Business Info

Let’s start off in New Hampshire. The first question is whether the design standards in modern vehicles make annual safety checks unnecessary. If you said, “yes”, you are with the thirty states that do not require any safety checks. The theory seems to be responsible drivers maintain their vehicles and are not a hazard on the roads. If there’s an accident, they pay more for their insurance – it’s a stick and carrot approach to social responsibility except it forces up the premium rates for all drivers. In states where there are annual checks, vehicles are better maintained, there are fewer accidents, and drivers pay lower rates. New Hampshire has just decided to move from one to two-year inspections. Now there will be thousands more vehicles on the road with poor brakes and defective front ends. Guess what will happen to the premium rates.

In Mississippi, there’s a bill to enforce the mandate by requiring drivers to produce proof of insurance before the tax collector issues a tag. Governor Haley Barbour is currently considering whether the new database will be open to the police to check the status of all drivers. If he does sign this bill into law, it will potentially reduce everyone’s insurance premium rates. The more people are forced into paying for the basic minimum liability policy, the less the law-abiding people will pay.

In New Brunswick, the Insurance Board is refusing to release a report into whether local insurers have been overcharging drivers for the last seven years. The lawmakers established an arms-length board in 2004 but, for some reason, they are less than enthusiastic about forcing disclosure of this board’s investigation. In the meantime, New Brunswickers continue to pay higher than average premium rates. Read the rest of this entry »

Property and casualty insurance take care of most risks to an individual or a business’s property, like damage, theft, losing money, records, furniture, machinery, trademarks and supplies as well. Some examples of specialized insurance policies that are currently available cover disasters such as fires, earthquakes, and floods that damage your primary residence.

Property can be insured either by multiple or named dangers. You have to identify exactly what you have lost. One example of this is if your house burned down, you would only be able to make a claim under “named peril property insurance” if you had explicitly requested to insure your house against a fire. Other perils commonly covered are explosion, lightning, and theft. You should consider all problems that are part of your insurance plan. If not, you might be paying for insurance that would not aid you in case your car is stolen.

Open perils cover all causes of loss or damage that have not been excluded by the policy. Unless your contract specifically forbids it, you will be able to receive assistance from open peril property insurance for any instance. If you refuse the option to be covered for floods, you will not receive a reimbursement for any damage to your home caused by flooding. You can find the following items on a list of open peril exclusions: earthquakes, nuclear incidents, war, acts of terrorism. While your property may be in danger from these events, such as earthquakes, you can purchase additional coverage in the event your open peril property insurance does not cover an open peril that you may face. You might find this information very useful, particularly for West coast residents. However, those who live either on the East Coast or in the Midwest should probably consider a plan that takes the winter damage of sleet and ice into account.

Property insurance premiums may be decreased if they have a good claim history, and have the proper measures in place to reduce the risk of loss or damage. You can reduce the costs of property insurance by installing alarms, smoke detectors, sprinkler systems, and security personnel. Much of it gauges on whether or not these steps can actually prevent damages.

Many companies choose to have their properties insured with a Business Owner’s insurance policy (known ass BOP. Property insurance and liability insurance are combined into one policy to create these special policies. Some BOPs offer extra expense and business interruption insurance as an option. There is a product called “extra expense insurance,” which would give you money to cover a short-term move after an incident that was covered by the policy. Extra expense insurance will pay for any moving costs incurred because of a flood. Business interruption insurance pays for any loss of profit in case your business is interrupted.