Mark’s summer internship in the city was a dream come true for a 17-year-old — especially because he got to drive there in his very own car every day. TAKING THE WHEEL His parents made sure he bought the car with his own money and also paid for the insurance, so this job definitely helped. Mark carried state minimums since that was all he could afford.  TEEN DRIVING IS DANGEROUS While parallel parking early one morning, Mark accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake pedal while in reverse. Just then, Erica, age 32, stepped off the curb to cross the street between the parked cars and became pinned between them. The accident led to the amputation of Erica’s legs. She was flown to a nearby hospital to receive treatment and after her extensive inpatient care, she required a special amputee rehabilitation team to aid in her recovery process. Her post-acute treatment included physical rehabilitation, expert fitting and custom-manufacture of a prostheses to help her regain function and mobility and psychological services. HOW A PERSONAL UMBRELLA HELPED Mark’s minimum coverage for Erica’s medical bills was quickly exhausted since he was underinsured for this type of accident. Since Erica had a $2 MM standalone personal umbrella policy with $1 MM excess UM/UIM, it kicked in after the underinsured motorist on her auto was exhausted to take care of her outstanding medical bills. Claim: $1.5 MM The dangers of teen driving are obvious, but our standalone personal umbrella policy with limits up to $10 MM can help protect your insured. Call Diona at (469) 606-4590 to find out how affordable it is to keep those dreams alive and well.

Check your boat insurance and your hitch before escaping our relentless heat and taking the boat to the lake. NEW SPEEDBOAT. . . $65,000 NEW PICKUP TRUCK. . . $45,000 NEW PAIR OF UNDERWEAR. . . $5 HEAVY DUTY TRAILER HITCH. . . LIFESAVING! ! ! Don’t get left hanging! Relying solely on your trailer hitch may not always be the best solution in avoiding catastrophe. Rely on boat insurance instead. Most homeowner’s insurance policies provide limited coverage for property damage for small boats such as canoes and small sailboats or small powerboats with less than 25 mile per hour horsepower. Larger and faster boats such as fishing boats with big engines, speedboats, jet boats, ski boats, yachts, and personal watercraft such as jet-skis, wave-runners, and Sea-Doo’s require a separate ‘Boat Insurance Policy’. Check with your independent insurance agent before you head out to the lake, and be safe out there.

Check your home insurance policy first! So what happens if all your cherished belongings are stolen, or there’s a wild party and the place gets trashed to somebody you rented it to on Airbnb? What happens if someone get hurt? Yes, it is true that Airbnb now provides liability insurance for up to a million dollars. Read the fine print before you list. Keep in mind that a lot of insurers don’t cover you on standard policies when  you start renting your home on airbnb. What’s more, even if your visitors are well behaved, if you haven’t informed your insurer you could be in trouble. Renting out all or part of your home without telling your insurer could void your home cover permanently. Before you even think about doing this, get the right protection in place. Purchasing coverage from well-known insurance carriers can be tricky. This is because insurance carriers class you as a greater risk as they think the chances of damage, robbery or things going missing increase. Call your home insurer and tell them what you’re planning to do. They may expand your existing coverage for an additional fee to your premium. Shop around and get an estimate and compare prices. The price you pay, and whether your insurer decides to cover you at all, will depend on whether it’s a spare room you’re letting out or the whole property, how often you’re planning on doing so, how many people are staying and your previous claims history. Your premiums are likely to increase if they agree. You can do this for standalone home or contents insurance, or for a combined policy. Yet even with an extension to your home insurance, many policies don’t cover theft or accidental damage by paying guests, which means a whole host of things won’t be covered– such as if your guests damage your wood floor or steal your 52” TV. Always check the small print. The alternative option to get insurance coverage is to contact an independent broker like us and we’ll customize an estimate for you. You can do this if your home insurer will not extend your coverage, or even if they do, so you can be sure you’re getting the best rate and coverage. Remember that the additional premium costs are tax deductible according to Jasmine DiLucci, CPA, EA. So although there are additional costs involved, there is also the prospect of extra revenue. CPA Advice Less than 15 days:If you rent out your personal residence for less than 15 days, then you do not need to report any of the rental income and do not deduct any expenses as rental expenses. More than 15 days:If you rent your personal residence for more than 15 days, then you can apportion your household expenses (insurance, utilities, interest etc) between the number of days your house was used for personal and used for rental. In the case of you renting out your house while you are still using it for personal, I would recommend staying on the conservative side and counting it as a personal use day when it comes to your expenses/deductions. I would still count it as one of the 15 days in calculating whether or not you need to report the rental income.

Like many parents, my thoughts are turning to back-to-school and back-to-school shopping. You might find that your shopping list has a couple of new items this year; a car and insurance. As parents, we are aware that our role as daily chauffer may be ending once our kids reach 16 and become teen drivers. According to national averages, adding a teenager to your auto insurance policy, increases rates by a whopping 79%. Unfortunately, the Teen drivers have earned the increases through poor driving statistics.  Some others facts to keep in mind as a parent: Need some good news? As parents, we understand the risks associated with driving and probably understand why rates go up.  However, your Teen can save you cash by being a good student and staying clean of incidents. The hefty 16-year old increase tends to drop annually with a study showing the increase at only 58% by age 19.  Of course, this assumes a perfect driving record! If you want a strategy for lowering the costs to insure your teen driver, you may want to consider a “usage based” Auto Insurance policy. These programs allow companies to track your driving habits and can lead to significant discounts, especially if you’re a safe driver who doesn’t rack up too many miles. You can work with an advisor at Lifelong Insurance Agency to learn about all the ways to control the cost of insuring your teen driver and ways to instill good driving habits from Day One! We can’t avoid the teen driver increases, but we can make sure your insurance plan is with the best possible option for your teenager. Alternatively, it is never too late to teach them how to ride a bike. Call (469) 606-4590 for the Best Coverage Value Today.

Why using an Insurance Agent is smart… I recently had a client, let’s call him Rob, come to me upset because 2 years ago, he bought an insurance policy online without the help of an insurance agent. For the price, he thought he couldn’t beat it. What he didn’t realize until it was too late was that he actually bought a ACV policy. ACV stands for Actual Cash Value. This means that if you have a claim, for example a roof due to hail damage, the Home Insurance carrier is only going to pay for the cash value of the roof minus depreciation. What you want is RCV which stands for Replacement cost value. In this case, the insurance carrier is going to pay the full replacement cost of the roof minus your deductible. Based on this experience, Rob swore to never buy again without an Insurance Agent and here is why. He stated that he wants: 1. A person to call and not a call center2. Someone to explain to him what he’s buying3. Someone to help him avoid mistakes Using an Independent Agency provides these benefits and more but here’s the real beauty, IT’S FREE!!! That is right, it does not cost you a thing to work with an Agent versus buying insurance online. The carrier’s pay agents commission to sell their products and these costs are already worked into the state regulated price provided by insurance carrier so there is no difference in price. We at Lifelong Insurance Agency are committed to providing our clients the best advice and customer service in the industry. Give us a call today to see what you deserve.  Share  Tweet  Pin  Email  Share

It has been almost a month since the new texting and driving laws went into effect in Texas, but do you know what that law is and means? The short answer is, you cannot text while driving. If an officer sees you with your head down reading your phone, you can get pulled over and get a ticket of up to $99 for the first offense and up to $200 for repeat offenses. While this law does not prohibit talking while driving, it is up to the officer to determine if you are texting/reading your phone and distracted or simply making a phone call. Just a couple of interesting tidbits: How can you stay safe? Use any hands free device to keep your hands on the steering wheel. We would love to hear what hands free devices you use in your cars. Comment below and share so we can all be safe drivers together!!

Spring Storms are coming and this month, we want to talk about roofs, specifically impact resistant roofs!! Q: What is an impact resistant roof? A: A roof made with specific materials to reduce, or in some cases, prevent damage from wind and hail storms. Q: How much does it cost?A: I spoke to one roofer who quoted me an additional $30 per square for impact resistant roof shingles class 4. For a standard 2400 sq. ft. home, that would be between $1,200-$1,500 increase for the entire roof. Q: How much can I save on insurance?A: Not all carriers offer discounts for having an impact resistant roof but most of the big ones do and the savings are pretty nice. You can save between 15-20% for that roof!! If your policy currently costs you $1,800-$2,000, you could see a $350 savings!! That’s a pretty nice savings!!! Here are some things to consider: If you have to replace your roof and are considering this upgrade, we suggest you do two things: As always, if you have any questions about any of this, give us a call and we can help you out!! We are here to help with anything you need so please do not hesitate to call us at 469-606-4590

It’s not that we can’t, it’s just that we prefer not to so let’s talk about the two main reasons why. Reason #1: There are two basic types of insurance policies you can purchase, one is the aforementioned Named Peril and the other is an All Risk policy. Named Peril policies are dependent on a specified list of perils (risk of damage) to be included in the policy and only those risks listed are covered by the policy. Anything not specifically listed is excluded. All Risk Policies are the exact opposite and cover everything unless it is specifically excluded. So, would you rather rely on a list of things to be included or know that everything is included unless it is specifically excluded? Reason #2: Who has the responsibility of proving the cause of loss or damage? With a Named Peril Policy, that responsibility lies with you, the insured. That’s right, you actually have to prove to the carrier that the damage to your home was caused by one of those perils listed in the policy. To be fair, in many cases, like hail, that proof is evident, but just about any other risk is not so cut and dry. With a All Risk policy, since everything is covered unless it’s excluded, the carrier is the one that has the responsibility to prove if a claim is to be excluded due to that list. So where do you want to hedge your bets? Does this mean that Named Peril policies should never be used? Well, our suggestion is to always prefer an All Risk policy as you have more coverage and better claims processing, but there are some rare occasions where the Named Peril policy could work. Give us a call if you would like to discuss the differences in more detail or if you would like to talk to an advisor about all of your insurance needs. Here are a few tidbits if you are bored: -All Risk is often referred to as Open Risk or Open Peril. They are the same thing. -Named Peril is also known as HO-A Policy -HO-B, HO-3 or HO-5 introduce the All risk or Open Risk concepts.