What’s the biggest exposure for homeowners?

Posted on July 17, 2018May 20, 2019 by Brad Smith

Protecting your home in Kentucky means being prepared for Spring wind and hails storms. Start by finding a good insurance agent. — Good insurance means no worries

If you’re like most, replacing your home and personal property are the primary reasons for purchasing a homeowners insurance policy. While that is important, insuring your property may not be the most important coverage offered by your homeowners’ insurance policy.

Insurance claims in Kentucky and many other areas increase during the spring. Severe weather is the primary culprit of Spring insurance claims. What would happen if a tree fell on your house during a windstorm and damaged your home? After you meet your policy deductible, your homeowner’s insurance policy would cover the cost of repairs.

What if the wind had been blowing in the other direction and instead of crashing through your rough, your neighbor’s home is the one damaged. In most cases, your neighbor’s insurance would cover the damages to his house.

However, there are cases where you are liable. If the tree was dead, dying, diseased or unstable you could be on the hook. If you are cutting the tree down, you are liable.

What’s your liability exposure? What should your liability limit be? It depends! But one thing is for sure. You need to have input. If you’re being left out of this process, your likely be left out of many other decisions.

child injured on trampoline

No one will deny the importance of communication. How will things go if you decide not to communicate with your boss? Even better, your spouse? Not even an occasional Uh-huh.

Your homeowner’s policy protects you from many But there are always people that you would rather not talk toMost of us could quickly compile a list of the top ten people that we didn’t want to talk to. If we compiled a list of the people that we least wanted to communicate withYour boss communicates with you, so does your spouse. While at times most of us would The job of the insurance agent would be fairly simple if you were only getting property coverage. How much is your house worth, how much personal property coverage would you like, and what causes of loss do we need to protect against.

Liability exposures are much more difficult to define. How much will it cost to repair/replace your neighbor’s home in the example provided above? Do you have adequate personal liability protection?

While the claim to repair the neighbor’s home could be very significant, relative to other potential liability exposures, this would be small. Kids open the door to much larger exposures when their invited and even uninvited friends have access to your pool, trampoline, treehouse, fireworks, go-carts, and more. How much coverage would you need if an injury or death occurred on your property due to your negligence?

Take some time to review your homeowner’s policy. The limits on your home will most likely exceed the value of your home and personal property. Can you say the same about your liability limits? Finally, speak to a qualified insurance broker that can provide you guidance. The last thing you need is for someone that can sell you insurance, what you truly need is an individual that can work with you in developing a compressive risk management plan.

Hard to Insure Homes

Posted on July 16, 2018July 16, 2018 by Brad Smith

You Can Climb, But You Can’t Hide

Posted on July 11, 2018July 16, 2018 by Brad Smith

Treehouse Tree houses are prime elements of childhood fun. They are clubhouses, hideaways, castles, war rooms, forts, spaceships, control centers, submarines; the list of what they can perform is limited only by imagination.

Now let’s look at a tree house with an insurance company’s eyes….oh boy! Now we have a structure with a separate value that, just like a home, garage, shed, or pool; needs specific coverage. Worse, that coverage has to be for damage to the tree house as well as for protection against losses caused by owning a tree house.

The fact that tree houses are so fun is what makes them a big problem, insurance-wise! They are attractive nuisances, which is to say, Child Magnets! Tree houses are guaranteed to make a home popular, very popular! And the word of one will spread far and wide!

The fun provided by tree houses has to be tempered by the following:

they exist off the ground and have to be accessed by climbing to them, often via ropes or ladders
treehouses that are poorly maintained become even more dangerous
they are used by children who are playing….not thinking about how careful they should be
they are sometimes used by too many children….how much weight can the tree house safely handle
children are usually unsupervised during such play
access to the tree house may occur 24/7/365….including nights, weekends and other times when the homeowner is at work, or on vacation

Treehous

Besides the above, consider when the household’s kids have outgrown the tree house and the owners pay even less attention to it. Depending on the location, it could even attract illegal activity!

If you have a tree house, make sure that it’s maintained and activities are supervised. Also, make sure you get an insurance professional’s help in getting protection….or else all of the fun disappears!

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Fireworks Accidents – Part 2

Posted on June 29, 2018July 16, 2018 by Brad Smith

Fireworks are dandy, but at what point will your homeowners insurance pay

In part one we discussed that a homeowners policy may be available to handle losses involving fireworks. However, this is not

always the case as there are instances where your homeowner policy does not offer coverage.

Legal Issue

If it’s illegal for you to set off fireworks, this legal hurdle could result in any loss being excluded by the policy.

Be prepared to be uninsured if you don't know your do's and don'ts about fireworks

Business Issue

A homeowners policy is meant to handle losses related to owning and living in a home, there’s no coverage for a person who uses their home for making, selling, storing or distributing fireworks. Any business activity involving fireworks is going to cause a big problem if a loss occurs.

Who Is Injured Issue

Injuries to yourself or others in your household are not covered because Medical Payments and Liability coverage is designed to handle loss suffered by persons outside of your household.

Intentional Loss Issue

If an injury or damage to property is not an accident, there’s no coverage. Tossing a firecracker or aiming a bottle rocket at another person could be considered deliberate, even when no injury was intended. Deliberate acts and their consequences are commonly excluded by homeowners policies.

So when dealing with fireworks, make sure they’re legal, that they’re used carefully and only for entertainment. Then your chances are good that any loss may also be covered.

Return to Section 1

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Fireworks Accidents – Part 1

Posted on June 28, 2018July 19, 2018 by Brad Smith

Fireworks Accidents – Part 1 of 2

A longtime, extremely popular summer rite is to enjoy setting off fireworks. However, it’s important to think, truly think, before striking a match or using a lighter on your first firecracker, sparkler, smoke-bomb, bottle rocket or other forms of incendiary entertainment. For all their fun, fireworks are capable of causing serious injuries to persons and substantial damage fourth of july fireworks to property. Such losses can have substantial financial consequences, so it’s important to know whether you are insured in the event you cause a fireworks accident.

Examples:

Imagine you are setting off some fireworks in your driveway for your children and their friends. Suddenly, a sparkler you gave to a neighbor’s child violently flares up, burning her hand and face.

While setting off some bottle rockets, one smashes through a window of a house across the street. The rocket sets the home’s living room curtains on fire. It then spreads to the carpeting and the room’s furnishings. The local fire department responds, putting out the fire. There are thousands of dollars in damage caused by fire and water.

In the first example, your Homeowners Policy could cover her injuries a couple of ways. If the injuries are minor, her medical kids and fireworks go together like peanut butter and gasoline treatment could be handled under the Medical Payments portion. However, if the child’s injuries are more serious and her parents sue, your policy’s liability portion should handle your legal defense as well as a legal judgment.

In the latter example, one could be found negligent for causing the fire and subsequent damage. A homeowners policy usually handles claims such as these. However, you should also be aware of the limitations which will be covered in part two of this topic.

Continue to section 2

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Meet Your TruePoint Customer Service Team

Posted on June 11, 2018July 16, 2018 by Brad Smith

http://www.insuringky.com

Welcome to

Thank you for choosing us for your insurance needs! It is our commitment to provide our clients with quality insurance products at a great price, and we are so pleased to have you as a new customer! As you may have already discovered, we offer real-time quotes on our website, payments over the phone, and E-signature options for most documents. Did you know you can also print ID Cards directly from our website? Of course, we always enjoy meeting and seeing our customers face to face! However, we understand your time is valuable, so we offer electronic options, as well as two office locations in order to accommodate your schedule. We have expanded our service team, as well, and look forward to helping you protect what is valuable to you!

OUR SERVICE TEAM:

Fisherville, KY Insurance Insurance Lawrenceburg, KY TruePoint Insurance

6287 Taylorsville Rd. 1085 Eagle Lake Drive

Fisherville, KY 40023 Lawrenceburg, KY 40342

CSR TruePoint Insurance, Fisherville PHONE: (502)410-5089 Insurance Lawrenceburg KY, Home Auto Business

Jordan Milburn, ext. 105 Jessica Coleman, ext. 120

Licensed Service Specialist Director of Client Services

CLIENT LIAISON ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

jordan.milburn@truepointgroup.com jessica.coleman@truepointgroup.com

Jordan will likely be your first point of contact when you call. She is a licensed P&C Agent, and her primary responsibility is to ensure your satisfaction. From providing proof of insurance, taking payments, and processing policy changes to quoting/issuing new policies, she can often handle your requests quickly and efficiently (or direct you to the most effective resource available).

Jessica will be in the Lawrenceburg office from 8:30-4:30, M-F. She will coordinate with Jordan to ensure our agency is meeting the needs of our clients. As the Director of Client Services, she will be happy to review your policy at each renewal, and make sure you are receiving all of the discounts and coverage options available to you. You can call or email her to schedule your personal policy review. Also, if things change in your life (and they usually do), don’t forget to call and tell us! We want to keep you covered correctly! And if the worst should happen, and you need to file a claim, Jessica will gladly help you through the filing process for the quickest resolution possible.

They are both committed to giving you amazing service, and looking forward to working with you.

Please let us know if you have any questions about your new policy, or if you would like for us to quote another type of insurance for you. We appreciate your business!

Sincerely,

Brad and Kristen Smith

P.S. If you are happy with your service, Like, Share, or Leave a Review! We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Homesharing – Part 2

Posted on June 6, 2018July 16, 2018 by Brad Smith

Homesharing has been a “thing” for years and its use is growing along with internet applications that facilitate transactions involving making a residence available for short-term rentals. Standard homeowner policies have long been issued under the assumption that a covered residence is usually occupied by the named insured and that person’s family on a full-time basis.

While insurance policies issued for homes, condos, and apartments do contemplate some situations involving other persons staying in a residence, those situations are allowable when they don’t involve financial transactions. Renting for income alters a residential situation into a business. Business activity creates a coverage problem which could result in policies being canceled or claims being denied. Renting all our part of a residence also results in types of losses that are uncovered because they haven’t been contemplated as insurable, residential activities.

Policy wording may exclude coverage for losses when they are directly related to a business. So, protection may be lost for the residence, residential property as well as for liability for damage or injury to others and their property.

Basic HO policies, if they don’t outright exclude losses involve compensated rentals, severely restrict other coverage. However, due to the rising popularity of homesharing, the insurance market is responding with options to provide more protection. A basic policy may be amended to extend protection which does the following:

Extend eligibility of a rented residence to continue to qualify for all policy protection
Add protection for household contents that might be damaged or destroyed during rentals
Extend medical payments coverage to insureds who may be injured by renters
Loss of income specific to homesharing activity
Add liability coverage for injury to third parties that occur during rentals

However, this additional protection may still fall short of what is needed. The insurance market is now making broader coverage available that handles less common exposures such as ID theft resulting from homesharing, pest infestation caused by renters, liquor liability coverage arising from alcohol served during rentals, extra cost caused by excessive use of utilities, or personal and advertising liability.

Even with special coverage for homesharing, property owners should also be aware of consequences and cost of resolving issues such as breaking local zoning laws, violating residential association bylaws or legal costs of dealing with squatting situations. Homesharing is a popular component of the sharing economy, but participants need to be careful to get proper protection.

Return to Part 1

COPYRIGHT: Insurance Publishing Plus, Inc. 2018

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Homesharing – Part 1

Posted on May 30, 2018July 16, 2018 by Brad Smith

For a variety of reasons, changing attitudes, objectives and financial situations have created interest in collaborative consumption and the growth in the sharing economy. Homesharing and ridesharing have become major components in this evolving economy. The term can be confusing and have more than one meaning.

Regarding this article, we are discussing commercial arrangements represented by services such as AirBnB. Its premise is to match supply and demand for housing related to traveling. It allows a resident of a home, condo or apartment in one location to provide short-term housing to persons traveling through or vacationing in their locale. The arrangement is facilitated through an online platform that provides the obligations of both parties to the transaction. Therefore, this discussion does not involve situations involving short-term trading or swapping of property in exchange for either similar residential space or in exchange for providing skills or services.

A wide variety of rental situations fall under homesharing, such as the following:

Rental of seasonally used property
Rental of entire premises for vacationers
Rental or part or entire premises for persons attending a local, large event such as racing, festivals, concerts, tournaments, sports championships, etc.
Providing space for a special event, such as graduations, weddings, or parties (birthday, retirement, etc.)
Renting a portion of a residence while the property owner or regular renter still occupies other parts of the residence

The online aspect is critical as it acts as a portal for providing information on available residences, locations of property, property features, rental costs, available amenities, contractual obligations related to property use and payment of fees, deposits, and, if necessary, damages or penalties due to misuse.

A major motivation for such homesharing arrangements is the opportunity of significant, additional income for underutilized property. However, that creates a problem. What coverage issues exist under residential insurance policies?

Continue to Part 2

COPYRIGHT: Insurance Publishing Plus, Inc. 2018

All rights reserved. Production or distribution, whether in whole or in part, in any form of media or language; and no matter what country, state or territory, is expressly forbidden without written consent of Insurance Publishing Plus, Inc.

Understanding your home insurance deductibles

Posted on May 21, 2018May 1, 2019 by admin

Deductibles with Truepoint Insurance

For many years, deductibles have been considered to be a fundamental element of the insurance contract. It is therefore vital to understand its importance when insuring your Fisherville, KY home to reap the benefit of your insurance policy.

A deductible is an amount of money the insurance holder pays towards an insured loss. Therefore, a financial obligation by the insurance holder since it forms part of the insurance contract. On many occasions, the amount you come up with as the deductible is paid before a claim.

Insurance deductibles have basics as explained below:

How to identify the amount of your deductible

On your contract, the insurance deductible is listed under the terms and conditions section which is on the declaration page of the insurance policy. As a homeowner, you will choose the deductible amount for your home and the contents. The policyholder chooses how much the deductible will be, but the insurance company sets the minimum deductible depending on the insurance policy, but regardless, the higher the deductible, the lower the cost of insurance.

How to save money with a deductible

As an insurance holder, despite the fact that you pay the premiums, you might not have claims every year. It is, for this reason, an advantage especially in instances where you pay higher deductibles or an increased amount of deductible more than the minimum since you will be able to save a good percentage on your insurance cost.

How to identify a loyalty deductible

It is important to understand the costs for each deductible on each policy. In case a policy has a waiver, and its cost is the same as policy without a waiver, then consider it as a loyalty advantage and a pleasant characteristic of the coverage you are purchasing. If there is a cost attached, then as the policyholder, it is upon you to contemplate whether it is worthwhile to pay more.

Being one of the fastest growing insurance companies in Fisherville, KY, Truepoint Insurance offers help with home insurance policies. Contact our offices to speak with an agent and to have your questions answered. We look forward to hearing from you.

Do I Need Flood Insurance?

Posted on April 23, 2018April 24, 2019 by admin

flood insurance, KY flood insurance. buy flood insurance, FEMA national flood insurance programs. do i need flood insruance Flood insurance isn’t usually a standard part of a homeowners or renters insurance policy. While not everyone needs to buy a separate FEMA flood insurance policy; however, the worst thing you can do is wait for a rainy day before you find out if you need it.

TruePoint Insurance provides flood insurance to many in Central Kentucky. Covering much of the area between Louisville and Lexington. Some people are more prone to a flood than others and only some must have it.

We’ve heard many times in the past, “I don’t need flood insurance, I already have a homeowner’s insurance policy. Our response is always the same!

At other times we have been asked, “Does my homeowner’s policy provide flood insurance?” homer's insurance doesn't cover flood, flood insurance is a separate policy, call 502-410-5089 to learn about the National Food Insurance Program

We quickly respond, “No!”

“How can you tell without looking at my policy?”

“Because flood insurance requires a separate policy.” “Always!”

1. High-Risk Areas

If you live in a high-risk area for flooding, you want to purchase a flood

learn how the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program can help me — FEMA National Flood Insurance Program

insurance policy to protect your assets. You also want to if you’re at moderate risk for flooding. It’s important to discuss your risk with the insurance company, so you can determine exactly what risk you have for flooding.

2. Could be Required

Those who live in an area at a high risk for flooding may be required by the lender to have flood insurance. You should contact your lender to determine what type of coverage you need in addition to a standard homeowners insurance policy. Keep in mind, you could experience legal troubles in addition to financial ones if you’re caught without flood insurance.

3. Flooding in the Past

Flood Zone, Flood Zone C, Flood Zone A, Flood Zone X, Flood Insurance. Kentucky Flood insurance Even if you don’t live in an area prone to floods, if you’ve had flooding in the past, you don’t want to take any chances. It’s beneficial to have flood insurance just in case it should happen again in the future.

4. Whether You Rent or Own

It doesn’t matter whether you rent or own. You can obtain flood insurance, no matter what. The coverage is a bit different when you rent, so make sure you read the details of your policy to ensure you have all the coverage you need in the event of a flood.

Learn more about FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program

To get a quote for flood insurance from TruePoint Insurance, call or visit either of our Kentucky offices: 1085 Eagle Lake Drive in Lawrenceburg or 6287 Taylorsville Rd in Fisherville. Or call (502) 410-5089.

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