Blog Posts - Jim Oliver's Insurance Agency (805)985-5488

After an Auto Accident. What Should You Do?

10/1/2018

Lately I have seen an increase in the amount of time it takes some carriers to accept or deny liability after an accident. If you have Collision coverage on your vehicle, this is not a problem. You can begin repairs right away using your policy, and the worst case scenario is you will pay your deductible up front.

But if you drive paid for cars like me, and don’t carry Collision coverage, what should you do when someone runs into you? Smart phones have made this part much easier.

Get photos of the other car and be sure to get one with the vehicle’s license plate in it.
Take a picture of the other party’s driver’s license.
Take a picture of their registration.
Take a picture of their insurance card.
Get their phone number.

Of course the other party may want this information from you as well.

It can still take several weeks for their insurance adjuster to make a decision if they cannot reach their client to get a statement of what happened. But having these items will help, especially if the other party is uncooperative.

An additional item to get if possible is a police report. This is actually the best item you can get, but because police departments are stretched thin these days, they will not always send an officer out if there are no injuries or traffic being blocked.

The best thing to do though, is to stay out of the way of the knuckleheads although this gets more difficult everyday as they seem to be breeding very fast.

Who Needs Life Insurance?

8/15/2018

Life insurance is something few of us like talking about because using it would mean we are no longer alive. According to 2017 statistics from the industry groups Life Happens and LIMRA, while 70% of Americans consider life insurance a necessity for themselves, 41% have no life insurance at all.

So who needs Life Insurance?

When you are the family breadwinner. Life insurance can provide “income replacement” so that your family can continue to pay everyday expenses. Dave Ramsey recommends 10 to 12 times your annual salary.

When you are a stay at home parent. Life insurance would cover the cost of paying for services the parent does for “free,” such as child care.

When you are a divorced parent. A policy could cover the support payments that a divorced parent makes.

When you are the parent of a special needs child. Life insurance can make sure the child will have financial support no matter when a parent dies.

When you are a homeowner with a mortgage. A policy can cover mortgage payments, so your family doesn’t have to move if you die.

Someone with co-signed debt (such as student loans or credit cards). Life insurance could cover the cost of the debt.

If you are in one of these categories and do not have life insurance, you can give me a call, (805)985-5488, and we can discuss how to address your situation.

Does my policy cover rental cars?

7/19/2018

With summer here and people traveling we get 2 questions asked almost every day.

I’m off to Seattle and need to rent a car. Does my policy cover a rental car?
My parents have flown in for a visit. If I let them drive one of my cars do they have coverage?

These are both good questions and it is good to ask before your visiting parents have an accident in your minivan.

The short answer is, with your Farmers’ auto policy you have coverage extended for both of these events.

The coverage for you allowing someone to drive your car is called Permissive Use. The requirements are that the driver has a valid driver’s license and your permission to drive the vehicle.

Extending coverage to a vehicle you do not own is called Non-Owned Auto coverage. This is most commonly used for a rental car but I have also had claims for clients who had borrowed a friend’s car, had an accident, and it turns out the insurance on the car had lapsed. Oops! The coverage is equal to the best policy coverage you have on your cars and the deductible for comprehensive or collision losses is applied.

If you don’t have Farmers auto coverage then you will need to check with your carrier to see if you have these coverages endorsed on your policy as not all carriers include these. If you have any questions on these coverages or would like a Farmers auto quote, give me a call, (805)985-5488, or send me an email, joliver@farmersagent.com.
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Mad Max Drivers

6/15/2018

Over the last year it seemed to me that California drivers were driving much more aggressively, and a recent trip to Oklahoma City to attend my son’s college graduation confirmed this. Several times each day we had to navigate a section of road, that due to construction, had been thinned to one lane in each direction. I noticed the very first time we passed this section, that when the sign saying the left lane ahead was closed, everyone pulled into the right lane, and there was no one that took advantage of the open lane to get ahead of everyone else.
Now back here in California, I don’t expect that people will miraculously become more courteous, but it has made me mindful to drive more defensively. I give myself more space between me and the car in front and at red lights I don’t pull up to the bumper of the car in front. I have seen an uptick in accidents in parking lots and at street intersections and most could have been avoided if drivers were not in a big hurry and were paying attention to what they were doing.
In 1979 I went to see the movie Mad Max and enjoyed the wild scenes with all the vehicles trying to take each other out. Driving today, in 2018, it often seems I am driving in Mad Max’s world, only now the streets are paved and there aren’t any people hanging off the sides of the other cars, and I thank God for that.
Drive safely out there.
(805)985-5488
joliver@farmersagent.com

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

3/30/2018

It was 1974 and I was in high school. There was a girl, who I occasionally rode with in the car she was driving, and I recall she liked to talk but she always had to look at the person she was talking to. She eventually had an accident where she rear ended a car, and I’m certain it was because she was looking at the person she was talking to and not the road in front of her.

Forty years later, we have a more prevalent distraction, and that is the cell phone. People are funny creatures. I hear them complain all the time about how crazy people are driving yet not a week goes by that a client of mine gets in an accident where one of them was not paying attention, (that means distracted).

So put down the cell phones. Watch the road in front and use the mirror to avoid the guy coming behind you who thinks he is in a NASCAR race. Then the worst thing that will happen to you is you will be late getting to your destination because Mr. NASCAR collided with guy who was texting.

Preparing for the Unexpected

3/2/2018

It seems we, as Americans, expect life to run smoothly. Current events in the news and much of the vocal response to it, tells me we expect the government to make things go smoothly. The government’s recent foray into the medical insurance field, while helping some, disrupted the medical insurance experience for others. (My family falls into this later category). I know much of this is done with good intentions, but the realities don’t always bear out the good intentions.

I have learned in my life that if I want things to work out the way I plan them, then I must prepare for the unexpected. This is a broad topic, but today I want to look at only one part and that is what would happen to my plan with the loss of my income? The 2 most pressing parts of this are becoming disabled so I cannot do the job I have been doing, or dying so I cannot work at all. Both of these potential problems can be covered by insurance and often for not a lot of money.

If you have neglected to prepare for the unexpected in your life in either of these areas, and would like to start planning, send me an email, joliver@farmersagent.com or give me a call, (805)985-5488.

Do I Have Enough Coverage for My House?

2/9/2018

During and after the Thomas Fire my office received many calls from our clients questioning if they had enough coverage in the event their house was burned down. Of course this is a great question that should be answered before a fire is headed for your property. This question gets asked more frequently when home values climb and homeowners receive their renewal policy and compare the amount of coverage to the home’s value.

The important thing to know for our homes here in Ventura County is the dirt they sit on is worth a lot of money all by itself. Based on my home’s approximate value, less the cost to rebuild the home, the dirt it sits on is worth $300,000. And as we experienced in the recent Thomas Fire, while some homes did not survive the fire, the land underneath those homes is still there. Yet this brings up one additional point to ask your agent and this is, do you have coverage enough to remove the debris left by the fire? Before a new home can be built, all the remains left by the fire has to be cleared first.

As always, if you have any questions on this or any other aspect of your homeowner’s insurance, send me an email, joliver@farmersagent.com, or call me at my office, (805)985-5488

Why Do I Need Renter’s Insurance?

1/11/2018

In the aftermath of the recent Thomas Fire, there is one group where a majority suffered uninsured losses, and this is people who rented apartments or homes. Many people lost their personal belongings in the recent fire but their lives were also made more complex because they had to find a new place to live. This involves paying first and last month’s rent along with a cleaning deposit, but before they even sign a new lease, they probably spent several days to weeks in a hotel or short term shelter.

These additional living expenses are paid by the Insurance Company for those who had a Renter’s Policy. To file a claim for Additional Living Expenses, the whole place does not need to burn down. I have had clients that had to vacate their apartment for a week while the Landlord repaired a broken water pipe or because the downstairs neighbor had a fire creating some smoke problems in their place.
What is the cost of a basic Farmers Insurance Renter’s policy in the Ventura/Oxnard area? About $11 per month. And if you have your cars already insured with Farmers, and you figure the discount added to your auto policies, the monthly cost is even less.

So if you fit in the “Renter” category and do not yet have a Renter’s policy, you might want to look into covering this area of your life. If you have any questions on this or would like to know what your specific cost would be, give me a call, (805)985-5488, or send me an email, joliver@farmersagent.com

What is Happening with Health Insurance?

10/13/2017

It’s that time of year again when if you are on Medicare with a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, you can move to another plan if you want. Open enrollment runs from October 15th to December 7th for an effective date of January 1, 2018.

Open enrollment for Covered California begins November 1st and runs to December 15th so if you have been uninsured and want to get coverage, possibly with a premium subsidy, this is the time to sign up. A breaking news item here is that Anthem has announced they are leaving 16 of their 19 pricing regions in California. This will leave a big hole as 153,000 consumers will have to find another company to get coverage with.

A few years ago, because my health insurance had become so expensive, I began looking for an alternative. What I found was Health Sharing Programs where I could get help with my medical expenses for 40% of what my Anthem policy was costing me.

So what are Medical Cost Sharing Plans? Boiled down, medical cost sharing, or health sharing ministries, are a group of like-minded individuals that agree to come together and help each other pay their medical expenses. They offer faith-based programs for planning for unforeseen medical expenses. There is underwriting so not everyone will be approved, but if you do fit their profile, you can save substantial money over what you are paying in health insurance premiums.

If you have any questions regarding your health insurance circumstances, give me a call at (805)985-5488 or email me at jimoliversinsurance@gmail.com

Jim Oliver

Projects

9/29/2017

Have you ever had a project you wanted to work on but there was always something coming between the two of you? Well I have one of these. In 1977 I bought a Triumph TR-6 which I drove everywhere for the next 5 years. Sometime in 1990 I drove out of my garage and up the street, and when I stepped on the brakes, the pedal went to the floor. Turning around I drove back to the house pulling CAREFULLY into the garage. And this is where it has sat since that day.

After calling to me all these years I have finally answered and have decided to see if I can get the old gal back on the road. Amazingly, all the necessary parts are still available.

There is an insurance message in this story and that is, even though my Triumph has not been on the road for 28 years, I have insured the car for Comprehensive and Collision losses. If there is a fire at your home and a car in the garage is burned, the damage is not covered under your homeowner’s policy. If you hit the classic vehicle with your other car while pulling it in and out of the garage, that damage is not covered under your liability policy. I once had a claim where the gentleman was pulling one of his cars into the driveway, he accidently pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, ramming the car already in the garage and pushing it into the kitchen of his home. The parked car and the home were repaired on their individual policies and each policy deductible was applied.

So insure your classic vehicle even if you are only looking at it and occasionally waxing it. If you have questions in regards to insuring your classic vehicle, or if you think you might not be adequately insured, give me a call. I love talking about planes, trains, and automobiles. (Wasn’t that a movie?)

Jim Oliver
(805)985-5488
joliver@farmersagent.com