Local Guy Writes Book! (blog post)

The older I get the more I appreciate our local talent and culture.  I like that facebook allows me to stay connected and this week it supplied me with a real gem that satisfies both the need to stay connected and the love of local 'stuff '.  I received a notice that a friend of mine from high school had wrote a book. 

Sometimes a person shouldn't write a book, they should stick to other pursuits more tailored to their skills, but in this case I've read the snippets available on line and the story description and .... well, I'm excited to check it out.  Jon Cook has written a book that details the experiences of a Civil War POW ... I know, you're going "what does Jon know about a Civil war POW?"  Great question!  It appears that his great great grandfather was a POW during the Civil War and grew up in Greene County Indiana.  Coauthored by Russell Cook this looks like a winner.

Check them out on facebook (link below)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Among-the-Sterling-Youth/101050943302829

What's Important to Hoosier Families? (blog post)

Google trends is a pretty cool feature on Google.  If you've never used it, you should check it out.  You go to Google Trends online and type in a search term and region (like Indiana) and Zoweee! It tells you the volume of Hoosier searches on that topic.  Cool stuff, indeed. 

Well, today I google trended "Life Insurance" as well as home, auto, and health insurance ... do you know that home, auto, and health did not have enough searches in the last 30 days to show up on this trend counter but life insurance was on evereyone's minds.

I also noticed that there was very little searching for life insurance on Sunday, it was mainly done during the work week.  Perhaps it is our daily interactions at work that make us feel our mortality or maybe we just have more free time at work than at home.  Anyway I thought that was interesting.

I also think it is interesting that the most important and complicated insurance there is is the only one that had enough people searching online for it to even register on Google Trends.  Shouldn't we talk to a real live person about the important stuff?  Can we trust Wikipedia for the really important stuff?  I don't, I try to find people that are experts and discuss my options with them.  Online experts don't have to look you in the eye (neither do the TV experts) so they don't suffer if their advice is not right for you.

Life insurance is an important topic in Indiana (more so than any other insurance type) so call an Agent to get your questions answered, because they will see you at Walmart and CVS each week and that makes them (including me) much more motivated to tell you the best information you can get.

What to do after a wreck?

"The weather outside is frightful ...", just a little snow and everyone is sliding all over the place.  I remember when we were stationed in Texas and it snowed about 1/2 an inch.  Everything shut down and we went driving around looking at all the wrecks.  That was big fun until I got in the insurance business. 

One question I get a lot is, "what do I do if I have an accident?"  That's an easy one, but it's easy to forget right after a wreck.  Everyone gets shook up whether it's their fault or not.  So let's review the basics.

1.  Stay calm.  It's never helpful to lose control.
2.  Check to see if anyone needs medical attention, life and welfare are far more important than anything else.
3.  If no one has any evident injuries the next step is to make sure you and your family are not in danger because of where you are, for example if you had a fender bender on 465 in the left lane you would want to make sure your vehicle is as far off the road as possible and that your family isn't walking out into traffic.
4.  Exchange information with the other driver, name, address, and insurance info at the very least. 
5.  Contact the police, an official record of the incident can be necessary down the road.
6.  Don't try to figure out who is to blame, that's for the police and the insurance companies to figure out. 
7.  Call your agent, unless your insurance company makes you call an 800 number.  Let the agent or his office staff know the details of when, where, who, and how. 

Once you've made the claim and started the process you can relax.  Don't spend time and energy worrying about what the accident will do to your premiums or how you are going to come up with the deductible, because you've just handled the worst of it.  If your premiums go up for a while to pay for the vehicle or someone Else's injuries, then you've still come out ahead because you don't have a huge payment at the time of the accident.  If you need to barrow $500 from you brother or your father to cover the deductible, then so be it, it's still better than paying the whole amount.

One caution though, you need to check and see that your liability limits are enough to protect you assets if the accident is your fault and the other party has big medical bills from the wreck, state minimums are not enough.  Just think how much it cost the last time you went to the doctor and imagine what trauma care for a head wound would cost.  Ask you agent if you limits are enough to save you from getting sued for all you savings and retirement.

I hope you don't have an auto claim in this icy weather but if you do, it's an opportunity to see how well you've done picking the company that will help you keep going after the wreck.  After all that's why you have insurance.

Who pays the price?

Who pays for the mistakes of others? Very often it's the ones who can afford it the least!  A week or so ago I read a story about a young man age 28 who was driving a mini Van to pick up his two young daughters.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ford-windstar-van-defect-allegedly-fatal-crash/story?id=12453337

Because of a design flaw the rear axle broke causing the young man to wreck and die before his daughters got to see him one last time. 

Reading the story you feel a lot of different emotions; anger toward the auto maker and the government, sadness for the girls and their mother, worry for your own family.  Think about it, what would happen to your family if that was you or your spouse in that van?

In the distant future a lawyer will declare victory in some class action suit where the multimillion dollar reward will be cut in half to pay the lawyer, then the rest will be divided up between the 800 or so people that reported accidents caused by the defect.  No, the widow won't be able to depend on that money. 

We can only hope the auto maker pays in some way for this loss but the truth is that the father's life insurance will have to replace his income for the family.  Hopefully he didn't rely solely on the group term life insurance that he has through work.  Hopefully, he and his now widow took a couple of hours to review this possibility with their insurance guy, and they came up with a plan to cover the lost income in the event he died before his time.

Life is short and none of us ever know what is going to happen tomorrow, so always make the last word your loved ones heard as they exit the door, a kind one.  Enjoy your husband, or wife and your children each day, because they are only with us a little while.  Plan for the worst and celebrate everyday that the worst doesn't happen.  And make life insurance a part of your plan!

J

The Future of Health Care!

So, what's the deal with heath insurance?  It seems like heath insurance is on every one's mind today ... The cost is rising and benefits are shirking, even in the face of last year's heath care reform. 

I quote health insurance for a bunch of families each week.  I really don't like to though, because the premiums are high and most folks need the coverage because their company has either cut benefits or personnel.  So they've had a bad week before they sit in my office and I'm just going to put another log on the fire.

One thing is for sure, we have not heard the last of heath care reform, There are too many open ended questions with the legislation that passed last year.  One of the most glaring is, what is the maximum that a health insurance company can charge for the insurance that the government is saying everyone must have in the next 4 years?  The cost of this program will fall to those that can pay for the coverage.  Those that can't pay will be in violation of the law and will still be treated with care bought by the tax payers ... in other words the middle class will foot the bill!

I'm not sure how to improve the system but I can say it is obvious that tort reform is necessary before the other issues can even be addressed.  Tort reform would be changes to the civil justice system that would limit the amounts paid out in minor health care related claims.  If a doctor or drug maker or hospital must pay hundreds of thousands each year to fend off lawsuits they will charge more for the end product or service to make up for that loss. 

Stopping predatory lawyers from getting huge settlements for minor claims (and taking 60% of it for their firms) will free up cash flow that can help lower the cost for health care without hurting the quality!  And that will lower health insurance premiums which will get more people buying it!

J