It’s spring time here in North Carolina. It’s also the time of year when the weather brings unexpected disasters. Many storms begin to appear and flash flooding becomes a serious problem for many. The next 6 months are filled with the possibility of serious damage from flooding. As hurricane season approaches it gets worse.

Hopefully, you know that damage from flood is NOT covered by homeowners insurance. That’s right. If your home is flooded, the cost to replace your belongings and repair the damage is coming out of your pocket unless you have a separate flood insurance policy.

Fortunately for most homeowners,  flood insurance protection is very cheap and can cost as little as $129 a year if you are located in a low to moderate flood zone. For more expensive homes and if you want coverage for personal property, it can cost a bit more.

What most homeowners don’t understand is that flooding can happen anywhere. Do you remember what happened in the Atlanta area in 2009? 18 inches of rain in 18 hours caused 20,000 home to be damaged and the rain over the next several days made the situation worse. Homes were flooded up to 14 feet and flooding began in just a few hours of the storm. You see, it can happen right here in North Carolina. The topography in the Atlanta area is very similar to ours. Don’t think it won’t happen here.

Important: There is a 30 day waiting period before flood insurance coverage takes effect. Call today.

Call 866-869-3335 Today For a FREE Flood Insurance Quote!

Insurance for teen drivers can be complicated and in fact, many insurance companies don’t want to insure teen drivers. The truth is they present a huge liability due to the high cost of insurance claims inexperienced drivers cause. Some companies will cancel you if your teen causes an accident and others will charge outrageous rates for teen drivers.

This why you should be insured with an independent insurance agent that knows the marketplace and what companies have the most favorable options at the lowest cost for teen drivers. That is the first way to save on your car insurance for your teen driver. The second way to is to…

Increase Your Deductibles On Your Teen’s Car

There are two good reasons why this makes sense. First, the savings. By increasing your deductibles on comprehensive and collision for your teen’s car, you can reduce your premium by up to a few hundred dollars. We recommend at least a $500 deductible for comprehensive. This is for damage other than collision such as hitting a deer, cracked windshield or theft. We also recommend increasing your collision deductible to $1,000.

The second big reason for increasing your deductibles is it is not a good idea to report small claims to your insurance company especially, if the agent is an employee of the company. I’ll get into this topic in a minute. Auto insurance companies know that if your teen has a minor accident like say, they back into a light pole in a parking lot, they are more likely to have more accidents and more expensive accidents. Statistics prove this.

Since the insurance companies know this, they are more likely to cancel your car insurance coverage forcing you to find insurance elsewhere. And to make it worse, once you’re cancelled by one insurance company, it’s difficult to find another company with competitive rates. It’s like having a big “X” on your chest. No one wants to insure drivers who were cancelled by another company.

So, since you don’t want to turn in small claims, you may as well increase the deductible and enjoy the savings.

Now back to the part about insurance agents who are employees of an insurance company. These agents are required to report to their employer of every inquiry regarding claims. Even if you simply call to get their advice, they have to report regardless of whether or not they pay anything. Then this is reported to C.L.U.E. where all insurance claims are reported. This is kinda like a credit bureau for claims. Anytime you shop for insurance, a C.L.U.E. report is pulled to determine whether you will be accepted or not and this information also will determine if any insurance points to be charged.

How do you know if your insurance agent is an employee? The easiest way to know this is by the number of insurance companies they offer insurance from. If it is only one company, they are most likely an employee of that company. Another way is to watch TV. They advertise heavily and you already know who I am talking about.

What’s the best way to make sure your car insurance is with an agent that works for you? Find an independent insurance agent that represents several companies. They can shop your car insurance coverage for you with multiple companies giving you the lowest rates plus an agent that looks out for your best interests!

For a free rate comparison for your family’s car insurance and any other insurance needs, call my office at 866-869-3335 today.

Tom Wiecek, Paramount Insurance Agency

We are your teen driver insurance protection specialists

This is a common question I get when speaking to parents of teen drivers about their car insurance. Unfortunately, many parents are advised to do this either from a friend or an insurance agent that doesn’t know what they are talking about. They think if they buy a separate policy for their teen driver, the rates for their other cars won’t go up.

Yes, that part may be true, but the rate for the teen driver’s car goes way up sometimes as much a 3 times higher. This happens for 2 reasons. First, there won’t be a multi-car discount for the single car on the teen’s car insurance policy and second, you will have to buy a policy from a “high-risk” insurer. “High-risk” insurance companies charge rates that are more than double the rates of a standard company.

And if that isn’t reason enough to add your teen to your own car insurance policy, here’s another.

It can cost you much more than insurance premiums if your teen causes a car accident!

The most dangerous problem insuring your teen with a high-risk insurance company is that you can’t buy limits high enough for a teen driver. The liability limits offered by these companies are usually no higher than 100,000 per person, 300,000 per accident for bodily injury and 50,000 for property damage.

Some parents think that’s fine- that they will only sue their child’s insurance company if there’s a big claim. Wrong- a good attorney will go after the parents too. As long as the child is living in the parent’s home or is a dependent, any good attorney will drag you into the lawsuit.

There is something you should know about auto liability for teen drivers. A teen driver is 5 times more likely to cause an accident and the cost of their claims are 3 times higher that an experienced driver. That means your teen is at high risk of causing an accident and the cost of the claim can be much higher leading to the need for higher limits for bodily injury and property damage liability insurance.

If your teen only had liability limits of $100,000 per person, $300,000 per occurrence for bodily injury and $50,000 for property damage, what would happen if your teen caused an accident where someone driving a new BMW was seriously injured and had medical bills of $250,000? You are going to get sued!

The smartest way to insure your young driver is too insure them on your auto insurance policy with the highest liability limits you can get. It is also recommended that you carry a personal liability umbrella with a million dollar limit. This is the least expensive way to protect your assets from a lawsuit.

For a personal protection risk assessment, call 866-869-3335 and we’ll help you get the right insurance protection for your family at the lowest cost.

Whatever preppers are preparing for, they seem to have given their preparations a lot of thought. Preppers and Insurance agents have to think about everything that COULD go wrong and take steps to prepare for anything that could go wrong.

Let’s face it, an insurance policy is limited to only providing preparation relief in the form of dollars and first rate legal protection. A prepper’s program can be inclusive of not only holding a good insurance contract, but preppers go beyond that by stocking up on water, food, water to share, food to share, essentials like batteries, lighters, flashlights, blankets, firewood, propane, medicine, medicine to share, clothing to adapt to the weather conditions if power is out, extra gas, extra charged cell phone batteries, short-wave radio, you name it, etc. A prepper is like an insurance agent on steroids.

A prepper is not only concerned about himself and his/her family, but he/she is concerned about their neighbors close by- especially his neighbors who might be without power, those that are elderly, sick, hungry, and those that have the inability to defend themselves from any and all human threats. A prepper is careful to not let themselves be controlled by the television like some many others allow it to control them and their thoughts. A prepper’s entertainment is getting out, getting to know their neighbors, and becoming friends with their neighborhoods who can trust and rely on them to watch their backs if necessary.

Some who prep, prep because they believe there may be socio-economic storm clouds and socio-economic storms ahead. Some prep because they have experienced flooding, or hurricanes, or winter power outages that crippled: their ability to travel to work, to the grocery store, their ability to stay warm, to cook, to wash clothes, and to see inside their homes in the evening. Remember the ice storm of December 2002? Thousands in the piedmont North Carolina were without power for weeks.

So I’m fond of preppers because they are so much more prepared than the average person in this country we live in. I come from an insurance background. I’m an insurance agent who specializes in helping small businesses and individuals take precautions to protect themselves from financial loss due to accidents and mishaps that cause property and financial loss with hopefully the right dollar amounts specified in their insurance contract.

Insurance can never compensate for the human loss of life, limb, and/or disability. I can’t pretend to have someone believe from me that insurance can water & feed someone instantly, keep someone warm at night, deliver medical care & medicine, & deliver comfort and care for people in desperate situations.

I can’t pretend that insurance is the “end all” of the best solutions, but I can tell you that it still has a lot of relevance today and will in the future and if your insurance program has a tiny gap in coverage, the loss of financial reparation that tiny gap could have provided might set you way back in being able to achieve your financial goals and dreams as a small business owner.

What does prepping have to do with insurance contracts? I think the world of prepping is inclusive of insurance, whereas I think the world of insurance may not necessarily yet be inclusive of the world of prepping. But it can be. So I think an individual’s personal insurance protection program and their business insurance protection program can reflect their values about what is most important to protect with insurance and what is not.

My goal as your insurance agent is to be your source in helping you weave a strong fabric of protection (especially legal protection) for you that is immensely more valuable than your actual cost and that could you save you thousands of dollars in protection if we can close those gaps that you could easily fall through.

At Paramount Insurance we think a little like preppers in regard to your insurance program. We are constantly thinking about you being covered well in a worst case scenario. That’s just what we do. We sit down with our clients and make a practice to periodically review their insurance programs. Our lives and situations change all the time. Our insurance must adapt to that change, or gaps in coverage will emerge.

Call and let’s set up a time to review your coverages and offer you our free protection review. If we can’t save you money, we’ll help you improve your protection. Perhaps we’ll earn your business down the road whether you decide you want to go with us or not.

Take care and have a safe, warm, and spiritual holiday season! -Hayes

I understand insurance is not the favorite topic of most. People just assume they are protected and after talking with hundreds of parents over the years, I’ve found many have no idea about their exposure to a lawsuit, what liability limits they carry,  if they are covered if an uninsured driver hits them or what happens if their teen driver makes a serious mistake and seriously injures or kills someone.

These are some of the lessons we share with parents and their reaction is always the same. “Why didn’t my agent tell me this?!!” Again, I don’t know why agents won’t share the truth about insurance but I don’t want any of my clients asking me this question… especially after something bad happens!

So what should you do? Regardless of whether you have a teen driver in your household or not, you should pull out your policies and call us to review all of your coverages. Even if you’re not one of our clients, we’ll be glad to help you better understand your insurance.

By reviewing your protection periodically with a North Carolina licensed insurance agent, you’ll learn about what’s covered and what’s not along with the specific limits your policies will pay for potential losses. Plus, we may find ways to save you money on your insurance. We have some tricks that can get the right protection for you and get it at the lowest cost.

Go ahead and pull out your car insurance and your homeowners insurance policies. If you have a liability umbrella policy (you should if you have a teen driver), pull that out too. Then call our office and one of our agents will be glad to help you better understand your insurance and help you get the right protection at the lowest cost.

By the way, the next StreetSafe Teen Driving Class is Saturday, December 10th at Western Guilford High School. Visit www.streetsafeus.com to register. Classes fill up very fast so, don’t delay!

Vehicle Maintenance- Check all of your fluids (anti-freeze, windshield washer, oil, power steering and brakes). Make sure you have good tread on your tires or consider mounting snow tires. Be prepared for an emergency by packing a kit containing a blanket, flash light, matches, flares, bag of sand for traction, windshield scraper and brush, toolkit, bottled water, booster cables and a rope.

Driving Conditions- The majority of auto accident insurance claims occur during tough winter driving conditions. Icy and snow covered roads if driven upon must be done so carefully. If you’re vehicle has anti-lock brakes, be sure to slam the brake when needed without pumping to allow your anti-lock braking system to work properly. Take turns slowly and never too sharp.

Increase Following Distance- The 3 second rule should be increased 1 second for each additional hazardous condition. So, if you are driving at night, add 1 second to your following distance. If you are driving at night in the rain, add another second.

Reduce Speed- As conditions worsen, so does the ability to control your vehicle. Simply driving slower allows you to better react to hazards as they arise.

Don’t drive- When in doubt, stay at home. Unless it’s an emergency, it’s not worth the risk of getting hurt in an accident and having an insurance claim.

What to do if you have an auto accident insurance claim.

If you do have the unfortunate luck of getting into an accident and if everyone is okay, the first thing you should do is call our office. We’ll walk you through the entire process and help you get your claim handled fairly and fast. Here are some of our suggestions:

• Call 911 if someone is injured
• Take pictures with your cell phone
• Never admit fault
• Gather witnesses and wait for police to take their statement
• Collect the other driver’s insurance company name, policy number, claims phone number and agent’s name. Also get the other driver’s name, drivers license number, address and phone number
• If your vehicle is not drivable, call a towing service

We at Paramount Insurance, wish you a safe and fun-filled holiday season. Feel free to give our office a call at 866-869-3335 if you have any insurance questions or needs.

Tom Wiecek, President
Paramount Insurance Agency

Now would be a good time to take care of some basic chores to assure your home is ready for those wintry blasts.

1.Tune up your furnace and humidifier- Call in a professional to make sure that your furnace is working up to par; with the high price of natural gas and electricity, it wouldn’t take much of an efficiency loss to justify that maintenance visit. And don’t forget about the humidifier, or you’ll be snapping your honey with static electricity all winter long.

2. Turn off water to outside spigots– Now is a good time to turn off water to your outside spigots, then open them from the outside to let any remaining water drain out. You don’t want to wake up some morning to find that the water within those pipes had frozen and burst your water line.

3. Check your flues- Creatures like squirrels and birds have fatal attractions to the flues of fireplaces, furnaces and water heaters. Since these flues are meant to carry away noxious fumes, you certainly don’t want them clogged up.

4. Confirm outside drainage is clear- You don’t want water pooling next to your foundation or across your sidewalk in the winter, so take advantage of the next rain to walk the perimeter of your house and check that water is draining away properly. You might find that in your summer gardening you blocked some of the natural drain paths.

5. Clean your gutters- Clogged gutters can cause damage in multiple ways; the frozen water can weigh them down until they sag or fall off. The water can overflow on the home side of the gutter, allowing it to freeze against siding. Overflow on the outside can form icicles that dangle precariously overhead.

6. Check your roof shingles- If you aren’t comfortable walking on your roof, use a pair of binoculars to check that shingling is intact. Also scope out the flashing around your chimney, sanitary stack and other exhausts for signs of leaks. If you can access the underside of your roof in your attic, check there for any signs of leaks, too.

7. Check your siding/exterior walls- There are many places that your exterior wall is breached, where water lines, phone lines and cable television lines come into the house. Caulk around these openings as needed. Also check your siding, repairing and sealing any that have come loose.

8. Check outside lights- Before the season of interminable night arrives, check your outside lights to make sure you can illuminate the exterior as needed. Otherwise you might end up shoveling in the dark.

9. Fix up your walkways- If you have holes or uneven sections in your sidewalk, fill or align them before the first winter snow arrives. Hidden by snow, pedestrians won’t be able to see these dangers until they tread on them, and such sections will be much harder to shovel, too.

10. Remove overhanging limbs- If you have trees near your house or outbuildings, this is a good time to remove any limbs that, if ice-encrusted or snow-burdened, might come down and cause damage.

11. Caulk your windows- The caulking that seals the window within the window frame, and the window frame within the wall, could dry and flake away, leaving openings for the cold to penetrate your house. Caulk as needed around the individual frames and around the perimeter of the window unit.

12. Weather strip your doors- Light a candle or stick of incense and watch the smoke to help determine the source of air leaks, usually around the door frames. Replace any faulty or inadequate weather stripping, and don’t forget the door sweep (at the bottom of the door, sealing the door and threshold).

13. Insulate- If your attic isn’t well insulated, some time and money spent here can make a big difference in your winter heating bill.

14. Add/reprogram a programmable thermostat- If you’re not home all day, why heat your house to the same level you would when you are home? And dropping the temperature a couple of degrees while you’re asleep can help save some money, too.

15. Reverse ceiling fan direction- One disadvantage to our modern taste for high ceilings is that hot air pools near the ceiling. To counter this, simply reverse the direction of your ceiling fan to circulate this air down to floor level.

16. Stock up on salt or salt alternative- Don’t wait until the whole town is buried in snow and the shelves at the store are empty; stock up now so you can keep those walkways and driveways clear and safe.

17. Shop for a generator- If you’ve struggled through a winter blackout, or even if you haven’t yet, you might want to buy some backup protection. For less than the cost of throwing out a freezer full of meat, a small portable generator can help keep your most essential electrical appliances running. Shop now and you’ll find a good selection.

18. Check your fire extinguisher - Soon it will be the season of fires in the fireplace, candles in the window and holiday decorations festooning the house. Don’t go into the winter without working fire extinguishers, and make sure everyone in the household knows where they are and how they works.

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Of course, your homeowners insurance covers you for most causes of damage to your home but it makes good sense to take these simple steps to prevent something bad from happening in the first place.

Fireplaces- Early one evening last fall while I left my house for a walk with my dog, I noticed flames coming out of a neighbor’s chimney. I quickly ran to their house to alert them of the danger. My neighbor came to the door and after I told him what was happening, he said he just lit a fire and didn’t realize flames were coming out of his chimney. Apparently, birds or squirrels built a nest in his chimney and fortunately, it soon burned out. The nest appeared to be small and was near the top of the chimney so the flames didn’t cause any damage. Every year before you begin using your fireplace, have your chimney inspected for lose bricks and debris then have it swept by a professional.

Gutters- Clogged gutters and downspouts can cause serious damage to your roof especially if left uncleaned for an extended period. If your gutters can’t drain properly, water builds up and seeps under the shingles and can cause the roofing materials to rot and leak. This is the time of the year to thoroughly clean the leaves and debris from your gutters. Be sure to think safety first and use a sturdy ladder, small hand rake and have someone nearby in case you fall.

Safety Equipment- As winter approaches, the danger of fire becomes more of a concern. The majority of homeowners insurance claims from fires occur this time of year. You and your family’s safety is at a higher risk. Change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and test them to make sure they operate properly. Also check your fire extinguishers to be sure they are full and ready for use. It’s a good idea to remind everyone in the home where they are located in case of emergency.

Heating System- It is recommended to have your heating system inspected every year before use. A good inspection will reveal any cracks in the furnace that can cause carbon monoxide to escape or a fire to occur. Replace your filters as well.You’ll also want to make sure there are no combustible materials like paint cans or solvents near your furnace.

Roof- Check your roof for possible leaks. Seal cracks in the joints and make sure you don’t have any broken shingles. As winter brings snow, many homeowners insurance claims occur due to melting snow seeping into cracks and underneath shingles.

Clothes Dryer- This is a good time to avoid another fire danger. Disconnect your clothes dryer vent and vacuum out any lint that may have collected. You may want to simply replace the tube to make this task easier. Lint is a common cause of fire and your clothes dryer must vent properly to avoid heat build up.

As your insurance agent, I want to help you protect what’s most important. I hope you find these fall home maintenance tips useful and will help you have a safe and trouble-free fall and winter.

Have any thoughts or tips to share? Please leave your comments below…

And since I work for you and I am not on the payroll of a single insurance company, I have the ability to tell you what happens. I don’t have a corporate giant telling me what I can do and can’t do. But first, here’s a short story about how someone almost learned the hard way how insurance can bite you…

Recently, a homeowner called our office and asked for a homeowners insurance quote. After discussing her coverage, we found that she was being non-renewed by a competitor of ours for having too many claims. After looking over her CLUE (claims history) report, we discovered that she had 3 claims in the past year. One from a broken water heater that damaged her floor for $750. Another from a tree limb that fell on her roof for $350 in damages and the last was vandalism damage less than her deductible. Her insurance company only paid a total of $1100 in claims and canceled her. Sounds crazy, huh? The truth is that this is not very uncommon.

Although the amount the insurance company paid was low, the frequency was higher than what the insurance company’s guidelines allowed. The worst part of this story is that she is going to have a very hard time finding an insurance company that will insure her. Once cancelled from a company and with so many claims in a short time, very few companies will take on a new client with this history. The companies that will insure her are typically very expensive and their policies will lack important coverages.

So how did this happen? Insurance companies report claims they receive to a service and record these claims on a CLUE report for policy holders. When you buy a home or car insurance policy, insurance companies use these CLUE reports to determine eligibility and premium amounts. If you have too many claims within a specific time period, they will either offer higher rates or even deny you insurance. If your claims history is favorable, you can take advantage of lower rates and significant discounts. In this case, the insurance company saw a significant number of claims in a short time. Based on their underwriting guidelines, they determined this person is highly likely to have more claims.

Why? Because, statistics show that someone with a significant number of claims in a short time is most likely to have more claims and more expensive claims. I could give you an entire lesson on how insurance actuaries determine probability and how they underwrite but, I won’t bore you. The bottom line is that insurance companies are in the business of being profitable and the premiums they collect are pooled together to help their clients cover their losses. They are not in the business to pay irresponsible losses that they shouldn’t have to charge their other clients for.

In this case, I knew she simply had a stroke of bad luck. She is responsible and takes care of her property. She just didn’t know how insurance companies get scared when a string of claims occur. Insurance is all about numbers and frequency of claims will often get you in more trouble than the amount of the claim. A client of ours had a house fire a few years ago that caused over $200,000 in damages. The company paid the claim and never even considered to non-renew them. We’ve had half million dollar yachts get damaged, car accidents with over $100,000 in damages, even a $850,000 liability claim and still no problems. Why? Because these people were responsible, had a great claims history and bad things just happened.

So, what should you do when you have a claim?

Always call our office first. Unlike some agents that work for the insurance company, we don’t have to report every little claim unless you want us to. We work for you and can discuss the claim before calling the company. There are times that small claims may not seem worth reporting but could develop into a large claim down the road. We need to discuss this possibility. We’ve helped our clients get millions of dollars in claims paid fairly and fast over the years. We’re here for you too. So, if you ever have a claim or even questions about claims, pick up the phone and call us.

By the way, we were able to help this lady get her home protected with a good company. It just took some extra convincing our part with an insurance company.

Tom Wiecek, President
Paramount Insurance Agency

By saying “too late” I don’t mean death. Of course that IS too late. In many cases, people wait too late in life and health issues come up making buying much needed life insurance very difficult and/or very expensive.

No More Excuses…We have made buying life insurance easier than ever!

Whether you need term life insurance, whole life insurance, universal life insurance or variable life insurance, we can help you decide how much coverage you need and get you quotes from over 100 North Carolina Life Insurance Companies.

In just a few minutes, you can request a quote and we can even get the application started right over the phone. So, call our office today at 336-869-3335. Buying life insurance has never been easier!