ATD Insurance

Many people think about fire and tornadoes when insuring their homes. After all, if a tornado hits your house it can be devastating. But who will pay your mortgage if you are not here?

The death of an income earner can be devastating to a family's financial security. Did you know that the chance of a home burning to the ground is only 1 in 200 over 20 years? Yet, as the graph indicates, the chance that a male or female homeowner will die within 30 years is much more likely to occur.

You can protect your family for about the cost of a cup of coffee a day by purchasing mortgage insurance. By protecting your mortgage with life insurance you can rest assured that your family will have a place to live should something happen to you.

Make sure your family is protected. Call us today!

An often misunderstood claim involves pipes that leak from within a confined wall space. Leaking water can cause serious damage to drywall surfaces. If a leaking pipe goes unnoticed for a period of time, mold can accumulate in the wall and require expensive remediation.

You now have determined that the large wet spot on the ceiling of your living room presents a problem and you give us a call. We explain that there is no coverage for the leaking pipe itself if the cause of the loss is gradual deterioration, or wear and tear. It is not sensible for a homeowners policy to pay for loss because something is wearing out. If it is determined that the damage was caused by the sudden release of water from with in a plumbing system, and if the loss to property is caused by water not otherwise excluded in the policy, the cost to tear out and replace that part of the structure that is required to be removed to get to the burst or leaking pipe section or joint would be covered.

Additional Living Expense Coverage

The unthinkable happens - a faulty electrical connection causes a fire in your kitchen. While the fire is isolated to the kitchen, there is smoke damage throughout the house that makes it unlivable. There is an often overlooked coverage in your homeowners policy that can help you out in this situation.

Additional Living Expense (ALE) coverage is an automatic part of your homeowners coverage. The coverage limit is usually about 20 percent to 30 percent of the limit you carry on the house structure. So, if your house is insured for $100,000, you would probably have at least a $20,000 limit for additional living expense.

The key to understanding this coverage is the term "additional". ALE coverage pays for expenses that you wouldn't have if not for your insurance claim. If your meal expenses are higher than your grocery expenses were before the loss, this coverage will pay you the difference. The goal of this coverage is to keep you in the same financial condition as before the loss. The coverage pays for temporary living expenses such as living facilities, meals, moving expenses, and temporary rentals.

A recent study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that when a girl is in a car with a young male driver, he slows down and drives more carefully. The opposite is true if there is another young male in the car.

However, the same cannot be said for girls. It seems that when a teenage girl is alone in the car, she drives more safely. Put another person in the car, boy or girl, and a teenage girl will drive with less regard for safely

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the insurance industry, reports that when there is a teen passenger in the vehicle with a teen driver, the risk of crash is twice as high. When you have two or more passengers the risk can climb to five times as high, according to the institute.

All but 17 states restrict the number and/or ages of passengers that new drivers can carry. Parents are the main enforcers for these restrictions as law enforcement generally ignore this restriction unless the teen is involved in some other infraction.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its 2008 rollover crash statistics for trucks and vans.

The best results for vans in 2008 were:

Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, Honda Odyssey, Hyundai Entourage, Kia Sedona, and Nissan Quest. Each earned five starts in frontal and side crash tests and four stars in rollover tests.

The best results for pickups in 2008 include:

Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Dodge Dakota, GMC Sierra 1500, Honda Ridgeline, Mitsubishi Raider, and Toyota Tacoma.

While roll over crashes for passenger vehicles amounted to only three percent of crashes, nearly 33 percent of vehicle fatalities resulted from roll overs. Vehicles such as SUV's and pickups have a higher center of gravity making them more susceptible to roll over.

Speed is a major contributor to fatal roll over crashes. Nearly 40 percent of crashes involved excessive speed, and 75 percent of fatal roll overs took place where the posted limit was 55 mph or higher.

The facts:

1. Most rollovers do not involve another vehicle

2. Alcohol is a major contributor in at least 50 percent of fatal rollovers

3. Undivided rural roads are a common place for rollovers

4. Failure to buckle safety belts results in more severe injuries and fatalities.

These facts suggest driver behavior, such as distraction, inattentiveness, speeding, and impaired driving, play a significant role in these fatal crashes.

For additional information, visit www.safecar.gov and use the interactive search feature to find the safety ratings for your vehicle.