Newsletter (page 15)

June started the hurricane season in the U. S. Many homeowners lack adequate insurance for natural disaster damage according to Wall Street Journal authors Nicole Friedman and Leslie Scism. 

Last year's three major landfall hurricanes - Harvey, Irma, and Maria - revealed a wide-spread lack of full insurance coverage for homeowners in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Storms like these usually serve as a wakeup call to homeowners resulting in increases in flood insurance, nationally sold, and up dates in homeowners policies. Inspite of these storms, regulators, trade groups and government data reveal that many are still under insured.

Most people have home insurance (especially if they have a mortgage) but may not have flood insurance. There are two types of flood damage, damage from flowing water or from wind-driven rain. Homeowners insurance policies may not cover both. Be sure to check your policy. 

The number of federal flood policies covering Florida homes and small businesses rose 2% between September 2017 and May 2018 to 1.76 million according to government data.

"We often see post-disaster increases in flood policies, but it's not unusual to see some of those dropped when they come up for renewal," said David Maurstad, chief executive National Flood Insurance Program. "We have a long way to go to meet our goal of closing the insurance gap."

Insurers in Florida received nearly one million Irma claims as of June 12 and 91% of them have been closed, according to state's Office of Insurance Regulation. Over a third of claims did not entail payment, indicating the damage wasn't covered under the current policy or the loss value was less than the deductible.

Homeowners often fail to increase policy limits if they expand or upgrade their homes, regulators said. They find policy limits are insufficient after a disaster.

"People had no idea that they had a hurricane deductible following Irma," said Barry Gilway, chief Executive of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. "There's still a lack of education in the industry regarding what is actually covered.

How about you? Do you know what is actually covered on your homeowners policy? Now is the time to review your policy coverage. At Dave Reed Insurance, the Peace of Mind People®, we are always ready to answer your questions. Call our offices at Creighton Road, (850) 494-2264 or N. Navy Blvd. (850) 453-8555.


 

The major reason for purchasing children's life insurance is for the death benefit. These funds can be used to pay for funeral or memorial services or to cover any unpaid medical bills incurred while caring for your child.

The death of a child has extreme emotional impact on the parents but the financial impact will be limited to those aforementioned costs. If you want to insure against these, perhaps you can add your children to an existing life insurance policy for yourself for a small additional premium. Also, check to determine if it is a benefit provided from your employer.

Children's Life Insurance - Builds Cash Value
 

Permanent insurance such as whole life or universal life insurance does build tax-deferred cash value. This cash value can be accessible for college tuition or down payment on a home. Paying regular premiums will develop disciplined contributions for your child's saving account; however, the cash value of life insurance is decreased by the annual cost of the death benefit.

Children's Future Insurabilit

You don't know what your child's future health will be. Buying life insurance earlier with the intent for it to be permanent does result in a lower premium at the time of purchase. If you have a family history of poor health, that will increase the premium costs. It is difficult to anticipate what those costs will be as your child matures into adulthood.[1]
 

Children's Life Insurance Policy Options
 

The choices for children's life insurance policies are either whole or universal life permanent policies. Term insurance is not sold on children.

• Whole life insurance - Caters to long-term goals by offering consumers consistent premiums and guaranteed cash value accumulation. Here, your insurance company puts part of your insurance money in a high interest bank account. With every premium payment your cash value increases. This savings element of your policy builds up your cash value on a tax-deferred basis. In a way, the presence of guaranteed cash values makes this policy worthwhile because you can borrow against your cash value or surrender your policy to get the cash value in hard cash. You can also opt to participate in the surplus of your insurance company and receive the dividends annually. Here again, you have the choice to either get your dividends in cash, or let them accumulate interest. You may also use your dividends to reduce your policy's premiums or buy additional coverage.
  
  
• Universal life insurance - Gives consumers flexibility in the premium payments, death benefits and the savings element of their policy. This policy is also termed "adjustable life insurance," because it offers more flexibility compared to whole life insurance. You have the liberty to reduce or increase your death benefit and also to pay your premiums at any time and in any amount (subject to certain limits) after your first premium payment has been made.Here, you can increase the face value of your insurance coverage. But, you need to pass a medical examination to qualify for this benefit. Similarly, you may decrease your coverage to a minimum amount without surrendering your policy. However, surrender charges may be applied against the cash value of your policy.When it comes to the death benefit, you have two options - a fixed amount of death benefit or an increasing death benefit equal to the face value of your policy, plus your cash value amount. You also have the opportunity to change the amount and frequency of premium payments. So, you can increase your premiums or may also even pay in lump sum according to the specified limit in the policy. As you know, part of your premium minus the cost of insurance is put into an investment account and the interest therein is credited to your account. In this way, the interest grows on a tax-deferred basis, which increases your cash value.[2]

Before purchasing any insurance product, be sure to discuss your specific needs with your insurance advisor. At Dave Reed Insurance, the Peace of Mind People, we are ready to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to telephone our Creighton Road office at 850 494-2264 or our N. Navy Blvd. office at 850 453-8555.

In a search for happiness, many people look for it in other people and not within ourselves. Many people feel that things like money, a better job, better relationships..etc will make them happy. In reality, to find true contentment you must look inside yourself and learn to be your own best friend. That means you have to trust, love, and care for yourself just as you do the people you consider to be close to you. Following are steps that you can incorporate into your life that will help you to feel more empowered and happy about yourself!

• Begin to lift yourself up, not put yourself down. If you don’t like something about yourself, work to change it. If you can’t change it, simply accept it. Don’t beat up on yourself with negative self-talk. You’re not likely to change for the better when you fill yourself with negative thoughts.

 

• Give yourself positive rewards. When you do something that you are proud of give yourself a small reward. Try not to wait for others to praise you because you may grow resentful if the praise doesn’t come. Pat your own back, it is a great feeling that can stay with you for a long time.

 

• Forgive yourself. I doubt that you would keep scolding a child over and over for making a mistake so don’t do that to yourself. Give yourself the gift of forgiveness when you make a mistake. After that, work to figure out what lesson you can learn, and use it to make better choices the next time around.

 

• Enjoy your successes. Most people can remember all of the details of depressing, painful or even embarrassing events that happened many years ago. What if you did the same thing with all of your wins? Try to remember all of the triumphs and accomplishments that you’ve made and keep that memory with you and think about it at least once a week. Consider writing them down too.

 

• Always remember to celebrate your wonderful qualities! You will soon discover that the more you love yourself, the more you will be able to give love to others – and the more others will be able to love you!

 
Thanks for choosing Dave Reed Insurance.- We know you have many choices when purchasing insurance and we want to thank you for choosing us as your insurance agency. As a professional insurance agency, we pride ourselves on maintaining long-term relationships. Please keep us in mind when your family and friends are looking for a referral!

We Need Your Votes

Each year VIP Pensacola accepts nominations for the top 10 businesses in many categories. This year Dave Reed Insurance has been nominated. In order for us to win the top award you need to vote for us. 

Voting starts May 12th. Please go to VIPPensacola.com, scroll down to Insurance Firms and vote for Dave Reed Insurance once a day minimum. Voting continues through May 30th.

Thank you for your support!

Today’s technology has made setting up security precautions such as security cameras a cinch! You no longer need to be a millionaire to set up one. You could even install one yourself! Security cameras provide a means for its owner to watch over his or her property from the safety and convenience of any area he chooses. This type of system is a great deterrent to thievery and unwanted entry. Most organizations that have sensitive items or are off limits to the general public employ these cameras to help keep their places safe.
 
Purchasing and implementing such a system may save your business from the terrors of illegal entry. Investment in such could save you a whole lot of trouble.
 
Before purchasing a system, you will want to consider the following factors.
 
Study your needs. The type of security measures installed will depend on your specific security needs. For example how large is the area you would like covered? How many cameras will it take to monitor this area? You must make sure the security camera system you will purchase can accommodate enough slots for expansion.
 
Do you need audio too? Some camera systems have audio recording equipment as well so you can not only see what happens but hear it as well. This is important in cases when you would like everything documented. However, this may be costly. Many establishments only require video records of their security.
 
Also, you must ascertain whether you need to have your security cameras record in color or black and white. Color cameras are, of course, more sophisticated and show a clearer picture. However, they tend to be pricey. Color cameras might also not work in low-light situations.
 
Consider the location of the cameras. Will the site be hard to set up? In that case, you may want to consider wireless security camera systems. However, these cameras must be in a place that is conducive to high-quality broadcast. There must be no interference. They can, be moved around the area. They are a bit more flexible than their fixed-wire cousins.
 
Will the camera system be for outdoor purposes? Cameras that monitor outdoor locations need special weatherproof housings and may not be recommended for extreme temperatures and various elements. Also, those that may be vandalized must be protected against such.
 
Also, you must take into consideration the lighting for an area. If your camera cannot record a scene due to bad lighting, you will end up with muddy images that won’t help in your surveillance activities. Choose a security camera that has excellent sensitivity to light. Also, try to illuminate such areas with external lighting.
 
You must consider where the power sources will be located. Make sure they are well protected from the elements and tampering.
 
Consider the available methods for recording the images. You may use a variety of backup media. And with the advent of computer storage media, even the use of hard disks, compact discs, and DVDs can prove to be an inexpensive way to store your data.

Thanks for choosing Dave Reed Insurance - We know you have many choices when purchasing insurance and we want to thank you for choosing us as your insurance agency. As a professional insurance agency, we pride ourselves on maintaining long-term relationships. Please keep us in mind when your family and friends are looking for a referral!