Tips for Preventing Electrical Fires

Believe it or not, there’s a powerful source of fire right inside your home: electricity. From old defective wiring to overloaded outlets, there are electrical fire hazards everywhere we turn.

As a matter of fact, more than 40,000 residential fires are caused each year by faulty electrical wiring, according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Tragically, defective electrical wiring systems have claimed an average of 350 lives a year for the past decade.

So, how can you ensure that your home's electrical system is fire-proof? Follow these priceless fire prevention tips from the National Electrical Safety Foundation:

• Check your electrical cords periodically. If you find any cords that are frayed or damaged, replace them. Do not place cords under rugs or carpet.
• Make sure that your outlets and/or extension cords are not overloaded. If you notice that your lights are dimming, your heater or kitchen appliances are not working properly or your television picture is poor, this could be a sign of an overloaded circuit. Add up the wattage of all the electrical devices plugged into each circuit and keep the total load well below the circuit’s maximum capacity.
• Do not use high wattage bulbs in light fixtures and lamps that cannot handle them. Always choose the proper wattage bulb for each light.
• If you have children in your home, install child-proof electrical outlets. This will ensure that a child cannot insert something into an outlet.
• If your home is more than 40 years old, you should consider updating the entire electrical system. Because older homes often contain aluminum wiring, they are more vulnerable to electrical fires. You should replace the old wires with copper wiring, which is more resistant to electrical fires.
• Consider installing ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) in your kitchen, bathrooms and utility rooms. A GFCI will shut down the electrical system if it detects an imbalance in electricity, which can help protect your family against electrocution.
• Install power surge protection devices for large electrical appliances and computers. A power surge, which is a sudden rush of voltage in an electrical circuit, can damage electrical devices plugged into the circuit.
• Avoid arc faults by installing arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI). Often caused by improper electrical connections, overheated wires or pinched wire insulation, an arc fault is a discharge of electrical currents across a gap that can lead to an electrical fire.

What to do if a fire breaks out

If an electrical fire starts at a wall outlet, pull the plug by the cord if you can get to it safely or turn off the main switch. If the fire is small, use your home CO2 fire extinguisher. NEVER douse an electrical fire with water.

If the electrical fire is large, evacuate your home immediately and call the fire department. Be sure to notify them that it is an electrical fire. They may be able to turn off the main power source, which could keep the fire from spreading.


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Miami Home and Auto Insurance: Umbrella Liability Insurance

Your Miami home and Miami auto insurance policies do not have unlimited benefits. In order to control the amount of risk these policies are exposed to, and in order to determine a meaningful premium, insurance companies must place limits on your coverage. These limits put a cap on the amount of benefits that can be paid out to you or anyone you are liable to through an insurable incident.

But just because an insurance company has declared a limit to your benefits doesn’t mean there is a limit placed on the amount of money you could be liable for if someone is injured at your home or in an auto accident in which you are determined to be at fault. It also doesn’t put a cap on the amount of personal property damage you may be liable for. So what happens to any amount that exceeds the insurance company’s limits? The insured must pay for that out of his or her own pocket.

Naturally, this strikes fear in the hearts of many who realize that there could be no upside limitation on the amount of money they may need to pay to another party in liability damages. But there is another resource that could help protect the wallets of many: umbrella liability insurance. 

Umbrella liability insurance is a supplemental insurance policy that can add an additional $1 million or more in coverage above and beyond your home or auto policy limits. In essence, umbrella policies fill the gap that’s left by traditional home and auto policy limits. 

With up to $5 million in additional coverage available, umbrella policies create a very generous cushion between your insurance policy limits and your wallet in the event that you are ordered to pay an expensive claim. These policies can prevent the liquidation of your personal assets in an effort to comply with a judgment to pay and best of all, umbrella policies are affordable. Because they aren’t responsible for the first $1 million or so in damages, they do not have high risk of claims, so they can be priced competitively.

Whether a liability claim comes from an accident or preventable oversight, you may be found liable for a great deal of money that your insurance policy won’t cover. An umbrella liability insurance policy can provide the additional layer of protection you need at a price you can afford.

Make sure you have the best rate for your Miami auto insurance with Allstar Direct Insurance & Financial Services today!

Miami Auto Insurance: 5 Things to do Before Buying a Used Car

Since new cars can lose more than 15 percent of their value once they are driven off the lot, buying a used car is often a smart financial decision to make. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to do any research before making the purchase. There are five important things you should do before you sign the papers and commit to buying a used car.

1. Talk to your insurance agent. Your Miami auto insurance agent can give you some guidance in deciding which type of car would be the most affordable as far as your insurance policy is concerned. This can be based on safety features, popularity with thieves and other factors. 

2. Get a Carfax report. A used car has a secret life in the past that it can never tell you about—but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t want to know about it. Carfax has a series of free and paid reports that will show you the history of your car with its previous owner or owners. This will help ensure that you don’t buy a lemon or a vehicle that may have been mechanically compromised in a way that is not completely corrected through repair or replacement. 

3. Compare safety options. Not only will a car with front and rear airbags, anti-lock brakes and automatic seatbelts help keep you and your family safer, it will also reduce your insurance premiums. Because used cars can be decades old, you cannot take for granted that the one you consider buying will have the safety features you want. Make sure you research what options are available in used cars of different years and different models so that you can better focus your search. 

4. Research car values. Before you spend money or get a loan for a used vehicle, make sure that you are paying a fair price based on its Kelley Blue Book value. Don’t trust that the company selling it is being completely fair; do your own research and, if necessary, get ready to haggle.

5. Take the car to your mechanic. Your mechanic can tell you whether or not a used car you are about to buy is worth purchasing or if it’s better left in the lot. He or she may charge you a small fee to give the car a look, but it would be well worth it to avoid potential repair fees beyond the basics that any used car buyer should expect.

Used cars may be a fiscally responsible choice, but it is still a big decision to make when buying one. Put the time in and do your research so you can drive off the lot with full confidence, an insurance policy you can afford, and an intact wallet.

Make sure you have the best rate for your Miami car insurance with Allstar Direct Insurance & Financial Services today!

Homeowners Insurance Declaration Page? What Is It?

A Declarations Page is the section of a policy that itemizes your pertinent information.  In detail, a homeowners declaration page will keep record of your name, your house address, your policy number, the effective and expiration date of your policy, the premium for the coverages you have obtained and the limits of each of those coverages.

Language you may discover on your Declarations Page:

Named Insured - this is the person or company that is recognized as the insured.

Additional Insured - sometimes you can add an extra person to your policy because particular coverages on the policy can be provided to them.  For example, if you lease a car, the leasing entity may need to be recorded as an additional insured.  The leasing entity is the titleholder of the car, as a result, they can be responsible for damages caused by the car.  Being made as an additional insured on your policy will cause your policy to provide some coverages to the leasing entity in the occurrence they are sued.

Endorsements - There can be times where standard policy language needs to altered. Rather than creating a new policy, the insurance company adds endorsements.  They are basically amendments added to the insurance contract that can modify the coverage or terms of the policy.  Your Declarations Page will detail which endorsements are relevant to your policy.

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How is my Homeowners insurance premium determined?

How insurance premiums are computed can vary from company to company. However, a majority of insurance companies will use the following criteria when deciding what to charge you for your homeowners insurance.

• Location – Insurance companies will consider the crime rate in your area, how close your home is to a fire department, and the likelihood for weather-related claims.
• Type of construction – Companies will check to see whether your home is made of wood, stucco siding, brick, or stone.
• Age of home – Newer homes can typically qualify for reduced rates. • Amount of coverage – the amount of coverage you purchase on your home, the contents within the home, and the liability limit will all contribute to the cost of your policy.
• Loss valuation – the way your policy will pay for your home in the event of a claim–whether it will pay the actual cash value or the amount it costs to replace the items lost.
• Deductible – how much of a loss you are willing to pay before you insurance begins to chip in. If you have a mortgage on your home, the greatest amount of your deductible will many times be imposed by your lender.

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Interpreting Windstorm Coverage

Interpreting Windstorm Coverage on Your Homeowners Insurance Policy

A lot of people see their home insurance policy as an all encompassing record that guards their home without considering the danger behind the insurable event. While this is basically true, your home policy in reality has many different deductibles that must be covered for different insurable events. A generally misinterpreted deductible is the windstorm deductible.

Windstorm Coverage and Deductibles

Occasionally winds are powerful enough to ravage your property. These winds create their own series of problems. You could risk buildings, roofs, inside contents, windows and more because of windstorm damage. Therefore, they have their own deductible and limits within your homeowner’s insurance policy. Limits can be imposed on property such as trees and fences.  A separate windstorm deductible is typically a portion of the dwelling amount.
Depending on the state you live in and the amount of risk you are exposed to, you might need an additional windstorm policy. To certify that you can afford a policy with adequate coverage you can adjust the deductibles to minimize some of the insurance company’s risk and your premium.

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Miami FL Home Insurance

There's a rising tide of media reports covering the sinkhole threat facing Florida's homeowners. Don't believe the rhetoric that we have a sinkhole crisis in Florida, because we don't. The more accurate assessment is we have a sinkhole claims crisis that has created a cottage industry that now threatens Florida consumers.

The Office of Insurance Regulation, recently reported to the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee that annual sinkhole claims increased from 2,360 in 2006 to 7,245 in 2009, totaling 24,671 claims throughout that period.

What's more troubling is OIR discovered sinkhole claims have surfaced in areas not historically wrought with sinkholes, like Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The number of claims from these two counties in 2009 was seven times what it was in 2006.

There is no geological cause behind these significant increases in claims, especially in areas that are not generally subject to sinkhole activity like South Florida. Yet, more than $1.4 billion in sinkhole losses were incurred over this four-year period beginning in 2006.

by Don Brown - Sun Sentinel

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