Month: March 2019

While having homeowners insurance may not be required by law, it would be ill-advised to occupy a home without a policy in place. Additionally, many lenders ask that you secure a homeowners policy before paying anything on your mortgage to ensure that your home is adequately protected in the event that it is damaged, destroyed, or stolen from.

That being said, it’s a good idea to carry a homeowners insurance policy regardless of whether you’re taking out a loan as we’re sure you want to avoid paying the full amount for potential claims out of pocket.

Of the various claims that are covered under a homeowners policy, below are the 3 most common:

• Wind and hail.Since natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and windstorms are covered, it may be no surprise that wind and hail damages are the most common homeowners insurance claims according to the Insurance Information Institute. This varies, of course, depending on where you live; those who live in Tornado Alley can expect to have a higher chance of filing a wind and hail claim than someone living in Philadelphia, PA.
• Water damage and freezingis the second most common homeowners insurance claim. With so many homeowners in the United States living in areas with freezing temperatures half the year, a fair amount of damages can happen due to freezing pipes bursting. However, it’s important to remember that flooding isnotcovered under a homeowners insurance policy. So, if your home is in an area that is prone to flooding, you’ll want to purchase a separate flood insurance policy to ensure that you and your personal items are covered.
• All other property damage.This category is a bit vague, so we’ll provide a few examples. If a drunk driver were to take a joyride through your yard and destroy your mailbox, your homeowners policy would cover you. If a group of kids decided to egg your house on mischief night and a particularly strong egg broke your window, your homeowners policy would cover you. This is a very general category that summarizes anything that did not result from natural disasters or theft.

How can I avoid these claims?

Unless you can control the weather, wind and hail homeowners insurance claims are difficult to avoid. However, you can prevent freezing pipes by doing the following:

• Let cold water drip to keep the pipes warm enough to keep from freezing over
• Make sure the thermostat is set no lower than 55 degrees
• Open cabinet doors to ensure that the warm air reaches the plumbing
• Add extra insulation in areas that may be letting cold air in

You can attempt to avoid property damage by employing security measures meant to deter vandals from wreaking havoc on your property. Homes with floodlights, motion activated alarms, and security cameras are much less likely to be vandalized or otherwise damaged as the perpetrators do not want to be caught.

 

Call Risk Averse Insurance in Media, PA to discuss your homeowners insurance needs.

Risk Averse Insurance is an insurance agency in Delaware County that specializes in providing high-quality insurance products at an affordable price.

Now that the weather is warming up and spring is less than a week away, it’s time to get some spring cleaning done at your small business! This may seem like a daunting task, but we always find that making a list is the best way to prioritize and ensure that you don’t miss anything. Read on for 5 ideas to get your office ready for spring!

Declutter

One important step for your spring cleaning is, of course, actually cleaning. This means cleaning papers off your desk that have been sitting dormant on your desk since last spring cleaning. Cleaning your desk and its surrounding areas of old documents is important, but that’s not all you should be doing; if you’re like any modern business, you have plenty of digital files. If you have PDFs in your scan folder dating back to 2016, that’s a pretty good indication that you’ve got some deleting to do. Clear out your computer’s recycle bin, archive emails that you don’t need anymore, and organize your files into neat, clearly labelled folders. If you do this properly, it will take a while.

Follow up on goals

Hopefully you set up some goals for yourself, your business, and your employees in January. If not, it’s better to start now than never! However, if you did come up with a list of solid goals, the start of a new season is a good checkpoint to follow up and take stock of your progress since the new year. If these goals are quantitative, we suggest setting up an Excel sheet where you can input these numbers throughout the rest of the year.

Strategize

Take the time to sit down with your employees and discuss what works and what doesn’t. Any sales tactics, products, or general day-to-day operations that are not performing up to par need to either be adjusted or scrapped. Additionally, if you’re selling a product or service, figure out the draw to your company over others that are in the same area and in the same industry. Figure out your unique value proposition and include it in your marketing efforts; you want your clients and potential clients to know why they should choose your business and stick with it for years to come.

Review your insurance policies

Make sure your insurance policies are up to date. Are your liability limits high enough? Is your address accurate? Is your policy expiring soon? Do you need anything on your policies to be clarified? If you notice any issues or have any questions about your insurance, it doesn’t hurt to contact your insurance agent and make sure everything is up to date and your assets are covered. You may even want to consider purchasing an additional insurance policy as needed depending on the nature of your business. After all, you don’t want to be stuck in a situation where you don’t have enough coverage in the event of a claim or a lawsuit!

Update your website

This is an essential task to complete at least once a year, but it’s often overlooked. In the digital age, many people will not do business with you unless you have an active website. How many times have you Googled something like “insurance companies near me” or “best places for breakfast in Media, PA”? We’d venture to guess at least once a month. The local businesses that show up when you search something like this didn’t just get lucky. They have a strategy in place to optimize SEO, and this includes regularly updating their website with content that people want to see. If you want to show up next time someone asks Siri for the best [insert your industry here] businesses in their area, you’d better keep your website updated and mobile-friendly!

Call Risk Averse Insurancein Media, PA to discuss your business or personal insurance.

Risk Averse Insurance is an insurance agency in Delaware County that specializes in providing high-quality insurance products at an affordable price.

A commercial general liability insurance policy is used to protect businesses against paying out of pocket for potential claims involving property damage, bodily injury, and more.

This policy is essential for any business as any business can be sued. If someone were to slip and fall on your company’s property as a result of your failure to clean up snow quickly enough after a storm, this person could easily sue your business for any injuries he or she sustained in the process. You could also be responsible for paying any of their medical bills that resulted from their fall. This could quickly end up costing a lot of money and putting a significant dent in your company’s profits.

A generalliability policy provides your business with top-notch legal representation and pays for covered damages caused by you or an employee (up to the maximum limit provided on the policy). In most instances, an in-force general liability policy willbe required when entering into a contract with a third partyor pulling permits in a city like Philadelphia.

It’s a good idea for any business to have general liability insurance, but this coverage is especially important if you:

• Own or lease at least one property
• Have customers or clients visit your location
• Visit the locations of your clients
• Manufacture or sell any products

Any insurance carrier that offers business insurance products will offer general liability insurance coverage. However, the cost will vary depending upon the location of your business, annual revenue, products sold, and a number of other factors. Any factor that causes insurance companies to see your business as a greater risk to them will hike up your annual premium.

You can avoid the stress of shopping for the best price on general liability insurance by purchasing your policy through an independent insurance brokerage. We at Risk Averse can find the lowest price for you and take into consideration your specific needs. Contact us for a quote!

 

Call Risk Averse Insurancein Media, PA to discuss your business or personal insurance.

Risk Averse Insurance is an insurance agency in Delaware County that specializes in providing high-quality insurance products at an affordable price.