding church activities. In addition to activities, the church also has employees, volunteers and officers of the church who may need insurance coverage for various reasons.
It’s important to have the right kinds of church insurance to bring security and peace of mind. We will cover some of the most common types of insurance a church may need below.
Special Event Insurance Coverage
Review your church insurance policy to confirm you have coverage for special events. If you are confused about what is covered or you cannot locate specific coverage for events and activities, ask your agent if you are properly covered. This is especially important if your church holds open events to the public and you invite the community into your building or on your property.
It is possible you may need coverage even if the event or activity is outside of your church building or property. The location of the event is important and might determine if you need a separate policy for special events to provide coverage.
Most churches will regularly hold events that involve the gathering of people in the community.
Insurance To Cover Church Property
If your church has multiple buildings and structures that are owned by the church or any valuable property within the buildings or on the property, you will need property insurance. This insurance coverage will protect items like buildings and structures, furnishing, equipment and supplies.
Other valuable items in your church need protection such as historical property, musical equipment, sound systems and office machines..
This type of insurance covers the church in times of natural disaster, break ins, water damage or fire. Property insurance is vital when you need to rebuild or replace after an unexpected event.
How much will this cost? Your insurance premiums are usually based on several things. First, your insurance company will measure the square footage of the buildings and property. Other important details include any recent renovations or updates on the property that have occurred.. Make sure to notify your agent of any recent updates or changes to older building structures so that you have full coverage for replacement.
If your church has a bus, or vans or other vehicles, property insurance will be important to make sure they are covered. Auto coverage will cover damage to the vehicles as well as bodily injury for passengers and drivers. Make sure you have the right coverage for the right reasons.
Next, we will talk about insurance to cover your church to protect you from legal action.
Legal Action Protection For Your Church
A church needs to be protected by general liability insurance in the event of a lawsuit from a member, a visitor or others in the community. Your church will be covered for both personal injury and property damage with this insurance.
An example might be a slip and fall on the church property. Perhaps someone’s property is damaged while on the church grounds, if you have general liability insurance you are covered. You want to be fully prepared for any possible event or lawsuit against the church. Covering legal costs, medical expenses and property damage are the most common things to think about.
Types of Liability Coverage
Every circumstance won’t get covered by general liability, so you’ll need additional liability coverage for some specific incidents. Some specific incidents that will require coverage include:
Sexual Misconduct
Directors and Officers
Pastoral Counseling
Church Security
Freedom of Religion
Volunteer Safety, Youth Safety
Infection Disease Outbreak
Employment Practices Liability
Should an accusation arise, EPL insurance is vital. Employment Practices Liability will cover the legal costs and damages if an employee were to sue. EPL insurance can also cover the cogs of other legal accusations, like discrimination, sexual harassment, or wrongful termination.
Be sure to include all church employees when thinking about liability insurance. Don’t forget to include the board of directors and trustees. Employment Practices Liability covers financial damage claims due to decisions made by the church’s board of directors.
Cyber Liability Insurance
Cyber Liability is an insurance type not often associated with churches, but it’s important for them to have. Churches have computers and electronic data, and cyber liability insurance protects the church from recovery costs related to computer viruses, cyber attacks, and breaches of data, including claims that may be incurred in a data breach and legal fees.
Religious Freedom Protection
Protect the church against emotional injury claims resulting from church communications, religious acts, activities, etc with Religious Freedom Protection.
Coverage for Employees of the Church
In addition to protections against possible legal fees, you may also need insurance for any church employees.
Though churches are considered nonprofits, they have many similarities to businesses that serve employees. Church employees, like business employees, need basic coverage, like health insurance.
Another type of coverage needed is Workers’ Compensation Insurance. This type of liability coverage pays benefits to employees injured on the job. Each state has its own legal requirements for Workers’ Compensation Insurance, but whether or not it’s required, Workers’ Comp coverage protects churches against any claims from employees injured whilst on the job.
It’s also important to cover church employees on any mission trips or any missionary employees overseas.
Mission Insurance
In the event of an emergency, Mission Insurance will ensure the employee and the church are protected. Coverage can include medical coverage, kidnapping, and other liabilities that could occur on mission trips or overseas.
A separate policy might be needed if the mission is outside of the United States. Worldwide liability coverage is also an option which can provide insurance abroad.
Traveling employees will also need medical coverage, especially in the case of an emergency.
Kidnap, ransom, and extortion insurance is essential to any traveling church employee. Any employees traveling in high crime areas will need reimbursement coverage in the event that losses occur.
Church Insurance Is Important to Protect Your Place of Worship
Church Insurance is critical whether your ministry is a single church location, or multiple properties with a multitude of employees. Protecting your place of worship is a priority.
Though you hope they never happen, unexpected events such as fire, left, employee injury, or even mission trip emergencies can happen. Be prepared for any situation by having the right coverage.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Video-FAQ-7.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-10-04 21:12:132022-10-04 21:12:13What Churches Need To Know About Insurance
Hey, everybody, I’m sitting down with Danny from Bray and Oakley today to talk about small business insurance. Danny, if you don’t mind, tell everybody what small business insurance is.
What Is Small Business Insurance?
Absolutely Well, small business just like personal insurance, which would be your home, your auto, or maybe insuring your life. You’re providing insurance for your investment or your assets in the case of a loss. So just like anything else, you’re trying to make sure that you’re protected if something inevitable does happen.
Awesome. So who needs small business insurance? How do people gauge when it’s time to get insurance for their small business?
Who Needs Small Business Insurance And When Do I Need It?
That’s a good question. Really, you should probably have your insurance in place before you ever start a small business. And in most cases, it will be required, because you know, there’s some laws that require for certain licenses and things like that, you actually have to have some liability coverage in force. But you know, for anything, if you’re working with the public or, or you’ve got people coming in and out of your place for business, or you’re investing your hard earned money into that, you want to make sure that you’re protected if something happens. That way, you know, it could potentially ruin you, if not, so it’s just like anything else, you want to make sure you get everything in place before you really get started. You know, when you buy a house, you purchase the insurance before you purchase the house. That way you know you’re covered. Same thing with small business insurance. Get with an agent, have that conversation, let them know what you’re doing. Your risk, your exposure, the type of business and Bray and Oakley, us, we can put together a very broad policy for you, we make sure we cover all the bases for that.
Awesome. So what are the main types of small business insurance?
What are the main types of Small Business Insurance?
Well, you’ve got the you know, if you own a building, you’ve got the building coverage, you’re going to have the liability, everybody hears general liability. That’s the liability part of the policy, which is separate from the building, you’re going to have your business personal property, which is just like on a homeowner’s that your contents, anything that’s on the inside of the business that’s not nailed, bolted or screwed down. You’re going to want to provide some coverage for your employees such as workers comp coverage, and maybe even health insurance. Sure, and the big one that I believe in often that I can’t believe I even forgot about it. But it’s my favorite policy in the world is an umbrella or an excess liability policy. We can’t leave that off because it’s really important.
Sure. So cost wise, how much is small business insurance?
How much is Small Business Insurance?
It’s a good question. And it’s probably the number one question I get when someone calls me when they’re starting a business or they’re shopping for their current operations. And you know, that question is really hard to answer because it really depends on what you’re doing. When you think about insurance, think risk. Logging companies are going to be more premium than a walk-in deli per se, because the risk there is going to be a lot higher for the people on the property, you’re gonna have a lot larger equipment, maybe some dangerous equipment. You’re gonna be working with different tools compared to you know, maybe a daily where you’re making sandwiches or, or even a barber shop or something like that. So it really depends on the risk. But again, the main thing there is making sure you’re getting what you’re paying for, and making sure the policy responds as it should if something happens. So, you know, price is always a big deal, right? It matters, people know they work hard, and money means something to them. But you also have to have a policy that does what’s supposed to when something happens. So there’s value there as well as price. Okay.
Awesome. So are employees covered under small business insurance?
Are employees covered under Small Business Insurance?
It’s a good question as well. And, of course, you’ve got different types of policies. You’ve got, you know, the dwelling and the personal property and the liability, but the main thing for your employees is going to be everybody’s heard of workers comp, right? So if you’ve got an employee that’s working, and they’re injured on the job due to activities that they’re responsible for at work, then that’s the kind of insurance that responds when an employee is injured while completing that task.
Awesome. Well, Danny, thanks for taking some time out of your schedule to talk to us about small business insurance.
Hey, you’re welcome Mike. Have a good day.
You too.
All big businesses start small. You are investing your hard earned money, your time and efforts into creating something, let Bray and Oakley make sure those efforts are being protected. Contact us today to make sure your dreams are in safe hands!
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Video-FAQ-6.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-10-03 21:38:092022-10-03 21:38:09FAQs: 5 Things every small business owner should know!
Hey, everybody, I’m Mike with Local Impact. I’m sitting down with Danny from Bray and Oakley. Danny, if you don’t mind, take a second just tell the people about Bray and Oakley?
Absolutely. I’m Danny Crum, and I’m the Vice President of Sales here at Bray and Oakley Insurance. And I take care of all six locations. I’m in charge of the sales, marketing and making sure that Michael, I take care of all his problems.
Well today, we’re going to talk about life insurance, Danny, so we have a couple questions. People are asking “what is life insurance”?
1 .What is LIfe Insurance?
Life insurance is one of the most important products to me and in our agency as well. Because it’s insuring your family. All right. So you insure your home, you insure your car, you insure your business, and you insure your life with life insurance. So what you’re doing is you’re planning to if something did happen to you that your family can absorb the expenses, and things that’s left behind.
Awesome. So what is term life insurance?
What is Term Life Insurance?
Term Insurance is something that you’re gonna hear a lot of, it’s one of the most popular products. Term is a fixed policy. All right, what I mean by that is you’re purchasing a certain amount of coverage for a certain premium. And if it’s a fixed life policy, that means it does not fluctuate. And there’s terms to that. So it can be a 10 year policy, a 20 year policy or a 30 year policy. For example, let’s say you purchase a $100,000 face value policy for 20 years. So when you purchase that policy, after you go through the medical exam and questions and things like that, and the policy takes effect, then that policy will stay in effect for 20 years. All right. If nothing happens to you in that 20 years, the policy just dies, it’s gone. It’s no more there’s no cash value to now, of course, if you do decease, it pays out. But it’s a fixed policy for a certain amount of premium for a certain amount of years.
Sure. I guess people do that for cost savings?
Is Term Life Insurance cheaper than Whole Life Insurance?
Yeah, it’s Yeah, cost savings. And you know, I can’t ever say that one life insurance policy or product is better than another because it really depends on your basic needs. A term policy is great. For some people, a whole life policy is great for some people. And that’s where you get down and you speak to an agent. And we can really, you know, I have a lot of times I have people call here for a whole life policy or a term policy. And once I get talking to them, I’ll kind of recommend based on what they’re telling me, one or the other. It could be completely different than what they called for, but you know, each policy has its place. And yes, a term policy is less expensive, usually than a whole life policy.
Sure. And can you take a second and just explain what whole life insurance is?
Yeah. whole life, people hear it and the first thing they think of as cash value. So with a term policy, there’s no cash value to it, there’s a face value, right? So you’re purchasing this insurance, you’ve got this base value. If you’re deceased, the company pays out. If it doesn’t, and you outlive the policy, then it just expires. A whole policy is exactly what it says: a whole life policy. So you’re going to pay a certain amount of premium for maybe a lower face value, let’s say 50 to $100,000. But everything you’re paying in over the course of years will build cash value. So there’s some cash involved in it, right. So if you never, say a term policy lasts for 20 or 30 years, a whole life policy lasts until you decease or until you exhaust the policy. So you’ve got a death benefit, and you’ve got a cash value, you can have either one of those, but you can’t have both. Okay, so you can either let the policy stay in force use the face value of the policy, or if you need to, you can withdraw the cash from and as it builds up. The trick to those in my opinion, is to make sure you’re leaving them in force enough to where eventually the cash value of the policy will exceed the premium you’ve paid in. That’s the goal. I like buying these for my kids, for instance, because they’re very young. As they get older, hopefully the Lord blesses them to live a long time, then this policy will actually be worth more in cash than we ever paid in premium. Really good policies. Yeah.
So you started to break the tip of the iceberg there. But can you explain how life insurance works?
How does Whole Life Insurance work?
Absolutely. And this is the personal side of life insurance for me. So if you buy auto insurance, there’s a chance that you may use your auto insurance, right? You buy homeowners insurance, you may use your homeowners insurance, if you got life insurance, you’re never going to be around to make sure that everything was taken care of. So that’s the personal side of it. A life insurance policy, you’re buying it for your family. And here’s where I really like, and encourage people to have an insurance agent. Because again, if your life insurance policy is active, if it’s working, that means you’re not here to make sure things are taken care of. And that’s very personal to us. And that’s why again, I think you should have an agent who can take care of this and make sure you’re getting everything that you need per se, making sure that the policy meets what your goal is, if you were deceased, and make sure your family is taken care of. But a life policy is exactly that, it works if you’re deceased. It’s left behind to take care of any final expenses and things like that, that you may leave on your family. If you’re a single, say you’re a single income family, and you’re living, or even a dual income family now things are very expensive. It depends on two incomes. So if you lose one of those, and you’ve got mortgages, and car insurance, and car payments, and college education and stuff like that, it can get very, very challenging, very expensive.
Sure. So how does someone gauge how much life insurance they need?
How much life insurance do I need?
It’s a good question. And a good agent is key to helping you decide that. A lot of times I have people call me and they’ll say, Danny, I would like a quote on a $100,000 policy. Well, my first question is, well, how did you come up with that number? Well, it just sounded right. But there’s really more to it. You know, I want to sell you a policy that works just like your home auto or anything else. I’m selling you that policy with the possibility that you’re probably going to use it, hope you don’t, but you may. So again, having that conversation with your agent, and you know, we sit down and we try to find out again, you know, assets to expenses, you know, what do you have here. Are you both working? We have to supplement the income of the spouse, if you are, we have to pay off your home, we have to make sure your kids have money for college, we have to make sure we can bury you. And again, we’ll start adding some of that up. The one thing that I have found out selling life insurance is people will usually need a lot more than what they think they do. And the flip side of that is it’s typically a lot more affordable than what they think it is. Most people can afford much more insurance than they initially thought.When they come to me, they need a lot more insurance than what they initially felt when they came.
So is Life Insurance taxable?
Is Life Insurance Taxable?
It’s a good question. And it really depends on the product. We can get into a lot of that, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear me talk for 30 or 40 minutes, but it really depends. Term policies? No, they’re not taxable when you get anything that could potentially make cash you could get into tax to some taxable policies.
Awesome. Well, Danny, I appreciate you taking some time to talk to us today.
It’s been fun Mike. Thanks!
The type of life insurance that is best for you depends on why you need coverage. Life insurance is the only policy we can guarantee will be used. Bray and Oakley wants to make sure you and your family are protected. Contact us today to see how we can help.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Video-FAQ-5.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-10-03 21:30:482022-10-03 21:30:48FAQs: 7 Things You Must Know About Life Insurance!
Hey everybody, I’m Mike with Local Impact. I am sitting down with Danny today with Bray and Oakley. Danny if you don’t mind, tell us a little bit about yourself and who Bray and Oakley is.
Hey Mike. Thanks for having me. Danny Crum. I’m the Vice President of Sales here at Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency. I take care of all six of our locations in Lexington, Kentucky; Pikeville, Kentucky; Richmond, Kentucky; Logan West Virginia; Chapmanville, West Virginia and Weston West Virginia. It’s good to be here.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Danny, we’re getting a lot of questions about teenage drivers, youthful drivers. And we’re gonna see if we get you to answer some of those for some of the people so. Sure. So how much does your insurance go up when you add a teenage driver?
Good question, Mike. And it’s funny, you’re talking teenage drivers. I have a 15 year old and today’s her 15th birthday and her and I actually just left the DMV where she got her learner’s permit. And, you know, the question you just asked is, “How much does insurance go up when you add a teenage driver”, is probably one of the most popular questions we get, in the insurance industry. I know that specifically. I do. And it goes up a lot, Mike, about that. They’re expensive. Typically, your policy will go up about 100%. Approximately, females seem to be a little less expensive than males. I think their driving records may be just a little worse. But you can expect about 100% increase. And it depends on carrier, depends on the state and things like that. But yeah, 100% is kind of the approximate average across the board.
Yeah, awesome. And now you guys have multiple carriers. So that’s something that you can help shop against to get us the lowest rate, correct?
Absolutely. We are an independent insurance agency. We’ve been in business well over 100 years. And we’ve got a good reputation. And we represent all the top carriers in the state of Kentucky and West Virginia. So anywhere you would go to get an insurance quote, you can come here and get it all taken care of in one stop.
Great, great. Okay, so what are the steps? How do I add a teenage driver to my policy? What do I need to do to make that happen?
Well, thats a good question as well. And I want to elaborate a little bit on that go a little in depth for you. Since you know, I now have a teenage driver. You know, when your son or daughter receives their learner’s permit, that would be in the state of Kentucky or West Virginia, which the two states we represent, you are not required to add that driver to your insurance policy. All right, so there’s no charge there. Some of the carriers do want to list that adolescent or teenage driver as a name on your policy just to kind of keep track of so when they do turn 16 and catches it, we can add them on and do what we’re supposed to do. So as long as they have a learner’s permit, they do not have to be added to the policy. Now once they receive a valid driver’s license in the state of West Virginia or the state of Kentucky, which states that the teenage driver can operate a vehicle on their own without the supervision of a legal guardian, the driver must be added to the insurance policy. And that’s very easily done. You call one of our offices, depending on your location, our customer service representatives will ask you a series of questions, takes probably 10 minutes, we endorse the policy and you’re taken care of.
Awesome. So how do I judge? What level of coverage I need for my driver, as I’m adding a teenage driver to my policy?
That’s a good question as well. And typically, I advise my clients, whether they have a young driver or not, alright, so you need as much insurance as you can afford. Okay, and that’s kind of how I start out with everyone. When I get asked the question, how much insurance do I need? Well, there’s a lot of scenarios that play into that factor. Okay. Assets, what you have out there, you know, your vehicles, your mortgages, and a lot of things go into that but the number one answer that I can give that kind of solves all that is buy as much insurance as you can afford on your budget that you know, because in reality you don’t know what’s going to happen. You know, you don’t know you may have a fender bender, you may end up God forbid in a head on collision, you don’t know. And so those expenses you know, they go up depending on the severity of the accident. So you know, we always like to start, something I train my producers and we train our officers to do is we want to start you out as the best we can. We’re looking to improve your policy, better your policy sell you at least the coverage you come to us with that we’re shopping against, but we typically want to improve that and give you better. Because again, you can’t have too much insurance but just because you can’t tell the future you know you don’t what’s gonna happen.
Sure, yeah. And you always want to make sure you’re keeping your, you know, your family safe. You know, with that, quote, what question we get a lot is, have you seen, through your experience, Is there a best car for a teenage driver?
The best way to answer that is to tell you the best, the worst car for teenage driver? How about that? Let’s flip that question. Typically, what I see with young drivers is anything that is fast, you don’t want your teenage driver in it. Your high performance cars or sports cars, things like that, that will be considered a sport vehicle when it comes to insurance. That’s where you’re going to receive the worst rate, okay? Where you will typically see the best rate depending on the carrier you’re with now different carriers rate, adolescent drivers, teenage drivers, or drivers in general differently, okay, some carriers want to assign a teenage driver to a specific vehicle. All right, you want to assign that teenage driver to the vehicle they’re driving. And the best rate for that is typically a liability only vehicle that’s a vehicle that does not carry or carry physical damage coverage, which is your comp and collision people hear the term full coverage, full coverage is your comprehensive and collision coverage on the auto policy. So the cheapest or less expensive way to go is to have a liability only vehicle, Okay? A lot of us don’t do some of us do, some of us don’t. And some carriers, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to rate the young driver on all vehicles. But again, the sports cars, fast cars, and typically the smaller, the smaller vehicles typically tend to carry the higher rates for young drivers.
Awesome. Okay, I didn’t know that. Okay. So is there a way I guess, how do I get the cheapest insurance I can for? I know you’ve answered this a little bit in some way. But is there a way to get a cheaper policy for my teenage driver?
So a good question. And cheap is a word that I don’t use in this agency. When you’re talking cheap, you’re talking? It’s a no no. So we talk value, right? Yeah. Okay. Cheap. Cheap is, you know, low policy limits, low premium. That’s cheap. You go buy cheap pair of shoes, you get a cheap pair of shoes. 100 year old agency, we sell value, we want you to have a good, good policy to a great policy. Again, don’t shop. And here’s some good advice that I give, don’t shop your insurance based on a premium amount. Okay. Okay. A lot of times what you pay for is what you get now, does price matter? 100%? It does. I live with three women. I know price. All right. So price does matter. I’ve got two girls and a wife. Yeah, so… so I know, I know, money does matter. But again, you want to purchase as much insurance as fits your budget, or you can afford value. So if I’m selling you a top tier policy, and I’m $50 More than somebody selling you a bare minimum limit policy, I’m offering a lot more value to you. If something happens, your insurance is never any good until you need it. And when you need it, that’s what matters.
Okay, yeah, that’s really great advice. In your experience, do you think, should a teen go on their own policy? Or should they continue on with their parents’ policy?
Good question. And all here’s the thing we remember is insurance follows the vehicle, right? And it’s based on a named insured basis. So there’s a couple of scenarios that would play into that too, as well. Does the teenage driver own their vehicle? Most cases? No, they don’t have the credit or the finances to do so. All right. Another thing is the parent or legal guardian is responsible for that teenage driver until they reach a certain age and which means that they would have to sign the application and everything for them. So it doesn’t really make sense for a teenage driver to have their own policy. The other side of that is this going to be extremely expensive because there’s no insurance history, there’s no insurance score, there’s no background, there’s no longevity there to build some equity in the insurance form. So it’s always best to add your young driver to your policy because typically they’re driving your vehicles anyway. Okay, you own them, insurance follows the vehicle. Some carriers and I’ll name drop a few such as Erie Insurance, they do what’s called a spin off. So if like my daughter, for instance, When she turns 16, if I’m not sure what the area insurance that put her on my policy, and she’s been on that policy for three years, she’s built some good driving experience and things like that I can bypass the high risk markets of her being young, and place her on her own Erie policy when she becomes of age and gets out on our own. So it will actually help her out a lot, you get a whole lot better rate by having that experience.
Awesome. Awesome. So I asked you kind of two combined questions. How can I save? I guess how can I save on adding a teen to my insurance? And are there programs, driver safety programs that can help with that?
Yes, there is. Everyone’s heard of driver’s education. That’s a question that I get a lot. Do you offer Driver’s Education discounts? Yes, some of our carriers do. Good student discounts. Some carriers do, this is not all carriers, each carrier differently specific. And each carrier kind of has their rewards program and things like that for young drivers. But yeah, those are two of the big ones. There are discounts for students that are off to college, but do not keep a vehicle with them at all times. Meaning that you would go pick them up and you would bring them home. There’s discounts for that, I mentioned Driver’s Ed. There are some programs with some carriers that do offer young drivers a reimbursement so to speak of premium for being safe and having safe driving habits. It’s kind of like a, I call it a plug and play or now we’ve got smartphones and tracks their driving, their braking, their speed and things like that. And if that driver ranks high on the score, the company will typically reimburse the policy back a little bit of premium to reward that.
Awesome. Awesome. Danny, is there any other just general advice that you would give to someone obviously, who’s in the same place that you are and maybe adding a teenage driver to their policy? Anything that you would recommend, any advice or anything at all?
Yeah, absolutely. Again, great question. Have an insurance agent, a professional insurance agent that you can actually sit down and speak with, don’t go online and purchase your insurance. I’m not saying that if you have that it’s wrong. You can do it. But have someone I mean, when you’re sick, you go to a doctor, you sit down and speak to someone that does that for a living they know they can advise you then give you great advice they can, they can help you. So my advice is to have an insurance agency or an insurance agent that is knowledgeable, they know what they’re doing. They’re looking out for your best interest and plan. Go to that agent, I encourage our customers all the time, you’ve got a 13 year old at home, come see us you know before they start driving. Let us have this conversation, bring them with you. I really encourage that, bring them with you and let us talk to them. Before they start driving, let us show them some scenarios of what they do and what they shouldn’t do texting and driving, things like that. Let us look at your insurance, let us advise you correctly there, we can even run you some rates. So if you’ve got a 15 year old driver, they do have a learner’s permit number. Some of our carriers will allow us to run you a rate to see where you’re at once they have their driver’s license, and they’re going to be on your policy. Vehicles, you’re looking for vehicles for your driver. Call us, let us run the vehicle with the driver, let us tell you what the rates are going to be. Surprises are not good when it comes to young drivers. Typically, it’s your sticker shock. Alright, so you know, you’re gonna get an increase. But really, you don’t know how much and I can’t even tell you exactly how much but we can do some work in the beginning to let you prepare for that.
Awesome. Well, great, Danny, I really, really appreciate you jumping on to talk to us today about teenage drivers. If somebody has a question if somebody wants to reach out who and how do they get a hold of someone at Bray and Oakley?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, each of us, you can go to our website. Of course, it has all of our office locations or web addresses there. Our main hub is Logan, West Virginia, that phone number is 304-752-6850. We can transfer you to any of our offices very quickly. www.brayandoakley.com is our website. And of course you can reach us on Facebook as well. We’ve always got someone monitoring these and we’ll get back to you very, very quickly.
Awesome. Awesome. Danny, thank you so much, man.
Thank you, It’s been a pleasure, man. Have a good one, too.
Hey everybody, I’m Mike with Local Impact. I’m sitting down with Claude Singleton from Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency today. Claude, if you don’t mind, take a second and tell people who Bray and Oakley is and what you all do.
Very Good. Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency in Lexington, Kentucky; Richmond, Kentucky; Pikeville, Kentucky; as well as Logan, West Virginia; Chapmanville, West Virginia; and Weston, West Virginia. We’re an independent, which means we can represent several different companies. We don’t represent just one which might limit you, the customer on what you can have. So we have several companies. We’re also a multi line Insurance Agency, which says we represent different kinds of insurance, auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, and business insurance. So do a lot of different kinds of insurance using several companies, so we can help our customers better. We’ve been around since 1920. It’s a family owned business that’s been passed around for four generations. So we really enjoy what we’re doing. And we’re in Kentucky and in West Virginia, where you can find us.
Awesome, great. Claude, I see a lot of people nowadays driving scooters out on the road. If you don’t mind, could we just take some time to talk about scooters? And if you don’t mind, tell us what’s defined as a scooter.
Yes, it’s a pretty broad statement. Some scooters are little flimsy things that may be not motorized at all others might be electric. And then others are just small motorcycles. And what I’ll be talking about insuring really would be the small motorcycles. And we would use a motorcycle type policy for that. The other things that you might rent from the city and things. I don’t deal with those, I always tell people to be very careful. Check out the liability because what you do hurting people with that or getting yourself hurt. Read the fine print of the agreement that you’re signing off on. If you choose to use all those things, but I’m not working with that stuff. But what we do work with would be the motorized scooters, the small motorcycles.
Okay, so technically speaking is a motorized scooter. Is that defined as a vehicle? Is there a size range? How does that work?
That’s a good question. Depending on the state, you may be viewing us in a different state. But depending on the state where it is, there’ll be definitions locally about what size vehicles are allowed on the road. And in general, if it’s allowed on the road and is a motorcycle, you should insure it for liability purposes for hitting someone else, causing injuries to them or causing damages to their property, their car or whatever it might be that you’ve hit. Also, you might want to protect yourself for the physical damages to that scooter, you may have a loan on that scooter, and the bank will require you to have some kind of coverage on that, for physical damages to that. That’s called comprehensive and collision. And we’ll talk about that in more detail if you were to give us a call. But that would be if something happens to the vehicle from an outside thing, either windstorm or something or hailstones or tree falling on it or striking something. That’s what that kind of coverage is all about. That’s comprehensive and collision. There’s also something about medical insurance. If you are injured or someone riding with you is injured on a small scooter, it’s designed for one person, let’s make it one person. Sure. It can be a friend of yours with you or a friend of yours that does not have insurance. You really have got to be concerned about if someone is injured riding this scooter, will there be protection? And we will discuss all that with you.
Great, great, so could I technically, can I cover my scooter under my homeowners insurance?
That’s a good question. It is possible with some companies to have a certain amount of coverage for that. But in general, if you get off of your property, which you will, then there’s diminished coverage, if any, there’ll be diminished coverage. Normally, for a vehicle that’s on the road, it has to be its own insurance, that can be either put on your auto policy, or a separate policy written just for the scooter itself. So it may go on your auto insurance just as an extra vehicle. It’s a road vehicle, it may just be added that way. Or you may choose to add a specialty type policy, a specific policy just for that scooter, and we’ll help you make that decision. Pricing is part of it and coverage is part of that. But all those things will come into our conversation. Takes a few minutes to do but we do give individual attention to that in each of our offices.
Awesome, awesome. So I hear you talk a little bit, it seems like I mean, what’s the liability of owning a scooter? And I guess what determines the cost of insurance for a scooter?
That’s a good question. The liability of you hitting someone else, that’s a concern. And we will recommend that you have a level of liability that you’re comfortable with. Part of that may be determined by price. But we’ll say, here’s the different levels, you choose what protection you want. And that is if you cause injuries to others, how much protection do you want from the insurance company to help you before you have to use personal funds to pay off injuries to those other people or property damage to their property. You can have the liability levels based on what you choose. If you’ve got good assets, good retirement, all these other things that you’re building up, you probably want to protect yourself pretty well. And it’s your choice to do that. We will just help you with the discussion of that. Regarding the comprehensive and collision insurance, that is the damages to the vehicle itself, to the scooter itself. That really depends on the price of the scooter. If it’s got all the bells and whistles, it’s newer, and you’ve got this big loan on it. It can be a higher premium, but it’s still not a not a monster premium. It truly is not a terrible premium. But it’s something that we will discuss with you and we’ll figure out what’s best for you.
Great. So I know that you said you’re in Kentucky. So I know you cover Kentucky and West Virginia. Do you know those two states? Is it required to have insurance on a scooter?
If it is a vehicle for the road, It would be required. Yes. If it’s a road vehicle it has to be on there. And perhaps added to your auto policy or maybe an independent policy. But yes, if it’s a road vehicle it has to be on there.
Great. Great. Is there anything else that you would add any advice to? Anything that you want to give to someone who owns a scooter currently or is thinking about buying one?
Well, I think the best thing would be to give us a call. We’ll discuss things with you and determine, help you determine what’s best. And we will give you options and you can figure out what’s best for you based on this advice. We do this every day. We talk with people and share with them. This is a limited forum, if you will. But the better thing is to have a conversation but give us a call and we at Bray and Oakley, we enjoy doing this.
Sure. Sure. Well, Claude, I really appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule today to talk about scooters and you know, really appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mike.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Video-FAQ-4.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-09-30 20:22:102022-09-30 20:22:10FAQs: Insurance for Scooters
Hey everybody I am Mike with Local Impact. I’m sitting down with Claude Singleton from Bray and Oakley today, we’re going to talk a little bit about everything. Claude, why don’t you go ahead and tell us just a little bit about Bray and Oakley and what you guys do?
Very good. Thanks Mike, Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency is a wonderful independent agency. By independent, that means that we represent several companies, we find what is best for our customer, which company is best. And with that company what coverage is best, that’s what we do. And it’s wonderful. We’re not defined by one company only. We do auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, but also do business insurance. So we do a lot, a lot of different things. We have three offices in West Virginia. That’s where we started back in 1920. It’s a family owned business and for generations passed down. It’s wonderful. But started in Logan, West Virginia, and Chapmanville, West Virginia, and Weston, West Virginia, we also have Lexington, Kentucky where I’m out of, Richmond, Kentucky, which I’m also in often. And we have Pikeville Kentucky. So we have six offices to serve our customers. And it’s a good thing. But we’re multiline. That means different kinds of insurance, independent insurance agencies. And we’re glad to help.
Awesome, awesome. We’re Claude getting a lot of questions about RVs. And we’re going to talk about that just for a second. What is the formal definition of an RV?
Yes, well, I’ll give you my definition. We’ll stay away from formal. RV Of course, that’s a recreational vehicle. And it can be different kinds of things. It can be an independent, motorized mobile home, driving down the road, or it can also be a towed behind item, like a trailer or a camper. So it’s different kinds of things. But recreational vehicles are a general thing of, it’s really for recreation in general.
Sure, yeah. Awesome. So it’s pretty wide. What does say like an RV insurance policy cover?
Okay, that’s a good point. As we’re talking with someone that calls in and they say, “Well, I have an RV”, we will define it with them. Let’s talk about what kind of RV do you have, is that the kind that has its own engine that has its own motor. And if such, it is driving, you’re driving it, just like you’re in your car, or your van or your SUV, whatever. So you’re driving that. And that has a different set of insurance coverages that we need to make sure is in place. If it’s a tow behind thing, like it’s, it is a nice place, you can stay in it’s a recreational vehicle with a bathroom and a kitchen and bedrooms and things like that. But still a tow behind. That’s a trailer. And we will insure that slightly differently. If it’s a utility vehicle, you haul things around your house, and it’s still tow behind all those things we’re going to we’re going to cover with you on this about that.
Okay, awesome. Awesome. You’ve answered it a little bit. But one of the questions that we got is, what types of RV coverages are available. I know there’s complexity for housing and vehicles, and I’m sure it probably exists for RVs as well.
Yes, yes. Let me share more about that. The vehicle that is driving itself, we have to make sure that it is protected with liability coverage. What is liability coverage? As you’re driving down the road. If you impact someone else, and you cause injury to someone else, or property damage to someone else, your vehicle insurance needs to be prepared for that. And this is very important. You already are used to that on your car insurance and your use of that on your, whatever vehicle you have, you’re used to that already. It’s the same with the driving issue or the driving recreational vehicle. The home that’s on that’s on wheels, the motorhome that’s on wheels. It is itself a propelled vehicle that you’re driving. So it’s got to have certain liabilities. Interesting note if you’re towing that same kind of nice vehicle, it’s a recreational vehicle that’s being towed. You can sleep in it. You can use a bathroom in it, you can have the kitchen. If it’s being towed. It does not have its own liability insurance. That’s fascinating. So it gets attached to the vehicle that is towing it. So we are careful to talk with people and ask them what kind of RV are you speaking of? What kind of motorhome are you speaking of? That’s a big deal, and I’ll be glad to give more detail about that.
Sure, sure. Okay, so what determines as far as cost breakdown? Are there different levels? I guess what determines the cost of RV insurance?
That’s another good question. Going back to the liability, the level of liability that you choose to have is a concern. If you’ve got significant assets, and you’re concerned about being sued, because you’ve got significant assets, you want higher levels of protection. I’ll give you some examples. And this is not meant to be advice in itself, because a specific discussion will be better. And also, when I’m speaking of liability and potential for lawsuits, I always have to give a disclaimer, I’m not an attorney, I don’t pretend to be one, I have not played one on television. I’m an insurance agent, though. And I’ve seen claims. And so I’m talking as an insurance agent only. So here goes, let’s pretend that you’ve got $100,000 per personal liability, $300,000 total for accident liability, that’s for bodily injury liability, and you’ve got 100,000 property damage liability. Now, that’s a certain level of coverage, and you can have more or less than that. But at that level, there may well be a premium that’s charged for that. And if you have significant assets to insure, or if you just are concerned that if I’m sued, I don’t want to be having to sell off things or happen to liquidate things, whatever, then you would want to consider more liability. And so that’s one factor of the insurance. Another factor of the insurance would be what’s the value of that item? What’s the value of that motorhome? Is it a $100,000 motorhome, or more? Or is it $50,000 or more? Or is it a pop up, pull behind camper or trailer thing as a pop up tent, and there’s different prices for that. And if you want to be protected, if you want that part of your vehicle to be protected, that is damages to the vehicle itself, that damages to the RV itself. Then there’s coverage for that, or let’s just say it is an old pop up trailer thing that you pull. It’s really old, and your parents gave it to you and it was worn out when they gave it to you. It functions, it rolls and it sets up as a tent. But you say it’s really no value, you may not insure that at all for damage to that vehicle, you’ll just have liability on your, on your protection to protect you. Because you’re being pulled by your vehicle, your vehicle pulling it provides a liability for that. But if something happens to that just say it was in a wreck, or you’re at the campsite and a tree falls on it. There’s no protection for you, for your stuff or for your camper. That would be liability only.
So, Claude, since you guys have so many different providers, I’m sure there’s many different avenues. What is the best way to insure my RV?
Okay, that’s a very good question. Because we’re independent, we’ve got different companies to choose from. We will study that and consider and discuss it with you. Is it better to add that to an existing auto policy that you already have? Or is it better to do that? Which we can often. Or should we have a standalone RV type of policy? And we will analyze how you use that. And all these things we’re assuming personal use, that’s not for business use, because that’ll be another discussion. But all this is personal use, how many miles you got to be putting on how far will you be traveling? What other packages you might want with that? Or is this gonna be local use and all those things will come into it. But we’ll discuss that. And we will help figure out the best for you and give you those alternatives. And you can make that decision, an informed decision. That’s what we do.
Great, okay, awesome, got you. So would my homeowner’s policy cover an RV if it’s parked?
That’s a good question. In general, and I’ll need to say this depends on companies and depends on states as well. But in general, we don’t depend on the homeowners policy to provide the coverage for that. In general, we don’t but there’s a possibility you can have coverage under homeowners insurance, but we generally do not recognize that. That’s not what we have our coverage for.
Okay, so what makes, are there similarities, differences between RV coverage and like, say auto coverage?
There really are. I mentioned earlier about the liability on car insurance and on auto insurance, you’ve got your liability protection to protect other people from your actions. And that is in the event that you injure them, the insurance company can pay up to so much per your policy limits the level that you chose, they can pay so much for per person and total for accident for that. And that’s important. Also the damages to their property that’s on there. There’s also comprehensive and collision coverages. And these are physical damages to that vehicle to that motorhome or to that recreational vehicle itself. That’s very important. All of it is very important in the whole package of things.
Okay, cool. Cool. If, if people wanted to reach out to you, what’s the best way that someone who’s got more questions about RV can find your Claude?
Perfect. You can see that on the listing here that we have at the bottom here. Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency, and I’m in Lexington, we’ve got offices, like I said six different places. Just call one of our offices. And if they want to speak with me directly, they can do that as well. Just have them ask for me and that’s okay.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Claude, thank you for talking to us today about RVs greatly appreciated.
Glad to.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Video-FAQ-1.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-09-30 20:09:482022-09-30 20:09:48FAQs: Insurance for RVs
Hey everybody, this is Mike with Local Impact. Meeting with Claude Singleton from Bray and Oakley today, Claude, if you don’t mind, just take a second to tell the people about Bray and Oakley, what you guys do and who you are.
Very good. Thanks, Mike Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency, which means we represent several companies. We’re in Kentucky and West Virginia. We were founded in West Virginia back in 1920. What’s significant of that, to me is, we’ve been around for a good while. And it’s the same family passed down through four generations. So it is a wonderful company to deal with. We’re an independent agency, of course, representing several companies. We’re also a multi-line insurance agency, which means we do different kinds of insurance. We do auto and home and life insurance, as well as business insurance. So we do a lot of things. We have six different offices, three in West Virginia, three in Kentucky. And we, we do a good job with it. So give us a call. We’ll be glad to help you.
Awesome. Awesome. So Claude, I want to talk about trailers today, can you take a second and tell people what defines? Like, what’s the definition of a trailer?
Yes. And just to be clear, the trailer that we’re speaking of would be something that you would pull behind your car or your truck, that type of trailer, sure, this would be a utility trailer or something that you’re hauling your boat on, that type of thing. And I’ll also visit mostly about personal trailers, that is things that you’re pulling yourself for your own personal use. I will mention to the side, if you’ve got a business trailer you have a business, then there has to be a commercial exposure, there has to be a commercial type policy involved. I’d really recommend considering that. But today we’re going to, we’re going to focus on a personal trailer that she might have. And so that’s what I’ll be talking about.
Yeah, yeah. So is, do I have to have a separate policy for my trailer? Will my auto insurance cover the trailer? Can you tell the people? What’s the best way?
Oh, that’s a good question. Talk with us. And we’ll be glad to visit with you about this. In general, we add trailers on to the car policy, that’s what we do. And the liability, that you may cause damage with that trailer, if hitting someone else, while you’re on the road, the liability for that trailer of hitting someone else is actually covered by your vehicle. So we will not be adding an additional liability charge for that trailer onto your auto policy. If say, we say, okay, you’ve got this trailer, go and add this on to your auto policy, the liability part will not increase because of that. Because the liability of let’s just say you had a pickup truck and you pull it with that pickup truck, pull the trailer with that the liability is attached there. I’ll give you a terrible example. Let’s suppose that for some reason, it comes detached from the pickup truck and you’re going at speed and the trailer continues moving. And now it’s no longer controlled. Even though that’s not a guided missile. Now it’s an unguided missile, that liability is still covered by your trucks insurance or your car’s insurance. And that’d be for injuring someone else or hitting their property and her and hurting their property. And there’s no additional charge for that. It’s part of your auto policy. And that’s a good thing. Now the charge is for the trailer itself. If you wanted to insure the trailer physically, that’d be called comprehensive and collision coverages. And it’s physical damages to the vehicle, either things happening to it like nature happening to it, or hitting something that is coverage that does cost more for that trailer. And it’s a function of what value is on that trailer. So how old is it? And what all does, does it cost? And is it an enclosed trailer utility trailer? Or is it just an open trailer and open flatbed trailer with maybe a thing on the back that you can click close whatever was like a pickup truck back? All those things will go into it. And the cheaper it is? Well, the cheaper it is to insure the more expensive is, you know, the more expensive would be to insure, still no significant premium.
So what about the contents inside of say if I’m hauling, you know, if I’ve got tools or something in the back of my trailer and something happens, how is that covered?
That’s a real good question. And particularly with tools is a concern. And often it does involve your homeowner’s policy. Again, we’re going to emphasizing mostly personal use vehicles, personal use vehicles, not business use vehicles. Often your homeowner’s policy can cover under your contents for that of things that you have in side, your your trailer, your personal trailer.Just an example, you’re pulling the trailer with you to carry your luggage, let’s just say on vacation, all that is your personal stuff, there’s no business whatsoever in there, you will find it most likely, most likely, you’ll find that your homeowner’s policy will do a good job for you with those contents. Specifically regarding tools, there may be limits on your policies, how much tools will be covered on your policy on your homeowners. So we would have to look into that. And also, just as a reminder, the business use of items changes how things are insured. And so if you need a business policy, you would need a business policy, it will maybe excluded on your on your personal home policy, if it’s a business use of the vehicle. Let’s go ahead and go and step further into business use. Let’s say that you determined that you can really do a good job with mowing yards and you determine that I’m going to use my zero turn radius mower which I’ve been using while I’m at home. I will do this on the side and get extra money. At that point, you loaded on your trailer that you’ve got, that may become a business use vehicle, that may become a business use trailer. And so with that said, talk with us about business use insurance, business type insurance, because there can be limitations and problems for you. And we want to make sure that we help you before those problems happen. I’ll share something with you. Bray and Oakley has got the concept that there will be a claim, there will be an incident. We’re not writing policies, just to write a policy and give you a certificate that way you can get on the road or what with it just to prove I’ve got coverage or whatever the case may be. But in all of our kinds of insurance, auto, home and business insurance, we’re assuming we will be talking with you about a claim at some point. And so that’s how we prepare. So we will give you the just in case type of circumstance. It’s a big deal. And so, it’s a very good to me, it’s a very healthy concept to have. That’s what we do.
Great. That’s great. You can help. You can help just residential, as well as businesses or anything like that. Awesome. So what happens if you have your trailer loaded down with, you’re going on vacation with your family or something and someone decides to steal your trailer? Does insurance cover a stolen trailer?
Well, that’s a good question. And normally if there’s no comprehensive or collision on your, on your vehicle on your auto insurance, lets just say for that trailer, you would have to go toward your homeowners policy. And that’s where they may be limited. So it’s possible for your trailer not to be covered. It’s possible, all premises hauling it down the road. But if it had comprehensive and collision on your auto policy, that’s where it would be covered. Comprehensive and collision on that trailer on that auto policy, it would be covered for the theft. Your contents, your suitcases were taken, they may be able to come under your homeowner’s policy, because it’s still personal belongings and all; not a business use, that type of thing. But you bring up some questions there that we will discuss in detail with you. And if you have circumstances, we’d like to deal with those circumstances and let you know exactly what will your company specifically do in these circumstances for you? Part of our part of our conversation.
Sure. Awesome. So it’s I know with auto insurance and things is a trailer insurance policy actually required?
It would not be required, as far as it’s an old vehicle. It’s an old excuse me, an old trailer that you’re just attaching to pickup truck and to haul whatever you’re gonna be doing. I’ve got brush at home, I’m gonna be, you don’t have to add additional coverage for that. Sure. Going back to what I said earlier about the liability. If that causes damage, that trailer causes damage or towing and hit somebody or it’s something, then that’s because of the vehicle you’re towing it with. That’s where the coverage would come anyway. So it doesn’t have to be insured. Were would have been introduced if there’s a bank loan and all that. Sure. Let me throw one more thing at you. Your brother in law’s real good guy, real good guy, real good driver and all that stuff. He has his own truck. And he borrows your trailer and does personal items. It’s not business items and all that stuff. And he has a wreck with your trailer. Where’s that liability? Just a question? What do you think? Where’s that liability insurance going to come from? From his vehicle. He has a vehicle so it’s attached to his vehicle. It’s attached to him. Although he does not own that trailer. That’s where it will happen. That’s where it will be covered. So just interesting aside.
Yeah. Okay, awesome. That’s very helpful. So what determines the price for trailer insurance?
That’d be the value of the trailer. That would be if you do need comprehensive and collision coverage for either your choice of that, or because the banks requiring because you have a loan on it, the more expensive that trailer is, then the more expensive the insurance would be. But it’s still not a significant premium. It is a very fair premium.
Great, and it sounds like you’ve answered this question a couple of times through what you’ve said, but trailer insurance? Is trailer insurance separate from an auto policy. And it sounds like it can be either one or the same, correct?
In general, we would attach it to the auto policy. That’s where we would attach it. But we’ll discuss that and determine, do you want to have other coverages added to that, attached to that auto policy?
Sure. Claude, if somebody’s got more questions, you have any advice for anybody that either owns a trailer or thinking about buying one, any advice you would give them just in general?
Give us a call. Each of our offices has trained people like me, and we will be glad to talk with you or you can give a call and ask for me. I’ll be glad to visit with you. But we will handle things on an individual basis. When we have this type of presentation, It’s all general and we can’t get too specific. We’ll get very specific with you and help you make that decision. Sure will, so give us a call.
Awesome. Awesome, Claude. I really appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule to talk about these things. Really important stuff. So thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mike.
Yeah, have a good day.
https://brayandoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Video-FAQ.png17072560Amyhttps://f819aa3beb.nxcli.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bray-Oakley-FINAL-Logo-600x116-1.pngAmy2022-09-30 20:03:342022-09-30 20:03:34FAQs: Insurance for Pull Behind Trailers
Talking Insurance Episode 3: Renters Insurance in West Virginia and Kentucky
About the episode
This is our third “Talking Insurance” roundtable from Bray & Oakley Insurance Agency. We are excited to share with you the answers to common questions, dive deep into the information you really need to know and share our stories and experience from over 100 years in the insurance industry.
For our third episode a few of our Bray & Oakley team members sat down to discuss renters insurance, coverages, qualifications, important steps to take and some information not commonly known about making sure you have the right policy. If you have questions about renters insurance in West Virginia and Kentucky, this is time well spent.
Michael Winter, Claude Stapleton, and Danny Crum are your hosts for this week’s “Talking Insurance”.
All right. Hey, everybody. We’re sitting down with Bray and Oakley today for our talking insurance podcast. And today the topic on the table is renter’s insurance. So guys, if you guys don’t mind, just take a second, introduce yourself. And let’s talk about insurance.
I’m Michael Winter with Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency.
I’m Danny Crum. I’m the Vice President of Sales here at Bray and Oakley insurance.
Awesome, Claude Singleton. I’m the manager of Lexington, Richmond offices of Bray and Oakley here in Kentucky.
Great to have you guys. So we’re talkin’ renter’s insurance. Who needs renter’s insurance?
That’s a good question. And I get that quite often. And I tell people all the time that if you think you need renter’s insurance, there’s a good possibility you probably do. Anyone that is occupying a home that they do not own is eligible for renter’s insurance. Okay, and it goes deeper than that. So we’re thinking, you know, college students who are at a dorm, you’re renting a home, you’re renting an apartment. Even possibly, you know, you’re older. And maybe you move back in with your parents or relatives for some reason, there’s a good possibility you could need renter’s insurance for that as well. It just really depends on the primary homeowners insurance policy, whether it will respond or not. It’s a good question.
Also, Danny, like your landlord, or your property management companies that are overseeing the apartment buildings or the student housing complexes, they usually will require, it’s more common now that they will require renters insurance. So that’s just another area that you’re going to start seeing a lot of.
I’ll share something further if I can. It’s not just the contents that you’re insuring. That particular the management companies are concerned about, it’s the liability part of the policy. And in a way, the liability part of the policy can be much more valuable than the contents part. I will get in more detail, but I’ll just share this with you that the contents would cover your belongings up to a limit that you determined for fire and theft and things like that, like some type of a claim. And that’s so many 1000s of assets that you’ve got with a liability part if someone sues you because of a home situation, that can be several $100,000. And so your liability part of that policy is a critical thing, and can be extremely important. Out of nowhere out of the blue. Here’s this claim. And that’s part of what happens with the renters policy. You got this other coverage that can be extremely beneficial for a bad claim that you didn’t see coming.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you’re seeing a lot of landlords and stuff require their occupants to have renter’s insurance now than you used to. We’re seeing a lot around here in West Virginia, and most certainly in Lexington. Almost every renters policy we write and Lexington, they’re giving requirements for liability coverage and things like that. And one of the largest claims it’s funny that you see when it comes to renter’s insurance if you’re if you’re quoting someone’s renter’s insurance, and you run an NVR something I see a lot is water claims so, say if you’re in a multiple unit apartment, and the neighbor above you, they leave their faucet on and they leave and it floods and drips down and ruins your laptop. You’re seeing a lot of that stuff on the claims when it comes to these apartments and complexes and stuff
So what as far as contents, what does renters insurance actually cover
You know, for a lot of people, I always try to explain it like this. I mean there’s a lot you know, a lot of people that have costly electronics. I mean, you have your iPhones, your smartwatches, your iPads, your laptops, your clothes, your furniture, your beds, mattresses, anything like that. If you take, like, if you could take the building, turn it upside down, shake it whatever falls out is your contents so it’s a good idea to always take a little bit of an inventory of your items. You know, keep it, maybe a video of them to help if you ever do have a claim. But that’s, that’s what we consider contents.
Yeah. And it’s a good point too. And a lot of people don’t realize how deep and how expensive that can get. When you talk about content. Like Michael said, you take the roof off the home. And this is an analogy we use all the time for our customers. And we’re trying to explain okay, what’s the difference between a dwelling coverage on a structure and the contents coverage? And like Michael said, you take the roof off, you turn the house upside down, anything that can fall out contents. Well, when you get in thinking about that, I’ve had customers claim as having total losses, you’re talking about stuff that towels, rag, silverware, furniture, like Michael said, anything not bolted down, and it can really, really get expensive. Most people don’t realize what they lost until they lose it. When people call me and they’re like, how much coverage do I need? Well, that’s a good question. You probably need more than what you think you do. And I’ll start breaking that down with them. And they’ll think, at $15,000, which is usually the minimum limit that most insurance carriers require on flood insurance. Then I start saying, Okay, so do you have a living room suit? Yeah, yeah. All right. Do you have a bedroom suit? Yep. Sure. Do dressers, all that good jazz? How about your silverware? How about your towels? How about your toiletries? But think about all that? Yeah, yeah, that’s stuff that most people don’t think about. So usually, when it comes to the limit, a loss limit, it’s much higher than what most people think they really have.
Another thing was that coaching, that is the policy limit. It does not go past that. And so the client determines that amount. And that’s what we will put in there for him, we will coach them to make sure you’ve done this in your mind. Count of what you’ve got. And that’s a big deal. That’s a big, big number. Pots and pans anymore. extremely expensive. You know, that stove, and brother. Yeah, there you go. There we go.
There’s stuff that you guys get out of conversation with your clients that they think is normally covered under renter’s insurance, and maybe isn’t.
I’d like to address that a little bit if I could. There are different kinds of policies that look very similar. And there might be a good thing, might be a good reason to give us a call. And let us analyze if you’ve got a quote with someone, it’s possible for you to have a lack of coverage, on your policy on your contents policy, your renters policy, it says, I’ve got a $50,000 limit on my contents. But the quote I give you actually also says 50,000, but it’s got a higher coverage. And why do I say that mine has got replacement cost contents on it means that we will pay the full price of what it takes today to replace that same like, kind and quality item. You had that wooden table that your parents gave you back 10 years ago. It’s a nice wooden table. It’s not an antique or not a priceless heirloom, but it’s a functional table. But you said well, it’s 25-30 years old. It’s gonna be depreciated. No, not if you get the right kind of policy, so call us. And we’ll say what does it take to rebuild or replace those items, instead of a garage sale price that other companies will actually give you that will allow you a lower value, whereas we’re going for replacement cost. And that’s a big deal. Big deal.
Awesome. I see. I guess with a lot of families at school starting back up, is it important for college students to have renter’s insurance?
Yeah, it’s well, I’ve been doing this for 20 years at least. And one of the things that’s important is that we’re an independent insurance agency we represent at least you know, 10 quality standard insurance carriers and all the policies language reads differently when it comes to like, like temporary housing or property away from the premise one of our one of our big carriers is Erie Insurance Group and with in the the jacket language for a homeowner’s policy is different for Kentucky than it is for West Virginia. So they you know, what’s covered in West Virginia way from the premise at a temporary residence might not be the same for Kentucky so one of the things that’s really important is that when you’re getting your insurance is that you’ve actually talked to somebody that’s knowledgeable about that. The big thing is like with Erie, they give you up to 10% of your personal property limit at like a temporary residence. So you have up to 10% of your your mom and dad’s contents coverage limit on their homeowners. So you know that might be enough it might not be but that’s but that’s something that you got to look at. So you know, you need definitely need to review these coverages with your you know, your advisor at your agency like like Claude singleton in Lexington, Kentucky, he can tell you about the the you know, the Erie jacket language for homeowners policy and how it would protect their students at the dorm or on campus living.
You had a good point there, Michael. And in fact, I was just on the phone just before starting this meeting with a family who I’ve helped with three different daughters who went away to college. Wow. And all three of them, we were able to use the parents homeowner’s policy, as opposed to the brand new renters policy. And they said, Yeah, but we need a certificate and all that kind of stuff. Yes, we were able to do so. And it’s, it’s if you deal with us, you deal with a knowledgeable agent, we will find the ways and they had money to, they could have bought a renters policy, but there was no need to based on the certificates we could provide in real coverage. So it took care of each of the management companies for the girls. And by the way, to have graduated, there’s one remaining. That’s what’s going on.
So really, depending on the carrier, whether the primary homeowners policy of the parents will respond or carry over to the rental property or dorm room for the children and even in storage units. Right, Michael, didn’t you and I look at that one time, people renting storage units, sometimes the primary homeowners policy will extend to that provides some coverage as well.
Awesome. So is it I know that you guys cover a couple different states. Is it a law? I know that you had said to Danny that it looks like some people are starting to require renter’s insurance before you can rent from them?
Yeah, a lot of landlords. Again, you’re seeing it here more in West Virginia than you used to. But when we went into Kentucky, you see it all the time, especially some of these big complexes and things like that, where the landlord will actually require you to carry specific limits of liability insurance under a tenants policy before they’ll sign a lease with you. And it’s becoming very common here as well, a lot of times the sub limit is going to be $100,000 or $300,000 of liability. And then of course, it’s up to the insured how much content coverage or personal property coverage they want to carry on their belongings. Something else to do then since we’re talking about too, is a lot of people don’t think about and I think Claude and I ran into this question before his loss of use when it comes to a renters policy. Remember that? It was a question we got. And from a student, I think that was renting in Lexington, he was like, hey, what happens if the building I’m in is a total loss, fire loss or something that is loss of use coverage. And what that means is the policy will actually pay to put you up in another residence while that was being repaired or whatever for a certain amount of time. And some renters policies do contain that. And that’s a really good important coverage as well.
It’s really important right now with the supply chain issues with things getting rebuilt, it’s taking longer. So that loss of use limit is going to be used more now. I mean, that’s really important. When you start looking at the renter’s policy, that loss of use now, it wasn’t always that big of a deal. But now with the supply chain issues and stuff where how long you’re having to wait for building material or just you know, I mean, I know people’s waited over a year for appliances. So that’s really important as well.
That’s an excellent point, because we are actually right now, because it’s what we do. We are when we’re looking at policies for our customers when it comes to renters policies, and even homeowners policies and auto policies as well. We’re trying to give that maximum bundle the best bundled package that will extend that loss of use, or that rental car coverage or things out because of the supply and demand right now. That’s a really good point. Michael.
Is there any policy online for say college students if they have to burn their couch in Morgantown after a WVU game?
It may happen tonight.
After we beat Pitt, West Virginia we exclude fire damage to couches.
Intentional game related.
Let’s go mountaineers.
Yeah, the same thing happens in Lexington. And there’s a specific Street in town where it all happens and protects your couches. Wow.
What about I know, as far as add on policies, do I need to buy? Like if I’m renting? Do I need to buy flood insurance? Anything? Is that included together? Is that something you guys can help with?
Typically, I’ll answer this if you don’t mind. Typically, flood insurance is going to be with the responsibility of the building owner. Okay, all right. So the person that I’m renting off of the landlord or the owner of the home that I’m occupying, but I don’t insure the structure typically flood insurance to fall back on them because they’re gonna you know, that’s the big deal of flood insurance especially when it comes to the government issue policies covering the structure of the home.
Okay, one thing about this flood insurance we want to hit on some there’s there’s other carriers that are starting to dabble in flood insurance. What they’re trying to do is they’re bolting on to another line of coverage like sewer and drain backup. Yes. Sometimes what they’ll do is they’ll give you actually a sub limit of flood insurance with your like, if you have sewer and drain backup coverage on your renter’s policy, they you know, I think some of them might be able to bolt on some flood sublimit coverage for flood. And you can also get a tenants policy for flood insurance, I think through the NFIP program. So it’s important to look, you know, if you’re in a flood prone area, you definitely want to look at getting flood insurance, it’s important. Or ask your, you know, your trusted advisor, independent agent at Bray and Oakley, that little plug there for us. But if they can, you know, endorse their policy to give them some sort of flood coverage. Claude might be able to… Claude, Did you sit in any of those new flood coverages that are Erie’s offering on some of the home owners.
Yes, and it depends upon the state that you’re in the introduction date is it’s a little out from us. But they do have Erie has got plans for a much improved over the National Flood program. It’s a much improved policy. And that several companies are doing this. And we’ll be glad to look further into this, as you call if you want to visit about that with us. But they’re looking at how the companies can pattern premiums that will be lower and coverages that are better than the National Flood Insurance Program, because there’s certain limits on that program that are pretty rigid. And so they’re banking on the fact that they can pick out the right type of coverage at the right places, and perhaps not offered in all places, but they will do a hopefully better job for the future. And Sunday was a positive thing in the marketplace. More coverage, more types of coverage, but it’s not quite settled yet. Not here yet. But it’s coming.
Yeah, yeah, Erie here in West Virginia. And there’s a plug as well, great carrier, but a lot of other carrier carriers, too, are working on adding that flood endorsement to their homeowners policy. And as of right now here in West Virginia, Erie is doing that. Depending on what flood zone you’re in, you know that you can actually if you buy the top level endorsement on the homeowners policy with sewer and drain backup, they will actually sell you some flood insurance within the homeowner’s policy. Pretty cool.
That is good. Yeah.
So how does renter’s insurance work the difference between a house and an apartment? Or? I guess? And if you have roommates, how does… if I take out a policy on a place that I’m renting and I have roommates, something happens you know, how is that covered? So two different questions. Different angles, who wants to take that one?
Yeah, yeah, I’ll jump in if you like your roommates may not have coverage depending on the company you’re dealing with? It’s your stuff is your stuff. And your protection is your protection and sorry about your luck pal. You chose not to take it. I took it because I was planning ahead. Yeah, so they may have the same loss that occurred they may be without and you would be with and so that is a big deal. We’d like to know if there’s other roommates whenever possible. It’s not always possible because things change with people. But if we know about them, then we will warn them of that and offer them the opportunity to have this coverage also, because they’ve got their own contents, you know, that they brought with them, they may share some things but the policy will cover what it will cover. It won’t just be to anyone unrelated and all that stuff.
Yeah, I think Michael brought this up early in the conversations, it’s such a great idea to document your belongings, do it with a video do it with camera whatever put it somewhere where it’s saved because you know if you have a big loss of carriers especially in this scenario where you could have multiple roommates the carrier’s gonna want to go you know, potentially what you know, what was yours? Do we have proof and that’s always a great idea. It’s a good idea. It’s a good idea on any homeowners occupied policy, whether it’s a renters policy homeowners policy, you should always document what you have. Put in a safe deposit box somewhere where it’s safe. These iPhones make it really good because of the cloud service, now you don’t lose it. But document what you have.
You know, you brought up having roommates that, you know, we’re insurance agents. So we, we evaluate risk, and we’re, you know, so you know, you got three boys and I, you know sharing a house, the likelihood of you know, something happening to like they maybe have a, let’s say someone come in to the home that you know that you don’t know, and that person could, or they could have a party and that person steals your stuff. There’s a theft, there’s an increase of theft there. That’s why it’s more important. That’s why you think about how important it is to have the renter’s insurance. The other thing is to say you got three roommates, everyone falls asleep smoking a cigarette, he’s probably not as careful as you are. You could have a fire loss. I mean, those are some really good reasons why when your kids go off to college, it’s important for them to have, you know, this is coverage of personal property coverage and liability coverage. You know, a lot of kids when they go to college, they get a dog. What if this dog bites someone, you know, it’s, you know, where some of your liability coverage comes in. So it’s really important, you know, something? So we always have a lot of people say, Well, how much liability coverage do I need? You know, we can easily tell how much property coverage they need, we can tell them to add it up, and we can get coverage for it. But I’m like, Well, can you tell me how much someone’s going to sue you for and you really can’t. So as much as you can afford on the liability side is, you know, is what we generally like to tell our customers, because it’s really important to carry enough liability limits to protect yourself.
Yeah, there’s two points there that I want to elaborate on. And Mike, I’m gonna get you to help me on one of them. Theft when it comes to homeowners policy or renters policy, how does that work? Are there sub limits?
There are some set limits when certain items I mean, like firearms, there’s usually with some carriers, there’s a fifth sub limit on firearms and jewelry, unless they’re scheduled to the policy. And that’s another thing you could do with the renter’s policy, it gives you the ability to actually schedule these items at a, you know, an appraised value ahead of time. So that’s another good thing to think about as well. But there’s a lot of differences. We have 10 carriers, and the way they would treat firearms is probably different sub limit, they have theft of firearms sub limit coverage. That means if somebody comes in and breaks into your home, steals your firearms, some carriers give you up to about $10,000 worth of firearms coverage. Well, that’s not enough in certain areas for certain insurance. Because there’s a certain point, you know, I’m a gun collector, I’m sure $10,000 won’t be enough for me. So what we try to do is encourage our customers to either look at a carrier that doesn’t have a theft sub limit for firearms, which we actually have one carrier that does. Yeah, believe it Safeco, which is a very good carrier. So it’s good to review your policy, go over these limits, theft sub limits with them and make sure they have the appropriate coverages. If they’re not, we can actually schedule them onto the policy so that it takes care of that.
Another thing with sub limits and all the deductibles usually it’s $1,000. That can be different. But with certain items, very important items, your computer, your smartphone, some of our carriers give a $100 deductible on a $1,000 policy 1000 deductible policy, here’s $100 deductible for that kind of item. That’s a big deal. You just saved $900. Now the agent advises you with that particular company on a claim that involves your smartphone. And that was just awesome. Absolutely.
And let’s get to the point.
Yeah, in scheduling. I want to elaborate on when Claude and Michael are referring to scheduling to your policy. Okay, what that Oh, so you’ve got your renter’s policy, your homeowners policy, and Michael mentioned scheduling like a watch or firearms, what you’re doing is you’re specifically listing that item out with a description, okay. And then you’re putting a value on that either appraised value, purchase price, whatever it may be. So then you’ve got the coverage for that. And it also will cover you off premises, if it’s scheduled. So if you’ve got a nice watch that you’ve got scheduled on your policy, and you go to the lake with some friends, you lose your watch, there’s coverage for it not necessarily theft from the home on the premises if you’re occupied. That’s good. The other thing that Michael talked about was how much liability coverage do you need? And like he said, you know, how much can you afford? But we always like to educate our customers on an umbrella policy as well. And umbrella policies and extra limited covers that go over top of your policies. If your policy limits are exhausted, this will pick up that stuff. And this is stuff that we do at brain Oakley, you call us we’re gonna explain that to you. We go in depth with it, we explain how these policies react. What happens if you have a loss, sub limits and all this good stuff. A lot of information there. Yeah.
So what I’m hearing is, if you’re a college student in Morgantown, and you buy the couch, you need to have a policy in your name.
Hopefully, tonight you do.
Are there any other major differences between renter’s insurance for a home versus an apartment?
Well, obviously, the obvious difference will be we’re not concerned about the shell of the dwelling for a renters policy. We’re concerned about the contents and the liability with your hope that’s it. But that’s really the biggest difference, it’s still what we consider to be a home policy to talk about policy.
Yeah. You can experience different claims, like I was talking about earlier, if you’re renting an apartment, you get people over top of you or you know, I guess there’s some more risks there. Like as water claims, you’ve got people going in and out all the time. And anytime you’ve got a lot of people occupying different spaces, different things can happen. There’s some liability exposure there, there’s potential theft, because you don’t know who your neighbors are bringing in, but they’re bringing in people like that. Again, one of the number one claims I see when it comes to apartments, and renters policies are water claims from the neighbor, you know, leaving something on or whatever. And then possibly, they didn’t have renter’s insurance. So the policy that the tenant has is actually responding.
I know it’s a mundane question. Some of you guys have answered a couple times, but how much renter’s insurance should somebody actually carry?
You know, the conversation, and I deal with a lot of the conversation I had with customers is, of all ages is, you know, first thing I asked him off the top of your head, what do you think you need? Okay, most policies, most companies we have will do a minimum of 15,000. So you have to carry at least $15,000? The typical answer I get, there’s $20-$25,000. So then I’ll go into more detail that just like you would on life insurance, or homeowners insurance, or auto insurance, and I’ll start pointing out things that I know that I see daily, that you know, they don’t do insurance, they don’t see claims, they don’t cross their mind. So again, I’ll start pulling, pointing out, you know, accepting the toiletries and things like that. And typically, we’ll end up with a coverage of about five to $10,000, more, possibly more than what they actually call for. And again, that’s where it comes down to having an experienced agent who does this every day who can advise you correctly. You know, it’s just like, if you’re sick, you don’t treat yourself, you go to the doctor, they see that stuff, you call your agent, call one of us and offer the plug in there www.Brayandoakley.com. On our website, you can call any one of our offices, all of our office locations are listed on our website, one of our agents will help you determine what you’d need, what we think you need, and we’ll kind of come to a solution there together. Again, on the liability insurance side of it, a lot of landlords are requiring certain limits for liability. But again, we all know, if they don’t require that we’re always going to try to, you know, have that conversation with you. You don’t know what you’re going to be sued for. You don’t know what’s gonna happen. Sure. Leave by as much as you can afford.
Yeah, just take your window unit air conditioner. Yeah, let’s say you’re on the third floor of an apartment building. And, you know, you didn’t get it secured in there properly, and it fell out the window and struck someone. I mean, could you really mean how much is that going to cost? I mean, that’s definitely bodily injury, that the liability policy would probably have to defend you for and, you know, I mean, was $100,000 going to be enough? You know, I mean, probably not. So these are things to think about when you’re a tenant or renter, I mean, your property is important. But you know, you could pretty much put a set limit on your property, but your liability can be unlimited. So always encourage everyone to purchase as much as they can.
And we use the you’ll hear out disclaimer course we’re not doing a specific interview right now, but you hear disclaimer at some point. We’re not attorneys, don’t pretend to be any but here’s the insurance part of it. You better protect yourself and what do you feel comfortable with being protected for current income and future income assets? Where are you in life? Are you near retirement? Do you have assets stacked up that people would really go after and attach? Well, that’s a problem. So let’s talk about that. That’s where what Danny said earlier was wonderful, but the umbrella liability to go on top of like an umbrella. That’s a big deal on top of your car insurance on top of your renter’s insurance, or on top of your home as well.
And the discounts. I mean, there’s a discount score that I had this discussion with a doctor today. I’m actually working on his home auto life insurance and everything and, when I present it to him, I always, always call it an umbrella, always. And I included my email. And he said, I don’t think I need it. I said, why? He said, Well, I’ve got limits on the homeowners and auto insurance. I said, Okay, let me give you a scenario. And I gave him a scenario about the time our conversation was done. It wasn’t, am I purchasing an umbrella? How much of one can I purchase? Yes, yes. Yeah. And you know, that’s us really just showing you what can happen. Yeah, we do this for a living. We see it every day, every
day. And often, often we will hear that no one’s ever mentioned an umbrella to us before. Is that important? And that’s, I used to point that out. There’s a reason we do it. And we are aware of claims and we prepare as if you’re going to have a claim. So that’s how we need to prepare. That’s the Bray and Oakley way, if you will another commercial,
most affordable insurance you can purchase for the most coverage and umbrella policy, typically 2-300 bucks for a million dollars coverage. Everyone should have one. Yeah. Everyone on this call has gone. Except for maybe you.
Mike, we need to talk more!
I’ll have to jot down the number there. Yeah. I couldn’t help but get tickled when Michael talked about the window unit, you guys have ever seen, remember Happy Gilmore, the Adam Sandler movie.
I never thought about that. But I will probably use that in my conversation for renting apartment buildings.
So are their qualifications? I mean, does everybody qualify for renter’s insurance? How does that work?
You can’t, you have to be renting the space you’re occupying. Other than that, I mean, of course, 18 years of age, there’s got to be some legal stuff there. You gotta be able to sign your own application, you know, be on your own to be able to do that, and so forth. But no, you got to be renting, that you can’t own the building. Because of course, the coverage, you would have the homeowners, it’s got the property coverage included with it, but you got to be renting the space that you’re occupying.
Awesome, okay.
Other than that, it’s very simple.
It’s probably the one of the cheapest policies you ever buy in your life that gives you probably some of the broadest coverage so a renters policy is pretty important. And it’s very affordable. So when you start calculating some of the bundled discounts you’ll get for having an auto and renters together, that helps offset some of the costs. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Especially I heard somebody say, just talking about the cost of what you know what everything costs. Now the you know, with inflation going up what buildings costs, what it costs to rent a place, like you talked about, you know, policies being able to help you if something were to happen, your displaced, gosh, how much money you would be out trying to find a short term, an Airbnb or something like that for a month while they remodel your kitchen or bedroom or something. Shew, you’d be in for a ton of money? Yes.
That’s all stuff that most people don’t think about Mike. Until it happens. Yeah, until it happens, because, you know, most people have the mindset and even myself at times is, you know, probably won’t happen to me. But when it does, that’s when your insurance matters. That’s when what you buy and who you purchase it from matters.
I may have said on one of our previous videos, because I repeat myself often but my age. That would be it not a week goes by that someone didn’t call and said, Claude, I never thought this would happen to me. Well, what are they about to say? It’s a claim! And that’s, that’s what we prepared for. So that is that way with renter’s insurance, or home insurance, regular home insurance or auto insurance, all of that stuff? Things happen. And that’s what we do, we prepare for it.
Yeah, yeah. And I’ll repeat what Michael tells our customers all the time, we insure you, with the mindset that you are going to have a claim. Yes. So that’s how we do it in the beginning. And when you when you have a claim with Bray and Oakley, you’re going to call us and thank us, you’re not going to say why didn’t you and I’ve had this happen many times I’ve had customers call me that’s had total losses that have, you know, been weeping because they just lost everything they own. But, you know, we’ve done the right thing and we had these discussions and they were insured properly and it’s tough, but their life picked up and they were able to move forward. So yeah, the emotional part we course you can’t replace that and what they what they lost but do To be able to financially to pick up, and also not be waiting for someone else to donate something, or waiting for an offering or something which you’re you’re it’s wonderful to see our outreach from the community. But it’s wonderful also not to have to wait on that and have this protection from the time that fire department finishes putting out the fire. You know, it’s, you know, that’s wonderful. Yeah, exactly.
So since you guys cover both states for your all’s customers, or is there a difference between insurance renter’s insurance coverage from West Virginia to Kentucky?
If there is a very small difference when there?
Yes, yeah, yeah, the most different state to state is typically going to apply to your auto insurance. But when it comes to homeowners and renters policies, typically they’re pretty much cut and dry. You may see some small stuff like we’ve talked about flood insurance earlier, and things like that, that some companies may offer in one state, but not the other. But typically, you’re looking at the you know, the nuts and bolts of the policy, the contents coverage, the liability, exposure, liability coverage, and then each company has their own endorsements, like we call bundles. And usually there’s three to four tiers of that, starting with the least up to the most, you can just kind of make your package a little more broad by purchasing these things such as firearms, settlements, which we talked about siding restoration, when it comes to homes, roofs, and things like that.
One of the things that, you know, just going back to having a knowledgeable agent that actually operates in both states, like we do, is that like with one of our carriers, and one state, they, you know, if you have a renters policy and you move to another location, you don’t have to rewrite the policy, you just have to re you know, endorse the policy to add a new address. But however, like in Kentucky, I think you have to rewrite the policy, or rewrite, rewrite a new policy, it’s not an endorsement. So you know, it’s always really important. Whenever someone’s got a renters policy, and they’re deciding that they’re going to be moving or going somewhere else, that coverage doesn’t automatically follow you to that new location, sometimes, just depending on the carrier, depending on the state. That’s why it’s always good to stay in constant contact with your agent.
Yeah, and like Michael said, we do have circumstances being in two states, Kentucky and West Virginia, that sometimes we do have Kentucky, clients that move to West Virginia, or vice versa. And even if we can’t transfer the policy internally, by changing the address, most of our companies do what’s called spin offs. And we can put the previous policy number in, and you keep your experience with the customer. It’s not like starting over. So if you’ve been with, let’s say Erie for three years, and we do that spin off, you’re still going to have that credit for being with Erie for three years, because you’re staying at the same carrier who’s moving states with the same agent.
So how does, if a client calls, reach out to you guys, for information? How can Bray and Oakley help with renter’s insurance? Give me a quick rundown.
We are insurance professionals. And we take pride in what we do. When you call us if we don’t have the answer, we find it for you. But more times than not we’re able to advise you on the phone. We usually answer your questions within five or 10 minutes. We can advise you correctly on you know, we want to listen to what you have to say first. All right, that’s the frontline. We want to hear what you think you need. And then we’re going to start giving our opinion and helping you decide. And we always find a policy that’s right for you. That’s what we do that goes for all of our offices. We have six offices in two states. Each office is run independently by the management in that office. It’s a face that, you know, it’s a voice that you know, when you call, you don’t get a 1-800 Number with us to where you’re going to call an operator and you’re going to talk to someone in Atlanta, when you call her off. You’re going to talk to Claude Singleton, you’ve talked to before you’re going to talk to Michael Winter, you’re going to talk to Danny Crum, you’re going to talk to Betsy Peeples and that relationship there. It gives us some experience with you. It allows us to get to know who you are, some of your exposure to what you need, and we can help you make the right decisions.
Yeah, I think the emphasis is on we can give individual attention and we will do that. Whereas specifically why, how to fix what you’re looking for, and then make that advice that we need. So it’s individual attention. It’s a big deal. Absolutely is.
Awesome. If somebody’s thinking about somebody’s thinking about renting, family, maybe sending a kid off to college, how do they get a hold of you guys who do they call?
Best way honestly is if you’re local, you’re gonna see our number everywhere you’re gonna see on social media, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, We’re in all that. But you can always go to our website at www.Brayandoakley.com. When you get there, you’re gonna see all of our office locations listed. You can find the one that’s closest to you is going to have a number there. You can reach out to us. You can or you can also reach out to us via social media, Facebook, we monitor it throughout the day. Very easy. If you can’t get a hold of us, it’s because you didn’t try.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, guys, I appreciate you taking some time talking about renter’s insurance today.
So thank you, Mike. Yeah.
Question real quick. Sure. How do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky? Is it Louisville or “Lewisville”?
Is that me? You’re asking me? Yeah. Yeah, I’d say Louisville. I think it’s Frankfort. Just saying.
Gotcha, gotcha. Gotcha. One more well, we’re kind of joking around a bit. Somebody famous moved from West Virginia to Kentucky. You know what his name is? Oscar Tshiebwe. Thank you West Virginia. We take that basketball.
Yeah, it’s a great he’s a good he’s a good guy.
What a guy. What again? I say Go Big Blue.
Well, in closing statement, WVU will beat Pitt tonight as always. I’m not gonna leave any more room for conversations. Great having you. I’ll see you bye.
