What is consider a flood?:
Flood, as used in this flood insurance policy, means:

1. A general and temporary condition of partial or
complete inundation of two or more acres of normally
dry land area or of two or more properties (at least
one of which is your property) from:

a.Overflow of inland or tidal waters;
b.Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of
surface waters from any source;
c.Mudflow.

In other words a drainage issue on your property is not covered.

Property not covered:

• Pools and their equipment.
• Detached structures, with the exception that a separate garage not held for rent is covered for 10% of the coverage.
• Personal property in a building that is not fully enclosed must be secured to prevent flotation out of the building. If the personal property does float out during a flood, it will be conclusively presumed that it was not reasonably secured.
• Pays only up to 30K for you to comply with a State or local floodplain management law or ordinance affecting repair or reconstruction
• Personal property and buildings located over water.
• Land, land values, lawns, trees, shrubs, plants
• Decks and Fences

Special Conditions:

• To receive replacement cost the property must be your primary residence and you must carry 80% of the value of the home in coverage, or the max the flood program allows.
• Actual Cash value loss settlement applies to
  • two-, three-, or four-family dwelling.
  • unit that is not used exclusively for single-family dwelling purposes.
  • dwelling that is not your principal residence
  • personal property
  • detached garages

Property Limits:

• $2500 coverage for fine arts, collectibles, jewelry, and furs, business property.

I often get the scenario of a client who is not at fault, and needs to file a claim after another party hits them. From here if there are no injuries, there are two options. File the claim with the clients policy or have the client file against the at fault party’s insurance. The short of it, is that I recommend filing on the other parties insurance but there are pros and cons to each way. Below list some of the pros and cons.

File with other parties auto insurance policy: (assuming you carry collision coverage on your policy)

Pros:
1) Only one claim needs to be filed.
2) Once they complete investigation to determine fault they will pay claim in full. This can be a quick process when the facts of the accident are basic, such as a hit from behind while stopped.

Cons:
1) Some insurance companies don’t have the resources or staff training and can be difficult to work with. (We recommend stopping the process, and filing on your own policy at any time if you feel uncomfortable.)

File on own policy:

Pros:
1) We can take the claim in the agency and help you get the process started.
2) We only represent carriers with great claims records and can help you along the way if needed.
3) You can start repairs immediately if you carry collision insurance; although you are subject to the deductible (see cons).

Cons:
1) Your collision deductible will apply until your carrier collects from the at fault party’s insurance. And if you don’t have rental reimbursement coverage you might be waiting for that expense to reimbursed also.
2) Often this means duplication work for the insured, as all the facts and claims information needs to be given once to each insurance company directly.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

When an employer buys a workers’ compensation policy or is certified to self-insure, the insurance company (or a third-party administrator in the case of self-insurance) pays the medical and income benefits due to the employee. No attempt is made to assess blame or determine fault, except under a few circumstances specified by law.

The Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association covers licensed workers’ compensation insurance companies. This means the guaranty association will pay claims if the insurance company becomes financially unable to do so.

Employee Benefits

Injured employees are entitled to all health care reasonably required to treat the work-related injury or illness. These medical benefits continue for the rest of the injured employee’s life.

Employees who are off work for more than seven days because of a work-related injury may also receive temporary income benefits to replace some of their lost income. Temporary income benefits are calculated as a percentage of the employee’s pre-injury salary, up to a maximum set by law. These benefits are paid while the employee is off work and for a period of time based on the severity of the injury. If a doctor certifies that the injured employee has a permanent impairment, the injured employee may be entitled to impairment income benefits.

These medical and income benefits are the injured employee’s exclusive remedy if the employer participates in the system and is covered by the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act. The only exception is when an employee is killed and the death was caused by the employer’s gross negligence or intentional act or omission.

Being a Nonsubscriber

Nonsubscribers lose several key legal defenses and can face high damage awards if an injured employee can prove in court that the employer was negligent in any way.  Employers who choose not to purchase workers’ compensation insurance or who choose to self-insure without obtaining approval from TDI forfeit several common-law defenses if sued because of a work-related injury.  These employers may not argue that:

• the employee’s own negligence or the negligence of another worker contributed to the accident
• the employee knew the risk of injury and voluntarily assumed it

In addition to forfeiting these legal defenses, a court could order the employer to pay judgments for pain and suffering and punitive damages.

If a court determines that an employer was negligent in any way – even if the employee’s negligence played a greater role in causing the injury – the employer will likely be held fully financially responsible. The employer also must pay defense-related legal expenses, such as attorney fees.

The following case illustrates the potential cost to a business without workers’ compensation insurance:

An employee of a manufacturer without workers’ compensation insurance slipped and fell at her workstation. The employee sued, alleging that the employer’s negligence had caused her injury. The employer had taken some steps to provide a safe workplace but did not hold safety meetings or give specific safety instructions to its employees.  The court ruled that the employer had a duty to provide safety rules and regulations to employees and to ensure that they followed the rules.

Because the employer did not have workers’ compensation insurance, it was barred from using common-law defenses in court. A jury awarded the injured employee damages, and a Texas court of appeals later upheld the verdict.

If the employer had maintained workers’ compensation insurance, the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act would have prohibited the injured employee from suing. The employee’s exclusive remedy would have been the medical and income benefits prescribed by law.

UIM coverage is just as important if not more important than the auto liability limits you carry to protect your assets from a lawsuit.

Here’s why:

1)      1 in 4 drivers in Travis County are uninsured motorist. Source: pilot program to catch uninsured motorists in Travis County. Sadly the pilot program started 3 years ago and the state has not acted on it.

2)      A person who is not responsible enough to carry auto insurance, will typically take risks in other areas of their life and cause more severe auto accidents.

3)      When an uninsured motorist injures you, your assets are at risk, and most people don’t think about this. If you have medical bills, sure health insurance kicks in, but what about pain, suffering, lost wages, and other additional expense. All of these can drain you financially, especially if paralyzed or death in an auto accident occurs.

4)      UIM Protects YOU and your family.

The Solution:

Be sure to carry Uninsured motorist limits that at least meet your liability limits. The max currently available on a auto policy is 500K per person, and 500K per accident. Purchasing an Umbrella policy on top of this for UIM is possible but costly compare to other liability products about 600 a year for 1 million.

The other solution is for the state of Texas to actively use the tools they have to catch UIM. This includes a database of all insured vehicles based on VINs, and a title record of all matching owners and VINs. Using this data could find and enforce everyone to be responsible and carry insurance.

What is employer practice liability insurance? It provides protection for an employer against claims made by employees, former employees, or potential employees. It covers discrimination (age, sex, race, disability, etc.), wrongful termination of employment, sexual harassment, and other employment-related allegations. It covers your firm, including its Directors and Officers.

Usually the next comment after I explain the coverage to a client is, “I hire everyone and we wouldn’t do anything stupid like that.” Their probably right, but would you fire someone if they posted online negative comments about your business and you? Most likely, yes. This was just the case in a recent EPLI claim. This is one example, but there are many other reasons EPLI is a good idea.

1) Employers who also do all the hiring usually don’t have procedures implemented for hiring, firing, and disciplining employees.
2) Even interviews you didn’t hire can sue.
3) As a company grows you cannot monitor all employees.

See below article from IRMI.com:

Did you hear about the recent case involving an ambulance company that fired an employee because she used Facebook to criticize her boss and post derogatory comments about the company? In her wrongful termination suit, she asserted that her conduct was protected under the Constitution, and terminating her based on this activity was illegal. Fearing a jury would agree, the employer settled rather than incur more defense costs and the possibility of losing.

What do you think? Shouldn’t making disparaging comments about an employer’s business in a public forum be an offense for which an employee may be terminated? What ridiculous EPL claims have you encountered? Do you agree that all companies should purchase EPL insurance?

Get more personal lines insurance and risk management tips and ideas from IRMI.

Copyright 2011
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.

Most home policies come with replacement cost coverage. Meaning the insurance company will pay the full amount to replace the damage property minus any deductible. This is the coverage I recommend as it makes allows you to replace the property that was damaged or stolen.

However, there are a few areas of a home policy that do not get replacement cost coverage regardless if the rest of the home policy is replacement cost. These items are paid out in actual cash value. Which means the insurance company will deprecate the item based on its age and condition and only pay a portion of what it would cost to replace with a new item.

- Any loss over 2500 for building and 1500 for personal property is paid out as actual cash value, and if repairs are made within 12 months, then the policy will pay the difference to total replacement cost.

- Loss settlement on cloth awnings, above ground pools, fences, satellite dishes, antennas, piers, and boat docks are all paid out as actual cash value losses.

If you are going to understand one coverage on a home insurance policy, water damage should be it. This is because water damage comes in many forms and not all types are covered.

The goal of a home insurance policy is to cover sudden and accidental water damage. Think bursting pipes, appliances failing, and accidental overflows.

• Slow leaks are generally not covered. This is a touchy subject, because what if you didn’t know about it? That can be true, however with the average deductible in Texas at about 2000, a slow leak with 2000 plus dollars in damage, it is hard to imagine a situation where its not noticeable. The times where the slow leak results in this much damages is always most likely neglect. If the damage is above your deductible and reported at first possible discovery and not due to you neglecting something that created the leak, then my experience is that most insurance company will pay such a claim.
• Leaks in the slab are not covered by many policies sold unless endorsed. Note that the endorsement doesn’t cover the slab just the access to reach the pipe in the slab and then refill the slab.
• Back up of sewer and drain is also not covered, unless endorsed. This means reverse flow from the water supply, not a clog that back flows in your house.
• Floods are also not covered by home policies. You can read more about flood insurance in a past blog here

When a homeowner is proactive with water damage you reduce your risk for a claim as well as reduce your risk for a slow leak to become a serious issue. A great resource comes from Foremost Insurance a company owned by Farmers Insurance. The website they created has an interactive water loss education site. You can access it here , for tips on how to be proactive about water damage prevention.

Do you Tweet, or Facebook? Seems harmless, but it opens up a huge risk… personal injury! Personal Injury in relation to your home or renters insurance policy doesn’t mean bodily injury but harm to the mind or emotions. 

 With all the comments and tweets that go out to your closest 500 friends, imagine if one of them was offended by your comment. You could be sued for defamation of character. But you wouldn’t do that right?, what about your children or teenager? Scared Now!?! 

 Because of the risk it is worth explaining to kids and some adults, what the risk are, and to include personal injury coverage on your home or renters policy to add piece of mind. 

Detailed examples of damages covered. 

1. false arrest, imprisonment, malicious prosecution and detention; 

2. the wrongful eviction from, wrongful entry into, or invasion of the right of private occupancy of a room, 

home, or premises that a person occupies when committed by or on behalf of its owner, landlord, or 

lessor; 

3. libel, slander, defamation of character; 

4. discrimination because of race, color, religion or national origin;