Belong to an Association: Many trade associations and business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce provide members the benefit of purchasing insurance at group rates. Explore alternative trade associations for lower rates and a possible fit with your business.

Compare coverage: The extent of business liability coverage varies from insurer to insurer. Consider if and how much legal fees are covered. Review the policy details to know what is included and excluded in the coverage.

Assess your Industry’s Settlements: To gain a better perspective of the amount of coverage your small business needs, take a look at your industry. Review the recent legal actions and settlements in your field. Talk to peers and find their level of coverage. Using your peer feedback and industry research, determine the average legal costs and settlement to set your coverage limits.

Get the Package Deal: Purchasing separate types of business insurance from various insurers can quickly escalate your premiums. Depending on your business situation, it can make sense to buy a package of policies such as Business Owners Policy (BOP) to cover your business and save on rates. Be sure to understand the extent of coverage of the package. Not every type of insurance falls under a BOP. A business professional will often require a separate errors & omissions coverage.

Find a Specialist Broker: Your business and industry has unique needs and risks. To get the best available coverage and rates, consider working with an insurance broker who knows your business and has experience in your industry.

Protecting your small business from risks is the foundation of success. Take the necessary time to investigate your business liability insurance needs with an insurance representative, your industry association, and peers. It could be the most important decision to your company’s survival.

Basically, you want to determine your yearly household expenses, your assets, your income from all sources, and what debts you have. Most people who are looking for life insurance ask a financial professional to help then, like an accountant, an investment counselor or a life insurance broker. Be careful that the person you choose is objective and won’t try to sell you more insurance than you need. Figuring out how much insurance you require is more important than the type of policy you purchase, so put some time and effort into this part of your search.

Calculating How Much You Need

If you want to figure it out for yourself before you see a professional, it will take some work on your part. Gather the information you need and calculate the following:

a) Annual income needed

This is the amount your dependents will need to keep their standard of living where they would like it to be. This should include enough to cover your rent or mortgage, home maintenance and repairs, home improvements, household items, and real estate taxes and insurance. It should also include health and auto insurance, utilities, clothing, food, transportation and auto maintenance costs, plus child and dependent care, recreation and entertainment, and any other expenses they might have.

b) Income your dependents will have when you are gone

This would include your spouse’s salary if working outside the home, social security benefits (easily obtained from the Social Security Administration), and investment income from all of the accounts you currently have. Do not include the insurance proceeds as income here.

c) The difference between what your dependents need and what they will have

Deduct a) from b) and you will have determined how much more they will need to live comfortably.

Once you know how much they will need, you will need to factor into the equation how much you can afford to buy. Be certain to ask about how the insurers calculate their rates so you pay the lowest premium possible for the best coverage. Shop around, or ask your broker to do it for you. Rates do vary quite a bit from insurer to insurer.

Determining Your Risk Group

Insurance companies generally divide us up into four risk groups: preferred, standard, substandard, or uninsurable.

• Preferred – You are a low risk. You are not sick; don’t have a high-risk job or hobby; have a clean bill of health. You pay a lower premium.
• Standard – You are an average risk. You may have had some health issues in the past, but don’t have a terminal illness or a high-risk job or hobby. You pay an average premium for similarly situated insureds.
• Substandard – You have a high-risk job, such as a pilot, scaffold worker or diver; or you have a chronic illness like diabetes, heart disease or high blood pressure. You pay a higher premium.
• Uninsurable – You have a terminal illness. You will not likely find an insurer to sell you a policy. You are a high risk.

Note that one company’s category for you may not be the same as another company’s, so it still pays to shop for insurance with other companies even though one may have labeled you “substandard.” If you have or have had an illness or health condition, it is best to work with a professional who deals with and will get you quotes from many different insurance companies right from the get go. See a broker first. Once you’ve been rated “substandard,” you must disclose that to all the other insurance companies when you apply for coverage.

100% of the replacement cost of your house. Most insurers suggest you insure your home for 100% of its replacement value—enough insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding your house, excluding the land. This is not the amount you paid for the house, because the present cost of rebuilding it may be more (or even less) than you paid. It is not the market value of your house, i.e. how much you could sell it for, which may depend upon its area or location. It is simply the cost of rebuilding your house at current construction costs.

Whether you purchase 100% or 80% replacement cost coverage, you’ll only collect up to the total amount of your coverage. The more limited your coverage, the lower your premium –but if you have a loss, your recovery may be less. If you insure your home for $150,000, that’s how much you will receive in the case of a total loss, even if the true replacement cost for your home is $250,000. Keep abreast of the replacement cost of your home in terms of inflationary values of material and of improvements you’ve made, and increase your coverage accordingly.

The contents of your house/personal property coverage. This is mostly furniture, but also jewelry (up to a certain value), electronic equipment, furs, paintings, etc. Most homeowner’s policies consider the cost of your contents to be approximately 50% of the amount of insurance you have on the house itself. If you think this is less than enough or too much, you might want to do an inventory of your furniture and personal possessions, listing all the furniture and items you want covered (it’s even better to also take pictures of the contents).

The cost of living elsewhere. If your home is damaged, you may need to live elsewhere while it is being repaired. Coverage should cover meals, hotel bills, and other living expenses incurred while you’re out of your home.

Your liability to others. This part of the policy covers you in case someone is hurt in your house or on your property, or if something in or around your house causes property damage to another house. It covers legal bills if you are hauled into court for any of these things.

While the details vary from state to state, most point systems typically work in one of two ways:
•    State system 1: Each ordinary moving violation counts as a single point, but two points are assessed for speed violations that are far in excess of the speed limit.  A license is suspended when a driver receives four points in a year, six in two years, or eight in three years.
•    State system 2: Two points are assessed for minor violations such as an illegal turn or slightly exceeding the speed limit.  Three, four or five points are assigned for more serious violations, such as running a stop sign or a red light.  A license is suspended if a driver gets 12 points over three years.

Some states also assess points for accidents if you are at fault.

If you get a ticket for a moving violation, check the vehicle code violation number with which you are charged—it should be written on the face of your ticket.  Then call your department of motor vehicles and ask three questions:

1.    Will the violation add points to your record?
2.    How many points do you currently have on your record? (That might require a trip down there to get a printout.)
3.    How many points does it take to have your license suspended?

Insurance Rates
Most insurance companies regularly review your record and may raise your premium if you get a certain number of points. Some states, such as California, do not allow insurance companies to raise your premiums for getting only one point on your record.  In other states, drivers can be assessed two different types of points, driver’s license and insurance points. Call your insurance company to find out their policies.  Depending on the laws in your state and your insurance company’s policies, your insurer will likely allow one moving violation every three to five years. Anything more than that and your premiums increase. Accidents will raise your premiums, as well, if you were at fault. The rates may go up as much as twenty to thirty percent depending on the severity of the accident or the number of points for your moving violation.

How to Avoid or Remove the Points
•    Contest the ticket
One way to avoid moving violation points, (something you’ll want to do, especially if you are getting close to having your licensed snatched), is by contesting the ticket. (You might want to consult the national edition of Nolo’s Beat Your Ticket for some potentially winning strategies.) But there is another way.

•    Traffic School
If you pay your ticket and go to traffic school, the points from the traffic offense will not go on your record.  While traffic school may involve spending up to eight hours in a classroom listening to a lecture and watching films about gory accidents, it can be well worth it to avoid the increased insurance premiums.  It may seem like an inconvenience, but it is a path that provides more certainty than contesting your ticket in court.  How often you can attend traffic school varies by jurisdiction.  Some allow attendance once a year; others are stricter at once every eighteen to twenty-four months.  If you were ticketed for driving at least fifteen miles per hour over the posted speed limit, local law may prevent you from attending traffic school at all.

Some states, such as California, allow you to complete online traffic school, but others require you to sign up through a court clerk or even to appear before a judge.  When you’ve completed the class, you receive a certificate to prove you’ve taken it.  Some traffic schools go out of their way to attract customers by injecting humor into their curriculum.  You get the same basic information, but with a twist, to make the day go a little faster.

•    Defensive Driving Classes
In some areas, you can take defensive driving or other types of drivers’ education classes to have points removed from your license once they are on there.  Check with your state’s department of motor vehicles for your options.

No insurance company wants to insure a bad risk and one of the strong indicators of that risk is whether or not the insured has been convicted of a number of moving violations because these bad habits may lead to accidents.  Accidents create claims, which cost the insurance company money.  Your best bet to keep your insurance rates down, of course, is to avoid getting moving violations at all.  No one is perfect and insurance companies do understand this, but you must understand that they will ask you to pay for your transgressions.

Then what’s the driver got to do with it?
When you purchase an auto insurance policy, the application always requests information on all the individuals who will be driving the car before they give you their rate. So you list all the drivers and tell the company how much they will be driving. Many will hold you to that. If there is a member of your household who is not a listed driver, and he or she drives the car and has an accident, the insurer may deny coverage. For that reason, it is important to list every member of the household who is of driving age.

And the owner?
The owner is typically the named insured. He or she will be covered and the rate is based mostly on his or her driving record, among other factors. The company does, however, look at the records of the other drivers if there is anything noteworthy, such as moving violations and at-fault accidents. And, if one of the potential drivers is a teenager, that will, undoubtedly, affect the premium…negatively, in case you’re wondering. Teens are notoriously risky drivers and drive the rates up until they turn the ripe old age of 21, for many insurers. Putting them on the policy will increase your rates, but not putting them on, for most insurers, leaves them uninsured. That’s taking a big gamble.

Lending the car
Strangely, if you lend your covered vehicle to someone else outside your household, there will be coverage if that driver has an accident, even though he or she is not listed as a driver on your policy. The insurance company knows that you cannot possibly anticipate every potential driver when you apply for coverage, so those outside your household do not need to be listed on the policy. They are considered “permissive” drivers and the company will provide coverage if they are driving and are involved in a collision. Even if that person has his own insurance on his own car, your car insurance will cover the damages resulting from the accident. Why? Because the insurance follows the car—not the driver! These are friends, neighbors, relatives, all of who do not reside in your household, but whom you have given permission to drive your car occasionally. Should they have an accident, whether or not they have coverage of their own, they are covered under your auto policy.

If you are planning to drive a car owned by someone outside of your own household, always be sure to check on whether or not they have insurance first, especially if you don’t carry your own.

In several instances, it is necessary. These would include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

• Any accident in which someone is injured
• Any accident where one or more drivers flee the scene
• An accident where there is serious damage to either or both vehicles

These circumstances can be traumatic and collecting ALL the information you need may be difficult at the time. Also, if anyone is injured, you will want a record with some details of the injury. The police report forms allow an officer to cover most possible details that would be required for the police department, courts, and certainly, for the adjuster. The officer is also able to verify some information and to search any information that a driver cannot provide at the scene.

Additionally, your insurance company may require you to stay and report the accident, such as the case where the other driver flees the scene. Or, your carrier may accept a ‘counter report’. You physically go to the nearest law enforcement office and complete an accident report, and secure a copy to provide to your insurance company. This is typical in very large ,busy jurisdictions; officers may respond to the scene, but if no injuries are reported and the vehicles appear to be safely driveable, they may advise you to go to the nearest station and complete a ‘counter report’, or they may provide the form to you at the scene.

There are also cases where it may be more helpful to have a police response and a report made even if they don’t meet the criteria above; these could include:

• An individual admits blame but insists on offering you a cash payment and will not provide you with his contact information, including his insurance information, stating he doesn’t want to have a negative report with his carrier. If he appears to be leaving the scene, jot down his license number and details of his vehicle.
• The other driver admits that he does not have any insurance coverage but offers to pay you cash for your damages. He may not be truthful with contact information, but the police may be able to locate some information.
• The police report provides a very orderly form to collect all the important data, including some crucial details. It’s not unusual, in an already stressful setting, to forget which details to secure. This report will then be ordered by the adjuster in order to gather and coordinate details that may be unknown to or forgotten by her policyholder or the claimant.

Most importantly, even if an officer has collected contact information for everyone involved, do your best to also secure that information yourself, right at the scene. It can sometimes takes weeks, or even months, depending on the jurisdiction, for an adjuster to secure a copy of the report. If you’ve jotted down insurance information for everyone, the adjuster will be able to begin a full investigation right away.

2. Were there any witnesses? Was there anyone who saw the accident happen? You want to make sure that you get information from anyone who saw the accident. This will assist the insurance companies to determine who is liable for the accident.

3. Were the police called? If the police called or showed up, make sure to get the name and badge # of the officer and a report number. It may take your insurance company up to 3 months to get a police report, so be sure you take the information but don’t rely on the insurance company getting the information.

4. What kind of vehicle or vehicles were involved in this accident? You want to make sure that you get the vehicle year, make and model, the license plate #, and VIN number for each vehicle involved.

5. Where did this happen? Get the intersection or street that the accident happened on. Also, you want to make sure that you know how many lanes are on each side of the street, if the street or streets are 1 way or 2 way, the type of striping on the pavement within 100 feet each direction of the loss, i.e. is it a solid, double yellow line, a white line, etc. Also, you want to know where each vehicle impacted, what lane you and the other car were driving in just before the accident, the direction of travel for each vehicle, and if there were any signs posted that control traffic flow.

6. How many passengers were in each vehicle? Take note of how many people were in each of the vehicles involved. Once you know, make a brief note of their description or name including: ethnicity, gender, weight, height, etc. This will help if you are the victim of a staged accident or other type of insurance fraud since people sometimes mysteriously are reported as an occupant of the vehicle when they were not present. This is not common, but if it ever does happen, this will help you avoid being a victim.

7. What type of condition was the car in right after the accident? Was the vehicle drivable? Where is the damage? Is there any additional damage on the vehicle not related to the accident? If there is additional damage on the vehicle not related to this accident, be sure to tell your insurance company.

8. Where do I want to get my vehicle repaired? If you have a shop in mind, have that information with you. If you don’t, ask around, your friends might have a good recommendation. Otherwise, you can ask your insurance company if they have a repair program. If they do have one, be sure to ask about the program’s warranty, cost, and if there is a benefit to using it.

9. Write down all the information. Record all the information that you have gathered and keep it in a safe place. This is to assist you if there is a problem with the claim. When you report it, be sure to write down who you spoke with, your claim #, and what if any promises were made. This will make your life easier if someone says something and then it doesn’t happen.

10. Take pictures of the accident right after it occurred. Take a photo of your vehicle and the other vehicle(s) involved including all 4 corners. Also, if you can get the other party in the photo, that will help in the event that either insurance company needs help identifying the other party involved.

We will help you manage and plan for all your potential risks. As professionals, we assess your needs and offer you a variety of insurance products to choose from.

Service, whether it is in response to an insurance claim or general question, is the most important value we offer you.

We work hard to build a trusted relationship with our customers. We strive to make you feel both comfortable with and confident in our abilities by acting as your consultant.  We seek out the best companies that offer the appropriate coverages at a fair price.