How can I afford my newly licensed teenager?

Young drivers are expensive to insure. Such drivers, particularly teenagers, cause a high amount of traffic accidents because of their lack of experience and the fact that, due to their youth, they tend to be distracted drivers who also like to take risks. If your household is about to add a new driver, make sure that he or she understands that poor driving habits can result in higher premiums or a canceled policy. Here are some methods to help minimize the cost of a new driver:

•        Have your child complete a driver training class. The class’ cost is easily offset by lower insurance premiums. You also gain a more competent young driver.
•          Ask your insurer if it gives discounts to students with good grades.
•          Find a company that charges a rate according to the car your new driver usually drives instead of assigning him or her to the most expensive vehicle.
•          Try to discourage or delay your child’s driving to school. Insurers charge a lower premium for less frequent driving.
•          Build a long-term relationship with your insurer. Some companies reward longevity by forgiving a driver’s first accident or minor traffic violation.
•          Increase your physical damage deductibles or, for older vehicles, eliminate this coverage.
•          If your child owns a vehicle, he or she should have a separate policy. However, if you share the cost of the car and its insurance, it may make sense to also own or co-own the vehicle. Your ownership interest lets you take advantage of a multiple-car discount.
•          Think carefully about giving a young driver his or her own car. Coverage for young drivers who have full-time access to a vehicle is very expensive. Make sure you balance the considerations of convenience, cost and safety.

Don’t pursue lower premiums blindly. It’s important that your young driver is protected from the financial consequences of causing a serious accident. Further, you may need to protect yourself since you could also be sued for an accident caused by your son or daughter. You might consider getting higher limits of liability by purchasing an umbrella policy. Talk to an insurance professional about more strategies to keep your new driver aff

OSHA To Fine Employers for Distracted Driving Accidents

OSHA has announced an aggressive program to combat “The Number 1 Killer of Workers,” Distracted Driving. The announcement was made today by Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA).

The enforcement program was described by Michaels  at a symposium on the prevention of Occupationally-Related Distracted Driving conference hosted by Johns Hopkins University. Following the policy announced by President Obama in his Executive Order banning texting while driving, OSHA is calling upon all employers to ban texting while driving.

It is the intention of OSHA to provide education and enforcement on the issue of distracted driving. OSHA will investigate motor vehicle accidents, including cell phone records, and will issue citations and fine employers where an accident involved texting while driving. While OSHA has juridiction over employers, and not employees,  it hopes to encourage all employers to declare motor vehicles a “text free zone.”

Teen Text Mess

Statistics are starting to stack up, indicating a move in gender equality that no one should be glad to hear. Young female drivers are now just as dangerous behind the wheel as their male counterparts. The reason? Cell phones and its most popular teen use……texting.

Just in case you’re not familiar with texting, the term refers to messages that are sent via a cell phone keyboard. The messages tend to be very short, making use of abbreviations and codes and are very interactive; typically requiring a high level of back and forth responses.

Among the differences between men and women is the fact that the latter are far more social and communicative. Young females have taken their love of communication and embraced the fact that it is teamed up with mobility. No matter the time or place, one can be in constant contact with friends; even when driving.

The problem is obvious, yet teens are largely oblivious. Texting requires use of hands and eyes to send and receive…..those are two elements that are also fairly important to operating a vehicle. Increasingly, the attention given over to texting is resulting in a spike in accidents; both minor and serious.

In a ’07 study performed by Liberty Mutual Ins. and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), it was found that nearly half of teen drivers admitted to texting while driving. SADD suggests that parents try to control the issue by making clear that it’s unacceptable to use cell phones, especially texting, while driving. It is also important to clearly tell teens of a significant punishment for noncompliance and enforcing the rule. Just as important, parents should model the desired behavior. In other words, don’t use cell phones or text in a vehicle.

Texting is a nightmare when paired with driving….make sure you do your best to minimize this serious problem.

Is your wine collection covered?

Many millions of people in the U.S. enjoy drinking wine. Its popularity as a drink continues to gain ground on beer, especially as the former drink enjoys more cachet. It is perceived as being healthier, it is often attached to fine dining and more people are becoming serious hobbyists regarding building wine collections. Of course, once a person has invested significant money in any type of property, there should be a greater concern with properly protecting that investment. Therefore it shouldn’t be a surprise that a healthy market has developed for Wine Insurance.

In most instances, homeowners merely arrange to add a vanilla, extra form to their homeowner insurance and protect it using the same method that also protects higher value property such as jewelry, musical instruments, furs or cameras. However, a market of specific insurance was created to offer customized protection. The wine collector’s approach falls into two broad areas and those areas easily determine whether generic or specialty coverage should be selected.

Many collectors acquire wines that, ultimately, will be consumed. However, they tend to purchase more expensive wines than the average wine drinker and they also buy in higher quantity and store the collection at home. For these, consumptive, collectors, purchasing scheduled coverage for their wine and related accessories, may be all the protection that is needed.

A smaller (yet growing) group of collectors are less interested in consuming as they are in building significant collections for investment purpose. This group consists of persons who buy the most expensive wines, often through auctions. They are also active traders and they frequently purchase custom property for storing and displaying their wine.

Serious collectors are drawn to purchasing wine insurance policies. Besides providing coverage fire, theft, wind and other common loss sources, Wine policies will protect described wines according to their market price as well as against losses due to accidental breakage, damage to labels, power outages, mechanical breakdowns of temperature control systems, harm from excessive light, heat or vibrations and other perils that target wines. Coverage may also be purchased for rare vintage wines that even must be protected against substantial loss of value from even slight movement of its bottle label.

Further, wine insurance is geared toward Coverage is geared toward protecting a wider variety of property such as:

·         Aerators

·         Corkscrews

·         Decanters

·         Refrigerated Wine Cabinets

·         Stemware

·         Wine Racks

·         Wine Furniture, including built-in cellars

·         Wine Collecting Accessories

So, if you have a special love of wine; especially as and investment, it may make sense to invest in a wine insurance policy.