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... x No Thanks Loading.. Dwelling Replacement Cost Form 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. DWELLING REPLACEMENT COST FORM &# 160 NAME: LOCATION ADDRESS: DATE: Table A Enter 1 for each unit (ie. three bedrooms=3 ) listed below: Living Room Unfinished Attic Bedrooms Unfinished Basement (see note below) Bathrooms (3 or more fixtures) Stone exterior Walls Kitchen Clay Tile or Slate Roof Dining Room Two-Car Attached or Built-in Garage Family or Recreation Room Three-Car Carport Den, Study, Office, or Misc. Rooms Den, Study, Office, or Misc. Rooms (Over 300 Sq. Ft.) Table B Enter 1 for each unit listed below: Dinette or Breakfast Nook Enclosed Porch Half Baths (2 or less fixtures ... .) Walk-in Closet or Dressing Room Concrete Tile Roof Work, Storage, or Laundry Room Fireplace Breezeway or Open Porch Additional Cars per Garage (over two) Note: For Finished & Partially Finished Basements: 1. Finished basements: count only the finished rooms. 2. Partially finished basements: if the total unit count of the finished area in the basement exceeds Additional Information: Year House Built Square Footage: Year of last updating on: Roof Wiring Plumbing Heating Heat Type: Woodstove (if yes, is it used often?) Large Detached Building Smoke Alarm Deadbolt Locks Non-Smoker Central Station Reporting Burglar Alarm Police Station Reporting Burglar Alarm Central Station Reporting Fire Alarm Fire Department Reporting Fire Alarm Automatic Sprinkler System Central Vacuum System Domestic Solar Hot Water Heater Hot Tub Sauna Balconies (if yes ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Are Your Homeowners Accounts Insured To Value?4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Curtis Pearsall This content has not been rated yet. ARE YOUR HOMEOWNERS ACCOUNTS INSURED TO VALUE? by Curtis Pearsall You've decided to add a family room to your house with big bay windows, and French doors opening onto a back garden. You're talking to contractors, deciding on paint colors, and supervising a host of other details. How likely are you to contact your insurance agent to modify your coverage limits? Read what Curtis Pearsall has to say about underinsured clients in this document. &# 160 Nearly three in four (73%) homes in the United States are underinsured by 35% . When I first saw this statistic I found it hard to believe. ... that was the conclusion of a survey by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, a firm that provides building cost information to insurance companies. I then checked to see how many of Utica's E&O claims in 2000 arose from failure to provide proper Homeowners coverage. The answer: 16% . I'm sure that improper limits contribute to that 16% . For many companies, Homeowners is no longer the profitable line that it once was. The lack of adequate premium for the values could be a significant reason. After all, the underinsurance statistics mean that insurers are only getting around 70-75% of the premium they need to write Homeowners risks. Who's to blame for this situation? Companies certainly have a significant responsibility because they often rely on telephone conversations to evaluate the value of homes. Although agents ...

... enough alternative. So what's the secret to identifying this type of prospect and then creating enough additional pain to turn them into a buyer? It's no secret at all! Ask more questions. That's right - ask more questions. If you've been the victim of intellectual hurt - and we all have been - my recommended cure is to go back through the initial stages of your selling system and make room for more questions, questions that create implications. COULD YOU TELL ME ABOUT IT? Remember, telling isn't selling. The only way to be involved in a conversation without talking is to listen. And the best way to get someone to talk is to ask them questions. Get the prospect to explain the exact nature of their pain: where it comes from, how it feels, what ... Lesson 23: Pain 5/22/2015 by Randy Schwantz This content has not been rated yet. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. To make sales happen, IMMS.com Key Sales Consultant Randy Schwantz has created a comprehensive series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills - and grow their sales. I really like my house to be clean. It's something that I consider important. I also like my wife to be happy. If you were selling a maid service, you might want to stop by my house. Knowing that I prefer a clean house and a happy wife to the alternatives might lead you to believe that I'd be an easy sell. Imagine how you'd make your presentation. One of the first ...

... the agency operations. The rookie also needs to understand that the initial compensation might not be comparable to the level and amount of work contributed to the sale. I usually recommend that one rookie work with one mentor. It is difficult to answer to two masters. After you make the match, you need to analyze training needs. TRAINING THE ROOKIE Effective training is not putting the rookie in a room with books, manuals, underwriting guidelines, applications, prospect leads, and a telephone for several hours or even a week. If the rookie is new to insurance, my rule of thumb is not to give them more than two hours of reading at a time. Most salespeople become bored and restless if they're left to study longer than that. Plan Here's how I like to plan their ... that the new business is on the books. After that, there are some options. Unless the mentor is actually servicing the account, though, I believe that after four years the mentor should no longer receive any portion of the commission for an account produced with a rookie. Here's how it might work: A new account is produced and the commission split is as follows: Year Mentor Rookie House 1 Full1 Salary2 Full3 2 Full Salary Full 3 (option 1) None Full Full 3 (option 2) Half Half Full 4 (option 2) Quarter Three-fourths Full 5 (option 2) None Full Full Salary plus bonus schedule for reaching production goals. Salary plus bonus schedule for reaching production goals. Producers required to give house small accounts below a specified size to help to fund the ...

... skin tests. Retests shall be given every six months for workers with potential exposure to individuals with TB or who are involved in high-risk procedures while retests will be given annually for the others. Evaluation and management of workers with a positive skin test or a history of positive skin tests who are exhibiting symptoms of TB. This includes work restrictions for infectious employees. AFB (acid fast bacilli) isolation rooms for suspected or confirmed infectious TB patients. These isolation rooms and areas in which high hazard procedures are performed must be maintained under negative pressure and appropriately exhaust ventilated. SPECIFIC OSHA STANDARDS APPLICATION Hierarchy of Controls-Employers must implement the CDC and OSHA policy of requiring a hierarchy of controls and good industrial hygiene practice which dictate that engineering and work practice controls be used wherever possible to eliminate or reduce the hazard ... possible to prevent employee exposure to the hazard through engineering controls, administrative and/or work practice controls must be employed. Lastly, personal protective equipment must be used to protect the employee. Respirators-The use of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) -approved high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) respirators is a minimum level of respiratory protection when employees perform high hazard procedures, enter isolation rooms housing individuals who may have tuberculosis or transporting such individuals in a closed vehicle. Whenever respirator use is indicated, a complete respirator protection program must be in place. Warnings must be posted outside a respiratory isolation room, stating special respiratory isolation' or AFB isolation. The warnings must say what precautions are required. Records of employee exposures to TB, skin tests, and medical evaluations and treatment must be ...

... past. Commissions are down and a soft market has driven premiums lower. Although agents continue to hope that the market will turn, most experts doubt that it will happen any time soon. Contingency commissions from carriers have saved more than one agency from financial despair, but there's reason to believe that this annual shot in the arm will be less potent in the years ahead. There's more than enough room for improving agency productivity, but it has become extremely expensive to do so. A number of bankers are finding themselves bankrolling needed system improvements. If banking and insurance are to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship, a special environment must be established. Here are some guidelines for this relationship: Banks can't view the insurance organization as an outsider. Many banks with an insurance agency relationship don't know how ... time, insurance agency customers will be presented with an array of attractive banking services. Wal-Mart is going into banking in a big way, so why shouldn't banks get into insurance? Actually, it's nothing new. Insurance agencies have long been in close proximity to banks. Once customers had their mortgages approved, the bank president said, Now, Joe, you're going to need insurance on that new house. Why don't you go upstairs and see Tom. Grateful for the loan, the customer marched up one flight and bought Homeowners coverage. Although there's no reason why banks shouldn't be in the insurance business, these two differing cultures can be in conflict. On the one side, banks have long used attraction techniques' to lure customers, an approach that's foreign (mostly because it's illegal) to ...

... into these decisions. The key is for management to determine the needs of the individual prospect or employee and then try to meet them. This is easier said than done when dealing with younger people who might have needs and values that seems alien to anyone over 40. But it's not impossible. Over and above a decent living, the needs of today's workers include: a sense of fairness, room to grow, the trust and respect of management, professionalism in the environment and reputation of the agency, and an opportunity to participate in decisions. Most importantly, employees want to know that what they're doing is making a difference. They want to be rewarded both for the agency's performance and for their own performance. They don't want to be treated like every other employee, especially those who ... who gets either straight commissions or a salary as a draw against commissions. Only 30% of rural producers have such a plan, compared with 57% of urban sales people. For producers paid on a commission basis, these charts show average rates paid. Note that these are nationwide averages, not recommended' sales compensation percentages. They might well be too high for most firms if there's little house business and/or the owners expect the agency to produce a reasonable profit. Some agencies provide little or no back-up support to producers, while others have technically proficient CSRs, along with sales centers and marketing assistance. Take these extra support expenses into account when analyzing sales compensation. Rural Agencies Personal Lines New 49%/Renewal 23% Small Commercial New 48%/Renewal 24% Regular ...

... Line' makes sense to me if you're taking about retail products like shampoo and children's toys. But in this era of packaged, multiple-peril policies, the word just doesn't add to anyone's understanding about the product. SURPLUS Yes, you're laughing. My insurance executive students giggle when I display this word on poster-size type. It even looks as bad as it sounds. But every insurance pro in the room knows that he or she will fall back on this when someone asks them to explain how insurance companies managed to handle that last hurricane. Well, they have the surplus to fall back on. Surplus? I thought you said the industry lost its shirt last year. Now you're talking about some silo full of extra cash they've got stashed away. Come on, people, there are better words ... , whatever you want, but never use the S' word. If you must use it, then explain it immediately. CASUALTY, and its snooty cousin, LIABILITY You're kidding yourself if you think the average consumer or news reporter knows what these words mean when talking about insurance coverages. I once had a grown adult ask me if his insurance company was reliable' for the damage to his house. And he wasn't referring to the company's solvency. You get a star on your forehead if you explain to customers that liability coverage, simply put, pays for damages you do to somebody else. LOSS RATIO .. COMBINED RATIO. ANYTHING RATIO Again, I don't mind if you use them, but you've gotta define them. Just say, For every dollar we collected insuring this fiasco, ...

... series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills – and grow their sales. I like my car - sort of. It's not the newest model, and it's not the best, but it gets me where I need to go. It doesn't break down often or embarrass me. And it has plenty of room for my growing family. You could say I'm content, but not satisfied. If you wanted to sell me a new car, you'd need to know two things about the Schwantz family: how much we'd spend for a new car and who makes the decision. That's the topic of this lesson - qualifying for money and the ability and willingness to make a decision. Making a presentation or ... so much that they must make a change, or they have some idea of what they're willing to spend to fix the problem. This distinction is important. Let's take an example of spending money to fix a problem. People who usually move toward pleasure are most likely to reason this way when deciding on a new program. Salesperson: Suppose I could increase your liability coverage and include your lake house on the policy. Would that be worth $200 to $500? Prospect: It may be. What kind of increase can I get? Salesperson: We can move your limits up to $1 million with an Umbrella policy. Prospect: That would make me more comfortable. Salesperson: If I could get your limits that high for between $200 and $500, would the ...

... insurance-to-value to add it. It was cheap, $1.00 to $5.00 back in my days. My current HO policy offers this endorsement for about the same cost. The actual endorsement says that I agree to insure for 100% ITV and requires me to notify the company if I undertake a modification of 5% of value or more. The idea behind the endorsement is to give some wiggle room' in cases where estimated replacement cost is too low, or where costs escalate after the claim. Anyone who has ever done a cost estimator knows that they're just that — estimates. Having a policy pay 120% of the replacement cost allows for slight errors in the form. Also, anyone who has ever been in a post-catastrophe environment (hurricanes, for example) knows that costs go ... on and giving specific examples of properties you know are undervalued, and tell them that if they don't take action, you're going to take the matter to the department of insurance and call for a public hearing. It's likely that the insurer doesn't know what's going on at the local level. Sadly, some people are probably going to lose their jobs. But if the company can clean its own house, they'll be better off than if the DOI intervenes and revokes their license — and livelihood. The saddest thing is that the well-being of innocent families is being threatened — and they don't even know it. Reproduced, with permission, from the VuPoint Newsletter of the IIABA Virtual University. For more information on the Virtual University, click here . The members of the University Faculty offer expertise in ...