'Tis the Season (Hurricane Season, that is)

We will all be watching carefully as Hurricane Earl chugs up the coast this week towards Long Island and the rest of the eastern seaboard. If you want a little more info on hurricane preparedness, here are some handy links:

Here are some handy links on hurricane preparedness:www.ready.gov is fema's site. www.southamptontownny.gov has a cool book you can download. Suffolk has info athttp://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/departments/firerescue/ and the Town of Babylon info can be found athttp://www.townofbabylon.com/emergencyinfo.cfm

Reason to keep health insurance brokers

Work would be confusing and hard work to sit down and quotes of different insurance companies analyze and compare the efficiency and capacity to adapt to them. They should analyse the coverage, premium, family, business and much more. If you have other options to find health insurance, analyze and organize them according to their needs will be a difficult task. You can search in different

Perpetual insurance homeowners - where being unfaithful pays

These may have discounts if you stay with an insurance company for a minimum of three years. Concessions generally increase its year of insurance. Although, no doubt, eligible for a discount to stay with an insurance company for a considerable time, companies can make more savings to move to another insurance company It is very easy to know where you can enjoy sites premium with smaller

Nine Tips for Homeowners

1.   Do not accept the first offer you receive from the insurer as a final settlement.

2.   The insurer is required to pay you the “undisputed” amount of the insurance proceeds immediately.

3.   If an insurer pays you a portion of what you believe you are entitled to, you are free to accept that amount, and use those proceeds. This does not mean that you have accepted that amount as a final settlement. This simply means they have made a partial payment to you. The insurer is not supposed to add language onto a claim check that says you are accepting it is the final settlement amount.

4.   Before accepting any final settlement offer from an insurer, be sure that the offer has been reviewed and analyzed against the insurance policy so that you know ALL insurable damage has been included and adequately addressed.

5.   Do not speed through the process. While you may believe that the fastest resolution of your claim is best for you, it usually isn’t. The insurer needs adequate time to investigate the claim, this includes determining the total amount that is owed under all sections of your policy. Claims take a long time to settle. The more time and effort you spend valuing your claim, the higher your ultimate settlement will be.

6.   Start your personal property inventory immediately. This will be a very lengthy, detailed and emotionally involved process. Your memory is best right after the loss, so start to compile your list of personal property immediately. It is very likely that you will not remember to list all of your items and several months later, while looking for certain things, you will determine they are gone – this is most often the case with partial losses.

7.   The insurer will have a team of adjusters that will read and interpret the language of the policy as they believe it to be. I believe it is a natural conflict of interest for the insurer to attempt to represent the interest of the insured as well as themselves. The less money an insurer pays on a claim, the more profitable they are. It makes sense then to hire a licensed public insurance adjuster that will work on your behalf with a goal of settling for the maximum you are entitled to under the terms of the policy.

8.   Does every loss require the expertise of a public insurance adjuster? No. There are many situations that you may not need a public insurance adjuster. The prudent thing to do is to talk to or meet with a public adjuster to discuss your specific loss and get their opinion.

9.   How to select a public insurance adjuster? First and foremost, only talk to a firm that adheres to and operates under a strict Code of Professional Conduct – such as that of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (http://www.napia.com/). Be sure to check with the California Department of Insurance (http://www.insurance.ca.gov/license-status/) to verify the firm and individual is licensed.

Obtain a new homeowners insurance policy: strategic procurement

To obtain political at the lowest price in its new proprietary insurance, there are some things that should be aware of you. This article focuses on one of them, go shopping. comparison shopping for their policy is not only a good idea to find the lowest rates possible, is also a good way to ensure you get the coverage limit and the most important coverage options.The first thing to know is to

Keys to store purchases for owners of right and money insurance

A House is a large and important investment for each person or family and protects them in case of loss or damage is critical. Many believe that adequate protection is too expensive and difficult to find, but is simply not the case. Homeowners insurance is a cheap and convenient way to do it. The coverage in this area is extremely competitive among the different insurance companies and the most,

Home Insurance - Going to the Dogs?

I read an interesting statistic recently. These days one out of every three homeowners insurance liability claims across the country is coming from the family dog! Those are lawsuits since they fall under liability, not cases where the dog chewed up a piece of furniture. And that is a national statistic, not limited to New York or Long Island.

Anybody who has changed (or been forced to change because you are 'too close to the water') home insurance in the last few years knows that you now have to answer a bunch of questions about your dog if you own one. Certain breeds are not wanted by almost any insurance company here on Long Island, where lawsuits are even more common than they are in other areas.

The latest development is that ISO, the Insurance Services Office who comes up with the standardizes policy forms used by many insurance companies all over the country, is including a canine exclusion in their next major revision to the homeowners policy form, due to come out later this year. That does NOT mean that all policies will immediately exclude dogs, but it DOES mean that, if approved by the N.Y. State Insurance Department, the exclusion will be available for insurance carriers to use.

I believe this has become one of the 'dirty little secrets' of why there have not been more insurance companies coming in to the Long Island area to write new homeowners coverage after the massive pullout by the 'big companies' that has been happening for several years now (think good hands, good neighbors, etc). I am not criticizing those companies for reducing their exposure to major storms in the New York coastal areas, because they definitely had too much financial exposure to large losses from the inevitable big hurricane.

But the companies that HAVE come in to fill the gaps, including Lloyd's of London, and other 'non-admitted' insurers, have all included dog exclusions in their policies. They can do this because as non-admitted or excess lines insurers, they are not subject to New York rules. So while their hurricane exposure is greater, the day-to-day problem of dogs is gone. This also applies to their exclusions for trampolines, another seemingly minor thing that has become a major issue.

One company has even come up with a specific liability insurance policy to cover dogs. Unfortunately it costs $800 PER DOG! But the reason it's so high is that they feel the only people who will buy the policy are those who feel they have the kind of dog who needs to be covered. So it's not like most folks with a sort of normal, happy-go-lucky dog will feel they need it, but the ones with the pit bulls, dobermans, and rottweilers might.