Steve Barron asks: If a tree falls on your house due to a storm, does insurance cover the damage and tree removal or is it considered "an act of God"?

Answer: Your insurance would cover the damage and the tree removal. When you mention “act of God” that would be if the said tree that fell was on your neighbors property but fell on your house. It would be your insurance that paid not your neighbors insurance because it was an “act of God”. Many consumers think it is the fault of the person who "owns" the tree on their property but it is not.

I personally had a neighbors tree fall into my inground pool but it did no damage, so a claim was never filed. But if I had to file one, it would be on my own homeowner's insurance policy.

​Need a homeowner's insurance quote? tom@larseninsurance.com

      You can see the cars damaged in this garage fire due to an arsonist in Buffalo,NY.  But did you know that the insurance claim damage goes on their car insurance (comprehensive coverage) and not on the property/garage insurance? Things stored in your garage that are used for land or water conveyance need their own insurance policies. Let's say their was a boat stored in there....it needs a boat insurance policy to be covered!

What if there was an antique car someone was restoring that had no plates on it? The owner should have comprehensive only coverage on it for fire and/or theft....also not covered by garage insurance on the property insurance policy. Or if there was a 4-wheeler in the garage, that too needs it's own insurance policy to be covered. These are things your homeowner insurance policy isn't designed to cover.

Many consumers assume that because something is in a garage, that is where the coverage for a claim is - so VERY not true! They need there own policy to be covered for a fire loss, a theft loss or vandalism. So don't be that consumer that "assumes" coverage is there when it is not! Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions before you assume something!

Have a question?  Want a homeowner's insurance quote? Talk to me - tom@larseninsurance.com

      There are a lot of driver's in New York, who carry just what the state minimum insurance coverage's are required by the state. In New York insurance minimums are $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident and $10,000 of property damage. So if you hit another car, a building, a gas pump (yes this happened to our convenient store client) you only have $10,000 of insurance to fix the damaged property!

     That really isn't enough in today's climate, as so many people drive better cars that are worth much more than $10,000. And if you don't have the insurance to pick up the damage figure, a judgement would be favored against you until paid off.

      So be aware that us as an insurance broker, we are never in agreement to carry the state minimum coverage. As a matter of fact, our insurance agency has a $100,000/$300,000/$50,000 standard coverage we insist upon. We never want a client to come by or call and say "you never offered me this better insurance coverage". It just doesn't happen in our agency. We want our clients to all be protected against any loss that may occur due to their fault.

We do this because we care. need an auto insurance quote in NY?
​tom@larseninsurance.com
​Tom Larsen

Worker’s Compensation for Restaurants in New York.

Newer restaurant owner’s in New York (maybe some established one’s too) don’t realize that they can co-join a “safety group” with other restaurants in New York. This is a pooling of money paid in and also of money paid out in claims. A good way for any restaurant to save money, especially during this pandemic of 2020.

The safety group we are affiliated with has a 20% UPFRONT discount and then historically, a 30% backend dividend. So saving 50% off the standard rates set by the New York Worker’s Compensation Board. A really great deal for restaurant owner’s, especially new one’s.

A warning is that you cannot move from one safety group to another. There are 2 other safety groups I am aware of and they do not allow movement from one to another. I guess they try to protect each other from adverse claims if a higher claim risk wanted to jump ship. Makes sense.

So if you are looking for help with worker’s compensation, you can call 716-684-3203.

      The problem in our real estate market of Buffalo is there is a difference between market value (or Actual Cash Value) and replacement cost, sometimes a big difference. And in some places like North Buffalo, a 3/3 double is now worth $280,000 - $350,000 but to replace it would cost $530,000 in today's dollars.
      The choice a landlord needs to make is do I carry Replacement cost or Actual Cash Value? Most parts of Buffalo where the values are less (like Lovejoy for example) RC does not make sense. The reason? You have to rebuild at that same location to use the replacement cost coverage. If you do not, then the loss settlement is based on Actual Cash Value anyway. Many real estate investors would prefer to take the insurance proceeds and go buy something else. They do not want to put the damaged property back together.
      Then we have the issue of getting claims covered before an event happens, like with Underground Utility coverage. Where your sewer, water, gas & electric lines are covered up to $10,000 and in an older infra-structure city like Buffalo, this would be important. Our insurance office has 7 such companies that offer this the the landlord community, where some big, national, name-brand insurance companies do not.
        Finally, do you deal with a true expert in the landlord space for insurance? We know the marketplace, know the coverage's and can help the real estate investor's because we insure over 2000 of them. This is what we know and have the insurance companies that WANT your real estate business. Call us 716-684-3203

I know you are confused "15 minutes can save you 15%", "don't let mayhem happen to you"...you are exposed to ads every day regarding auto insurance - online, on your drive to work, on the evening news. But what is the real story, the truth?

​The truth is nobody can make a blanket statement and it be the answer for everyone. The factors used in rating auto insurance are different from insurance company to insurance company. Your credit score, your driving record, your age, your home ownership status, all rating factors. And the weight of each factor is used to varying degrees by each auto insurance company.

How to buy auto insurance in Buffalo, NY.

Not too long ago auto insurance companies had 3, 4 or 5 levels of coverage - Super Preferred, Preferred, Standard etc. Now today with algorithms built, auto insurance companies have 80, 90 or 110 "tiers" of rates! They can do this via the computer algorithm built into the auto rating system they use. No longer is it an underwriters decision but the factors being plugged into their systems.

So ads you see every single day aren't the reality of what we see every day. Every auto insurance company follows their own rules, guidelines, factors to their own rating system. It isn't an exact science anymore but an ever changing composite of all the factors mentioned above. And auto insurance companies are constantly changing based on their profitability and if their rates are right for the marketplace.

How to buy auto insurance in Buffalo, NY

Just don't believe all that is said on a TV commercial, it isn't a "one-size-fits-all" solution they make it to be. We love educating consumer's and guiding them on how to buy auto insurance instead of being sold to.

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So while the professional baseball is on a pause, so are the games for the 45+ gang! Our baseball season is also on "pause" or may be cancelled altogether. The most disappointing thing would be to NOT play at Doubleday field in Cooperstown for the 11th year.

This would also have been my 51st year of catching! Seriously, been catching baseball/softball for 51 years! Love it too! Yes, my knees are fine, the arthritis in my right shoulder, not so much! Up until 2 years ago, I was playing on 3 different teams! Thursday night (45+), Friday night (35+) and Sunday morning (25+). Unfortunately, the Sunday morning league folded and that stopped that league. I am still on the other 2 teams.

What is your passion? Do you still follow your passion? I would love to hear your comments to this......

         During this awful pandemic shutdown, it really is a good time to sit down and review all financial items - including insurance. Sometimes it is human conditioning and old habits that makes us keep with the same insurance company and coverage year-after-year. But sometimes it does come to a surprise when the insurance company you are with, no longer fits your current situation.

      We recently helped a couple who has 3 cars & a home but with 3 different insurance policies. By putting everything with one insurance company - or bundling as some say - we were able to save them over $1,500 per year! I know this is a very extreme case but they had all the wrong coverage's and were with the wrong insurance companies for their situation.

     Still another clients situation was with 2 young drives in the household and some claim activity. Because of the young drives and at-fault accidents we told him to stay where he was on the auto insurance policy. Meanwhile we took his home and umbrella insurance policies from $3,096 down to $1,920 a year. So sometimes un-bundling is a good thing when shopping insurance amoungst 12 different insurance companies.

​      This client had been with the same insurance company for 8 years and never bothered to check around. Once we had a chance to review everything for him, we advised properly on the auto (stay put, young driver with a new car) and also on the home & umbrella insurance for maximum savings.

The sad news to report for any small business that is shuttered due to coronavirus isn't covered for any lost income. Most small business insurance policies have loss of income included but after a physical loss to their business. A physical loss like fire, wind, hail, lightning.....must 1st occur before the lost income can then be applied to a business.

Loss of income because of a government mandate or a disease isn't a "trigger" for income loss to apply. Unfortunately for small business owners, there wasn't or hasn't been an option to even include something like this. I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news but small business owners need to know this.

If the Federal Government steps in with emergency funding for small business owners it may be like "if you've been denied loss of income by your insurance company, you may be eligible for this funding". Or something to this effect. So you may need to place a claim in with your insurance company anyway, to get to this emergency funding. We won't know until some sort of directive like this comes out.

​Let's hope this epidemic gets solved soon and every small business owner can get back to running their business. We can only hope this is a quick ending epidemic.

Safeco Insurance company now offers an endorsement to those people who are driving for Lyft or Uber. As you can see in the above picture, this "gap" in coverage, is when the app is on but no passenger has been picked up yet. Then when the passenger is picked up, Uber or Lyft coverage goes into effect for the duration of the ride.

The reason this is important is because all personal auto policies in New York State excludes driving "for hire" or using your vehicle to make a living. This would be like a pizza delivery person using his/her car to make money. Or in this case, an Uber or Lyft driver using their vehicle to make money.

Also be aware that the deductibles for an Uber claim is $1,000 and for a Lyft claim is $2,500 deductible for the physical damage part. They each carry $1,000,000 of liability in case of injuries to the passenger's they carry.

Know what your risks are when using your vehicle to make money. Some insurance consumers just "assume" they are covered and nothing could be further from the truth!

​Tom Larsen