When it comes to heating a home for the winter months, more and more people are turning to wood stove installations to supplement their heating costs. While the pros generally outweigh the cons, there are some important things your insurance carrier will ask about before approving coverage. 1. UL approval – acceptable wood stoves will need to carry a UL approved label including important information about the size, make, and model of the unit. A surprising amount of people have homemade style wood stoves installed in their homes. Due to lack of controls on these stoves, they are generally unacceptable and you could find yourself without an … Continue reading

Watching a recent episode of AMC’s Mad Men (set in the 1960’s era in New York) – I had to stifle a laugh at the character portrayal of the old school life insurance salesman. It was the typical middle aged man dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase with charts upon charts of life insurance prices. Yes, they made house calls. Oh, and sold primarily to men. Fast forward 50 years and the world of life insurance has changed dramatically. Approximately 35 million middle class households in the United States are with little or no life insurance. This number is up significantly from even … Continue reading

What is Buy-Sell Life Insurance? It is a tool that is used to help a business fund the purchase of a deceased partner’s shares. I am often approached by businesses that explain they need Buy-Sell Life Insurance. My immediate question following is, “What does your Buy-Sell Agreement State?” Many times I get a blank stare, a moment of silence, and a question: “Why do I need an agreement?” I am not an attorney, but I am certain that purchasing life insurance to fund a buy-sell agreement needs to follow a process and it does not start with a life-insurance policy.  Here are three things … Continue reading

Over the past four weeks I have shared four ways of managing risk.  the first being prevention, the second being mitigation, the third being transfering and finally ways to assume risk. In the video above, I will share thoughts with you about the financing of risk with an insurance policy or through an alternative risk vehicle. To learn more about financing risk, contact Kelly Reed  |  906.315.7227  |  kellyr@vastsolution.com.  

One of the biggest hurdles to helping people put a life insurance plan into place is the uncertainty around how much to purchase.  There is often a lot of anxiety around the idea that the person may be under or over-shooting their needs.  This then become one of the most crucial parts of the conversation when speaking to new clients about their life insurance needs.  It would be easy to say that there is a magic formula which allows us to give each person an EXACT amount of coverage if that time ever arises.  The fact is, there is not … Continue reading

Over the past three weeks we’ve discussed ways for your organization to manage risk.  The first week we discussed prevention strategies, then mitigation or minimizing risks, followed by transferring risk away from your organization.  This week, we will focus on the assumption of risk or choosing to assume risk within your insurance portfolio or outside of your insurance portfolio. What we have found through our analysis of many businesses is that most businesses will take on a significant amount of risk in one area, yet they take on very little risk in other areas of their business.  What we help … Continue reading

The state of Michigan has had many changes to auto insurance coverage and rates this past year. There also continues to be many items up for debate. This year one of those items revolves around the Michigan Mini Tort. With auto insurance policies in the state already being complicated for consumers to understand, this adds one more element or coverage that most drivers are unaware of or don’t understand. What is the mini tort coverage and why does it exist? With the no fault auto insurance system, there is often confusion as to how claims are handled in the event of a collision accident. For … Continue reading

Over the past few weeks I’ve posted about different ways of managing risk within an organization.  The first week was about concepts and strategies around prevention.  Last week the topic was about how to mitigate or minimize a loss after an adverse situation occurs.  This week, I will discuss ways of transferring risk away from your organization.  What do I mean by transferring risk?  How do we take a risk that poses a threat to your company and transfer it to another company, vehicle or entity? EXAMPLE #1 – A strong certificate management plan.  Insuring that each subcontractor or independent … Continue reading

As you shove that last box in your car for the upcoming college semester,take a second to consider that most likely everything you own is in that vehicle. As you arrive at your destination and begin to unpack, think about the impact of losing all of those things.  There is a greater risk of losing or having your personal property damaged when living in a rental property due to the number of other tenants on site. With that in mind, there are some compelling reasons to purchase renters insurance which provides coverage for your personal property as well as liability while living in a rental … Continue reading

Last week I spoke about Prevention of Risk, this week I will discuss how to mitigate or minimize the impact of an adverse event if and when it occurs.  An example of how we might help you with that at VAST would be in a work comp situation.  When an employee is injured our goal is to get them back to work as soon as they are medically able to do so.  This helps the organization in several ways: It assists the employee in their recovery and helps them earn their full wage. It lifts the morale of the rest … Continue reading