Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Combined Single Limit vs. Split Limits

Here is some technical trivia. Most of us have "split limit" insurance. For example these numbers may look familiar - 100/300/50 or 15/30/10. These numbers refer to your liability coverage for personal injury and property damage. They are familiar, because that is how it is sold to us. 100/300/50 means that if I cause an accident that causes bodily injury, I have $100,000 of liability coverage per person and a total of $300,000 per incident. The third number means I have $50,000 for property damage liability coverage. These numbers are fairly standard, and considered by most to be OK coverage. But lets take a closer look.

Just say: you cause an accident that hurts two people and two cars. Injured person "A" claims $120,000 for injury and lost salary during recovery. Injured person "B" claims $130,000 for injury and lost salary. The first car is a total lost at $20,000 but the second car has $35,000 worth of damage. Total damage for this serious accident were $305,00. However, because of the split limits, you are now on the hook for $50,000 for bodily injury and $5,000 for property damage. Do you have an extra $55,000 laying around somewhere?

With combined single limit coverage - of $300,00 would cost you $5,000. And the combined single limit for $500,000 or even $1,000,000 is not all that more expensive - considering what a serious accident could really cost you.

Talk to your agent about Combined Single Limit Insurance, or give me a call.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Bicycle Ticket Increases Youth Driver's Insurance

Bicycle Safety courses used to be offer throughout the county. I am not sure if they still have them, but parents - teach your children the rules of the road.

A client's child was riding his bike, and rode it right through a 4 way stop without stopping. He was immediately pulled over by the police and given a ticket. He went to traffic court and his parents paid the fee. That, they thought, was the end of it. Their son had learned his lesson.

The following year he got his drivers permit and needed to be added to his parents auto insurance policy. When we ran the Motor Vehicle Report, there it was - his first moving violation, a year before he received his license to drive. Yes, the bicycle ticket was treated the same an auto ticket.

After some fancy legwork on our part, we where able to get him approved for the youth driver discount, but was unable to get it removed from the MVR. So, if he gets one more mark on his record, he will lose the California Good Driver Discount, even before you could call him an experienced driver. The bicycle ticket cost him about $200.00 more a year.

Moral of the story. Parents, teach your children the bicycle "Rules of the Road."

Monday, March 1, 2010

Do you have old 401k's just sitting somewhere?

Stats tell us that the average American changes jobs ever 6 years or so. Regardless of the reasons, there are many people out there with 2 and 3 or more 401k's with a few thousand dollars sitting in them that they have absolutely no control over. They may or may not be earning any money, and they are set at the risk factor of the company that set them up.

If you are one of these people, isn't it time for you to take control of your own money and invest it at a level that you choose? It is a very simple process to roll you old 401k into a personal IRA. And if you have 2 or three of these sitting out there, you might be surprised how much they add up to if put together.

If this is your story, give me a call... I can help.