Morning Blend

Bob: Back on the Blend this morning is Pat Brown from the Holt Dimondale Insurance Agency. Pat, it’s always good to see ya.

Pat: Bob. it’s always good to see you.

Bob: I want to talk to you about maybe some special gift if you’re a grandparent or a great grandparent, you might be able to pass along and give to grandchildren.

Pat: Life Insurance is a great gift that grandparents or great grandparents can purchase for their for their grandchildren, ensuring some protection at their early age. I know growing up as a family, we sometimes put those things on the back burner until it might be too late and, and then it becomes too expensive and we don’t do it, but at an early age the rates are extremely low. There are guaranteed options that these children can as they’re in special times in their life, can increase the insurance without having an Evidence of Insurability, and it gives them the opportunity to get started.

An example our family we have 12 grandchildren, and between my father and I, before he passed, we’ve made sure that those 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all have life insurance on themselves. And just think of it, they’re building cash value. The parents are the owners, grandparents are the payers, and all the policies are less than $100 a year. It’s incredible.

Bob: and so why do you think that it’s important to include life insurance as part of your insurance portfolio?

Pat: You know, we call it in the insurance industry, a H.U.L.A, you’ve heard of the hula hoop, this is Home, Umbrella, Life, and Auto. The home umbrella and auto, you know you pay a premium we pay for a claim that’s what that’s what insurance is about. Well, three of those are, you know, we’re taking a risk. Life is guaranteed that something is going to happen, and life insurance is taking a bad rap, because it’s ‘oh my goodness it’s only a death benefit…” it is not. It can be a living benefit it can build cash values. There’s so many options that you can put within there, based upon your financial responsibilities. And if you, you know you can go home life you can go terms you can add things on to it, to give that total protection. And it’s so important to think about that I know sometimes people think it’s very, very expensive but you know it is for me because I pick up some of these ones later in life, it gets very expensive. Yeah, it is. But it’s prime stuff to have.

Bob: Do you sell it at Holt Dimondale Agency?

Pat: Well, yes we do Bob, and I would be more than happy to write out a proposal for anyone. Give me a call because proposals don’t cost anything and then you have an overview and you know really is not as bad as you think. And it will be something there forever. You can stop anytime you want. But if it’s something that you should have before it becomes too late.

Bob: With us this morning is Pat Brown from the Holt Dimondale Insurance Agency. Pat. I’ve been meaning to ask you, I wonder if there are any updates on the no fault insurance reform?

Pat: Yeah but, you know, COVID is kind of taking all the information and all our attention. The original No-Fault reform law came in July without much fanfare. People did see the reduction in their premiums and part of the initial bill was to have a couple of years worth of data, and then see what happens but the insurance commissioner announced last week that in July of, 2021, there will be another reduction, the size will be based upon what people have chosen throughout the course but there will be another reduction for the insurance public coming July of 2021. So it seems like a long ways off but it isn’t. 

Bob: Yeah. How has the pandemic affected your business dynamics?

Pat: I was thinking about this one, quite a bit and, and I’ll throw this back at you know how would you like to have to do morning blend 15-20 times in one week without a zoom and all you have is the phone medium? That’s tough because you can see as we do here, facial expressions, gathering information establishing relationships is done on a face-to-face basis, and it’s tough when all you have is that phone medium. We’ve had to change, change you know our dynamics for our team because on a daily basis we can’t get that information from our team so we do weekly meetings, via Zoom. We use the Team’s messaging system so that we can keep up on what’s going on with all our people, and outside we’ve put up a bill mailbox so people can drop off payments.  When we had that little short reprieve when we could get back to work, we were taking appointments that way but again we miss our public, but we want to make sure our team stays safe. We still have the guidelines in place but we’re ready to go when we get a chance to get back there. 

Bob: Real quick, any advice for businesses out there that received the PPP and Care loans.

Pat: Yes, it’s coming down to year-end. If you’ve received some monies you have some responsibilities to report it, go to SBAM Small Business Association of Michigan. Go to their website they have a multitude of ways that you can look at that information, get some help on what your responsibility is.

Bob: Today we’re here with Pat Brown from the Holt Dimondale Agency.

Pat, I know you get a lot of frequently asked questions and I know one of them is, “will I always get a new roof on my home because of hail damage–true or false?” 

Pat: Both. And it’s sometimes a sticky wicket, if we want to use that term, but quite often, we use April of 2020, as an example, we had a hailstorm that came through our area. And there’s competition amongst the roofers in the area and what they’ll do is they’ll go out the next day and find a subdivision that may be 15 years old, so they know that some of those roofs might be in need of repair. They will go and check with the owners they will go up and write an estimate and find out that yep, you need a new roof. 
Well, the homeowner themselves take that for the gospel, and then they turn their claim in to the insurance company and find that you know, the roofer said that we need to have a roof replaced, the neighbor next door gets one, the neighbor on the other side gets one, you might not because the insurance carrier has the obligation to inspect it. And when the adjusters come out there they’re not trying to deny it, but it’s basically, “you got some damage we’ll repair half of it,” or “we’ll give you money towards this part of it,” but you’re not always going to get the new roof itself.

And a lot of times, because there is such an abundance of claims, some carriers will do what we call “armchair adjust: and say hey you know what I’ve got so many claims coming up, just replaced the roof… so it doesn’t always happen that way and sometimes people get a little flustered, my neighbor just got a brand new roof, why don’t I get one, so it’s always in between the insurance company and the insurers. So, yeah, this bit can be difficult sometimes. 

Bob: So another one that I know you get, “My mortgage company pays my homeowners insurance, but I don’t really check my policy, am I missing something here?” 

Pat: Definitely. Your sample policy comes in the mail, you see that it’s from your insurance carrier you know that your mortgage company pays it, you stick it in a file never think about it again. And because insurance is a competitive market, carriers on an annual basis try to create a better mousetrap to get their customers in, you know, Farmers with their, their policy perks and Liberty Mutual with their information. So there’s always new and innovative policy additions that can be or programs that can be added. If an agent is not calling you annually, like we do at Holt Dimondale Agency, you’re going to miss out on a lot of those things that could be advantageous to you. 

Bob: Good information and thanks so much for joining us.