Nearly 600,000 Americans are active certified aircraft pilots, according to Federal Aviation Administration estimates. These pilots fly everything from helicopters to commercial jets. Some own the aircraft they fly. Whether you own a plane or fly rented or borrowed aircraft, you should be aware of what your insurance can and cannot do and the insurance coverage you need.

A typical homeowner's insurance policy does not cover the policyholder’s legal liability for bodily injury or property damage arising out of any of the following:

• The ownership of aircraft
• Its maintenance, occupancy, operation, use, and loading or unloading by anyone
• Entrustment of it to anyone
• Poor or no supervision of a person using it
• Its use by a child or minor

Personal umbrella liability policies typically contain similar provisions. Consequently, it is essential for aircraft owners and renters to purchase aviation insurance. A relatively small number of insurance companies offer these policies, and the coverage details vary from one company to another. However, they all cover legal liability for injuries or damages. Coverage applies to the policyholder, anyone riding in or using the aircraft with the policyholder’s permission, and any other person or organization responsible for the aircraft.

Aviation policies normally contain several provisions that limit or eliminate coverage, such as:

• No coverage for liability that the insured assumed by signing a contract.
• No coverage for damage to property the insured leases, occupies or has control of, though some insurance companies cover damage to leased hangars.
• No coverage for losses occurring when the aircraft’s Certificate of Airworthiness is not in effect.
• No coverage for injury or damage that occurs while the aircraft is being used for an illegal purpose.
• No coverage for a loss that occurs when the number of passengers exceeds the maximum stated in the policy.
• No coverage when a pilot who does not meet certain conditions is operating the aircraft. These conditions may include having a valid pilot’s certificate, having logged a minimum number of flight hours, and having flown that make and model of aircraft a minimum number of hours.

Policies usually cover the use of substitute aircraft while the insured aircraft is out of service for maintenance or repair. Also, policies issued to an individual or couple often include coverage for the occasional use of aircraft they do not own.
Aviation insurance also covers damage to the aircraft itself. Policies typically cover damage from all causes other than:

• Wear and tear, mechanical breakdown, and related causes
• Damage to the tires
• Depreciation or loss of use of the aircraft
• Embezzlement
• Government seizure of the aircraft
• Change in ownership of the aircraft

Discuss how you use aircraft with an insurance agent to make certain that you have the proper coverage and amounts of insurance large enough to adequately protect you. Personal aircraft can be a great convenience for their owners. The right insurance can give you financial peace of mind when you jump in the pilot’s seat.  Call of of our agents today at 314-351-HALO(4256).

You have the phone and the capabilities that come with it. Using the phone to manage all of your insurance affairs is not only smart, it will put you ahead of the game if you need to access your insurance information or if you end up having a claim. There is no better place than having all the information and tools on your smart phone because it is likely with you at all times. The best news is, the resources are there and putting in place what you need is a snap.

The first thing you should do is to see if your insurance company has an app for your phone. If they do, downloading such an app is a no-brainer. These apps are available as a free added value service to you. The best part is that most of these apps have a number of capabilities. This includes nearly everything from accessing your policy information to submitting a claim and everything else in between. For example, if you get into an accident, some apps included the capability to take photos and submit them along with a claims form you complete right on your phone. This means you can submit a claim within minutes after the accident happened, along with all the photos documenting the incident.

While reporting a claims incident is probably the most valuable advantage of these apps, another advantage is having access to your policy information anytime you need it. What is your policy number? When does your policy renew? When is your next payment due? How much coverage do you have? All of this is right at the tip of your fingers. For example, if you need your policy number and information for your job or you are driving kids on a field trip and the school needs it, these apps make it easy to access all this information.

While most insurance carriers do have apps, even if your carrier does not have an app, the phone itself can be a valuable resource. For claims situations, the phone's camera is just about the best mobile documentation tool you can have. Also, if you are away from home, the ability to connect to the internet to look up resources such as the nearest towing company, the insurance company's website, and of course your agent's phone number can be your greatest asset. Best yet, you can use the phone's map to get directions to the closest place you may need to get to.

In addition to insurance company apps, there are a number of other applications that may be available. One example is a home inventory app that will help you to setup and organize photos or video of your entire home inventory. This can come in handy in the unfortunate event that you have a fire or are burglarized, as insurance companies will need an entire inventory to complete forms when processing the claim. Another example of a helpful app is a document storage and sharing app such as box.net or dropbox.com. These apps allow you to store and share documents and images virtually in what is referred to as a "cloud" format. This basically means that you can upload and save images from a computer to the cloud, and then you will have access to those images from your smart phone or any other computer.
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Investing a little initial time to download and setup apps and other resources to make your phone insurance smart is well worth it. It will not only save you time when you need this information, it will allow you to be significantly ahead of the game, even possibly being able to provide enough evidence to prove you are not at fault in an auto accident. You are 95% there by having a smart phone, and the benefits are too great not to take that next step in using the insurance-ready resources that are available.

​Cloud-to-ground lightning occurs at least 20 million times each year in the United States, and more than 300 people are struck by lightning annually. The average number of deaths each year is about 50 and those who are not killed often suffer permanent or long-term disabilities. Lightning should be recognized in the workplace as an occupational hazard when employees work outdoors. People who work in construction and similar industries face elevated risks of lightning strikes.

Outdoor Workplace Lightning Safety Tips

At the first sound of thunder, seek shelter immediately. Always wait at least 30 minutes after the last rumble of thunder to leave a place of shelter. Many people who are struck by lightning are hit because they assume too quickly that the storm has passed. Stay away from any electrical cords, power equipment or other power sources. Keep power tools unplugged during a storm.

If there is no form of physical shelter nearby, seek shelter in a vehicle. For example, a construction worker would be safer in a metal-topped vehicle than in a frame of a home. Many construction workers mistakenly assume that they are safe in a home with a roof and no walls. When a construction site or a finished building has windows, stay as far away from them as possible to avoid injuries from flying objects.

For those who are caught outside during a lightning storm with no adequate shelter, there are no safety guarantees. However, these tips will help reduce the risk of being struck:

• Since lightning is likely to strike tall objects, avoid elevated areas.
• Do not stand under isolated trees, towers or pieces of equipment.
• Do not lie flat in an open field.
• If possible, find an area with several small trees that are surrounded by larger trees.
• Stay away from bodies of water such as pools, ponds and streams.

Lightning Safety Training
Employers should provide safety training for each outdoor worksite. If workers will be in areas where there is no access to an enclosed shelter, employers should provide information about how to reduce safety risks and find the safest nearby area. If a shelter is nearby, there should be a map posted on the worksite showing workers how to reach it. Also, the map should tell workers how long it takes to reach the shelter.

Emergency Action Planning
Experts recommend having an emergency plan that includes advance warnings. Employers may do this by monitoring NOAA weather conditions and alerting affected workers in advance. In areas that are prone to lightning strikes, employers may use special detection systems for increased safety. These handheld devices are portable and function by picking up electromagnetic signals from nearby strikes. With the data from the nearby strike, the detector can estimate the distance of it. 

A detector does not pick up all strikes and may not always be 100 percent accurate with measurements. Unfortunately, no system is perfect enough to detect the first strike of lightning. Monitoring weather reports and telling workers to take shelter when there is a significant chance of lightning can help reduce risks. Working on scaffolds, cranes or wall tops when there are heavy winds or storms is strictly prohibited by OSHA. To learn more about lightning safety for outdoor work sites, discuss concerns with an agent today 314-351-HALO(4256).

IF YOU HAVE been considering becoming an Airbnb host to generate some extra income and make use of that extra room that you never use, you'll want to make sure that you are covered in case of injury to one of your guests. Call your insurance Agent now 314-351-HALO(4256)!

You may also be concerned about theft by a guest or any damage they may cause in your abode, none of which you'd want to pay for out of pocket. Hosts are covered by an Airbnb policy, but it's not comprehensive and those gaps could leave you exposed to a claim or lawsuit if the loss to the guest is severe enough.

Airbnb's insurance plan
Airbnb carries something called Host Protection Insurance, which all hosts are covered with at no charge. The plan will cover up to $1 million of liability for you and your landlord (if you have one) against property and physical damage claims by third parties.

For example, if one of your guests falls down the stairs because of an obstruction and they file a lawsuit against you, the insurance could cover the cost of defending and also paying out an award.

Similarly, if one of your guests injures another guest or a tenant in the apartment building you live in, Airbnb's insurance would also cover that.

And if your puppy gets into the guest's room and devours a $200 pair of shoes and some $300 headphones, Airbnb's policy would also kick in.

What's not covered by Airbnb
•   Damage to personal property like furniture, stereo equipment, your prized china set, etc.
•   Theft of your valuables.
•   Sickened guest due to issues at the property, like mold.
•  Slander and defamation. Both can be grounds for a lawsuit and if a guest sues a host for either one, the host will not be able to file a claim through Airbnb.
• Harm caused by intentional criminal acts. This is actually excluded on any insurance policy, even homeowner's or renter's coverage.

Do you have a coverage gap?

Your insurance company may deny coverage by citing business use of a home. When a home is rented out frequently, it could be considered a business. A home insurance policy does not cover regular business activities taking place in the home. Talk to an agent to discuss renting basics, renting frequency and what will happen if a guest is injured based on a current policy. 

​When you begin the process of estate and financial planning, there are many decisions you need to make. Even the most basic of decisions, like the type of life insurance coverage you will buy and what family members to cover, can be overwhelming. The costs associated with each decision you add up and may force you to sacrifice coverage for affordability. If you know the options available to you, you can simplify your planning and get all the benefits you need without exceeding your budget.

Often, the first step in financial planning involves the purchase of two life insurance policies—one covering you and another for your spouse. Depending on your age, the amount of insurance you need, and your health history, you may be concerned about the combined cost of the premiums for the two policies. Luckily, the purchase of one life insurance policy that includes a spousal rider may be an inexpensive solution.

Riders are added benefits that you can attach to your life insurance policy. They can also make a family policy much easier to afford. A spousal rider will pay a benefit on the death of your spouse as long as it occurs prior to, or at the same time as your own. The premium for the rider could be less than a comparable individual policy for your spouse.

With a spousal rider, the coverage of the named spouse ends after the death of the primary insured. This means that the surviving spouse may be forced to get their own insurance policy at an older age and while possibly in worse health than at the time of the original purchase.

You may also be considering a final expense policy for each of your children. Instead of buying separate policies for the children, each with their own premium, why not think about buying one policy with riders to cover the rest? You can add a child rider to cover your children and further expand the umbrella of coverage your single policy provides.

Children can be covered on a child rider until they reach the age of 18. There may be an additional period of time they can be covered if they are full-time college students. As with the spousal rider, the rider will only pay a benefit if the child dies before or simultaneously with the primary insured.

If you are concerned about an accidental death causing undo stress to your family and creating additional unexpected costs, you might consider adding an accidental death benefit (AD&D) rider to your policy. The AD&D rider provides an extra death benefit should your death occur as the result of an accident. Be sure to read the terms of the rider carefully to understand what the insurance company considers an accidental death. Illnesses, biological events and other causes of death may not be defined as accidents by the insurance company and will not be payable.

Life insurance can be customized to suit the needs of any person. With the use of riders you can end up with an affordable policy that covers a wide range of events and requires just one premium payment each year.

​Severe weather is one of the most common sources of natural disasters, and no region of the U.S. is off limits. Does your family know what they should do in the event a weather-related natural disaster strikes?

According to the Home Safety Council, fewer than 30 percent of U.S. families have created and discussed an emergency communication plan. One of the reasons that so few families have developed one is that many people believe it requires considerable time and effort.

Creating an emergency communication plan is actually easier than you may think. The first component that you should have is a corded land line phone in your home. It is the most reliable source of communication in an emergency because it will continue to operate even if the power goes out in the house.

The second component is an emergency communication card that each family member should carry at all times. The Home Safety Council recommends creating wallet-sized emergency communication cards that include space to list important phone numbers and medical information. Families should discuss how they would communicate during an emergency situation, and then record important plan information on their emergency cards.
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In addition to a communication plan, the Home Safety Council offers the following recommendations:

• Have a "Ready-to-Go-Kit" - In a duffel bag or backpack, place one gallon of water per person, non-perishable canned food, a can opener, paper plates and cups, plastic utensils, a flashlight and extra batteries, a battery-operated radio, a change of clothes for each family member, personal hygiene items, a small first-aid kit, and pet food and supplies. Keep the kit near any medications you would need to take with you in an emergency.
• Have a "Ready-to-Stay Kit" - You may have to stay inside your home for an extended period of time, and this kit will help you survive. In a large plastic tub with a cover, or easily accessible cabinet designated for this purpose only, place three gallons of water per family member, enough non-perishable canned food and snacks for at least three days, a can opener, toilet paper, blankets, books and games to keep you busy, a flashlight and extra batteries, a battery-operated radio, a small first-aid kit, paper plates and cups, plastic utensils, a change of clothes for each family member, personal hygiene items, and pet food and supplies.
• Designate a safe meeting place outside your home.
• Designate a safe place to seek shelter in your home in case of severe weather. Your survival supplies should be stored in this location.
• Teach young children how to use the phone to call for help.
• Update wireless phones with "in case of emergency" (ICE) contact information.

One Saturday afternoon your friend calls you up and asks: "Dude, can I borrow your car for a few hours today? Mine's in the shop."
You don't think much about it and hand over your keys.
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But what do you do if your friend has an accident? Will your insurance cover the damage, or does theirs?

Though policies will vary, the general rule is that anyone living in your house is typically covered when driving your car, unless expressly excluded on the policy. In many cases, everyone in the same household is actually required to be included on the vehicle's insurance policy.

For those friends or family members who don't live with you but use your car every once in a while, you can typically loan them your vehicle and not worry that they'll be covered.

Permissive use generally applies in these cases. This means that if you give another driver permission to take your car, they will be covered by your car's insurance coverage.

However, it's not that simple if your friend causes damage that exceeds your policy limits.

In general, the vehicle owner's policy is primary and pays first in the event of a loss. If your owner's policy does not cover the loss or provide enough insurance to fully cover it, the borrower's policy will apply.
For example, assume that your policy has a bodily insurance limit of $250,000 for injuries to one person, and your friend's policy has a limit of $100,000.

Your friend borrows your car and has an accident three blocks from your home, and severely injures the driver of the other vehicle. The medical bills alone are $300,000.

Your policy will pay first up to the $250,000 limit, after which your friend's insurance will kick in to pay the rest.

Deductible
Your insurance will also be primary for damage to the car itself. However, the borrower's insurance can make up for a difference in deductible.

Suppose your friend has a $500 collision deductible on his car, and you have a $1,000 deductible.
The damage to your vehicle is $6,000, so your insurer will pay $5,000 for the repairs. Your friend's insurance would pay you an additional $500 (your deductible, minus your friend's).

Reasonable belief
One very important part of all this is that anyone who borrows your car must have your permission in order for the insurance to cover them. The key here is that the insurance company will cover your friend using your car if your friend had a "reasonable belief that he could use the car."

So, if you told your friend: "Steve, you can use my car whenever you need to," and Steve did borrow it a few times before, that would mean that Steve had reasonable belief that he could use your car.

Permission must come from the vehicle's owner, not from a member of the owner's family. Steve will not have coverage if your son gave him permission to use it.
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Before borrowing someone else's car, we advise people to do the following:
•          Make certain you have the owner's permission.
•          Make certain the owner has insurance.
•          Check your own insurance to see if it will cover damages the owner's policy doesn't cover.

​Accidental electrocution is responsible for over 130 workplace fatalities each year, and thousands of injuries. But we know that improved workplace awareness and safety practices work: OSHA and workplace supervisors working together have reduced the rate of workplace electrocution fatalities by over 50 percent over the last 20 years. The 134 deaths recorded for 2015, the last full year for which statistics are available at press time, was a record low.

Even where workers survive an electrocution incident, they lose approximately 24 days of work to recuperation and recovery. Some of them never fully recover.

Electrical injuries are a major potential source of liability to employers as well. According to reporting by Occupational Health & Safety,  a serious injury sustained in an electrical accident will ultimately cost the employer and its insurance companies between $8 million and $10 million in direct and indirect costs, including medical care, OSHA penalties, lawyers' fees, damages to workers, lost productivity, increase workers compensation premiums, business interruption and damage to equipment.

In some cases, a severe workplace electrical injury not only harms the worker and his or her family, but can bankrupt the business. It's vital for managers at all levels to remain vigilant and proactive about workplace safety - especially where electricity is involved.
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Workplace safety tips 

• Make worker safety a senior management priority - starting at the very top.
• Be vigilant for the safety of subcontractors as well as for your own employees. Some 20 percent of workplace electrocution fatalities occurred to self-employed contractors.
• Pair new workers with more experienced ones. Ensure newer, untrained or less experienced workers are appropriately supervised.
• Power down your equipment whenever possible. De-energizing equipment and machinery prior to commencing work on it is the number one way to prevent electrical injuries and fatalities, according to Electrical Safety Foundation International.
• Train workers early and often on lockout/tagout policies in your workplace. Don't put off training - a number of fatal incidents have involved workers in their first week on the job. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that compliance with lockout/tagout procedures prevents 50,000 workplace injuries each year - and saves about 120 lives.
• Keep your lockout/tagout policy in writing and make it available to employees, in accordance with OSHA Regulation 1910.333(b)(2)(i).
• Ensure all tools used in the workplace are insulated to the highest voltage they will encounter in your workplace. Don't let employees use their own tools they bring from home (you may not have the same control over contractors).
• Enforce a workplace dress code. No worker who works around energized equipment should wear acetate, nylon, polyester or rayon, or blends of these fabrics, unless the fabric has been treated to withstand the conditions at your workplace. 
• Eliminate pools of standing water. 
• Make personal protective equipment (PPE) available to workers - and insist that they use it. PPE can prevent or mitigate injuries from electrical arcs, flash fires, and contact with live electrical lines and other energized equipment. Ordinary work clothes can catch fire, and continue to burn and cause injury even after the worker is removed from contact with the energized machinery. Appropriate PPE can go a long way to preventing this hazard.
• Implement strict 'test before you touch' policy - and provide the circuit testing equipment to do it.
• Test your test equipment - both before and after using it to test a circuit.
• Keep your workplace as clean and dust free as possible. Dust can contribute to arc flash hazards. 
• Calculate electrical loads on all equipment when powered up. Loads as low as 3-10 milliamperes can cause painful involuntary muscle contractions, while currents as low as 30 milliamperes can cause potentially fatal respiratory paralysis, according to OSHA.
• Maintain workers compensation insurance on all employees - and ensure your subcontractors do the same.
• Use barricades to restrict access to hazardous areas or conditions. Ensure the barricades themselves are non-conductive.
• Ensure the only people servicing, maintaining or repairing electrical equipment, wiring or cabling are qualified technicians or electricians.
• Don't use fabric softeners, bleach or starch when laundering protective clothing.
• Wash FR clothing separately from other laundry.
• Wash FR clothing at low temperatures.
• Tumble dry at lowest possible setting. 

For more resources on workplace electrical safety best practices and procedures, visit the ESFI website, or download OSHA's Electrical Safety in the Workplace brochure. 

Many working parents have had their various issues and complaints with daycare and childcare centers. As an alternative to these forms of childcare, more and more parents are choosing to hire their own nanny or share one with another parent. However, many parents aren't fully aware of the many financial risks involved with bringing a nanny into their home.

When you hire a nanny, you've basically just become an employer. Did you know that your new nanny could cause you IRS problems if you improperly pay him/her and not withhold payroll taxes? Even if you withhold payroll taxes, you can still find yourself facing some costly penalties and fines if they aren't calculated correctly and submitted on time. One way to eliminate this risk is by hiring a payroll provider to appropriately handle the taxes, just as any other employer would do.

Another financial risk is being sued by your nanny following an injury on the job. This risk of injury is why it's prudent to purchase worker's compensation. Otherwise, you'd be responsible for paying all the benefits that your nanny would've received under such a policy and any penalties or fines that your state might impose. Before you falsely assume that your nanny's injury would be covered by your umbrella liability policy or homeowner's policy, it won't. These policies typically exclude any injury where workers' compensation would normally be due to the injured party.

However, you will need an umbrella policy that includes excess employer's liability coverage beyond that provided by worker's compensation coverage. Your nanny's spouse, children, or other family members could initiate a lawsuit for loss of his/her services if your nanny is injured on the job. Employer's liability coverage is provided under workers' compensation coverage, but lawsuits of this nature can easily exceed the limits.

One final concern would be from another parent's child being injured while under the care of a nanny at your home. Even if the parent was involved in the vetting and hiring process of the shared nanny, you could still be sued by them for the child's injury. If you share a nanny with another family, then you'll want to ensure that your personal umbrella limits are high enough to adequately protect your assets.

If you want to avoid all the liabilities and insurance concerns, but still have the benefit of a personal nanny, then you might consider using an agency nanny. When you hire a nanny through a service or agency, the nanny is their employee, not yours. This puts the responsibility of payroll taxes, insurance coverage, background and reference checks, and so forth on their shoulders, not yours. Some agencies will even have added perks, such as having an equally qualified nanny on standby for times when your regular nanny isn't available. Considering that you can avoid the countless hours interviewing nannies, potential liability risks, and the need for various costly insurance policies, the additional fees associated with a nanny service may be well worth it to you in the long run.

If you are considering a nanny, or have recently hired a nanny, call your agent to discuss your liability coverage today 314-351-HALO(4256).

​If you’ve purchased life insurance to help protect your family in the event of your death, good for you. However, you probably shouldn’t pat yourself on the back just yet. Why not? Because unless you have the appropriate amount of life insurance, your family isn’t fully covered.  While uninsured families are well aware that they have no coverage, most underinsured families don’t realize it until it’s too late.

Even if you have life insurance, your family could be at serious financial risk if you don’t have the proper amount. If you’re not sure whether you have enough coverage, it’s time to take a second look at your insurance policy.

Pin-pointing the magic number
Figuring out how much life insurance you need is no easy task. There are a few different ways to calculate the appropriate amount of life insurance you need. Some insurance experts say you should simply multiply your annual income by three times while others say you need at least eight times your annual salary.

However, many advisers point out that the income multiplication rule of thumb may not be the best the calculation. When it comes down to it, the amount of life insurance you need depends on your family’s unique situation, including many different factors.
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To figure out the right amount, you may want to ask yourself a few important questions, including:

• If I were to die, how much money would my spouse need to continue paying our mortgage?
• Would my spouse be able to work or would he or she need to stay home with the children?
• If my spouse were to work, would he or she need to pay childcare expenses?
• How will my children be able to afford college tuition?
• Will my spouse be able to afford making contributions to a retirement account, ensuring a comfortable retirement?
• How will inflation impact my family’s finances in future years?

Once you answer all of these questions, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision about the amount of life insurance you need. Of course, you’ll also want to review your coverage each year. If there have been changes in your family (your children are now grown and no longer need financial support) or changes in your overall financial situation (you now have a higher-paying job or a lower mortgage), you’ll want to adjust your life insurance coverage accordingly.

Purchase the right policy
There are two basic types of life insurance policies: term insurance and cash-value insurance. Term life covers you for a specified amount of time, anywhere from one to 30 years. These policies are less expensive because they are designed solely for protection. Many people choose term insurance because their need for life insurance will decrease as they get older. Term insurance is also good option for families who want to protect their children until a certain age.

Cash-value life insurance covers you for your entire life. These policies act as both an insurance plan and a savings mechanism. Because the insurance company actually invests some of your premium, permanent life has the potential to accumulate cash value on a tax-deferred basis.

Eventually, you can borrow money from a cash-value life policy. Because loans are usually not considered income, you probably will not face any income tax liability for these withdrawals. However, whatever you withdraw will be subtracted from the ultimate death benefit.

Calculating how much and what type of life insurance you need is a complex process that involves a lot of research and thought. You may want to meet with an insurance expert, who can help you determine how much insurance you need and what you can realistically afford.  Call us today 314-351-HALO(4256).