El Paso

For the last 2 Sundays, I've been smoking a cigar at the plaza downtown.  Our plaza is a work of art.  The alligator sculpture, the benches, trees, people.....everything down there contributes to the plaza's beauty and uniqueness in some form or fashion.  There's a noticeable electricity in the air; a subtle feeling of excitement.  As much as I quietly opposed how the funding of the bonds and stadium were decided by a group of folks and not the community, I'm glad that they are coming.  It truly is El Paso's time to shine.  It's our time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  It's our time to EXPECT MORE. 

I've lived in Dallas and Austin, and spent a lot of time all over, but El Paso is my favorite city.  We have the friendliest community, safest community, and best food in Texas.  This is a city where you can be a "big fish" at a relatively young age.  This is a city that can prepare you for success in any other city.  I came back to it.  A lot of my peers came back.  It's like that "old reliable" that you can always count on.....ever constant, never changing. 

I sincerely believe that El Paso won't be the same in 5 years.  I believe that we've only just begun to shine.  I believe that El Paso is fed up with its cronyism and corruption, and will be purging itself of these folks. 

If you'd like to discuss any of this, grab a Churchill from Tobacco Tin and join me this Sunday at the Plaza.  Stay protected my friends!

5 tips are better than 1

It took everything I had to keep it clean here.....So, have a great day and enjoy the TIPS!

Top 5 Commercial Insurance Tips

 

Commercial insurance is insurance designed for your business. There are four main categories of coverage which include property insurance, general liability insurance, commercial automobile insurance, and umbrella insurance. Umbrella insurance is additional liability-type insurance coverage in case a claim exceeds your liability insurance limits.

1. Shop and Evaluate Value
Just because you have always been able to get a great deal on your private auto or homeowner insurance policy from your neighbor doesn’t mean that particular insurer will be the best choice for your commercial coverage. Evaluate policy prices, but be sure your decision is based on value and price versus just price.

2. Do Your Homework
Commercial insurance is not one size fits all. Your insurance coverage requirements will depend on many variables. You should work 1 on 1 with your agent to tailor your policy for your needs. Let’s work together and do some homework before we enter into a business agreement. Ask yourself these questions.

• Do you own your own property?
• Do you have customers who come to your work site?
• How many employees do you have?
• Do you have vehicles to cover?
• How many vehicles are over the road?
• What is the total number of autos you use?
• What are these vehicles used for?
• What kind of inventory do you have to carry?
• Is there any special equipment you have to maintain?

Knowing what kind of coverage you need can help you keep the costs down on the policy you choose. Only obtain coverage that fits your business and industry. It’s the work you do to prepare that prevents unnecessary insurance or attaining a policy that doesn’t cover one of your major needs or risks.

3. Conduct a Risk Assessment Before You Shop
 Determine if changes can be made to lower your risks. Your work in this area alone may get you a lower premium because the insurer will see your efforts and your attention to the little things.

4. Get Credit For Having Great Credit
People with the best credit are proven to be lower risks which in turn provide the lowest premiums. The better your commercial credit, the lower your commercial insurance rates can be.
Pay your bills on time and monitor your total debt load that you carry.

5. Don’t Over Insure
Don’t pay for insurance when you don’t need it. If you are in a seasonal business, shop for a policy that will allow seasonal adjustments or coverage. Why spend money insuring your business in the off season when you can use the savings to invest in business growth. Most insurance carriers will not allow seasonal policies, but it can’t hurt to look.

So, call us today to discuss your insurance needs!  Nothing to lose, and everything to gain.  Stay protected my friends.

Keep your money local, loco!

I find it dumbfounding that business owners would knowingly do business with out of town insurance brokers!  With all the acquisitions taking place, El Pasoans are having a tougher time finding a local broker to do business with.  The 2 largest firms in town have been acquired by Wells Fargo and HUB, which leaves their clients having to deal with 800 numbers and administrators in another city. 

Enough about those guys: let's talk about my firm.  We most recently insured a Minnesotan who owns a shopping center in Georgia!  Business and property owners from all over the US call us for our service, speedy quotes, and commitment to getting the job done right.  Not to mention, we insure hundreds of strip centers, commercial properties, and businesses all in the sun city. 

The next time you renew or want to get a commercial policy, KEEP IT LOCAL, LOCO.    You'll get ME, not some 800 number on the east coast.   Stay protected my friends.

Mi Compa, Sir Winston Churchill

From his signature Churchill cigar, to his quick and clever quotes, I have a profound admiration for him.  In fact, I find inspiration in reading about him and his steadfast beliefs in capitalism, love of country, and love of life.   Here are some of my favorite quotes:

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

There is no such thing as a good tax.
 
Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.  

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.  

We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.

 The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put.

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.

If you are going to go through hell, keep going.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.  

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.  

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

-“The Sinews of Peace” speech, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1945

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.  We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, “
This was their finest hour!”    

I know, I know.  That was a lot of Churchill to digest.  But if you think about the man's brilliance, it was quite astounding.  If he were around today, what would he think of our current situation and president?  Our voters?  Our society?  One can only imagine....

 

Alas, one can  only press forward with the hopes of a brighter tomorrow.  We are the masters of our fate, and the captains of our souls.  Stay protected my friends.

My GL is enough, RIGHT?? WRONG!!!

The difference between general liability and professional liability

One of the most misunderstood insurance products for many business and professionals is professional liability. More often than not when reviewing a potential new client I find the lack of professional liability and the false thinking that the general liability coverage they do have covers them adequately. This may be true for some businesses, but for some, like consultants and advisors, general liability does nothing to protect you from liability related to your professional expertise.

For some, general liability is thought to be the catchall for liability exposure and for others professional liability is thought to be 'over kill' and unnecessary. As long as they have general liability coverage they think they're covered. Doctors, lawyers and board directors can attest to the necessity of professional liability, but for those who aren't as exposed to liability associated to their profession as these examples it's hard (unless you have a good resource like your independent agent) to know when it's necessary to carry general and/or professional liability coverage.

General Liability

First, let's start with General Liability. Pretty much every business should have general liability insurance because it will protect your business from a bodily injury, property damage, personal injury or advertising injury claim. It will kick in and protect your company, up to the limits you carry, from financial loss resulting from your, assuming unforeseen, negligence.

Okay, so what does that exactly mean? Let's say you're a toy manufacturer and the paint used for your toys contains a chemical that's causing kids who ingest the paint to get sick. Before you know it lawsuits start rolling in. The cost to defend your company and any possible pay outs, if found negligent, would, in most cases, be covered by a general liability policy.

Excess Liability - When Your Liability Limits Aren't Enough

However, a couple things to keep in mind. First, the liability is only good to the limit that you're covered. In most cases, a business will buy general liability coverage for 1 to 2 million (which is usually the limit on a standard policy) and then seek additional liability coverage in what's called an 'excess liability' or 'commercial umbrella' policy. An excess liability policy can extend the coverage as high as any insurance company is willing to go. The usual coverage on an excess liability or umbrella policy is between 5 and 10 million, but in certain cases can be bought at much higher levels.

Professional Liability

Now that we have an understanding of what general liability covers, let's talk about Professional Liability. Whether called Professional Liability, Malpractice Liability, Directors and Officers Liability, or Error's and Emissions Liability they all relatively provide the same coverage- give or take a few slight differences. Some profession, like the medical field get their own label for professional liability (medical malpractice), but in the end they all do the same thing- provide liability coverage from negligence, misrepresentation, violation of good faith and fair dealing, and inaccurate advice as a professional.

As a professional you're hired for your expertise of a certain field and clients depend on your particular knowledge and based on that knowledge. Unfortunately, sometimes advise or guidance you provide as a professional in your field could result in a financial loss to your client. Loss could be an actual financial loss, or damage to a reputation resulting in an indirect financial loss. If it is found that your guidance was the result of your client's negligence then you could be held responsible. Professional Liability would, in this example, protect you from possible negligence on your part.

In addition, as a professional you are expected to perform the agreed services for which you were hired. Failing to do so could also cause you to be held responsible for any harm caused to another person or business. A general example of this is the recent Gulf oil spill. Contractors hired by BP to do certain tasks might not have followed normal procedures, or agreed procedures in contracts with BP. The result was devastating to those who died in the accident, the environment, local communities and in the end a financial disaster for BP. Because the procedures may not have been followed as agreed some of these contractors could very well be held liable for loses BP incurred. Professional Liability would give these contracted companies some protection from financial lose. Then again, this is a good example for general liability as well. Bodily injury to anyone would be covered under the general liability coverage- assuming the contractor had it.

Professional Liability - Do I need it?

It depends on your profession and what you're doing. If you consult, or provide expert advise and services to client who, in turn, provides a product or service to several, or hundreds of other individuals or businesses you could be at a higher risk of any one of your clients customers suing you. One thing to remember, at any time and for reasons that might not be related to you, a dissatisfied individual, either directly yours or as a third party through a client can choose to bring a complaint against you. As a general rule, claimants sue as many individuals as possible — that includes you and your business. And lawsuits can drag on for several years and until you end up being exonerated or found negligent you will have to pay for the legal expense until some resolution is made. So, think about how much could be out of your hands when it comes to your clients actions and the possibility of getting dragged into a lawsuit, whether or not your liable or not, that could financially cripple your business.

Claims Made vs. Per Occurrence

One last thing I want to point out in this article is the difference between 'Claims Made' and 'Per Occurrence' liability coverage. In order to protect yourself correctly and effectively you must understand the difference.

Claims Made

A Claims Made policy is pretty simple; it will only cover a loss during the time the policy is in effect. One key important factor I always remind my clients is once the policy expires, any claims that have not been reported during the policy term will not be covered. If for some reason you're planning on letting your liability coverage expire (i.e. switching companies for a better price) you have an opportunity to purchase extended reporting time endorsements to give yourself a little more time in case a claim comes in after the policy expires. However, the lesson here is really to NEVER have your policy expire, or more importantly avoid any gaps in coverage.

Per Occurrence

Where a claims made policy won't let you file a claim after the expiration date, a Per Occurrence or occurrence policy will let you report a claim today on a policy that expired days, months even years ago. Though more expensive and not as common as a Claims Made policy they do serve a very important purpose for certain trades and industries that need to protect themselves from any future claims that may occur from something they did in the past. Then again, as long as maintain liability coverage you shouldn't need this type of coverage.

In then end, when shopping for liability insurance for you or your business it's vital to ask the right questions. A good insurance agent will ask those questions and guide you in finding the right liability coverage.

As always, stay protected my friends! 

Roll those dice baby! Ginger gives good luck :)

What's your favorite gambling movie of all time?  How bout mobster movie?  Mine is definitely Casino.  If fact, it's quite possibly my favorite movie of all time.  But why is that?  Because it's about so much for than gambling.  It's about business, respect, gentlemen's code, and has copious amounts of monologues and narration that I absolutely love.  Plus, you see "Niki Santoro" (Joe Pesci) stab a guy with a ball point pen.  I've always wanted to do that!!!  (Just kidding)  Well, maybe just the guys who have written me hot checks......

So, after watching Casino for the thousanth time, I decided to write this blog.  WE INSURE CASINOS and the entire hospitality industry.  (Sorry, mob crime may not be covered)

We focus on providing superior quality hospitality insurance products and innovative risk-related solutions. We understand the unique requirements for insuring hotels & resorts with the specific public exposures associated with premises, food and beverage.

We also understand our clients need for competitively priced hospitality insurance solutions that include coverage for direct losses to property, stock, lost income, and the timely replacement of assets.

We addresses the specific liability issues of the hospitality industry through a variety of programs specifically designed to provide protection against third party claims resulting from clients products or service. Additionally, we supports our clients needs in non-insurable areas such as risk management as it relates to loss prevention and safety.

As an employee owned, independent insurance brokerage, we are not tied to a single provider. Over the years, we access a group of highly respected, financially stable commercial insurance underwriters to offer our valued customers the best coverage at the lowest rates possible.

We also understand that our work isn't done once we write your policy. In fact, it’s just begun! We keep our finger on the pulse of the insurance industry and notify our clients of changes that could affect their coverage. In many cases, those changes create new opportunities for increasing their coverage without raising their premium costs.

Ergo, think of us when your casino comes up for renewal.  Joe Pesci said so!  And as always, stay protected my friends.