Did you know that general liability insurance coverage does not cover your employees if they are injured on the job?

This has been a question that's been posed to us recently by several of our business clients.

I want to make you aware that business general liability insurance, although it does cover property damage and bodily injury, there is an exclusion on there that it does not cover injury to your employees.

The reason that exclusion is there, is because you need to have workers compensation insurance coverage to cover your employees if they are injured on the job.

In the state of Maryland if you have one employee doing anything else other than clerical or more employees of course you have to provide them with workers compensation in accordance with state law.

Workers compensation insurance covers the injury to your employees if they are injured on the job.  Workers comp insurance is there to pay their medical bills, their lost wages, and any rehab or additional training or things that they need to go through in order to come back to work. 

Personal Property Coverage and Your Homeowner's Insurance Policy

This week I'd like to talk to you about homeowners insurance and your personal property coverage. Under your homeowner's insurance or renter’s insurance policy you have coverage for your personal property, which is your contents. Basically this is all of your “stuff”.

However, did you know that there are specific limitations for theft for certain items?

Those items include (but not limited to) silverware, gold ware, jewelry, firearms, and furs.

The reason that there are limitations on those items is because generally as a whole most people have very little of these items. 

Will driving for a ride sharing company like Uber or Lyft affect your auto insurance?

The world is changing quickly.    Unfortunately, the insurance industry is usually slow to keep up. 

We are finding more and more clients are driving for UBER or LYFT.   When you are driving for these companies you are using your vehicle as a livery service.  

Although, the companies of UBER and Lyft do provide you some auto insurance coverage there are some gaps in coverage and some things that you must be concerned about.

A question that we're commonly asked here at Huff Insurance is: Does a speeding camera ticket affect my insurance rates?

Well, currently in Maryland, they cannot positively identify who the driver is who received the ticket in the vehicle. So therefore, the ticket does not show up on your Maryland driver's license.  The ticket is simply just mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle.

 

In Maryland, several counties and cities have enacted the use of speed cameras and red light cameras.  Because of this, we hear the question on how it affects auto insurance premiums on a regular basis. 

In Maryland, the camera tickets are mailed to the vehicle's registered owner, regardless of who what actually driving the vehicle.  So if you loan your vehicle to your best friend, your kids, the neighbor, etc. and they get a speed camera ticket, the ticket is coming in your mailbox.

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists Coverage, How Important Is It?

We all know that auto insurance is required on all vehicles on Maryland roads. Car insurance is pretty much the same across the board. The only real difference is the person who sold you the policy and how they explained it. For a majority of people, price is the single biggest reason where they purchase their auto insurance, either through an Maryland Independent Insurance Agent, which is what we recommend, or through companies you see on TV.  Sometimes, these companies, and other insurance agents, fail to explain or even offer the important optional coverage’s in a vain attempt to give you the cheapest price possible. Are they doing you any favors? I don’t think they are.  Believe me, I know price is very important when it comes to insurance. However, it’s also my job to make you aware of all your insurance coverage options and explain how they can help protect you and your family. Ultimately, it’s your choice so you might as well be informed when making these decisions. One of the most important coverage’s you should consider is Uninsured & Underinsured Motorist Coverage. Here are the quick definitions:

• Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UM)- This covers bodily injury and other compensatory damages for you or your passengers if you are hit by an at-fault driver who doesn’t have any insurance to pay the amount you are legally entitled to recover.
• Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UIM)- Provides coverage for bodily injury and other compensatory damages for you or your passengers if you hit by an at-fault driver who doesn’t have enough insurance to pay the full amount you are legally entitled to recover.

No let's get into why this coverage is so important for you and your family.

According to the Insurance Research Council, if someone is injured in a car accident in the United States, the chances are one in seven(over 14% !) that the accident was caused by an uninsured driver. Now just think about how many cars you share the road with everyday.  I know that 50,000 cars pass our office on Ritchie Highway every day.  Using the averages, that means that 7,000 of those cars do not have insurance!  That is real scary.

Will your credit score get hurt if you shop for insurance? 

The simple answer to this question is NO, an insurance inquiry on your credit score will not hurt your credit score.  

When you pull your credit report from the major reporting agencies, you will see the names of the insurance companies who have placed an inquiry to your credit report.  These are visible to you, but do NOT show for any other entity that pulls your report, so insurance company A will not see that you also got a quote from insurance company B.

Each of the three credit reporting agencies is required to offer you a free credit report once per year.  You can visit www.annualcreditreport.com to get your reports.  You can pull them at the same time, or at different intervals.

Who has the best contractors insurance in Maryland?

I would bet that there are plenty of contractors who ask this question to themselves every year that their contractors insurance comes up for renewal.

The question itself is a tough one to answer, because how do you really measure who has the “best” contractors insurance?

What would the criteria be for the best insurance for contractors in Maryland or in any other state?

Several factors can to be evaluated to determine the best contractors insurance company, such as:

Your Son Buys a Vehicle in His Name.  Can You Add it to Your Auto Insurance Policy?

Today I want to talk about vehicles and your auto insurance. 

We had a question recently posed to us from one of our customers they wanted to know if they could add their son's vehicle to their car insurance policy, even though the vehicle was titled just in their son's name.

Most insurance companies do not want to add the son's vehicle to your policy in that case. 

And there's some reasons why the son may not want to have his vehicle added to your policy in that case. 

One is if the vehicle is solely owned by your son and not owned by you and him jointly is if the policy is written in your name and there's a claim, the check is going to be made payable to the first named insured, which is you, not your son. 

Do You Have A Teen Driver Contract With Your Teen Driver?

I am Nancy Nicklow and I want to talk about teen drivers.

This is something near and dear to my heart as a lot of you of course know I have a 19 year old daughter and a 16 year old son who recently got his driving permit.

So teen driver safety is something that I I'm constantly thinking and worrying about.

One thing that I would like to discuss with you today is that you should have a signed contract with your teen driver prior to them driving.

I have done this with both of my children. We have set down the rules the regulations about using the vehicle we've talked to things about:

Monitoring the number of passengers that are in the vehicle because the more passengers that in the vehicle the more likely they are to be distracted.

What are some benefits of wedding insurance?

Do you have a wedding planned in 2018?  If so, now is the time to obtain wedding insurance.

I know you are thinking, “What?  My wedding is not for four, six, seven, eight or more months from now. Why do I need the wedding insurance policy now?"

Well one of the benefits of wedding insurance is not only does it provide general liability and liquor liability coverage for your event, it also covers the rehearsal dinner and potentially cover the breakfast or the brunch the day after the wedding.  

And one of the most important coverage's that wedding insurance provides is lost deposit coverage.

When planning a wedding, there are several deposits that you will have to make for vendors in order to secure those vendors for your special day.  Some types of deposits are: