Insurance Category | Coverage Tips and Information Hub

Attention All Drivers! Watch Out and Yield for Bikers and Pedestrians

As you navigate the local streets in your vehicle, it is your responsibility to be aware of your surroundings. This is especially true when lots of bikers and pedestrians are around during the summer months. Making sure you yield when necessary and watching out for unexpected risks is the best way to take caution. This way, sharing the road won’t be so difficult.

Following the rules of the road will promote safety within your community. If you or someone else fails to do this, serious collisions and injuries could occur with bikers and pedestrians. As a driver, it is important to remember that a bicycle is considered a vehicle too, so it has the same rights as any other form of transportation. In addition, if you are near a cross walk, you should always expect someone to be walking across it. Here are some safety tips for you to follow as a driver to keep the roads safe:

Do not pull out in front of a stop sign too far. If you disobey this law, you could hit a cyclists or walker. Therefore, you should stop with enough room for anyone to get by.
At nighttime, always ride with the lights on. If you don’t do so, this puts you and others in danger of a collision.
If you are in a city, side street parking is common, as is bicycle riding and walking or running. Therefore, you should look outside before opening a door to avoid hitting someone.
Stop behind the white line at an intersection and not in the crosswalk.
When turning at an intersection, be sure to look both ways for pedestrians and bikers.

At Mancuso-Nowak Insurance Agency, we hope that by following these safety tips, you can stay in control on the road. We know that you may take every precaution to stay safe, but there is still always the possibility for an accident or injury. This is why you should have the proper auto insurance during unpredictable events. Our team understands that your needs differ from those of other drivers. This is why we are committed to building a life-long relationship with you. Let us guide you through this process so you may find peace of mind.

Your Insurance Renewal

Every year you receive your home and auto renewals in the mail or via email. What do you do with it? Do you even look at it? Or just at the premium? There are some key things you should consider when reviewing your insurance renewals:

What has happened to you/your family in the past year? Marriage? Newly licensed driver? Get a company car? Good report cards from school? All of this information should be updated with your insurance agent.

Are the correct vehicles listed on your auto renewal – look at model, year, drivers? Has anyone moved into or out of your house that should (not) be listed in the household as drivers?

Check the limits for your vehicles. We recommend $100,000 per person/$300,000 per accident for coverage #5 Optional Bodily Injury.

Are the lean holder and/or mortgagee information correct on your auto/home policy?

Is the dwelling value accurate on your homeowners policy? Have you made any updates or remodels to your house to increase the value? Added a home security system, pool, heating system (stove, etc.)? Replaced your roof?

Did you buy a new recreational vehicle – boat, jet ski, motorcycle, snow mobile?

All of these points should be considered when looking at your home and auto renewals. Adding Umbrella Insurance is also an excellent idea. It gives you $1M worth of coverage over both your home and auto insurance for just a couple hundred dollars a year. Our famous saying: You don’t need to be a millionaire to be sued for a million dollars. Please call us if you have any questions about your insurance coverage: www.mancuso-nowak.com.

Marriage and Insurance

The summer is the most popular time to get married. With marriage comes a lot of important financial decisions to make. One of these financial decisions is on insurance. Do you combine and have one auto policy or do you keep your policies separate? Do you need life insurance?

Here are some factors to consider:

Married couples have lower auto rates. Actuaries determine insurance rates. They base their rates on statistics. Statistically speaking, married people get in to fewer accidents. Non-married people actually get into twice as many auto accidents.
If you are buying a new house/condo now that you are married you can receive multi-policy discounts with your home and auto together.

On the other hand:

If your spouse has a bad driving record with lots of tickets and accidents, your premium will go up. So it would be better to keep separate policies.
If your spouse has a much more expensive car to insure than you, you may want to keep your policy separate.

Life insurance is always important to have, but once you are married many of your finances are combined. You make joint investments, such as buying a house/condo. With such large joint investments, it would be difficult for just one of you to make all the payments if something happened to your spouse. This is why life insurance is so crucial. It not a fun thing to do…thinking of a loved one passing away, but preparation is the best policy. Even if both of you have life insurance through work, it is also smart to buy a separate policy for each of you. If one of you loses his/her job, all the money invested into the company life insurance is gone. You don’t have life insurance anymore. On the other hand if you are putting money into personal life insurance policies they are always there. Think of your husband/wife, would you want them to struggle finically if something happened to you? Buying life insurance could be the most thoughtful and caring thing you buy!

If you have any questions on your policies after marriage, please call us and we can discuss all of your options! mancuso-nowak.com/coverage/personal/#/

* Beautiful wedding picture from one of our employee, Nina Arroyo!

Know the Facts: Personal Condo Policy HO-6

If you live in a condominium you will need an HO-6 Personal Condo Policy to protect your property inside of the unit. Your master policy will cover the building itself. Each master policy is different as to what the “building” actually is. Sometimes your responsibility is from the studs in and other times it is from the walls in, so make sure you are insured properly. To better understand what the different parts of the HO-6 policy we broke it down:

Deductible: $500 or $1,000. The higher the deductible the lower the premium. Policy coverage starts after the deductible is met.

Dwelling Coverage: You must carry at least $1,000 but it is in your best interest to cover at least the amount of the Master Policy Deductible, which is often $10,000. This provides coverage for interior walls, ceilings, floors. Be sure to add endorsement 17-32 if you are on ISO-Form, which is often called the All Risk Coverage Endorsement.

Loss of Use: If unit is uninhabitable, this will pay cost to rent elsewhere and provide meals, storage rental and any other added costs you incur.

Medical Payments: If someone sustains minor injury in your unit and requires medical attention with no legal action.

Personal Liability: Covers you and members of your household in a lawsuit. Will provide legal defense if you are served to defend an action where you did bodily injury or property damage to someone else.

Personal Property: Covers all of your personal belongings; such as, clothing, furnishings, appliances, sporting equipment, window treatments, electronics. Basically, everything not permanently attached to the building. Also provides coverage away from the premises. Insurance for your jewelry with an appraisal can be added to provide the best coverage.

Personal Property Replacement Cost Endorsement: Is allowing your belonging to be replaced at today’s cost vs a depreciated cost.

If you have any other questions about your HO-6 policy, please call us: www.mancuso-nowak.com

Distracted Driving

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. We all try to multi-task, especially while driving…one of the worst places to do it! On your way home from work, rushing to think of dinner plans, you decide ordering take-out is easiest. While driving you are searching your phone for the number or asking Siri to find it for you, not fully paying attention to the road. A car stops short in front of you and you end up rear-ending them. If you are lucky and everyone is ok, this is still an at fault accident that will give you a surcharge on your car insurance, just because you were trying to multi-task. Don’t. One call/text could ruin everything while driving. The statistics are there: you are 4x more likely to get in a car crash while using a cell phone or hand held device. Don’t assume that since you have a hand held device it is risk free.

1. Hands-free features in dashboards actually increase mental distraction

2. Using voice-to-text is more distracting than typing texts while driving

3. Drivers who text with their hands or voice (using speech-to-text systems) keep their eyes on the road less often and have reaction times twice as slow

The truth is using your cell phone in any form, is making you a distracted driver. Please don’t make a statistic out of yourself and take the focused driver challenge. There are many ways we can be distracted while driving, but using a cell phone is the number one distraction. So if you try to limit your phone use to while you are stopped or when you get to your destination, you will be a lot safer and so will the other people on the road.

* statistics from The National Safety Council

How to Prevent Slip and Fall Homeowners Claims

We often think of slip and fall insurance claims coming from businesses, but many claims are through homeowners policies. There are people almost every day coming on to your property: friends, relatives, neighbors, FedEx employees, plumber, etc. It is important that you keep your house as safe as possible, for both your family and visitors (invited or not).

Here are a few simple steps to help prevent slip and fall accidents:

Install railings on you stairs (with most insurance companies this is a must or you will not be covered)
Properly shovel and use a non-slip ice melt after storms
Use non-slip pads under all of your area rugs
Clean up spills immediately…kids are pretty tricky with where they drop things, so be mindful of all the places they are
Keep cords close to the wall out of the way
Properly light outside walkways
Fix all broken steps: outside and inside (make sure stair rugs are properly secured)
Use doormats both inside and outside of your house
Use non-slip mats both inside and outside the bath/shower

It is always a good idea to have an umbrella policy also. Our motto: You don’t need to be a millionaire to be sued for a million dollars! A $1M umbrella policy is an inexpensive way to give you that extra protection in case you have a slip and fall accident on your property and are sued. Call us for details www.mancuso-nowak.com

New MA Headlight Law

There will be a new Massachusetts state law that you must put on your headlights if you are using your windshield wipers. This law will be in effect starting April 7, 2015. This is a smart law that will help avoid accidents on darkly lit streets while it is raining.

If you are pulled over for this infraction, you will receive a ticket. The ticket price is not the big issue. The larger picture is that the citation for violating the statute is one of the surchargeable traffic law violations. So it will affect your premium for your car insurance.

Massachusetts and several other states have this law. It is helpful to check out this list of headlight laws in other states if you plan on traveling.

Remember windshield wipers on…lights on!

Be Safe and Have Fun on Spring Break

Spring Break is a part of college life. Many kids like to take road trips with their friends during spring break. As a parent you want to make sure your child is safe and they take the necessary precautions to avoid accidents. Here are some items to go over with your children before they leave:

– Check the Auto Policy. Is it active? Have you/him/her paid the premium? Are your children listed as users on your policy if they are driving your car? Do you have sufficient limits of liability? We recommend a minimum of $100K/$300K for line items #3, #5 and #12 on the policy.

– Have a tune up done on the car at least a week prior to departure. A tune up should find any issues with the car and make sure all fluids are sufficient.

– Check the tires. Use a pressure gauge to check the pressure. The recommended tire pressure is different for each car so check on the front door panel when you open the door or the owner’s manual.

– Know the cell phone laws in each state that the child would be driving through. Some states require hands free devices such as CT while other states don’t have a restriction as MA.

– Have a windshield/dashboard GPS or a factory installed GPS, make sure the child is not using his/her cell phone GPS as it is not safe to try to read a small phone while driving.

– No texting while driving!

– When your child reaches his/her destination make sure he/she remembers to lock up all valuables. Hotels have safes, use them!

– No crazy Facebook/Twitter/Instagram posts. They will come back to haunt. Think before posting.

– Always have a designated driver or a reliable taxi service in the area to get everyone home safely.

Keeping safety in mind during spring break will benefit both college kids and parents. Everyone will have more fun!

Home Flooding Due to Snow Melting

All this snow on the ground has to go somewhere. It will melt (hopefully!) and this water will seep in to the ground. Normally when snow melts the ground does not have a difficult time absorbing it, since it usually does so over a period of time. However, with the feet of snow we have outside there may be issues of the groundwater level rising and flooding into your basement. If you have only lived in your house for a short period of time and do not know if the water table is an issue in your neighborhood, contact the town.

Now is the time to check your basement and do some preventative work. Seal all of the cracks in the foundation floor and walls. Using polyurethane masonry caulk to fix the cracks, should be sufficient. If the cracks are larger than 1/4 inch use hydraulic cement, since it expands as it dries. Also address the windows in the basement and make sure they are properly sealed, as water cold leak through these also. After sealing all the cracks make sure you do not have any items that could be destroyed by water located on the basement floor. Good solutions for storing items in your basement: buy large durable shelving units, buy large plastic storage bins. Keep all goods in waterproof containers. Do not keep rugs, paper supplies or mattresses in the basement, as they will need to be thrown out if flooding occurs. If your house is known to flood, it would be a good idea to have a sump pump installed.

If your basement floods this spring, first do not walk through the water without making sure all the electricity to the area is shut off. When you have properly assessed the area, start getting the water out! A submergible surface pump can be used to get the water out and then use a wet vac to clean up the remaining water.

A homeowners policy does not cover flood damage, which is why it is in your best interest to try and prevent flooding. If you are in a flood zone or are prone to flooding, you may want to look into flood insurance. This is a separate policy you will have to buy. There is a 30 day waiting period for flood insurance to become active, so don’t try to get a policy right before a big storm or predicted heavy snow melting. There is an endorsement for your homeowners policy if you have a sump pump already installed at your house. This endorsement provides coverage for loss to property as a result of water which backs up or overflows from a sump pump.

Call us to find out more information on flood insurance or the Water Back-Up And Sump Pump Overflow Endorsement. www.mancuso-nowak.com.

Watch Out For Ice Dams!

With all the snow the region has been receiving many have snow accumulation on their home or building roof. This snow accumulation is dangerous for two reasons. The weight of the snow on any flat part of the roof could cause collapse and the other reason is ice dams.

Ice dams form when the heat from the attic melts the snow on the roof, but then stops melting when it reaches the eaves where there is no heat underneath. Consequently, this forms a solid barrier of ice on the edge of the roof. When there is an ice dam the melting snow on the roof above the ice dam on the roof allows water to find its way under the shingles on the roof. Water under the shingles can leak into your house and cause water damage inside. This could lead to numerous other issues such as mold and property damage. Another issue with ice dams is the formation of large icicles. Some of the icicles can get enormous and be a danger if they fall on a person or property below.

To prevent ice dams make sure the floor of the attic is properly insulated. This prevents the heat from the house getting up to the attic. Also, it is important to stay diligent to rake the snow off of your roof so there is no accumulation of ice from the melting snow. The best type of rake is made of aluminum and has wheels on it so it doesn’t damage your roof shingles. If you have ice dams and want to get rid of them, it is not a good idea to break up the ice with a hammer or other hard object, as you could damage your roof.

A trick from This Old House to melt ice dams (not recommended on a regular basis, as it could damage gutters because the chemicals are corrosives): take a pair of old nylon pantyhose and cut the legs off, fill with calcium chloride ice melter. Place the nylons on the roof of the house so the toe part hangs over the edge of the roof. This channels the melting ice water off of the roof.

If you do have ice dams and the water backup has caused damage inside your house, most of this is covered under your homeowners policy after your deductible is met. However, if your roof has not been maintained over the years and the leak is from poor upkeep of your property, the loss may not be covered. Please call us with specific questions on a loss to see if it is covered. The best way to avoid a loss is preventative action to insulate properly and remove snow from your roof! www.mancuso-nowak.com

Mancuso Nowak

Category: Insurance