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>компютри втора употребаs take a scenario, you parked your car out on the street last night and in the morning you found that your $800 camera, 20 of your most favorite music CDs are gone plus your Garmin Navigator valued at around $500. You have auto insurance and it has a $100 comprehensive and $250 collision deductible. You also have homeowner’s insurance with the same company and it has a $250 deductible. Please share your ideas and your reasoning, why you think it’s covered or not covered. What do you think? I will answer this after the public gets a chance to think about it.

You see them advertised everywhere, TV, newsprint, letters, etc. Yet you look at your own insurance bills and wonder, where are these savings? Is this just a clever ad campaign or just something for new customers? Well let’s look at both points here: one, the ads are saying, “Our average customer saved $300.” That’s a clever use of words, all it means is that the ones who they converted to customers saved an average of $300, what it really says is that a lot of quotes were done before they found someone who they saved money and that $300 was the threshold, that people felt they needed to make a change in their auto insurance. The second part of that is, companies pool risks, they group risks together and manage them separately to maximize profits and to limit their exposure to claims. The public typically thinks in black and white, meaning the rate with one company is the same for all similar insures or demographics (like 2 cars, same driving record, same neighborhood, same age, etc.) but that couldn’t be farther from the truth? The companies of course like you to believe that so you don’t go shopping. How do you protect yourself… perhaps you take some of this behavior in stride after all you work for a company that looks to maximize profits etc. But some of it can be dealt with very effectively and easily, develop a relationship with a smart, hard working agent who proves to you that he/she cares. Then be honest, call them… tell them when you feel you aren’t being treated fairly. Good agents aren’t afraid to hear from their customers, they want to hear so they can pass that information along to their companies to force them to behave more appropriately.

Ted Lanzo, Independent Agent , Pittsburgh PA

I had time before the Super bowl game began to do something useful, so I decided to repair a dripping faucet. I was prompted to repair it when my wife had told a friend the noise was driving her crazy. I started by taking the shower facet off and then the stem… I had to remove the seat and replace it… a simple task until it refused to come out. I tried all the infomercial tools to remove the 45 year old brass thread. I finally decided to try one more thing. I got out the Big Boy, my Porter Cable hammer drill and before I knew it… it was drilling through the back of the pipe… the trigger locked and I couldn’t stop it, the trigger wouldn’t reset. I couldn’t tell however that I had drilled through it… I guess you always hope for the best but my worst fears were confirmed when I went to turn on the water… it ran down the wall as if it was a natural waterfall. My son started yelling the water is running. It was flooding from the second floor, down the stairwell all the way to the carpeted game room.

I had to turn the water off in the entire house to stop any further damage from occurring, as stated in any insurance policy; the insured has the responsibility to protect the covered property from any further damage. The only problem was that there were no other shutoff valves except the main one to the house. I knew my family could not go without water for long so I called the plumbing company that installed our water heater. They offered emergency service and I agreed to let them come out to take a look at the damage.

Question before I go on: Is the damage to the pipe and/or the plumbing covered? Now I have an all-risk homeowners policy. Answer next post.
 

We just finished producing our Homeowners ClaimGuard CD. It has iii’s home inventory software and many free reports: what to do if you have a loss, advice from a former Claim Adjustor, dog bite laws, how to save on your homeowners and most importantly it outlines the ClaimGuard program, “The most comprehensive homeowner program available today.” For our customers we offer to store a copy of their home inventory file on our servers.

The important thing here to remember is that your homeowners policy is really all about you and your family. Your auto policy is really about third parties, people you don’t know. That is why you should spend more time on determining what you need to protect your home and your plans for the future. If you have any questions please direct them to me Ted Lanzo, at Lanzo, Lutz & Associates, call 888-PA-CARS-0.

Keep safe!

Ted Lanzo

Here’s your proof, get your auto policy out, specifically look at your first party benefits… these are benefits that are paid to you and your family. Now look at these 4 coverages and their corresponding limits:

Medical Payments: $10,000

Income Loss: $1,000 monthly $5,000 maximum

Accidental Death: $5,000

Funeral Benefit: $1,500

This is probably what your policy looks like or something close. And this is the problem you have not been educated about car insurance, you have been sold auto insurance all your life and you bought from a quote, not from an agency that explains what the heck you are buying. Now price is not the problem you can still get a competitive price but if you are going to spend hundreds of dollars and risk your family everyday don’t you think you should buy something that can benefit you when you need it most. Let’s break it down, I assume you are of working age and either you support yourself and or a family with your wages but yet you carry work loss limits $1,000 a month. What would you or your family do if you were injured in a car accident and you couldn’t go back to work for the more than 15 days. What family or adult supporting themselves could live on $1,000 a month? Very few I am sure, if they could they probably don’t own a car. Let’s talk about Medical payments what if you don’t have medical insurance and you’re in an accident would $10,000 be enough? We don’t know the answers to questions like these, no one does, that’s the trouble, why are agents and organizations that sell auto insurance like Esurance making recommendations that fall far short of meeting the needs of their insureds. Are they afraid of losing customers because their quote will come back too high… I don’t think so because Combo Benefits don’t cost that much, a few dollars more every policy period would be sufficient to buy the benefits your family needs. In PA a consumer can buy what we call Combo Benefits, up to $277,000 of first party benefits to be applied the way you need them: $50,000 for work loss, sound better than $5,000, $100,000 for medical sound better than $10,000, I am sure it does, given you don’t know what you will need. I don’t understand why companies sell benefits that you can’t use but I think it just doesn’t fit into selling car insurance fast and selling lots of policies, I think companies like Geico may ask their customers what do you currently have on your auto insurance and end up quoting those same limits without developing the proper coverage for the risk you face. They saved you up to 15% on your car insurance; however, they may have lost you your home if you have to go bankrupt.

If your car needs regular service, get it done now.

Make sure your battery and charging system are up to snuff.

Check the cooling system.

If you have leaks in the cooling system, take care of them now.

Make sure your windshield wipers are in good shape.

Keep your gas tank close to full, for a couple of reasons.

Make sure your windshield washer reservoir is full.

A lot of folks ask us about carrying sand in the back of the car.

If you live in western Siberia, northern Minnesota, or some place like that, think about adding a block heater to your engine.

Make sure your rear-window defroster works.

Know your car.

Drive in snow only if you have to.

Make sure you have some basic supplies in your car in case you do get stuck.

Winter driving emergencies are among the few legitimate uses for a cellular phone.

If you’re in an area that permits or requires tire chains, they should obviously be in the trunk, too.

You can’t see through snow, so make this “preflight check” before every winter car trip.

What are they thinking… these are so low, yet they have a great rating by AM Best… what do they know the other insurance companies don’t. If you are curious request a quote through this site and we will send you their rate for your car.

These rates are for full coverage, comp and collison and they are for 6 months so if you pay annually you would have to double these to get an accurate comparison.

This is something that I never thought would happen but it has… warranty’s are still a good thingbut now you can buy coverage for all the electrical, mechanical, pressure equipment in your home. When was the last time you bought something say a washing machine for $450 and the extended warranty the store tried to sell you cost almost a third of the cost for the appliance itself. I know they wanted $85 for a warranty on a stereo system that cost $300 go figure. So what’s the cost of the insurance for say $25,000 of coverage for all the stuff in your house… well it could be as low as $60. $60 you say, I know it’s crazy, crazy if you don’t buy this coverage, it is the cheapest form of insurance in the world. What other insurance can you think of… that you’re likely to use in the next 3 years and it’s likely to save you 2 to 3 times the cost to buy it. Call you agent today and tell him if his company isn’t offering it… switch your insurance today.

The Grange insurance company, based in Columbus Ohio, has comed to Pennsylvania hunting for bear. They have spent 2 years, researching the market. The long anticipated move is on, they have targeted Erie, Geico and State Farm, rumors have it. Their philosophy is to price products properly… they want to be the easiest company to do business with. They write pretty much anything a family could have, a car, luxury car, classic car, home, rental properties, quads, boat, snowmobiles, motorcycles, RVs, etc. They seem to want to take care of all their clients insurance needs. They also offer life insurance products and the most unique and the darn right cheapest Long-Term Care insurance this guy has ever seen. I rated someone 40 years old and to add the Long-Term Care rider which amounted to $3,000 a month for all forms of care, in patient, home healthcare, etc., was less than $7 a month — unbelievable if you have ever checked out the price on Long-Term Care you are in for a shock, this is amazing… everyone with parents should be checking this product out… like my friend always says to his siblings, ok who is going to change Mom’s diaper… of course he’s kidding because his mother is fine but his point is well taken — who is going to do it. Everyone talks a good game until it happens… it’s reality… some of us just don’t like thinking about it. This insurance plan can keep you home, which is the biggest benefit in my mind. 

In today’s world, you can look just about anywhere and see at least one person talking on a cell phone; sadly, the road is no exception.  More and more drivers are taking to the roads with cell phones to their ears; as a result these drivers are causing a greater risk for automobile accidents.  Of course, we all know the consequence of increased automobile accidents – increased automotive insurance.

Despite the statistics conveying the relationship between drivers using cell phones and a percentage of automobile accidents, many drivers continue to chat while driving, and many of those drivers will be involved with another driver who is using a cell phone will driving.  When you’re involved in an automotive accident, regardless of the cause, your Read more »