Closed Forever…but could it have been prevented?

I read an interesting bit in the Entrepreneur Magazine last week. It quotes the Red Cross in estimating that 40 percent of small businesses that were shut down by a natural disaster never reopen. That hurts! It went on to give the reasons why:
• The company has no disaster plan to guide it under extreme duress
• There’s no effective data back –up. Half of all businesses can survive a total data loss.
• They have a weak balance sheet
• Lack of loyalty among experienced employees that are necessary for rebuilding.
The good news is, most of these aren’t directly tied to money matters. In fact, 3 of them can be tackled with some help from your friends at GSM Insurors. At GSM Insurors, we sell more than insurance. We provide customized solutions to help your business continue to grow and succeed no matter what comes your way.
We have the ability to help you design your disaster recovery plan that covers all the bases from fire, flood, hurricane, theft, data breach and even loss of data. In many cases we can provide solutions to business continuation that would allow you to pay your key employees while your business gets back on its feet.
No matter what size business you own, proper planning for what might come your way is crucial to the success and long term viability of your business.
Contact GSM Insurors at 877/729-5414 for more information on how your business can withstand a disaster and come back stronger than before!

Resolve to Start the New Year off Right – Ideas for Your Business

Keep the Books Better. Advertise More. Watch Expenses.
Every year you promise to run your business better – not only for you and your family, but for your employees too. And every year about this time, you fall back into the same old, comfortable habits that you promised to break just a few short weeks ago.
But what if you had someone else partner along side of you and your business to give you support in knocking out a few quick and easy tasks that could save you money and let you focus more on your business – would you do it! You better say, “Yes!”
So with that in mind, here are some 2013 Resolutions that your Friends at GSM Insurors strongly encourage you to undertake – the sooner, the better:
1. Get an insurance coverage review. Take an hour to sit down with your insurance agent and go over all of your policies. Let your agent ask you questions about your business. Have you grown in the past year? Shrunk? Add employees or make layoffs? Did you start any new services or offer any new products? Did you buy any new vehicles or equipment? All of these simple questions could greatly impact whether you are not only getting the proper coverage for your business but whether you are paying too much as well.
2. Look for package pricing and benefits. Many insurance carriers have custom built business insurance policies that may allow you include almost all the coverage you need in one policy. Often times, they have special coverage packages that are specifically tailored to specific types of businesses – and they include them for almost free! Ask your agent about a package policy. If your business doesn’t qualify for a package policy, see what your agent can do about getting your coverage with one insurance company. This may enable you to get a pricing discount for having it all in one place.
3. Watch for deductible creep. Just like your own home insurance policy, you may have looked to save money over the years by increasing your deductible. Now is a great time to review that deductible amount and ask yourself if that would fit your budget if you had a major loss. Another benefit of checking is the fact that while you may not have purposely increased your deductible on your own, many insurance carriers have been changing them without your notice. You may see a price decrease and not even know your deductible for wind and hail went up to 3% or $10,000 – or more. Check this now – before hail and hurricane season flare up in Texas!
4. Create a disaster recovery plan. Just because the weather is calm in Texas now, it doesn’t mean that storms can’t pop up in the next few months that could have your business cleaning up in the aftermath. GSM Insurors has partners that can help you plan for disaster recovery long before an event occurs. They can help you decide what to do in case of a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane or whatever comes your way. Once you make your plan, you can rest assured that if you ever need to activate it, these companies will jump right in and coordinate it all for you so you can focus on your business.
5. Disaster recovery doesn’t mean just fire and weather – take care of your business perpetuation. Do it now. Contract GSM Insurors, your lawyer, your financial planner – just do it now to make sure your business will pass to the next generation or your partners with little headache. Proper planning in the area of life insurance, disability, long term care, wills, trusts, etc. can make a difficult situation much easier to deal with.
6. Learn how the new healthcare laws will impact you and your business. Whether or not your business offers healthcare for your employees, there will be an impact on you and your business. Take the time to learn what could happen to you and your health insurance. Will you have to pay penalties? Contact a professional insurance agent who specializes in health insurance to get up to speed on what could be a tumultuous year for health insurance.
7. Little things can cost you if you don’t have coverage – like electronic data protection and your employment practices. Businesses know to look out for their liability and property insurance needs, but the new, high tech world means new ways for your company to be sued. Check with your insurance professional about your needs for an electronic data protection policy to cover you in the event you or one of your employees accidently lets sensitive client information out or someone hacks your website and steals client credit card numbers. Also, consider an Employment Practices Liability Policy to cover you for issues that could come up in the Human Resources side of the business like a wrongful termination lawsuit or sexual harassment claim.
That’s 7 quick things you can do that could take less than 2 hours of your time in 2013 and could save you thousands of dollars and give you greater peace of mind throughout the year. Best of all, you can do them all at one stop – GSM Insurors. Give us a call at 877/729-5414 to get started on your 2013 New Year’s Resolutions.

Resolve to Start the New Year off Right – Ideas for You

Lose Weight. Exercise More.  Spend Less.  Read More.

All good ideas to starting off 2013 on the right foot, but more often than not, when the calendar turns to February, long gone are the resolutions you made at the beginning of the New Year.

But what if there were some things you could do just once in the New Year that could actually save you money, increase your peace of mind, and prevent problems down the road – would you do them?  Your answer should be, “YES! YES! YES!”

So with that in mind, here are some 2013 Resolutions that your Friends at GSM Insurors strongly encourage you to undertake – the sooner, the better:

1.  Get an insurance coverage review.  Take an hour to sit down with your insurance agent and go over all of your policies.  Let your agent ask you questions about how you use your home and cars.  You may be paying more for coverage that you don’t need or you may find that you’re drastically underinsured and could end up paying a ton out of your pocket if you have an accident.
2. Look for discounts.  So many insurance carriers have increased their discounts for having both home and auto insurance with the same company that it may be worth seeing if combining them can save you money.  Some companies even have benefits for customers with both policies that you wouldn’t get elsewhere.  If it’s good enough for a Super Bowl MVP from Wisconsin, you should check for discounts too.
3. Watch for deductible creep.  Over the past several years, you may have been tempted to save some money by increasing your homeowner’s policy deductible.  What you may not have realized is that your home value may have increased at the same time too.  Double check your deductible on your homeowners policy and you may find that your deductible is now $3,000, $4,000, or up to $10,000.  That means that if you have a fire or hail loss, you’ll have to pay that amount out of your pocket before you will see any insurance reimbursement.  Many folks along the coast increased their windstorm deductible over the past several years in order to save a hundred bucks here or there.  Then two back to back hail storms really hammered their wallets.  Bottom line – check for that deductible that creeps up higher each year!
4. Update your beneficiaries.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen clients and friends who have lost loved ones – usually the patriarch of the family- who have come to our office to help with filing life insurance claims.  Then they found out that the beneficiaries of the policies were former spouses or only included the older children and not the last child or two born into the family.  Go dust off that life insurance policy that you wisely bought and look at who is going to receive the death benefits when you are gone.  You could save your family some significant heartache or infighting by simply updating your beneficiaries.  Same goes for retirement accounts.
5. Speaking of retirement accounts – increase your savings rate by 1% this year.  Do it now.  Contract your HR Department or your Financial Planner and do this immediately.  You won’t miss it and you’ll save on taxes this year too.  I’ve never met anyone who said that they saved too much for retirement.
6. Learn how the new healthcare laws will impact you and your family.   Whether or not you support Obamacare, there will be an impact on you and your family.   Take the time to learn what could happen to you and your health insurance.  If you have coverage through work, you may be greatly impacted.  Contact a professional insurance agent who specializes in health insurance to get up to speed on what could be a tumultuous year for health insurance.

That’s 6 quick things you can do that could take less than 2 hours of your time in 2013 and could save you thousands of dollars and give you greater peace of mind throughout the year.  Best of all, you can do them all at one stop – GSM Insurors.  Give us a call at 877/729-5414 to get started on your 2013 New Year’s Resolutions.

I confess – I am a Storm Junkie.  You know the type – the one who can’t wait for storm to form somewhere in the northern hemisphere because it gives them a reason/excuse to run out and make preparations even if there is a 0% chance that a tropical storm will come within a thousand miles of their area.  After growing up on the Texas Coast and living through Alicia, Allison, Rita, and Ike, I love that rush that comes in the days leading up to a storm making landfall on the Texas Coast.  I know it’s a short term feeling, because the damage, frustration and hardships after a storm hits is not worth the “high” that comes pre-storm.

So, when I woke up Sunday morning and checked my favorite weather site (www.weatherunderground.com), imagine the chill that ran up my spine.  (I told you I’m a sick thrill junkie) Tropical Storm Debby had formed and one of the computer models had it coming right for Texas!  We were in the “Cone of Uncertainty”.  That was good enough for me!  On the way home from church, I looked down at the gas gauge and saw that I was on less than a quarter of a tank – easily the first mistake a true storm junkie would never make during Hurricane Season.  “Always keep your tank at least half full during storm season,” seems to be the first tip in every hurricane publication.  Since I had already flunked the first test, I decided to check our Hurricane Box when I got home.

When Hurricane Ike blew through in 2008, we learned a lot about what we thought we were prepared for.  Even though we live 70 miles from the Galveston and Gulf beaches, we were without power for two weeks, had over $10,000 damage to our house, and experienced gas and food shortages.  We were fortunate though to still be able to stay in our house.  Our next door neighbor wasn’t.  She had a 75 foot tall, 40 inch diameter pine tree fall through the center of her house – followed by over a foot of rain pouring in.  With that in mind, we built our hurricane kit to cover many of the inconveniences we experienced.  Now it was time to check “The Box” and see how if it still met our needs.

My wife built our Box just prior to the 2009 Hurricane Season and over the past three years, we’ve raided it for something we needed immediately and then added some new things we saw that we thought we might need.  The Box is kept in our garage and includes a list of its contents.  The Box is not the end all, be all by any means.  Water storage, generators and other tools are too big to fit in The Box, but for now, I’m focusing just on the contents of the box.  Here’s what I found:

1 Can of Propane (we have 12 more on the shelf elsewhere)

1 roll of foil (can cook on this and not have to wash it)

8×10 foot tarp (for covering holes in the roof or broken windows)

6 D Cell Batteries (they were leaking.  I tossed them)

6 C Cell Batteries

Box of Large Trash Bags (garbage service didn’t run for a week during Ike)

Large Box of Baking Soda (eliminates odors, puts out fires, keeps refrigerator fresh)

2 Flashlights

3 Rain Ponchos

6 boxes of matches

2 decks of playing cards and 1 deck of UNO cards (no power, no video games)

1 can of Off (mosquitoes love hurricanes!)

Hand Sanitizer

Hydrogen Peroxide

Latex Gloves

2 Utility Lighters

Siphon Pump  (gas for generators was in such short supply, we took any gas we could find)

2 boxes of hand wipes

3 – 100 hour emergency candles

Manual Can Opener

Paper Plates

Magnesium Fire Starters of various types and quality  (why the need to start so many fires?)

Pocket Hand Saw

Water purification tablets

1 –time use sanitary medical kit that included quilted drop cloth, wipes, gloves

Salt and Pepper Shaker (but no salt or pepper)

Portable Battery Powered Fan  (moving air never felt so good after Ike)

Water Bob – the coolest new addition to The Box!  This device fits in your bathtub and can store up to 100 gallons of water.  Great for folks who live on a well system or might have a compromised water facility after the storm.

1 Triple A battery  (I suspect we started with more, but had been raided for video game controllers)

A long clothes line/rope and a couple of dozen clothes pins  (this was big after Ike.  We hooked the washing machine to the generator, but then line dried our clothes.  Everyone sleeps better in clean underwear)

Instructions on how to run the generator

So what did I learn?

I learned that I need to check the box more frequently.  AAA batteries are vital after the storm to keep radios and other devices going.  I learned that The Box had morphed into more of camping box than a Hurricane Box.  It reminded me to test run our generator more frequently.  It reminded me to update my paperwork like current insurance policy copies and other key documents.  Keep the gas tanks full.  Make sure we have a week’s worth of food on hand.

More importantly, it reminded me to have a plan and run through the plan with the family.  The pre-storm rush soon gives way to the post-storm realities.  Having a good plan, backed up with a well stocked and functioning Box, can make a difficult situation much more tolerable.

I’m interested in what’s in your Hurricane Box?

Let’s hope we avoid the storms this year, but just in case, I’m headed out to stock up on triple A’s….

One hot and humid night last July, right in the middle of the hottest and driest Texas summer I had ever experienced, my wife and I returned to our neighborhood only to be greeted by a flurry of fire trucks just around the corner from our house.   We could see flames coming out of the roof as firefighters scrambled to contain the blaze and neighbors used their own hoses to keep the fire from spreading to their homes.  We had only gone out for a quick bite to eat; less than an hour.  That’s how fast the fire spread.  And now, a family of 6 was watching their home go up in flames.

Having been in insurance for over 20 years, I sometimes have to fight the “insurance man” in me when it comes to my emotions.  I don’t know this family very well, and I was willing to help them in any way possible because we’re neighbors.  But thousands of insurance questions were running through my head: “What started the fire?” “Were there any injuries?”  “Who were they insured with?” “What kind of coverage did they have?”  I hoped they had enough insurance.

In the days following the fire, yellow police tape went up around the yard and boards went up on the windows.  Come to find out the fire started in the kitchen during dinner.  The grease fire went up through the ventilation hood in the kitchen and into the attic.  The house was going to be a complete loss.

Within a month, a service crew came out and took all of the neighbor’s stuff that could be salvaged and cleaned it.  There wasn’t much that could be salvaged after all the water, smoke, and fire damage.  Then the house sat idle and boarded up for 8 months.  Think about that – 8 months for a grease fire.

The more I learned, the more I found out what I had feared the most for this family.  They were grossly underinsured.  Their house was insured for $250,000, but it would have cost quite a bit more to rebuild it back to the way it was originally.  Now this family was living in an apartment and having to redo their house plans to make it smaller so that they’d have enough money to rebuild.

What most people don’t realize is that rebuilding a home is much more costly than building one from scratch.  This family had to completely replace the slab and do significant dirt work to make the lot suitable for rebuilding.  Because the family was underinsured, they wouldn’t be able to replace all of the lost or damaged stuff in their house.  You’d be surprised how quickly your clothes, furniture, food, guns, décor and other stuff can add up.  The family also lost several trees in the fire.  These aren’t cheap to replace either.  Sometimes your insurance coverage may not cover this.  Additionally, there is a cost for living away from your home.  Most policies have what is called Additional Living Expenses or ALE.  ALE may pay up to a certain percentage of your home’s value for a year for your family to live on.  This is not only for rent, but food and misc. living expenses too.  Almost a year after the fire, this family is still living away from home.  Those costs add up.  On top of that, just because your home is burned down doesn’t mean the mortgage stops.  They might not have had coverage for this either.  Also overlooked in this was the fact that the home would have to be rebuilt to the new building code standards.  This means more added costs.

All total, the insurance company will pay out close to half a million dollars for this grease fire.  It should be more.  If the family had been properly insured, they would have been able to completely rebuild their home back to the size it was before and completely replace all of their contents.  They would have been able to have their landscaping replaced and the lot fully rebuilt.  In addition, they would have had extra money for their mortgage and they would have had more money and time for their additional living expenses.  They could have leased a similar sized home instead of cramming into an apartment.

No one wants to go through a house fire.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.  The saddest part about all of this, is that they could have avoided all of the headaches afterward if they would have fully insured their house.  The total claim was probably closer to $750,000.  The family could have had that extra coverage for roughly $150 more a year.

Makes you think – what would happen to me if my house burned down?  Call us at GSM Insurors at 877/729-5414 and find out!

“Texas has four seasons:  Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Christmas.” – unknown

That long time quote was the furthest from my mind as I made my way up I-45 towards Dallas on April 3.  Thanks to the new 75 mph speed limit, I was getting almost run over despite setting my cruise control on 80.  Even at 80 mph, I was still able to take in the incredible wild flower displays over my 200 mile journey.  After a year of terrible drought, the rains in the past 4 months had made this year’s flower crop extraordinary.

The closer I got to the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, I switched over to a local sports radio station to catch some good sports talk prior to my meeting at DFW Airport.  At the top of the hour, even though the skies were sunny with scattered clouds, the local weather report called for some severe storms.  Dallas traffic had more of my attention at the moment than the impending storms.

The meeting went off without a hitch right up until 2 p.m. when we could see rain pelting the runways at the busy airport.  From our 11^th floor meeting room, we watched as storm clouds rolled in and air traffic ground to a stop.  While several members of our group had flown in, secretly I was glad I chose to drive that day.  Our weather watching was interrupted when the Meeting Facilities Manager burst in and strongly encouraged all of us to head to the basement of the hotel because a tornado was heading our way.

Over the next 2 hours, we were like yo-yo’s coming up from the basement to continue our meeting and then having to go back down again with each successive funnel cloud sighting.  In between our ups and downs, we’d catch glimpses of TV news reports about the storm and visual confirmation of the hail that was peppering the cars in the hotel parking lot.  Flights were cancelled.  Those of us who drove were looking at weather radar and planning our best means of escaping the Metroplex.  My trip home included every plague short of frogs, although it got so dark at times, I may have missed them too.

Flash forward a couple of weeks later, and I’m headed back to Dallas for a class.  Since I escaped the billion dollar wave of tornado damage in Dallas on the 3^rd, McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley had their second massive hail storm with some hail stones the size of footballs!  Additionally, Corpus, Portland, and all areas between there and Rockport were hammered with hail, tornado activity, and significant flooding.

Approaching the outskirts of Dallas and seeing the blue tarps covering roofs grow in numbers like those wildflowers I saw just a few weeks prior reminded me of the storm that hit Rockport and Aransas Pass on January 9^th of last year.  In that storm, GSM clients filed over 1,000 claims.  Thanks to the incredible hard work of Claims Manager Mellinee Harwick , the rest of the GSM Insurors Staff and the adjusters of our insurance carrier partners, many of those clients were taken care of quickly and efficiently. Hail doesn’t just happen in North Texas, it happens everywhere.  Making sure you have the right coverage on your home and auto can make those freak storms much more manageable.

Living on the coast means we always think about Hurricane Season, but it seems lately that Texas’ “Other” Season ought to be HAIL SEASON.

Stay Safe and Wear a Hard Hat!