Listen to John and Katie’s story about their Super Bowl Sunday misfortune. 

Wisconsin residents, contact a knowledgebroker for more information about personal insurance options through R&R Insurance Services.

To protect against such a situation, you need guaranteed replacement coverage. Guaranteed replacement coverage pays the full cost of replacing or repairing a damaged or destroyed home, even if it is above the policy limit.

“Two weeks after the fire, they got $785,000 for rebuilding. The likely real cost: $1.35 million.”

Read the true story about a family who’s home was destroyed in the 2007 California wildfires, featured in the January 2008 issue of Money magazine. This story reiterates the importance replacement value has in your homeowners insurance policy.

Talk to your agent to find out if your current homeowner’s policy provides 100% complete Replacement Cost Coverage on your home and contents. 

Wisconsin residents, R&R offers carriers that have no cap on the replacement cost. Contact Dan Wolfgram for more information today!

The rates below give you a good idea of what you can expect for rates in your age group.

Monthly cost for 10 year term, $100,000 death benefit, super preferred rating class, non-tobacco

Monthly cost for 20 year term, $500,000 death benefit, super preferred rating class, non-tobacco 

If you’d like to take the next step in protecting your family, here’s all you’ll have to do:

1. Decide how much coverage you need
2. Decide how long you would like the policy to remain in force
3. Contact Jeff Wolfgram to get started on a quick life insurance quote

Remember, life insurance is for the ones you love. Wisconsin residents contact knowledgebroker, Jeff Wolfgram today for more information or a quick life insurance quote!

 In Your Kitchen:
The Dishwasher: Periodically check for leaks under the sink where the hose connects to the water supply. Look around the base of the dishwasher for evidence of leaks, such as discolored, warped, or soft flooring materials, or water damage to nearby cabinets.

The Refrigerator: If your refrigerator has an icemaker, make sure the hose connection is securely attached to the water supply line. Also, a wet spot on the floor may be a sign of a crimped icemaker line about to burst.

The Sink: Replace deteriorated caulk around sinks, and check the pipes under the sink for leaks. A slow-draining pipe may indicate a partially blocked drain that needs cleaning.

In Your Bathrooms:
Showers and Bathtubs: Remove and replace deteriorated or cracked caulk and grout. Water from a broken supply pipe behind the wall can leak through these damaged sealants, causing stains or soft areas around nearby walls and floors. Leaking drain pipes and shower pan leaks are also common sources of water damage. If necessary, contact a plumber or contractor for help.

Sinks: Check under the sink for leaks from water supply lines or drainpipes. If necessary, contact a plumber or contractor for help.

Toilets: Clogs can result from too much toilet paper or objects such as hanging bowl deodorants. Also, some chlorine tablet cleaners may corrode internal plastic or rubber parts, leading to a leak. Again, don’t hesitate to call in a professional.

In Your Basement, Laundry, or Utility Room
Washing Machine: Check hoses regularly for bulging, cracking, fraying, and leaks around hose ends. Replace the hose if a problem is found or every 3 to 5 years as part of a proactive maintenance program. To help make sure the hose doesn’t kink, leave at least 4 inches (or 11 centimeters) between the water connection and the back of the washing machine. Be sure to read the manufacturer’s installation instructions carefully.

Water Heater: Most water heaters last 8 to 15 years. Wet spots on the floor or a rusted tank may signal a leak. Water heaters should be installed on the lowest level of the home, next to a floor drain, or inside a drain pan piped to the floor drain.

Sump Pump: Battery-operated backup sump pumps can help protect against power failure or failure of the primary pump. Test the sump pump before the start of each wet season. Sump pumps are not intended to last more than 10 years and must have some components replaced or serviced within those 10 years.

Since water may still come through an overflowing drain or cracks in the foundation walls, make sure items stored in the basement are kept off the floor. Furniture should be on casters or shims and arranged away from floor drains.

We’ve also published some Water Damage Do’s and Don’ts - in the unlucky event this happens in your home. Wisconsin residents, contact Kori Cumley for more water damage preventing tips or a quick quote on home and auto insurance.

“Market value” isn’t the cost to rebuild

The cost to rebuild often differs from what you paid for your home, or what you might pay for a similar home in your area. Market value is not used to determine the coverage amount needed for replacing your home. Market value can be affected by many factors, which have nothing to do with what it would cost to rebuild, such as:

• Location of your home
• Economic conditions
• Value of the land

It’s important to know that rebuild costs for insurance purposes can also differ from mortgage requirements, tax assessments, and other appraisals of your home.

Why rebuilding costs can differ

Cost to rebuild (reconstruction cost) reflects estimated construction material, labor and equipment costs to rebuild your home while maintaining the same size and quality of construction, at today’s prices.

Replacement cost (cost to rebuild) can fluctuate based on aspects such as:

• Building codes may have changed since your home was built
• More specialized workers are needed to prevent further damage and to rebuild the home
• Landscaping, pools, and power lines can make it difficult for large equipment to access the property
• Materials to rebuild your home may be more expensive or hard to find

Keep your coverage up-to-date

Updates, additions and improvements to your home need to be documented in order to reflect most common changes like installing hardwood floors, updating a kitchen or bath, or adding a deck.

Wisconsin residents, contact knowledgebroker Dan Wolfgram for more information or a quick quote on your home & auto insurance!

What Specific Steps Must a Person Take to  Become a School Bus Driver?

• Is there a specific initial training curriculum?
• If so, does this involve classroom training? How many hours?
• Describe the training content.
• Do you provide in-vehicle training? How many hours?
• Do you identify each driver’s areas that need improvement? Do you document this training?
• Do you provide any specific training about railroad grade crossings, loading and unloading passengers, or emergency evacuation drills?

Who Trains Your School Bus Drivers?

• What qualifications must a person have to become a school bus driver training instructor?
• Are these instructors certified? If so, how do they become certified?
• Are these instructors required to have any experience in teaching or training?
• Are they required to have experience in school bus driving or transportation?
• What are the qualifications of the instructor-trainers that train your instructors?

Do You Have a Plan For the Periodic Recertification of Your Drivers?

• What are your requirements for periodic driver recertification?
• What topics are covered in the recertification program?
• What training do your drivers receive addressing discipline and noise levels on the bus?
• Do you document the training items covered during your recertification process?
• Do you document the drivers who participate in the recertification?

Do You Have a System of Supervising Your Drivers on Their Routes?

• How many supervisors monitor driver performance? What is the ratio of supervisors to drivers?
• Do the supervisors ever ride with the drivers to monitor their performance? How often?
• How often are your drivers evaluated?
• Have you ever dismissed a driver “for cause”?
• Do you have your own guidelines and/or policies, or do you use state guidelines? What are they?

How Are School Bus Routes Established in Your District?

• Are there specific, written guidelines established for the development of bus routes?
• Who is responsible for establishing the routes?
• How often are routes re-evaluated?
• What is the National Standard for the periodic re-evaluation of school bus routes?

Do You Have Any Mechanism In Place to Identify Hazards on School Bus Routes?

• Do you follow up on reports of hazardous conditions? How?
• Is the hazardous notification policy written or verbal? Who reviews these reports?
• Do you have written guidelines that deal with specific hazardous conditions once they are identified?

How Do You Ensure That a Driver on a Route is Sufficiently Familiar With That Route Before He/She Goes Out on the Route?

• How is information about hazardous road/route conditions distributed to the various drivers?
• What is the procedure to relay information from the regular driver to a substitute driver on a route?
• Do substitute drivers receive the same information and training as your regular school bus drivers?
• Is there specific guidance given to substitute drivers on routes?

Does Anyone Routinely Check Routes for Hazardous Conditions?

• Is there a mechanism in place to check routes on a regular basis?
• Are routes checked from a school bus or from a car?

Who Is Responsible For the Specifications of the School Buses?

• Do your buses differ from those that are recognized as the “industry standard”? How?
• Have you modified your buses in any way or added any “extras”? Why?
• Do you require drivers to do pre-trip inspections of their bus before each run?
• How is this inspection conducted and recorded?

Are You Familiar With Your State and National School Bus Associations?

• Do you participate or receive any feedback from any organization?
• Are you familiar with the National Standards for School Transportation?
• Have any of these standards been adopted by your state?

Wisconsin schools can contact R&R Insurance’s School Practice Group for more information on school bus risk management, safety procedures and school district programs.

The black market is very lucrative for those who obtain and sell the information that healthcare entities are responsible to protect.  In addition to patient data, patient insurance information can be used to make false or inflated insurance claims, obtain prescription drugs or receive treatment at the expense of the insurance account holder.  A patient’s health record can be sold on the black market for $50 as compared to a social security number at $3, credit card information $1.50, date of birth $3, and mothers maiden name $6. 

The examples of healthcare data breaches are many.  At www.privacyrights.org you can access their data base of breach notifications. However, this list is not complete.   In addition, many organizations choose to voluntarily notify patients of a breach when the nature of the breach falls outside of the scope of the mandatory notification requirements of state statutes.  

I believe that healthcare entities need to understand that this not an IT issue.  It is an area of risk that expands the entire organization.  Leadership should undertake building a culture of security, look for ways to encrypt data, review the indemnification provisions with third party vendors, and have an Instant Data Breach Response Plan.

The insurance options are numerous and vary greatly.  Don’t be fooled in thinking that all “Cyber” policies are alike or provide the same level of protection.  We plan for other types of disasters, now is the time to address this increasing area of risk.

Here is the article from MarketWatch dated December 6, 2011.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Chief Executive Jay Fishman said his company had increased prices for business insurance clients by 5.2% in October and 5.8% in November, the largest rates increases in several years.

The data from Travelers are the latest evidence the market for commercial insurance is hardening after years of declining prices. That’s good news for property-casualty insurers and their shareholders, but will translate into increased costs for the businesses that buy the coverage.

Travelers has often painted a rosier picture on prices than others in the insurance industry, and the latest data are no exception. But the company triggered a rally in property-casualty stocks in October when it reported it had managed to increase prices in the third quarter, and the new figures disclosed by Fishman Tuesday show the trend had continued.

“Our principal tactic right now is to drive rate,” Fishman said at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference Tuesday. “This is at the very least [a case of] so-good-so-far, but actually it’s beginning to feel even better than that. There is a sense of optimism building around this, and a notion that we can continue to drive this strategy successfully.”

There have been other indications of an industrywide price turn in recent days. MarketScout, a Dallas-based insurance exchange, said its data show commercial insurance rates up 1% in November, the first time its market barometer has shown an increase in nearly seven years. Insurance broker Marsh Inc. said Friday that commercial property-insurance prices had increased 1.7% so far in the fourth quarter.

Pricing data released by insurers or by the brokers that arrange the coverage offer a glimpse into what is otherwise an opaque market. The details of individual commercial insurance contracts aren’t disclosed by the parties involved, and the buyers, sellers and middlemen are the only ones who know the exact prices of specific policies.

The price increases are coming at a time when insurers have struggled to earn worthwhile returns on their investment portfolios. In years past, insurers could count on their investments to make up some of the difference if they underpriced a policy, but ultralow interest rates mean the margin for error is shrinking.

In addition, property insurers have paid out billions in claims from natural disasters in the past year. Ratings company A.M. Best put the pre-tax tally from catastrophes through the first nine months of 2011 at $38.6 billion in the U.S. alone. That figure doesn’t include still mounting losses from the record-breaking earthquake in Japan and massive flooding in Thailand.

Previously, Travelers had said it increased business-insurance prices by 2.3% in August and saw a 4.2% price hike in September on returning customers. At the time, executives said the increases were the most aggressive the company had been able to push through since it reached its current form through a merger of Travelers and St. Paul in 2004.

The figures exclude Travelers’ largest accounts, but the bulk of its commercial insurance business involves midsize and small accounts. The figures Fishman supplied Tuesday showed that a sub-segment comprised primarily of midsize accounts saw rate increases of 8.2% in November.

“You apply that against the sizable business and you begin to see a fairly meaningful increase in revenues,” Fishman said.

Fishman also said Travelers had repurchased $803 million of its own stock in the quarter through December 5, and now expected to buy back between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion by the time the quarter ends. Previously, the company said it was targeting about $1 billion in buybacks in the quarter.

Even if the company hits the top end of the target, buybacks for all of 2011 would be down more than 20% from the previous year. The company reduced its repurchase activity for part of this year as claims poured in from the natural disasters.

Wisconsin businesses, if you would like a review of your commercial coverage, please contact a knowledgebroker.

Wisconsin residents can have the same peace-of-mind that the Staab’s experienced. Contact knowledgebroker Dan Wolfgram for more information about personal insurance options through R&R Insurance Services.

An estimated 30 million natural Christmas trees are sold anually in the United States. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reports that there is an estimated annual average of 210 home structure fires that begin with Christmas trees.   Based on data from 2002 through 2005, these fires caused an average of 24 civilian deaths, 27 civilian injuries, and $13.3 million in direct property damage per year.

Forty-nine percent of Christmas tree fires spread beyond the room of origin.   

The moisture content of each tree can play a dominant role in determining the fire hazard each tree represents.  Properly maintaining a cut Christmas tree is important to retaining a high moisture content in the needles of the tree to limit accidental ignition and prevent rapid flame spread.  A tree which has dry needles can readily ignite with a flaming source and generate heat release rates that are capable of causing flashover in residential scale rooms. Trees that have been watered properly, and maintain pliable, green needles are harder to ignite than dry trees with needles that break easily when bent and fall from the tree when the branches are shaken.

In addition to keeping the tree extremely moist by watering daily, The American Red Cross offers these common-sense tips to avoid holiday fires:

• Decorate Christmas trees only with laboratory-approved lights
• Unplug Christmas tree lights when leaving home or going to bed
• Do not decorate metal trees with lights
• Do not decorate trees with candles
• Keep candles away from decorations and other combustible material
• Place trees away from heat sources and exits
• Make sure chimneys are inspected before the holidays and cleaned if necessary
• Keep space heaters at least three feet away from bedding, clothing, furniture, drapes and anything else combustible. Use equipment that is approved for indoor use. Turn space heaters off if you are not available to monitor this equipment. Remember, children anywhere near space heaters must be supervised at all times.

Christmas trees that glitter with lights and tinsel symbolize the joyous spirit of the holiday season, but we must not forget the potential fire hazards that can be a tragic part of this time of celebration. Wisconsin residents, contact knowledgebroker Jean McGrail for fire safety tips or a quick quote on home and auto insurance.