On the heels of Memorial Day in May and Flag Day in June, July is the month of patriotism since the 4th is the day we celebrate the birth of our country as a nation, independent from English rule.

Even though our break from the British Empire came in 1776, Insurance was sold in the Colonies as early as 1735 in South Carolina. In 1772 Benjamin Franklin along with more than 70 business owners formed a mutual company called “The Philadelphia Contributorship for the Insuring of Houses from Loss by Fire.”

We know from a previous post that Medicare was enacted in 1965, but did you know Life Insurance was established in the 1760’s? The Presbyterian Synods (an assembly of the clergy and sometimes also the laity in a diocese or other division of a particular church) created the “Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers” in 1759 in New York and Philadelphia which was duplicated by Episcopalian priests in 1769. Auto insurance came about in 1897, health insurance in the 1920’s and home policies in the 1950’s.
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So, how does Insurance and Patriotism go together?

Hurricane Season is upon us and many people are brushing up on their home/mobile home insurance policies and getting their evacuation plan in order. They’ve pulled out the declarations page and in reviewing, find there are 2 or maybe 3 different deductibles listed: AOP, Named Storm and/or Wind/Hail.

We’ll attempt to clarify these for you here….
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If you call for a home, mobile home, or flood policy or to add comprehensive and/or collision insurance to your auto policy and are told no because the company is under binding restrictions, it may confuse or even irritate you.

What in the world are binding restrictions and why do insurance companies implement them?
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In our previous post we explained what Riders and Endorsements are and gave some examples of these on a P&C policy. Today we’ll talk about riders on Life Insurance products.

Remember, a ‘rider’ is a temporary addition to an insurance policy that can be added or removed that does not change the original benefits stated in a policy and an ‘endorsement’ is a permanent change to increase benefits to an existing policy and both result in additional premiums.

If you’ve ever needed to make a change to your insurance policy or done research into adding coverage, you may have heard the terms Rider and/or Endorsement and wondered, What is the Difference?

In this post we’ll explain and hopefully you’ll feel better informed when it comes to your insurance policies.

Whether you think of moving as a grand adventure or one of the most stress-filled undertakings you ever endure, changing locations is something many of us do at least once in our lifetime. We’ve compiled a few tips to help you transition a little more smoothly.

We’ve shared with you the importance of understanding your home owner insurance policy as well as different types of deductions you may be entitled to under said policy. We’ve also given some advice on travelling smart, fire safety tips and vacation preparedness to help protect your home, especially when you’re away.

Today let’s talk about the importance of insuring a vacant home.

First though, we’ll look at some instances when you may have a vacant home to insure…..
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Last year we talked a couple of times about safety and travelling. We gave you some Hurricane Evacuation Tips and Vacation Preparedness Tips. We also shared Holiday Safety Tips, Fun in the Sun Safety Tips and Tips for staying safe at Festivals.

As all of these tips revolve around travelling – even though that may not be far from home – I thought it would be great to condense the above-mentioned tips into one, easy-to-find article.
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