Florida’s Auto Insurance Reform

Residents of many states are required to purchase personal injury protection (PIP) in their auto insurance policies. This coverage provides payment for medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages to the insured, passengers in the insured vehicle, and pedestrians after an accident. Some states have noticed a high incidence of fraud in the PIP claims filed by its residents. Florida is one of those states or, at least, it was before a new bill passed in March of 2012. This measure changes how PIP benefits can be used, and introduces penalties, time limits, and a new task force charged with finding the fraud in new PIP clams.

Changes Beginning July 2012

• Medical clinics that provide treatment reimbursed under PIP will be helps to more intense licensing standards.
• The long form accident report will be required in more PIP claims and a statewide anti-fraud task force will be introduced. The long form may make filing PIP claims more arduous for the average insurance customer, but it will help deter and expose fraud.
• Providers caught defrauding the Florida insurance system will be met with more penalties.

Changes Beginning January 1, 2013

• Injured individuals will have a 14 day limit to get their initial treatment after the accident.
• The severity of the injury will partially determined the benefits received. Additionally, certain medical professionals, such as physical therapists and chiropractors, will have a treatment cost limit of $2500.

The law also requires insurance companies to reduce personal injury protection premiums by at least 10% unless they file for an exemption and are approved.

It is hoped that these changes will reduce overall PIP expenses and fraud while also reducing driver insurance premiums. But the reduction to drivers’ premiums could be more substantial than just the 10 percent that insurers are required to reduce rates, because with fewer fraudulent claims, overall insurer expenses will fall and hopefully that savings will be passed on to consumers.

Don’t wait until the new regulations kick in. Give us a call at Allstar Direct Insurance & Financial Services today to see how we can reduce your Miami Auto Insurance premiums now. Then, any future reductions will just be the icing on the cake.

Why Timely Home Repairs Matter

At one time or another, every home owner must do repairs to their property—and that’s a good thing. Because home repairs make living at home more pleasant and efficient while also keeping the structure safe for you and your family.

Home repairs can also have an effect on your home insurance premiums because they may result in the prevention of your home’s further deterioration and they may even result in your home being brought into current code guidelines. Since codes often change to accommodate new materials that are able to better withstand weather and environmental damage, this can make your home less risky to insurers which will result in lower insurance premiums. But saving money on insurance isn’t just about the repair itself; it’s also about the timeliness of the repairs that you do.

The Domino Effect

The little things that happen around your home may seem small at first, but eventually, when left unrepaired, they can turn into much larger problems. For example, a small leak in your roof, left unfixed, can create mold, mildew and rot that weakens your home's structure. With a weakened structure, you may find your house is unable to stand up to wind, hurricane or storm damage. Then, when you have damage--if it is covered by your policy--you will not only have to come up with the money to pay the deductible for the damage but you will also have to deal with the inconvenience and expense of being displaced while repairs are done and you may be facing higher insurance premiums at renewal since you are now a higher risk.

Instead, if you had fixed the leak when you first noticed it, you could have made your home stronger at minimal expense, made certain that your family was not exposed to quickly proliferating mold spores (the removal or remediation of which is generally not covered by home insurance) and that your home was better able to withstand storms and inclement weather.

Timely home repairs can save you money now in preventing extreme damage to your home, and they save you money later by helping to keep home insurance expenses low. When you are ready to get insurance for your home and you are curious about all the ways that you can help get a low premium quote, give us a call at Allstar Direct Insurance & Financial Services. We can figure out what discount you may be qualified for now and help you maintain a lower Miami Home Insurance premium through the years.

The Value of Decreasing Premiums

Life insurance policies offer many different options for both premiums and benefits. One can choose a premium and death benefit that is level and remains the same over the term of the policy; one can choose a premium that increases with a death benefit that remains level; one can even choose a policy with a premium that decreases while the death benefit stays level.

This last option—a decreasing premium policy—presents a great way to plan because:

It banks on your money today—not tomorrow. You never know what life is going to throw your way and you never know how your finances are going to be affected. Choosing a decreasing premium term life insurance policy allows you to find a premium that you know you can afford now while ensuring a lesser financial burden with your future dollars, all without sacrificing your death benefit. This will allow you to better accommodate unexpected financial difficulties in the future.

You can easily continue coverage. The decreasing premium makes it much easier to ensure that you're able to pay your premiums through the entire term of the policy. Instead of lapsing your policy and trying to qualify for new, and increasingly expensive coverage every time your finances go through a shift that affects your budget, you’ll be able to simply continue with current coverage levels while automatically experiencing a reduction in premiums.

It enables you the freedom of adding more protection later. The term policy that you take out today may not offer enough death benefit protection for your heirs in a decade. When you choose a decreasing premium term insurance policy, you ready your future budget for the addition of new insurance protection as your family grows, your debt changes and the future needs of your children are considered.

To find out how decreasing premium term life insurance policy fits into your budget, give us a call at Allstar Direct Insurance & Financial Services. Together we can decide whether decreasing premiums, increasing premiums or level premiums are the best choice for you and your Miami Life Insurance policy.

Understanding Your Policy’s Declaration Page

Insurance policies are made up of many pages that explain, in detail, what your policy covers, what is excluded from coverage, how your premiums break down, and the meaning of various insurance terms. This can seem like a cumbersome document if you just want to absorb the details of your policy at a glance, which is why your policy also includes the very convenient declaration page or set of pages.

What is the Declaration Page?

As its name implies, the declaration page (or dec page) declares what your policy covers in a simplified format. It lays out the basic information including your policy number, the address of the covered property, and the basics of the coverage limits and deductibles.

Reading Your Declaration Page

A home insurance policy is likely to have a 2-3 page declaration with the following information:

• The first page outlines the major categories of coverage provided. It will also disclose your mortgager and all your insured locations. Finally, it will break down the premium costs for each major section of coverage.
• The second page spells out any special endorsements your policy carries. This can include endorsements for computer coverage, jewelry coverage, endorsements for certain home business activities and more.
• The second page will also likely explain whether your personal property is covered as actual cash value or replacement costs and it spells out some of the surcharges and assessments on the policy, including any donations made to state catastrophe funds.
• The third page generally carries certain disclosures. These disclosures could discuss many different topics such as deductibles, suggestions for specialized insurance additions that are not covered by your policy including flood insurance and law and ordinance coverage, and information about inflation guard options.

Your declarations pages are a very handy way to glance and get information about your policy, but they are not built to offer the same complex information as the actual policy pages. If you have questions about what your policy does and doesn’t cover, feel free to give us a call. Not only can the agents at Allstar Direct Insurance help you better understand your Miami Home Insurance policy, we can also help you determine whether your coverage is sufficient.

Florida Residents: Do You Need to Increase Your PIP coverage?

The personal injury protection in your Florida auto insurance policy pays for the medical bills, lost income and other expenses associated with an injury that happens to you and certain passengers you have during a car accident. This coverage is required for all Florida drivers, and it’s a popular benefit, but one that is often purchased in minimal amounts in order to satisfy regulations alone.

The Dangers of Minimal PIP

Buying just the minimum amount of PIP required by law is not a savvy financial move. In Florida, your insurer will likely set your PIP limits at $10,000. Although, with the cost of medical treatment expecting to rise as much as 8.5 percent in 2012, that $10,000 limit will soon be outdated if it isn’t already.

Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping that the state minimums provide sufficient protection for you and your passengers, it may be smarter to increase your limits. You can do so by adding additional PIP coverage or adding Medical Payments coverage.

Options when Increasing PIP

When you increase your PIP coverage, you may choose coverage that excludes ‘work loss.’ That means that the additional PIP benefit will not reimburse you or your family members for any income lost as a result of the injury. This will make the expense of the added PIP easier to bear, but if you don’t have sufficient vacation or sick time benefits or a disability policy, you could be creating further financial problems by choosing this option.

Another important consideration in PIP coverage is the deductible you’ve chosen. You can choose from a PIP benefit with no deductible, or a deductible between $250 and $1,000. While your deductible might seem affordable at first glance, it’s important to remember that auto insurance deductibles are out-of-pocket expenses that the insured is not responsible for per year, but per incident. So if you have multiple incidents within a year you may need to pay your PIP deductible several times.

If you have questions about potential shortfalls in your PIP coverage, or any other aspect of your insurance plan, let us know. We can talk to you about the average amount of the claims in your area and determine whether your current Miami Auto Insurance is sufficient to meet that average and, if not, how the experts at Allstar Direct Insurance can fix it.

Permanent Life Insurance: Fixed vs. Variable

When you choose a permanent life insurance policy over a term policy, the decision making process is not quite over. You will need to pick whether you would like a fixed life insurance policy or one that is variable.

Variable Policies

Variable insurance policies allow cash values to grow based on the growth, or decline, of the underlying sub-accounts. Sub-accounts will move based on the investments they are made up of.

Variable life insurance policy sub-accounts can be comprised of bond investments, stocks, and more. They also range in risk from high to low so that you can find one that best suits your tolerance.

It is always important to remember with variable policies, there is no guarantee made of minimal growth. While you won’t lose any of your guaranteed death benefits, you could lose cash values due to poor sub-account performance.

Fixed Policies

With a fixed life insurance policy, your insurance company guarantees a certain amount of interest to be paid over the years. While this limits your growth to an extent, and could net less growth than variable policies, they also provide a guarantee of growth that may make some policyholders more comfortable.

Which Policy is Right for You?

There are many factors you should consider before you determine which life insurance policy is right for you. You need to assess how important cash value growth is to your financial future and what you want the growth for.

If you want conservative growth and must have it in order to realize certain financial goals then you might feel more comfortable with the relative security of a whole life policy.

If you are willing to take on some risk in order to maximize potential gains and comfortable with the flexibility of sub-accounts that you can change, then a variable policy might be a better fit.

If you aren’t sure which type of life insurance policy will work best for you, give Allstar Direct Insurance & Financial Services a call. We can help walk you through all the pros and cons of the various policy options and help determine which one best fits into your financial life.

Boat Safety Tips and Insurance Options

According to a report by the U.S. Coast Guard, there were 4,730 boating accidents resulting in $36 million in property damages in 2009. While accidents decreased about 1.2 percent from 2008, there were still more than enough accidents that the general boating community should be concerned about following proper safety guidelines and buying the right kind of insurance coverage for their vessels.

Boat Safety Tips

Boat safety tips can vary based on the type of boat you own, however three basic safety tips can help any boater avoid accident and injury.

1. Always wear a life jacket: The North American Safe Boating Campaign suggests choosing a life jacket style based on the activities that you are going to take part in as you wear it. That way you can wear the most comfortable and effective jacket for that particular activity.
2. Don't drink and drive: Boats are like cars at sea, and drivers still need to be in control of all their faculties in order to properly operate them. While passengers on the boat may decide to drink (while wearing life vests) the driver should always abstain.
3. Boat in familiar waters: GPS devices might make you feel more free in exploring, but staying in waters you are familiar with will help you keep yourself and your passengers safe while preventing accidents from boating on unfamiliar terrain and will prevent you from getting lost in the event of GPS failure.

Insurance Options

Just as with auto insurance, boat insurance offers the option to buy many different types of coverage, including:

• Collision
• Comprehensive
• Uninsured and underinsured watercraft
• Bodily injury liability
• Property damage liability
• Medical payments
• Roadside assistance

But boats do have different needs than automobiles so there are also some special coverages designed just for boat owners, such as:

• On-water towing
• Personal effects (like contents coverage in a home insurance policy)
• Fishing equipment coverage (this is a separate coverage from personal effects)
• Repair cost endorsement (an endorsement to a boat insurance policy that covers repair work on your boat)
• Boat trailer coverage

Understanding your insurance options is just half the battle. To actually have the tools to fight in the battle, you need to meet with an agent and begin the process of getting coverage. Boat often, boat safely, and boat protected with the right boat insurance.

Find out more about Miami Insurance by contacting Allstar Insurance Agency today!