Now, snowmobile insurance, the biggest thing you want to protect yourself against is liability coverage. That’s if you injure somebody or if your actions cause somebody else to be injured or if you damage someone’s property under the course of riding your snowmobile. You’re going to want to carry liability insurance.

There are different levels of coverage you can buy. Typically it starts at 50,000 and goes up. If you have an umbrella policy, you can add a snowmobile under your umbrella policy to give you upwards of a million dollars of liability coverage. But again, you want to make sure you have liability coverage.

You also have the option to purchase uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. That covers you in case somebody hits you while you’re riding your snowmobile, and they don’t have any insurance or not enough insurance to cover your injuries. You can talk to your agent about that or you can talk to us here at Philleo Agency as well.

There’s a couple of other coverages that you may want to add to your snowmobile too. And they fall under the headline of physical damage, physical damage for the sled itself. It would cover if the vehicle is damaged while you’re riding it. It can cover it while it’s in storage. So if you have it stored in a garage and there’s a fire there, or a theft.

So physical damage is going to be a wide array of coverages. It could be damaged while it’s being towed, if you’re taking the sled from one place to another and it’s damaged. Again, physical damage is what’s going to protect you on that.

Typically you select a deductible, anyway from 250 all the way up to a $1,000 is common, and the higher deductible you take, the lower your rate will be. You do not have to have the physical damage coverage on your snowmobile policy. You can get a basic policy with liability only and that will protect you as well when you’re riding, but make sure you have the minimum policy of liability coverage when you’re out riding. You have to have that to protect yourself.

Again, being from Wisconsin we’re very familiar with snowmobile coverage. If you’d like to learn more about snowmobile coverage or your particular situation, what the cost may be, or how to protect yourself best, just give us a call here at the Philleo Agency, or you can reach us through Philleo.com.

Collapse of the building – if the building collapses due to wind or something like that, the builders risk coverage again will provide coverage for that. Fire – fire is a real common cause of loss while buildings are under construction. Again, builders risk covers that. If you’re building a commercial building many times the builder that you hire will include the builders risk coverage underneath his policy and add it to the bid and you pay for it that way or else you can purchase it on your own.

There are several companies that write builders risk coverage just by itself for commercial project. We certainly can help you with that here at our agency. On a homeowners policy, the way builders risk coverage is typically purchased is that you buy a homeowners policy and then you add an endorsement on for builders risk coverage. Sometimes insurance companies charge a flat fee for this. Sometimes they charge based on how big the completed value of the structure is going to be. So sometimes it’s a sliding scale, sometimes it’s just a flat charge.

But you want to make sure you have this added if you are building at your home or if you’re adding on, your policy may not cover additions so you may want to add the builders risk coverage to cover the period during construction.

If you have questions about builders risk or you’d like to talk to us about what the cost may be, whether it be a commercial project or residential, feel free to call us. You can reach us here at the Philleo agency and through Philleo.com.

“How much home insurance should I buy?” It’s a common question. There’s several different ways to look at this.

If you want to insure for what is known as “replacement coverage,” you need to keep in mind several different things. The biggest thing is: “how much is it going to cost me to rebuild this home or this building if there’s a total loss?” Your insurance agent can help you determine that: what’s known as cost estimates for construction. What we take into account is square footage, features of the home, site locations, and there’s a couple other items that we take into account, but those are the largest ones. What you want to do is you want to work with your agent, give them as much information about the home as possible so they can come up with an idea of what it cost to rebuild this home if there’s a total loss, fire, tornado, whatever.

There’s some other ways to go about it, too. If you go with a policy known as “actual cash value,” you’re basically insuring for what the building’s actually worth and claims will be paid on a depreciated value. That is a less preferred way than replacement. Replacement is always the way to go if you can get that coverage. It’s a little bit more expensive usually, but it’s usually worth it, because there’s no depreciation involved when the claim time comes.

A common people mistake make when they’re insuring their home is they think the assessed value or what they purchased the home for. Those are completely different things. With the insurance, we’re concerned about what it cost to rebuild the home. The assessed value is basically a fair market value. What you purchased the home. It was the purchase price. Those are different things than what the reconstruction costs are and that’s what you want to go off of. A good agent should be able to help you develop the cost of what it would cost to rebuild that home if there’s a total loss.

If you have any questions about how much insurance you need for your home, certainly you can feel free to call us here at Philleo Agency.

There are several different ways to insure items, whether it be buildings, your personal property, business property. Two of the most common ways are replacement coverage or actual cash value. I’m going to help you decide which one is right for you, and I’ll give you a little information on both.

Let’s start with actual cash value. Actual cash value is a depreciated value. It’s what the item is worth today. A good example would be most auto policies are settled on an actual cash value basis. Let’s say you buy a car for $30,000 and three years later it’s totaled up in an accident. Well, that car might only be worth $15,000 at that time. So they pay you the value of what it’s actually worth at the time of the loss. That would be an actual cash value settlement. It’s the value of the vehicle minus the depreciation or value of any item minus depreciation.

Replacement coverage is a little different. Replacement coverage is the preferred method of insuring buildings and business property and personal property. Most auto polices and boats and motorcycles are all set on an actual cash policy. Real estate and other policies are settled on replacement if possible. The way replacement works is you buy an item, and we give you the value of not what it’s worth when you bought it, not what it’s worth at the time of the loss, but what it costs to replace that item for you.

Whether it be rebuilding a home or whether it be replacing some personal property. So if you bought a TV and it was ten years old and maybe it was worth 50 bucks if you sold it, but to replace it maybe cost you $800, we’re going to give you the value for replacing the item if you have what’s known as replacement coverage on your property. It’s usually the preferred method to insure some item. Some items have to be settled on an actual cash value basis. Talk to your agent. They’ll help you decide which coverage is right for you, whether it be replacement or actual cash value, because there are some price differences and there are some requirements to meet for each coverage.

Hello. I am Ron Philleo with Philleo Agency Insurance. A lot of insurance companies are using credit scoring to determine your rates and your eligibility in order to be able to get insurance. Today I am going to talk to you a little bit about how that you can benefit you or how it may hurt you.

Why do they use credit scoring? Well credit scoring is just another underwriting tool. It is like your driving record or your claim history. Insurance companies have found there is a strong correlation between people with good credit scores and people who file less claims.

They way I like to explain it to a lot of my customers is they are very familiar with good student discounts. Students that get a B average or better usually get a little bit lower rate on their auto insurance. Well this is kind of like good student discounts for adults.

People who tend to be responsible in one area of their life with their credit scoring, making sure their bills are paid on time and take that part of their life seriously tend to file less claims, and they tend to keep a closer watch on things, which help minimize the losses for the insurance companies. That is why they give the credit scoring discount.

What can you do and how can it benefit you? Well, insurance companies may rely heavily on credit scoring. If you have a good credit score, you are going to want to use one of those companies because they are going to reward you and they are going to give you lower rates for your high credit score.

If you have an average credit score, well you will want to shop around because some companies, they way they do their credit scoring model, it can vary widely from one company to the next, so make sure you shop around. We recommend using an independent agent. They will have a lot of companies they can shop around for you.

And if you have a poor credit score or possibly a bankruptcy on your record, you are going to want to make sure you are talking with independent agents because they are going to have more options for you than what is known as a direct writer that can only write for one carrier.

If you do have a poor credit score, you might want to try to use a carrier that does not take your credit into account. If you have a bankruptcy, almost every company looks at that. But depending on your circumstances, that may be OK. Make sure you tell the circumstances of your bankruptcy to your agent so he can work with the underwriters to try and get you a policy that is going to work for you.

But credit scoring can be good, can be bad, can be indifferent. It depends on your situation. Work with an independent agent. Let them know what is going on in your life, the circumstances of the credit, and they will be able to help you. But we always recommend, again, working with your agent closely on these issues with credit scoring. They are happy to answer any questions you have.

And of course, we are happy to answer any of your questions here at the Philleo Agency. If you would like to contact us, feel free. You can go to Philleo.com or contact us by phone or fax.

Hello. I’m Ron Philleo with Philleo Agency Insurance. Today I’m going to help you decide whether you need to carry what’s known as collision and comprehensive on your vehicle, or it’s sometimes referred to full coverage.

Now, there’s a couple different aspects of the insurance policy you’re going to want to be aware of. Liability is coverage in case you injure or damage someone else’s property. You’ve got to have that. Your uninsured and underinsured motorist protection, in case somebody hits you and injures you, you’ve got to have that.

Collision and comprehensive covers the vehicle itself. OK? The collision covers if the vehicle is damaged when it collides with something, whether you hit something or someone hits you. And comprehensive covers things that are not collision-related, things like flood, hail, theft of the vehicle, vandalism, those types of things, where you didn’t actually collide with something but damage did occur to a vehicle.

Today we’re going to talk about if you need that full coverage, or that collision and comp.

Collision and comprehensive coverage, it’s going to depend, if you need them, based on the age of the vehicle and the value of the vehicle. Those are probably going to be the two biggest things. If you’ve got an old car, has a lot of miles on it, not worth much, you probably want to not carry collision and comprehensive because the payout to you is not going to be that much. You’re not protecting that much.

But you’ll also want to take into account your ability to absorb the loss. If $3,000 or $4,000 is going to make a big difference to you financially, and that’s all your vehicle is worth, well, you may want to consider having that full coverage on there to protect against those losses. If a couple thousand dollars isn’t going to hurt you much, and that’s all the vehicle is worth, you may want to save that extra money and not pay for that coverage and take the risk yourself.

So you may want to consider that. Your ability to absorb the loss is going to be a big thing. If it’s going to be a big hit to you, carry that collision and comprehensive.

Also, a couple of things to take into consideration, too. The area you live in. How likely is your vehicle to get stolen or vandalized? Or is it a high-congestion area where traffic accidents occur a lot more? You may want to take that into consideration. If you live in a low-risk area, maybe you’re better off without the collision and comprehensive.

And your driving record, too. If you have a bad driving record, you’re going to pay more for that collision and comprehensive coverage than you will for somebody who has a great driving record. So, if you have a bad driving record and you’re looking for ways to save some money, you may want to take off that collision and comprehensive coverage and absorb that risk yourself. But remember, though, you are absorbing that risk yourself, and if something happens, you’re not going to have any money from the insurance company if you decide not to carry that collision and comprehensive.

There’s some additional coverages as far as towing and rental you may want to add on to your policy, too. Talk with your agent, or call us. We’d love the opportunity to see if we can help you as well. We’d be happy to go through the coverage with you line by line and see if you need each coverage.

But make sure to check out our other videos at philleo.com. And please feel free to call or email or fax us with any questions or topics you’d like to see on the Video Insurance Agency.

How do I get homeowners insurance? How do I go about doing that? What do I need to provide to the agent and how do they get a quote and set up coverage for me?

That is a very common question. If you need homeowner’s insurance, you are buying your first home or your first condominium and you are not sure how to go about doing it, here are a few tips for you.

Call an agent. We don’t recommend trying to get insurance online or through an 800 number. With homeowner’s insurance that system has not been perfected yet. Using an agent who is going to act in your best interest is going to be your best bet.

So call an agent. We recommend using an independent agent. They can shop around for you and try to find the best coverages and the best rates. They represent more than carrier rather than just calling a company who just represents that one company.

When you talk to your agent they are going to ask you some features about the home. Be prepared to have the approximate year built, the square footage of the home. Of course you are going to need the address. And they are going to ask you a couple features about the home.

One of the things that they are looking for is the age of the electrical system, the age of the heating system, the roof. So you might want to have an idea how old these things are and what kind of condition they are in, because that will affect which carriers you can go to for insurance and how much you pay.

The other thing is too when you are setting this up, they are going to ask you a couple questions about the features of the home, like is there a pool? Is there a fence around that pool? Is there a diving board? Is there a slide? Those are some of the things you need to know. If you answer yes to some of those, you may end up paying more.

What area is the home located in? Is it in an area where there are fire hydrants and a fire department close by or is it in a rural area? Some of those things will certainly affect what you pay.

How old is the house? That will affect how much you pay as well. If it is a newer home, you will generally pay less than if it is an older home. Newer homes have different construction methods and better fire protection, and that is generally the reason why.

So there are a few factors that are going to go into it. But you need to have this information ready ahead of time when you talk to your agent.

And then if you find a company, a carrier, and a price you are comfortable with, that agent should be able to take care of all the paperwork with your mortgage company if you are financing the home and get all the paperwork to them so you can have a smooth closing.

I am Ron Philio with Philio Agency Insurance and thanks for watching videoinsuranceagency.com.

Hello, I’m Ron Philleo with Philleo Agency Insurance, and welcome to Video Insurance Agency. Today’s video is jewelry coverage. Jewelry coverage is covered underneath your homeowner’s policy, renter’s, or condo policy, but there’s very limited coverage for jewelry under those policies.

Typically a homeowner’s policy will cover $1,000 or maybe $2,500 per item, and usually there’s a maximum of $5,000 total coverage. That’s very common under a homeowner’s, condo, or renter’s policy.

So what do you do if you have more jewelry than that? A lot of people do. You do an item on your homeowner’s policy called “scheduling” a piece of jewelry. That means it’s listed separately on that policy.

Now in order to do that, you’re going to need an appraisal from a jeweler. That appraisal should include a brief description of what the item is, as well as the value of the item. You give that item to the insurance agent and they can add that on to your policy.

Why should I do that? Well, you may have more jewelry than what’s allotted underneath the basic coverages, but there’s also some other great benefits to scheduling a piece of jewelry.

If you have it scheduled on your policy, it’s covered for more types of loss. Typically under the basic homeowner’s policy, fire and theft are the main losses that the jewelry is going to be covered for. But there’s a lot more things that can happen to jewelry. We see these claims all the time.

A stone falling out of a setting on a ring. One of the most common claims we see. Basic policy? Not covered. When you schedule it under the policy, it is covered. You lose a ring down the rain. Basic policy, not covered; scheduled, it is covered.

I had a friend of mine whose ring fell in a campfire. We had it covered because we scheduled that policy. The diamond cracked with the intense heat. On a basic policy, that would not have been covered.

You’re at the beach and you lose your ring, it just slips off your finger or whatever. Again, covered it if it’s scheduled, not covered under the basic policy.

So there’s lots of reason why you want to schedule that piece of jewelry. It expands the coverage quite a bit. Also, there’s typically no deductible on that piece of jewelry when you have it scheduled. So if your basic policy has a $5,000 deductible, when you have that item scheduled, it’s not going to have a deductible. Usually they pay from the first dollar. That’s a big benefit.

So if you have more jewelry than the basic policy allows, engagement rings, wedding rings, those type of things, necklaces, make sure you talk to your agent. Discuss this. Jewelry losses are one of the most common losses we see.

It’s not very expensive to add jewelry coverage, either. So make sure you talk to your agent and see if that’s something you need.

I’m Ron Philleo with Video Insurance Agency.

Personal liability – It is a question of what is it and what does it do for me? Well, personal liability insurance most likely is attached to your home, condo, or renter’s policy if you carry personal liability.

It covers you on and off premises at your home. It will protect you in case a lawsuit or a claim is brought against you where you are responsible for the injuries to other people. And that is what your liability is really set up to do. It is to protect you in case you get sued, in case somebody else gets injured and brings a claim or a suit against you.

On and off premises, I mentioned. On premises, one of the most common ones, is like, say, a slip and fall. If someone falls on an icy sidewalk or driveway; if someone slips down the stairs at the home and gets injured, that is a very common claim. Dog bites are another very common liability claim. If somebody comes to your home and either a child gets bit or an adult gets bit and brings a lawsuit against you, your personal liability coverage is going to protect you against that.

Off premises – It doesn’t necessarily have to be on the premises where your home is. It can be off premises. Let’s say you are out golfing and you hit somebody with a golf ball and they sue you for negligence. Well, your liability coverage would protect you against something like that as well. So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be at your home. It can be off premises.

The big question is how much liability coverage should I carry? I recommend a lot. The reason is you don’t know what you are going to get sued for. If you take an item in your home and you decide not to insure it and it gets lost to a fire or a theft, well you have a set dollar amount that you can lose. Liability is not that way.

With liability you never know what you are going to get sued for. So, we encourage our clients to carry a lot of liability coverage. Typically a homeowner’s policy will come with $100,000 or $300,000, and you can usually increase that up to $500,000.

It doesn’t cost much to do this, so we always recommend carrying the maximum you can under your homeowner’s policy, whether it be $500,000, or some companies offer a million. Definitely carry high limits of liability. You just don’t know what you are going to get sued for.

You can also add what is known as an umbrella policy to increase that limit even higher if you need additional liability coverage.

Liability is very important. Make sure you have it and make sure you have enough of it.

I am Ron Philleo with Philleo Agency Insurance and thanks for watching videoinsuranceagency.com.

Hello and welcome to Coverage Concepts. I’m Ron Philleo with Philleo Agency Insurance. One of the calls we get frequently is, “I’m buying a new house or a condominium and my mortgage guy said I have to have homeowner’s insurance or hazard insurance. Can you help me with that?” Well let me explain what homeowner’s insurance does. When you purchase a new home or a condominium or an existing home, you want to make sure you have homeowner’s insurance. This is going to protect you in case the home is damaged due to an instance, say, of wind damage, tornado, or fire, or something along those lines. So we want to protect the structure itself.

We also have some other coverages that go along with the homeowner’s policy to cover all your contents inside the home, things like furniture, clothing, and anything else that goes inside your home.

We also cover loss of use of a home. So if there’s a fire and you have to live somewhere else temporarily, we will pay for additional living expenses for you. And liability, which is very important, comes with a homeowner’s policy as well, which covers you in case somebody were to slip and fall on your property and get injured and you get named in a lawsuit.

All those coverages come along with a homeowner’s policy. There are some more specialized coverages you can add on for jewelries and collectibles and guns. So there are options with the policies as well.

Make sure that you use an independent agent that will be able to shop around for you and select coverages. They should be able to educate you on what the policy does and help you select the coverages, and be able to shop around and make sure you are getting the best price in your homeowner’s policy too.

It’s also a good idea to group your auto and home policy together because you get some additional discounts.

I’m Ron Philleo with Coverage Concepts. Thanks for watching. Be sure to check out our other videos.