Finance Agreements

Insurance is the Law in most states! And because of the legal requirements, the different types of insurers, different insurance coverage, shopping for insurance can be hectic. However, auto insurance will always be an important matter, and shopping for a car insurance quote or SR22 quote can be a tedious experience.

The consequences of driving an uninsured vehicle includes ticket, revocation of license, requirements to have an SR22 certification or ‘financial responsibility filing’, impounding the uninsured car, towing, storage, legal fees, reinstatement fees, etc etc. It is absolutely not worth it to drive an uninsured vehicle.

Driving record, credit, age, community, marital status, and vehicle type are all important criteria that determine the premium that you pay. Young (under age 25) single men with an expensive vehicles are expected to pay top dollars for insurance. If you already have an existing policy, you can switch the coverage to the newly acquired vehicle.

Luckily there are many insurers in the market place, all compete for customers. Normally insurance companies have their own ‘captive agents’ or have ‘independent agents’ network. Most captive agents deal only with one company while independent agents deal with several companies, which allow them to shop with more than one company for the same customer. Independent agents can have more influence on the premium, while captive agents have little or no control beyond the discounts that their company offer. Possible discounts include multi account discount, multi-car discount, homeowner discount, good student discount, etc.

Limits and types of coverage can play great rule in determining the cost of insurance. Lowering liability limits (not always recommended), increasing deductible or even deleting comprehensive or collision coverage for less expensive cars can save lots of money, specially for youthful drivers. Also, avoiding monthly payments by paying off policy in one payment can save 25-50 dollars, if not more.

While there are lots of discounts available, dealing with an independent agent can make a significant difference in the price. Independent agents have access to more companies and more discount programs.

Insurance Navy is a Chicago leader of non owner insurance and business insurance. You can get information about non owner insurance or information about Bridgeview free car insurance quotes by visiting company’s website.

Landscape contractors are those that are engaged in a variety of ornamental actions that aims to change the visible attributes of land, or the maintenance of decorative bushes, trees, and soil around residential and commercial areas. Landscaping could include work on the gardens, shapes of natural elements, objects, or abstract elements such as lights.

Landscaper contracts can be categorized in another way, commercial or residential landscapers. They work with lawn and shrub care where use of pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizers as well as chopping branches and removing shrubs, as well as trimming of trees and shrubs are some of their usual work.

Landscaping contractors who work with the installation and restore of irrigation systems, sodding, operating on synthetic land, as well as the repair of certain environment are all types of functions which landscaping contractors do.

Insurance Required by Landscaper Subcontractors

** Landscaping General Liability: Like all artisan subcontractors, landscapers require commercial general liability to cover them while working at customers locations. A landscape artisan contractor insurance is needed to cover for their negligent conducts while performing their work. Coverages range from $300,000 to $1,000,000 each occurrence for product/ completed operations as well as personal and advertising injury, with double the amount for the general aggregate. Of a particular interest is the fact that some insurance carriers may have specific exclusions for damages resulting from the use of pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizers. Other companies may not cover any damages resulting from faulty design of landscaping. The main factors that mold the costs for the commercial liability of artisan commercial policy are yearly payroll, yearly revenues and characteristics of operations performed.

** Landscapers Artisan Contractor Commercial Auto: All contractors need this coverage for their vehicles that are used in the course of the business. A few smaller contractors wrongly insure their business vehicles under Personal Auto Policies (PAP), resulting in a great risk as a PAP will not cover the contractor if the vehicle is utilized for business functions. Garaging ZIP , ages and driving records of the operators play important roles in molding the price of the insurance.

** Landscape Contractors Workers Compensations: Workers compensation is mandated by the law. For landscape businesses who hire others and pay wages, a workers compensation coverage is mandatory. If the landscaper has many employees that do more than one type of work (such as clerical, drivers, etc.) categorizing the people at the time of obtaining insurance may reduce the coverage premium. Owners and officers may not include themselves from workers compensation insurance.

** Contractors Equipment and Inland Marine Coverages: Landscapers may wish to also insure the specified tools and certain equipment they use. Also they may need to get an installation floater insurance (covers contractor’s raw materials while in transit or while kept at a customer location). Additionally, coverage for rental equipment may be necessary if there is potential losses from theft or another loss on rented equipment.

** Landscapers Umbrella or Excess Liability: Some larger size landscapers may need additional liability insurance for better extra or to meet legal obligations.

** Contractors Property Insurance: This coverage may be necessary if the contractor owns a building or certain scheduled tools and equipment such as computers. The prices are based on amounts, description of property and community. Getting insurance for a landscaping contractors does not have to be a challenging task. Paying attention to exclusions of the coverage is a must.

Insurance Navy is a leader in providing Business Insurance for Landscape contractors. The agency also focus on SR22 insurance Joliet IL.

The most important factor to rate insurance companies is ‘financial strength’. The most known institutions that rate insurance companies are (1) AM Best [ambest.com], (2) Standard & Poor’s [standardandpoors.com] and (3) Fitch Rating.

Another aspect of rating is ‘claim paying practices’. A leader in evaluating auto insurance companies in regard with their claim paying practices is JDPower [jdpower.com]

Low or high financial strength is connected to the creditworthiness of the insurance company, its financial strength and its ability to pay the customers claims. The fact that an insurer has high credit rating is not an indication of ethical or unethical claim paying practices. Actually with certain insurers, strong financial position could be the result of stringent claim paying policy. There are many examples of insurers who had B rating with AM Best but had super customer services with very satisfactory claim paying policies, while other insurers with A rating(better than B), that maintained very poor claim paying practices to the point of expelling them from certain states and subjecting them to high fines for their claim payment policies/ practices.

So what should consumer be concerned about, financial strength or claim paying practices?

It depends on the following factors:

I. Needs Analysis. If a particular consumer has a need that is met from coverage offered only from Company 1, then dealing with that company is the solution, regardless of other factors

II) Coverage Limits. When there is high limit of coverage (ie millions or hundreds of thousands), then financial strength is more important. A customer insuring a $3,000 vehicle needs to think more about claim payment history of the insurer. A businessman insuring his 5,000,000 commercial building needs to worry more about the financial strength of the insuring company.

II) Premiums. Affordability of the policy/ coverage should be of great importance when dealing with similar insurers who are slightly different in their financial rating. There may be a slight differences between insurers who have A+ rating o A++ (with similar satisfactory claim paying practices).

Whether you need a business insurance quote or car insurance quote, dealing with professional independent agent can be the answer to your questions.

Ed Sneineh, CLU, ChFC http://www.InsuranceNavy.com

Looking to find the best deal on Auto Insurance and Business insurance in Illinois, then visit www.InsuranceNavy.comto find the best advice on Instant Auto, SR22 quote for you.