Common insurance questions, answered.

Got insurance questions? We’ve got the answers to the most common questions we are asked, everyday. And to make navigating the answers easier, we’ve broken the frequently asked questions into several categories. Nice and simple.

Personal Insurance

Do claims and tickets affect my insurance premiums?

Yes. Claims for homes and claims and violations for autos do make a difference in the rating of your policy. The impact depends on the severity of the claim and if you were at fault. Tickets and accidents will impact your premiums for a three-year period while major tickets such as DUI’s and careless driving can impact your rates for five years.

Is my credit considered when rating my policies?

Yes. Your credit will be checked when an insurance company is rating a home or automobile policy for you. This is an insurance score, which is slightly different than your credit score. The insurance score does not show as a “hit” on your credit, like other credit inquiries (multiple credit inquiries can actually lower your credit score).

Business Insurance

Is Business Insurance Tax Deductible?

Business insurance is tax deductible, as long as the coverage is for the purpose of operating a business, profession, or a trade. Businesses may not deduct their business insurance premiums if the coverage is for the purpose of a self-insurance reserve fund or a loss of earning insurance policy.

What is the difference between general liability and professional liability?

At a 10,000 foot view general liability is slips, trips and falls meaning bodily injury and/or property damage to a 3rd party. Professional liability is protecting your business against bad advice or guidance. Any time you give professional opinion, advice or guidance you are opening yourself up to a professional liability claim.

Should my small business have business income insurance?

Business income provides reimbursement for lost revenue after a covered insurance loss. For a company that does not have a physical address that is crucial to its business, such as a contractor, business income is probably not necessary. For store front or main street businesses, like a coffee shop, business income is a must.

Life Insurance

What is Whole / Permanent Life?

Whole and permanent products provide guaranteed life insurance protection that will not decrease and the premium will not change regardless of your health. These policies can be written for as little as $5,000 and issued for ages 0-85 years old.

What is Universal Life?

Universal life insurance provides financial security for your family by combining the best features of term and permanent life insurance. It includes life insurance protection with an account value that earns tax-deferred interest. Its value can also be adjusted to meet your changing needs. Choose the amount of protection you want and design a premium schedule to match your budget. Universal life is the best candidate for funding a child’s education, supporting dependents, or to supplement retirement income.

What is Term Life?

Term life insurance is a popular form of coverage that allows you to purchase large amounts of protection at attractive premium rates. Term insurance is ideal for protecting a mortgage, providing replacement income or funding college for a child in the event of a premature death.

General

What is an Independent Insurance Agent?

What defines an Independent Insurance Agent is our ability to shop your insurance through multiple insurance companies. Our job is help you create the best coverage package to meet your needs and then go to the market and find the most competitively priced insurance company for those coverages.

Does changing my insurance company affect my credit score?

Changing your insurance carrier has NO effect on your credit score. You can change as often as you like and it makes no matter to your credit score.

I had a claim, now what?

We know that “stuff happens” and there will be the unfortunate instance where you will have a claim to report. Give our office a call right away; we have someone on-call 24/7 for emergencies. Our dedicated team can advise you on what the effects of filing your claim would be, and explain how the claims process works. Our job is to help take the headache out of what already is a painful process.