Insurance Consultants Of Maine Newsletter

Insurance Consultants of Maine Newsletter
Scott Simmonds, CPCU, ARM
December, 2005

Unbiased Insurance Info & Advice
http://www.insurancefixer.com

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Feel free to forward this newsletter to your colleagues. Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome. Email: scott@insurancefixer.com.

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Valuable Papers - Insurance, Good. Risk Management, Better - Valuable papers insurance pays for the cost of recreating documents destroyed by an insured peril. It pays for the cost of research and copying the documents you need to run your business after a fire or other insured cause of loss.

Example: Fire destroys part of your office space that contains records of product testing. The records are vital to your operation and future development. Valuable papers will pay the restoration costs.

It is a lousy way to protect your business.

Physically protect documents or records that are important to your business. Put your important documents in fire-proof filing cabinets or a vault. Better yet, scan paper records and store them digitally - with proper backup, of course!

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Test Your Data Backup System Today! Create a word processing document and store it on your network. Tomorrow, delete the file and call your computer people. Tell them you what to recover the document from the backup. See what happens.

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Bailee Exposures - If you care for, store, or repair property owned by others, you probably are responsible for damage to those goods while they are in your possession. Jewelers, dry cleaners, computer repair shops, and auto garages all come to mind.

Other businesses have the exposure too. Printers sometimes print on stock owned by their customer. Machine shops store dies and patterns owned by their customers. Architects store plans and drawings owned by clients.

Talk with your insurance advisor about your exposures and how your insurance responds.

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Home Insurance Goof - Big Insurance Trouble! Most home insurance buyers don't have the right amount of coverage. Call your advisor today. Ask how much insurance you have on your house. Ask when the last time the coverage was updated. Ask that a "replacement cost estimator" be completed to determine the right amount of insurance.

I've seen statistics that 40% of US homes are under-insured by 40% or more.

Two problems... First, if you have a big loss - major fire or windstorm - you could run out of insurance. Tough to rebuild a $300,000 house when you only have $200,000 of insurance!

Second, under-insurance will penalize you in a small loss. Most home insurance policies pay only depreciated value in the event you are insured for less than 80% of the home's replacement cost. That could mean a reduction in your claim payment of 20% to 40%.

Call your insurance advisor today.

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Visit My Insurance Blog – My general thoughts about the world of insurance - http://insurancebuzzer.blogspot.com/.

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Special Reports Available - Order My Special Reports - Guaranteed To Help You Save Premium Dollars.

SR #1 - Premium Saving Insurance Basics For Small Business - For info see: http://www.insurancefixer.com/SR1save.html

SR#2 - Buying and Bidding Your Insurance – For info see: http://www.insurancefixer.com/SR2%20Bid%20Buy.html.

SR #3 - How To Save Money On Your Workers Compensation Insurance - For info see: http://www.insurancefixer.com/SR3WC.html

Take a look at all my reports and teleseminar CDs - http://www.insurancefixer.com/store.html

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Life In Maine And Other Stuff - Last week we got hit with snow for the first time this season. About 13 inches in a blizzard. No doubt Maine will see a white Christmas this year!

Turkeys seem to be everywhere. Each day, on my way out of our neighborhood I see seven or eight fat turkeys walking about. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks culinary thoughts when I see those birds.

Thank You To All My Clients and Readers - Thanks for making 2005 a great year. I'm glad I was able to help so many companies and people with their insurance problems. Happy holidays!

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Biggest Insurance Mistakes White Papers - Get my white papers covering the biggest business and personal insurance mistakes. Send a blank email to bizmistakes@insurancefixer.com for a copy of the business mistakes paper. Email to personal@insurancefixer.com for the personal insurance version. No cost.

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Your Privacy - I will never sell or distribute your email address to any other person or organization.

Do You Have The Right Insurance? Contact me to discuss an unbiased review of your insurance program. Do you have the right coverage? Can your policies be fine-tuned to improve the protection? Can changes be made to ease the administrative burden insurance causes? Are you getting the service you should from your broker? I can help. Call 207.284.0085 or email me at scott@insurancefixer.com. Remember, I don't sell insurance so I'm unbiased.

Need A Speaker? I'm pleased to speak to trade, business or service associations about insurance topics. Call 207-284-0085 or email me at scott@insurancefixer.com. Also check out my speaker's page at www.insurancefixer.com/ispeaker.html.

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Scott Simmonds, CIC, CPCU, ARM
Insurance Consultants of Maine, Inc.
20 Sofia Road
Saco, ME 04072-9017
Phone 207-284-0085
Fax 801-991-4027
scott@insurancefixer.com
http://www.insurancefixer.com

Unbiased Insurance Solutions

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Insurance Consultants of Maine, Inc. is an unbiased, fee-only insurance and risk management advisory firm. We don't sell insurance and never accept fees or commissions from insurance companies or agents.

Comments regarding insurance policies or products in this newsletter are for information purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement. I accept no fees or payments of any kind from any insurance organization or any company mentioned in this newsletter.