Speaker 2 (00:02.606)
eventually glue it.
with Ray Godleski of Southeast Wealth Partners. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to create greater ease and efficiency. Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the next episode of Financially Fluent. Today we're going to bring on Alex Knapp. We're going to be talking about insurance, whether you're protecting your home, your car.
hours.
Speaker 2 (00:10.454)
Navigate your financial journey with Grape E.
Speaker 1 (00:29.728)
any kind of unexpected surprises, Alex can be able to help you. And I've known Alex for a long time. So while I think about him as his insurance, also kind of think about him if I need somebody on my golf corce, someone to scramble, he's one of my main guys I'd like to look to. So Alex, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.
Good. How's the weather there today?
It's not bad, a little cloudy, but sun's always is constantly trying to peek through. So we're going to make it.
Good deal. Well, like said, we've known each other a long time, so I'm so glad you're here on the show today and just wanted to go ahead share a little bit about your background, what led you to insurance, what kind of keeps you in it.
Speaker 2 (01:18.594)
Sure. It was a very unique actually, because I've been in sales pretty much all my life, right? And when the market crashed in 08, it was really hit the residential side of things first and then 09 kind of crept in and hit the commercial side. So I was in commercial sales and I tried to hang in there, you know, for as long as I could. However,
the, economy was just so bad. There weren't, there were very few jobs to bid on. And if they were, was very cutthroat. And, and, and dealing with contractors every day, no offense, but they're not the most ethical people in the entire world. However, I still have really good friends in the industry because again, not everybody, but that being said, it just started to feel like man, almost
15 years in that industry and I was really exhausted with it. So I had actually had one of my former clients that I called on reached out to me and said that he went to go work at Liberty Mutual and thought that insurance would be a great thing for me to look into. And so I just actually just kind of started asking around, you know, because ultimately what I wanted to try to find was something that was recession proof. Now.
If you go back just 15 years ago, I never would have thought insurance would have been it. So ultimately I truly feel and believe that it was God's plan for me to be in this position. So after taking his advice and going through the training, the licensing and all those things,
And I really started to learn and understand about it because I never, all the only thing I knew about insurance is that we had to have it, right? As the consumer, had have it, you know, for home, for auto, for life, for all the things. And the more that I started digging into it and actually being able to start selling, I started seeing the impact that I was making in people's lives and in their households. And that just...
Speaker 2 (03:34.366)
made my passion for it just grow even more because I tell people every day, I'm not the insurance police, I'm your insurance coach, right? And so, you know, I'm here to help people regardless of whether or not they're a client or not. I always tell them they can still reach out to me because I'm always happy to help and aid and assist in the things that they may not understand that I do.
You know, when we talk about insurance, mean, especially on the P and C side, the claims is a, you know, how does that company handle claims is a big thing. But, know, just thinking from a big picture standpoint, anytime we're doing financial plans for folks, you know, we're probing a little bit. I didn't used to maybe early on, but now I'm, you we don't do this, obviously, right? We like to kind of refer out to folks like you that are lots of carriers to work with, but.
You know, what would you say, you know, why does it, why does it even matter? know, Homeowner's insurance and auto and, and I'm amazed how many people I am an umbrella might get in that later, but you're like, you know, why does it really matter?
Well, I mean, just like most things, insurance isn't a one size fits all, right? Yeah. I tell people this too, frequently that, you know, between you and I and two other people, we can all go get a quote on the same house, the same coverages, same deductibles, and we'll have four different rates. Right. And carriers have different appetites as far as the type of risk that they want to try to bring on to their books. So it's my job is kind of.
Not only just to be the sales rep and the liaison between the carrier and the client, but to also protect the client and protect the carrier. Right. I see far too often where there's agents or companies that put in data that just isn't accurate and data integrity is big. And I'm sure we'll get into a couple of things later, if I have to guess, that we'll talk about that can come into play when it involves things like that.
Speaker 1 (05:39.426)
Right. So are there, is there any kind of thing you see more repetitive as kind of as a common misstep that people are taking right now when it comes to their insurance plan?
Yeah, I would say a couple of things. One, I refer back to the part of being the coach and not the police, right? People have gotten into a habit with any little thing that happens at all. They're automatically reaching out to their insurance company. That's what the agents are for, right? We're here to delegate and make suggestions based on law and, you know, the...
underwriting criteria and the carrier's rules and regulations. You know, all the little fine print things. So, now what I see, in that is that we get what's called a, every carrier has to run a clue report. Now clue report is an acronym for comprehensive loss underwriting experience. A clue is run on a home quote, a clue is run on an auto quote. It's going to show any type of losses that on the home side is associated with the risk.
right, the house itself and on the auto side, any type of incidents. So it could be a tow, it could be a glass only comprehensive claim at fault. You know, any of those things are all going to show up on a clue report. And my goal is to keep people's clue reports as clean as possible. You know, so that is, that is insurance 101 is, is to try and get people to utilize their agents and not utilize the 800 numbers. And that's the
It's the downside to some carriers, Not knocking USA, great company, but it's an 800 number, right? And you don't have an agent to kind of ask questions back and forth with or troubleshoot or figure things out. They're automatically sending you to the claims department, just like any other big carrier, the Geico's and the State Farms. Those folks, you're going to see...
Speaker 2 (07:40.066)
that I would, again, just strongly recommend that people utilize their agent before they go calling the insurance company because the insurance has gotten so tight. You know, over the last couple of years, Ray, people with, you know, one zero paid claim might not be eligible to have their rates shopped around.
Yeah, that's how tough it's gotten.
Well, so right now I'm thinking, you know, we look over the last few years, look at these home prices, right? They're, going up tremendously. I'm not sure how much of that is associated to land values and building values, but nevertheless, what should people be thinking about? You know, what these, I'm assuming I'm making an assumption here that some people are under insured on their homeowner insurance. So what, should people be thinking about when it comes to homeowner insurance and
the premiums and what are like the main things they really need to be honing in on right now.
Sure. Well, just to be clear, first and foremost, insurance is not based their coverage off of market value, right? They base it off of the size and the makeup of the home interior and exterior. That is what they're looking at, right? And it doesn't matter if that... So let's take for instance, like a house in Beaufort, right? Versus a house in maybe South side of Atlanta, Conyers, Covington area.
Speaker 2 (09:05.566)
where the values are a little cheaper, but the coverage amounts are still going to be vast, right? I mean, if you've got a 4,000 square foot house, regardless of where it is, it's probably going to have a coverage of about 225 to 250 bucks a square foot for replacement cost.
Yeah. those, the home values have zero to do with insurance. I'll give you another great example. Downtown Atlanta, right? Lands premium down there. You can buy a 1200 square foot house for about $900,000, right? I'm not going to cover it for $900,000. That just doesn't even make sense. But I will cover it based off of what the carrier's replacement cost estimator suggests.
But these building costs have gone way up and of course those prices fluctuate way faster than an actuarial you can kind of account for. So, you know, I just wonder for folks that do have those big houses, that's a really good point. So they may have a big house and maybe the land value is kind of modestly appreciated. You know, is it possible that they're under-insured to rebuild that house?
mean, it's possible depending on where their coverages are, right? Who their agent was. Is it even rated properly? I can't tell you how many people that have sent me a declaration page for their property that says that they are a two story on a slab when they have a fully finished basement, right? Obviously that these people are going to be under covered because their carrier is not accounting for the basement.
Quick message from today.
Speaker 2 (10:46.658)
This episode is brought to you by Southeast Wealth Partners. If you've been listening to Financially Fluent, you know we're all about making money. Whether it's planning for retirement, protecting your family, or building long-term wealth. But everyone's situation is different. And that's where the T-South partners comes in. They take the time to understand your goals, your challenges, and your values to learn more and connect with their T-South partners. Southeast Wealth Partners, your next step toward being financially fluent.
Smart Money Move.
Speaker 1 (11:01.408)
it's feast wealth
Speaker 1 (11:09.326)
Visit Southeast Wealth Partners.
Speaker 1 (11:15.79)
Let's shift gears a little bit because this is close to me with kids that are teenage drivers. Auto insurance is nowhere close to what I'm sure my parents paid many years ago when I was driving around town. Let's talk about auto insurance a little bit. What are some things we need to be thinking about that because they sure have gone up a lot.
Yeah, you know, especially throwing kids into the equation, numbers don't lie. The kids are, are, are prone based off of statistics to be involved in the most incidents, right? Whether it's them backing into something that they didn't see, or they were texting somebody while they were pulling into a parking spot or even hit a concrete bollard for that matter. There's no surprises anymore in this industry.
I say this all the time too, and I hate saying it because, but I'm out in it. You're out in it. We see it all the time. People don't take driving very seriously.
Right. Right.
If they did, they would cherish their life a little bit more and not drive the way that they do. You know, there's consequences for things like that. And Georgia being one of the most litigious states in the country, they were going to find a way to try to make some money off of it. And I do understand that there are accidents with legitimate claims and I'm not taking anything away from that. I've been victim of it myself to where I'm, you know, my insurance had to cover.
Speaker 2 (12:39.446)
a large sum to take care of all the bodily injury that I was exposed to. That was prior to insurance, but it also helped me know the importance of it as well too, right? Right. But kids are going to be expensive on policies. I've seen to where you've got a husband and wife, two cars, their auto insurance, 2,500 bucks roughly. Then they add a kid and it goes to $6,000.
Speaker 2 (13:07.34)
or years ago, you did experience something relatively similar, right?
So yeah, it's rough.
But that's the flexibility of, know, having an independent agency. If one carrier is too high, you might have another carrier that, hey, you know, our exposure and loss ratios based off of teen or youthful drivers is, is better than, better than average. So we're given better rates for it. All right. So just obviously one of the things that, that causes it, you know, again, the litigation piece of it, you know, the drive around any road in Georgia and
It could be a two, three mile stretch count. many injury attorney signs you see? Right. They're everywhere. Right. Have you been, have you been to a Braves game this year, last year? Right. Don Floyd is peppered all over that stadium. He's got a strong arm on, on Truist park. Right. And I don't know how much it costs to have his name all over that place, but I know it's not cheap, but good news is if there is any light at the end of the tunnel.
Georgia finally did pass tort reform, is an illegal, a legal abuse bill. And we're not going to see, start seeing the repercussions of that as of right now, just simply due to the fact of all the number of cases that are tied up in the court system right now. Right.
Speaker 1 (14:29.538)
Are any other states that have done that years ago and are starting to see the benefits? Yes.
Florida for one, but there's, many other States that are, you know, who really pushes for this too. It's really the corporate side. know, think about the, the large companies in the state of Georgia were the ones that were able to finally get it across the finish line. It's those companies that have large fleets of vehicles that are out there. Right. mean, there's companies with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of vehicles out on the road and the insurance premiums for these people are.
ridiculous, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's unbelievable the amount and because commercial insurance is far more expensive than personal, but the cost for them that they have to pass on to the consumer is just another reason why, you know, another piece of that inflation, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, but it comes to, you know, folks to have teenage riders, drivers, but then they go to college and eventually they graduate hopefully, right? And they have, and they have jobs. Are you seeing a lot of parents might keep them on an auto policy, you know, a year past graduating or two years into a job? Like what are some, what are some things you're seeing and why might, and who knows, maybe they reimburse each other. I don't know, but.
Do you see some of that where they stay on for a while?
Speaker 2 (15:59.256)
like that reimbursement factor, right? It starts to train at an early age the impact that insurance could have on you if you do decide you want to go out and drive like an idiot, right? Or again, while you're behind the wheel, driving is like the third thing you're doing, you know, because you're playing with the radio and checking your tax and you're doing all the other things that are clearly not more important than paying attention to the road.
But what I see most often and coach on most often is first and foremost, you can't just say, my kid's off at school. I want to remove him from my insurance, right? They don't have a car with them. And you can't do that because they're still a dependent of the household, right? And, and they name, if they're off at school and they don't have a vehicle with them, typically carriers will offer what's called a student away at school discount, which isn't bad, which means they are.
more than a hundred miles away from home without a vehicle. So obviously their exposure to the risk, the policy itself is, going to be far less, but even if they do have their vehicles and they're away, you're going to pay that additional premium, right? But what I see more often and coach more often is that it's good for kids to stay on their parents' policies. You know, I won't say kick them off at 18 or kick them off once they graduate college.
not fair because the carriers will allow typically at 26 is when the carriers want to see the kids get off onto their own policies. Because usually by that time, they're not still in the household, right? We want to licensed household members on the policy. Now, if you want to pay for them in a separate policy, you're welcome to do that, right? But they're going to benefit from the parents, especially if they're homeowners, because insurance companies treat homeowners differently than they treat renters. So even if the child is in the household.
parents say, Hey, we want you to get your own policy that gets into a totally different subject of stacking in the event of an incident. But at the same time, it's going to cost, it's going to cost them more to get the insurance. They're not going to have the multi-car discount. They're not going to have the multi-policy discount. And they're also not going to have that home ownership discount, which is applying to their vehicle under their parents' policy. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:19.938)
Yeah, that's a point. You know, you just made me think of, we're talking about these, the young ones, right? They're, maybe they're doing a side hustle. And so if they are an Uber or a Lyft driver and they don't contact their insurance company, what kind of risk would they take it on?
Well, they're possibly looking at a situation where they may not be covered, right?
or a limit to like how many hours or miles per month they can do without having to get additional coverage.
No, no, I mean, for those that do do it, let your carrier know if they don't offer typically carriers nowadays are going to offer a rider on their policy that says, Hey, if you do Uber or Lyft or Uber eats or what have you, then then we can offer coverage for you, but you have to check this box, right? There's going to be, there's going to be a little surcharge that's going on there for it too.
Wait, what would you, I mean, what is it? Is it, is it 5%, 20 % like what just, know it's, I'm not gonna hold you to it, but just ballpark it. What's the incremental cost?
Speaker 2 (19:23.604)
I would guess roughly 10%, maybe more, depending on the carrier. varies between carriers and it's not something that I've looked at a whole lot lately. I guess you have to ask the questions for it. I do ask a lot of questions, but I assume that most of the people that I deal with and on the corporate side of things that they're not running around doing Uber, Uber eats or Uber drives back and forth in the airport, you know, at night.
Well, I know this makes me think of a long, this was a long time ago. can't remember how long ago this was. I remember talking with somebody and I told them, was like, should have some umbrella coverage. And, and they're like, oh man, that was really expensive. But I think what they were trying to say was they had such low minimums on their home and auto that those had to be raised a little bit to get an umbrella policy. So let's, let's talk a little bit about what is an umbrella coverage.
I'm still surprised that people that have a million bucks or more, like liquid or retirement accounts, and they don't even have an umbrella policy. So let's talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, sure. I mean, for as cheap as it is, it is certainly worth its premium. It's a, given the litigious nature of the state of Georgia, if you've got teen drivers, if you've got swimming pools, if you've got rental properties, maybe you just like cars, you know, there's so many different scenarios to where, you know, again, they're so cheap as far as the premium for the umbrella. Like you said, getting to that coverage that you have to have in order to qualify for the umbrella.
There may be costs also associated with that, but once you get to that point, you know, the umbrella is going to be minimal, you know, two to 500 bucks for the year, but they're all a cart also. they kind of cover, you know, per driver per vehicle. If you, just a home, single home and two auto, you're probably looking at 250 to 300 bucks. throw kids on that, youthful kids on there. There's surcharges for that.
Speaker 2 (21:27.79)
usually about 125, 150 bucks a kid. But everything you add or take away will either increase or decrease the premium on an umbrella. So let's say you've got the primary house, you've got your secondary house, you've got, you've got jet skis at the secondary, you've got a nice little pontoon boat. And then you've got, you know, like a four wheeler. Well, all those things can be covered underneath the umbrella with
proper coverage, they all have to have the same coverage on it to qualify for it. But all of those things can be covered. if you say, I sold my, sold the Ponson, sold the jet skis, boom, boom, take those away. And then the premium decreases.
So let's take a step back for a second, because for an umbrella policy, let's give an example of, let's take an auto-wreck example. Maybe you had bad luck, hit a doctor or surgeon or who knows, it could be even a lawyer that maybe they lose some brain damage. So in that situation, first of all, my first question would be what's the minimum
Auto insurance they could have, they have a million dollars of umbrella coverage. And what's the minimum auto insurance that we need to have $2 million coverage and kind of walk us through like how that helps in that situation.
Sure, right. The umbrella is just additional liability protection, right? It covers you against any of the liability. that car accident, right? You're involved, you're at fault. The other party sustains a terrible injury. What it's going to do is it would exhaust the liability limits on the auto side. Typically every carrier in the marketplace has a minimum of 200, either 250, 500 split limits.
Speaker 2 (23:17.934)
Right. Or a $500,000 combined single limit. I'll tell you more about those work in just a second, but you have to have those limits for liability in order to qualify for that umbrella liability. Right. So it, again, in that case, it would exhaust the liability limits on the auto for $250,000 per person up to $500,000 per occurrence. So if there's three people in the other vehicle, they all sustain injuries.
It would split that $500,000 three ways or according to his or her need up to that limit. Then the umbrella, anything above and beyond that to a million would kick in and you have that additional layer of coverage. $2 million umbrella is typically going to be just less, little less than half of what a 1 million would be.
Okay. So now if someone has their auto insurance with one carrier and they have their homeowners with a different carrier, do they get two umbrella policies in that JQLR instance?
No, typically the umbrella is going to follow your autos. Whoever you do your auto with, you can do an umbrella with, but whoever you do your home with, if your auto is not with them, you can't do an
Okay. Now, you know, let's say something bad happens on someone's property though. What's going to cover them there just to hire a homeowner policy limit or how are they going to cover themselves in that?
Speaker 2 (24:50.198)
As for what? Say like a tornado or?
No, no, no, no. I'm saying like, you had a party in the, unfortunately the deck fell down or, you know what I mean? The diving board broke on the pool, something like that happened. know,
Well, same scenario would apply, right? When the claim's filed, they're going to exhaust the liability limits on the home policy, which would be a minimum of 300,000, right? Of coverage that you would have to have. So it would exhaust that. And then you have a million dollars on top of it. Right? So just like the auto, essentially on the home, you would have 1.3 total in coverage. If you have 500,000 liability on the home, it's 1.5. If you add the umbrella to it.
Right. So that umbrella just kind of goes above and beyond, but in the same fashion, anything that you would be deemed liable for, would, would constitute for the umbrella to kick in. once your liability limits are exhausted.
That's good.
Speaker 2 (25:52.622)
But for the home and for the audit, see the umbrella encompasses all, right? Like I said, it's going to do the home, going to do the auto, the jet skis, the motorcycles, the RVs, all the toys.
Right, right.
Everything's underneath you.
So if we were to give some tips on savings, going back to maybe auto, what are some of the best discounts? For example, good student discount, defensive driving. Like what are some ideas around that? Or if they have multiple kids that are driving around, like you got any kind of tips you don't mind sharing on what they could do to save some money? Because it is expensive.
Yeah, it's good. Super expensive. If still in school, 3.0 and above get you a good student discount, right? Any type of defensive driving training. I've gotten really now where I'm hitting the parents on them, right? I just did one about a month and a half ago. Cost me 20 bucks. It's good for three years. Made my premiums go down about 125 bucks. So times three, that's 375 for a good $20 investment. As far as
Speaker 2 (27:01.708)
financial planner is concerned, that's a pretty good ROI, right?
Right, right, yeah.
And guess what? In three years, I'll do it again. Carriers will allow you to apply that discount as long as you've had typically each carrier. Again, they're not all the same. have different appetites, but majority of them, if you've got everybody in the household has 36 months of clean driving history, no violations, no accidents. They can do a defensive driving course to help lower their premiums.
Okay. And how about credit stores? Do those impact them much or not really?
Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, do you have, people call it credit on the insurance side. It's not credit. It's probably more based off of your FICO or insurance scoring. But again, that part of it goes back to what I mentioned earlier, you and I and two other people can go get the quotes on the same house, same coverages, same deductibles, and we'll have four different rates. Right? So everybody's going to score differently. Zip codes are going to score differently because, you know, insurance bases their rate off of the law of large numbers and they break that down per zip code.
Speaker 2 (28:06.39)
Right. So for every dollar of premium they're bringing in, how much are they paying out in claims? Right. And if they're in the red, they've got the goals to get to the black because insurance isn't a not-for-profit business and it's hard to operate out of the red. But we've seen a lot of that though over the last couple of years. And that's why we've seen some of the increases we've seen.
That actually makes me think about deductibles. for a car deductible, what are some of the, and I like to talk about trends too, like, are you seeing a particular trend in the auto insurance as well as homeowners? I know with all these roof replacements that we see and disastrous plumbing claims and things like that, what are some of the trends you see when it comes to deductible strategies for both auto and home?
Yeah, well, I'm going to try to always push a higher deductible. know, cars, it's, know, cars are pretty cut and dry, right? It's typically going to be a $5,000 deductible on the collision just because of the impact that it would make on it on the premium. If it's, you know, 50 bucks a year to take it from 500 to a thousand, I don't think many people see the value in that, right? But if you've got thousand dollar deductible on a 20, to looking at a $2,500 deductible on the home.
You can see a $400 decrease in your premium. Right. So what is the likelihood? First of all, what's your appetite, right? As the introvert, how much could I afford out of pocket emergency? God, Lord willing something happened to the house, right? is it, is it a thousand bucks? Is that going to put me in a financial peril? Is it 2,500 bucks? Is it, Hey, I know, you know, I've got an emergency.
fund 20 grand, put a $20,000 deductible on a for-name. It really is going to depend on each person and their appetite for what they want to see.
Speaker 1 (30:06.114)
Are you seeing any trends with roofs? are the insurance carriers starting to treat those differently? Like what are we seeing out there with these roof replacements?
Yeah, I'll just say they're pretty much tired of replacing them. You know, over the past several years, I've had a wonderful opportunity to be involved with some good real estate offices and I've heard roofers go in there and say, Hey, we can get your clients a free roof. I'm like, no, you can't. It's not free for anybody, right? It's not free for the insured. It's not free for the carrier. It's not free for the roofer. So I don't even know how they can promote insurance fraud that way and get away with it consciously.
But there's a lot of them also that do not. know some great, great roofing companies and great contractors, but you know, that happening over the course of so many years, know, insurance companies responsibility is not to cover you for routine maintenance, right? So if you've got a 17 year old roof, right? And it hasn't leaked yet, you're lucky, number one, but number two, you know that that thing's pretty much on its last leg and it's time for replacement.
You got four bald tires on your car, Ray. What do you do?
and get new tires.
Speaker 2 (31:21.32)
That's Do you file a claim with your insurance company to do that? No, you don't. put new tires on your car, but your roof is essentially the tires of your home. know, it's so that being said, people have treated their homeowners policy as a maintenance policy for so long that carriers are finally saying, we're not doing this anymore. Right. We've got to put some of the honest back on to the homeowner because it's our responsibility as a homeowner to maintain our property. Right.
So you're seeing, I've seen a lot of pushback here over the last couple of years. Carriers are looking at it from the standpoint of how old's the roof that we're rating on this property. You know, if it's 10 years old or older, we don't want to touch it because statistics show we're going to be on the hook for putting a new roof on this house in the next couple of years. All right. So it's gotten, it's gotten very tight. Personally, I think the carriers need to move to what is called a payment schedule. That way from day one.
You know, they know what it's going to pay out in the event they file a claim on their roof, right? Or they do what Florida does and go with a wind hail deductible of 1 % or 2%. Because, know, I don't, and, and it seems very logical to me, but for someone that has that 17, 18, 19 year old roof, it shouldn't be on the insurance to go and put a full replacement on there for a thousand or $2,500 deductible.
And still there's wear and tear that has occurred over the course of years. know, it's not that it wasn't that last storm that came through that caused the damages, right? Like it was a buildup over time. so, you know, again, with the block of not having it again, it's our responsibility to keep that maintenance on it. And if it, if our house needs new tires, put some new tires on it.
Yeah. Well, you know, we've kind of covered a lot of ground here with, homeowner and auto, umbrella policies, you know, and some people have the same captive agency for years and there's nothing wrong with that. great. But if somebody was wanting to get in touch with, with you guys over there, we look at lots of different carriers. What's, what'd be a way to, someone could reach you, Alex.
Speaker 2 (33:34.91)
So I just would tell people to reach out on my cell phone six seven eight six nine seven 1908 and that's the easiest way that's always on but I'm on it a lot also right so if I do miss you then I will be happy to return that call as soon as I'm able we have a website www.gableinsurancegroup.com it's about to be going under some construction from when I purchased the agency and the blast year
So that'll be getting updated here very soon. I have an amazing assistant as well, Ashley, and she is an incredible help to me. And without her, would, I'd say I'd be bald, but I already am. I'd probably lose my mind, you know?
Yeah, it's something to be said for having good help on the team for sure.
Well, 100%.
Well, I think I gave you a little heads up. We're to do some trivia today. So like our guests ask a trivia question. I try not to stump people, but I'll be honest. I run it through chat and it gives me some tough questions at times, but I wanted it to be Cleveland related. We're not doing Buckeyes today, but we're going to Cleveland related. So let's see how you do with this one, Alex during the. know you're a young guy, right? Maybe Bobby, you know, nice young guys. So.
Speaker 2 (35:00.856)
They don't a sweet talk to me, Ray. I already like you.
See you.
Speaker 1 (35:05.454)
1881 strike shortened season, which the Cleveland Indian, which Cleveland Indians pitcher led the American league with an ERA of 2.4. You need a hint? Let me know.
1981 I was five. Yeah. But let's see.
Did he also pitch for the Braves?
I don't think so. We'll give you a hint. First initial B, last name begins with a B.
Bert Blylevin.
Speaker 1 (35:41.218)
Yes!
Hey, want to develop this, trivia all-star team before this year's over.
Like on the manning cast where they've got the board up there and you pick like what the next play is. The score of the touchdown. Is that it? Is that an all-in trivia question?
Right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:01.272)
That was the only trivia question today, my friend.
Wait, man, bat in a thousand.
I mean, you know, some, had one guy surprised me. like boomeranged it back to me. He's like, well, what about this? And I had to answer the question. I don't, I think I got it wrong, but yeah, that was all I had ready for us today.
Yeah. Well, look, man, this has been fun for our listeners out there. Remember to like, share, and subscribe to the show. We're on all the major platforms, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Until next time, I'm your host, Ray Gavleski. This has been Financially Fluent. Have a good one.
Thank you
Speaker 2 (36:38.712)
listening to the financially fluent class, click the subscribe button below to be notified when new episodes become available.
This communication is informational purposes only and should not be considered taxable or accounting advice. You should consult with qualified tax professional or legal advisor regarding your situation and any financial decisions. Investment advisory services are provided for regulations raised opinion on the special situation of any investor and may be unsuitable for some investors. The information is not for solicitation of the sale or purchase of securities. Professional or executing a security trade or tax
counted eyes are specific situation for me
Speaker 1 (37:16.782)
Securities and investment advisory services offer through Osaic Wealth, Inc., FINRA, SIPC. Osaic Wealth is separately owned and or other entities and or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Osaic Wealth.
eventually glue it.
with Ray Godleski of Southeast Wealth Partners. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to create greater ease and efficiency. Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the next episode of Financially Fluent. Today we're going to bring on Alex Knapp. We're going to be talking about insurance, whether you're protecting your home, your car.
hours.
Speaker 2 (00:10.454)
Navigate your financial journey with Grape E.
Speaker 1 (00:29.728)
any kind of unexpected surprises, Alex can be able to help you. And I've known Alex for a long time. So while I think about him as his insurance, also kind of think about him if I need somebody on my golf corce, someone to scramble, he's one of my main guys I'd like to look to. So Alex, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.
Good. How's the weather there today?
It's not bad, a little cloudy, but sun's always is constantly trying to peek through. So we're going to make it.
Good deal. Well, like said, we've known each other a long time, so I'm so glad you're here on the show today and just wanted to go ahead share a little bit about your background, what led you to insurance, what kind of keeps you in it.
Speaker 2 (01:18.594)
Sure. It was a very unique actually, because I've been in sales pretty much all my life, right? And when the market crashed in 08, it was really hit the residential side of things first and then 09 kind of crept in and hit the commercial side. So I was in commercial sales and I tried to hang in there, you know, for as long as I could. However,
the, economy was just so bad. There weren't, there were very few jobs to bid on. And if they were, was very cutthroat. And, and, and dealing with contractors every day, no offense, but they're not the most ethical people in the entire world. However, I still have really good friends in the industry because again, not everybody, but that being said, it just started to feel like man, almost
15 years in that industry and I was really exhausted with it. So I had actually had one of my former clients that I called on reached out to me and said that he went to go work at Liberty Mutual and thought that insurance would be a great thing for me to look into. And so I just actually just kind of started asking around, you know, because ultimately what I wanted to try to find was something that was recession proof. Now.
If you go back just 15 years ago, I never would have thought insurance would have been it. So ultimately I truly feel and believe that it was God's plan for me to be in this position. So after taking his advice and going through the training, the licensing and all those things,
And I really started to learn and understand about it because I never, all the only thing I knew about insurance is that we had to have it, right? As the consumer, had have it, you know, for home, for auto, for life, for all the things. And the more that I started digging into it and actually being able to start selling, I started seeing the impact that I was making in people's lives and in their households. And that just...
Speaker 2 (03:34.366)
made my passion for it just grow even more because I tell people every day, I'm not the insurance police, I'm your insurance coach, right? And so, you know, I'm here to help people regardless of whether or not they're a client or not. I always tell them they can still reach out to me because I'm always happy to help and aid and assist in the things that they may not understand that I do.
You know, when we talk about insurance, mean, especially on the P and C side, the claims is a, you know, how does that company handle claims is a big thing. But, know, just thinking from a big picture standpoint, anytime we're doing financial plans for folks, you know, we're probing a little bit. I didn't used to maybe early on, but now I'm, you we don't do this, obviously, right? We like to kind of refer out to folks like you that are lots of carriers to work with, but.
You know, what would you say, you know, why does it, why does it even matter? know, Homeowner's insurance and auto and, and I'm amazed how many people I am an umbrella might get in that later, but you're like, you know, why does it really matter?
Well, I mean, just like most things, insurance isn't a one size fits all, right? Yeah. I tell people this too, frequently that, you know, between you and I and two other people, we can all go get a quote on the same house, the same coverages, same deductibles, and we'll have four different rates. Right. And carriers have different appetites as far as the type of risk that they want to try to bring on to their books. So it's my job is kind of.
Not only just to be the sales rep and the liaison between the carrier and the client, but to also protect the client and protect the carrier. Right. I see far too often where there's agents or companies that put in data that just isn't accurate and data integrity is big. And I'm sure we'll get into a couple of things later, if I have to guess, that we'll talk about that can come into play when it involves things like that.
Speaker 1 (05:39.426)
Right. So are there, is there any kind of thing you see more repetitive as kind of as a common misstep that people are taking right now when it comes to their insurance plan?
Yeah, I would say a couple of things. One, I refer back to the part of being the coach and not the police, right? People have gotten into a habit with any little thing that happens at all. They're automatically reaching out to their insurance company. That's what the agents are for, right? We're here to delegate and make suggestions based on law and, you know, the...
underwriting criteria and the carrier's rules and regulations. You know, all the little fine print things. So, now what I see, in that is that we get what's called a, every carrier has to run a clue report. Now clue report is an acronym for comprehensive loss underwriting experience. A clue is run on a home quote, a clue is run on an auto quote. It's going to show any type of losses that on the home side is associated with the risk.
right, the house itself and on the auto side, any type of incidents. So it could be a tow, it could be a glass only comprehensive claim at fault. You know, any of those things are all going to show up on a clue report. And my goal is to keep people's clue reports as clean as possible. You know, so that is, that is insurance 101 is, is to try and get people to utilize their agents and not utilize the 800 numbers. And that's the
It's the downside to some carriers, Not knocking USA, great company, but it's an 800 number, right? And you don't have an agent to kind of ask questions back and forth with or troubleshoot or figure things out. They're automatically sending you to the claims department, just like any other big carrier, the Geico's and the State Farms. Those folks, you're going to see...
Speaker 2 (07:40.066)
that I would, again, just strongly recommend that people utilize their agent before they go calling the insurance company because the insurance has gotten so tight. You know, over the last couple of years, Ray, people with, you know, one zero paid claim might not be eligible to have their rates shopped around.
Yeah, that's how tough it's gotten.
Well, so right now I'm thinking, you know, we look over the last few years, look at these home prices, right? They're, going up tremendously. I'm not sure how much of that is associated to land values and building values, but nevertheless, what should people be thinking about? You know, what these, I'm assuming I'm making an assumption here that some people are under insured on their homeowner insurance. So what, should people be thinking about when it comes to homeowner insurance and
the premiums and what are like the main things they really need to be honing in on right now.
Sure. Well, just to be clear, first and foremost, insurance is not based their coverage off of market value, right? They base it off of the size and the makeup of the home interior and exterior. That is what they're looking at, right? And it doesn't matter if that... So let's take for instance, like a house in Beaufort, right? Versus a house in maybe South side of Atlanta, Conyers, Covington area.
Speaker 2 (09:05.566)
where the values are a little cheaper, but the coverage amounts are still going to be vast, right? I mean, if you've got a 4,000 square foot house, regardless of where it is, it's probably going to have a coverage of about 225 to 250 bucks a square foot for replacement cost.
Yeah. those, the home values have zero to do with insurance. I'll give you another great example. Downtown Atlanta, right? Lands premium down there. You can buy a 1200 square foot house for about $900,000, right? I'm not going to cover it for $900,000. That just doesn't even make sense. But I will cover it based off of what the carrier's replacement cost estimator suggests.
But these building costs have gone way up and of course those prices fluctuate way faster than an actuarial you can kind of account for. So, you know, I just wonder for folks that do have those big houses, that's a really good point. So they may have a big house and maybe the land value is kind of modestly appreciated. You know, is it possible that they're under-insured to rebuild that house?
mean, it's possible depending on where their coverages are, right? Who their agent was. Is it even rated properly? I can't tell you how many people that have sent me a declaration page for their property that says that they are a two story on a slab when they have a fully finished basement, right? Obviously that these people are going to be under covered because their carrier is not accounting for the basement.
Quick message from today.
Speaker 2 (10:46.658)
This episode is brought to you by Southeast Wealth Partners. If you've been listening to Financially Fluent, you know we're all about making money. Whether it's planning for retirement, protecting your family, or building long-term wealth. But everyone's situation is different. And that's where the T-South partners comes in. They take the time to understand your goals, your challenges, and your values to learn more and connect with their T-South partners. Southeast Wealth Partners, your next step toward being financially fluent.
Smart Money Move.
Speaker 1 (11:01.408)
it's feast wealth
Speaker 1 (11:09.326)
Visit Southeast Wealth Partners.
Speaker 1 (11:15.79)
Let's shift gears a little bit because this is close to me with kids that are teenage drivers. Auto insurance is nowhere close to what I'm sure my parents paid many years ago when I was driving around town. Let's talk about auto insurance a little bit. What are some things we need to be thinking about that because they sure have gone up a lot.
Yeah, you know, especially throwing kids into the equation, numbers don't lie. The kids are, are, are prone based off of statistics to be involved in the most incidents, right? Whether it's them backing into something that they didn't see, or they were texting somebody while they were pulling into a parking spot or even hit a concrete bollard for that matter. There's no surprises anymore in this industry.
I say this all the time too, and I hate saying it because, but I'm out in it. You're out in it. We see it all the time. People don't take driving very seriously.
Right. Right.
If they did, they would cherish their life a little bit more and not drive the way that they do. You know, there's consequences for things like that. And Georgia being one of the most litigious states in the country, they were going to find a way to try to make some money off of it. And I do understand that there are accidents with legitimate claims and I'm not taking anything away from that. I've been victim of it myself to where I'm, you know, my insurance had to cover.
Speaker 2 (12:39.446)
a large sum to take care of all the bodily injury that I was exposed to. That was prior to insurance, but it also helped me know the importance of it as well too, right? Right. But kids are going to be expensive on policies. I've seen to where you've got a husband and wife, two cars, their auto insurance, 2,500 bucks roughly. Then they add a kid and it goes to $6,000.
Speaker 2 (13:07.34)
or years ago, you did experience something relatively similar, right?
So yeah, it's rough.
But that's the flexibility of, know, having an independent agency. If one carrier is too high, you might have another carrier that, hey, you know, our exposure and loss ratios based off of teen or youthful drivers is, is better than, better than average. So we're given better rates for it. All right. So just obviously one of the things that, that causes it, you know, again, the litigation piece of it, you know, the drive around any road in Georgia and
It could be a two, three mile stretch count. many injury attorney signs you see? Right. They're everywhere. Right. Have you been, have you been to a Braves game this year, last year? Right. Don Floyd is peppered all over that stadium. He's got a strong arm on, on Truist park. Right. And I don't know how much it costs to have his name all over that place, but I know it's not cheap, but good news is if there is any light at the end of the tunnel.
Georgia finally did pass tort reform, is an illegal, a legal abuse bill. And we're not going to see, start seeing the repercussions of that as of right now, just simply due to the fact of all the number of cases that are tied up in the court system right now. Right.
Speaker 1 (14:29.538)
Are any other states that have done that years ago and are starting to see the benefits? Yes.
Florida for one, but there's, many other States that are, you know, who really pushes for this too. It's really the corporate side. know, think about the, the large companies in the state of Georgia were the ones that were able to finally get it across the finish line. It's those companies that have large fleets of vehicles that are out there. Right. mean, there's companies with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of vehicles out on the road and the insurance premiums for these people are.
ridiculous, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's unbelievable the amount and because commercial insurance is far more expensive than personal, but the cost for them that they have to pass on to the consumer is just another reason why, you know, another piece of that inflation, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, but it comes to, you know, folks to have teenage riders, drivers, but then they go to college and eventually they graduate hopefully, right? And they have, and they have jobs. Are you seeing a lot of parents might keep them on an auto policy, you know, a year past graduating or two years into a job? Like what are some, what are some things you're seeing and why might, and who knows, maybe they reimburse each other. I don't know, but.
Do you see some of that where they stay on for a while?
Speaker 2 (15:59.256)
like that reimbursement factor, right? It starts to train at an early age the impact that insurance could have on you if you do decide you want to go out and drive like an idiot, right? Or again, while you're behind the wheel, driving is like the third thing you're doing, you know, because you're playing with the radio and checking your tax and you're doing all the other things that are clearly not more important than paying attention to the road.
But what I see most often and coach on most often is first and foremost, you can't just say, my kid's off at school. I want to remove him from my insurance, right? They don't have a car with them. And you can't do that because they're still a dependent of the household, right? And, and they name, if they're off at school and they don't have a vehicle with them, typically carriers will offer what's called a student away at school discount, which isn't bad, which means they are.
more than a hundred miles away from home without a vehicle. So obviously their exposure to the risk, the policy itself is, going to be far less, but even if they do have their vehicles and they're away, you're going to pay that additional premium, right? But what I see more often and coach more often is that it's good for kids to stay on their parents' policies. You know, I won't say kick them off at 18 or kick them off once they graduate college.
not fair because the carriers will allow typically at 26 is when the carriers want to see the kids get off onto their own policies. Because usually by that time, they're not still in the household, right? We want to licensed household members on the policy. Now, if you want to pay for them in a separate policy, you're welcome to do that, right? But they're going to benefit from the parents, especially if they're homeowners, because insurance companies treat homeowners differently than they treat renters. So even if the child is in the household.
parents say, Hey, we want you to get your own policy that gets into a totally different subject of stacking in the event of an incident. But at the same time, it's going to cost, it's going to cost them more to get the insurance. They're not going to have the multi-car discount. They're not going to have the multi-policy discount. And they're also not going to have that home ownership discount, which is applying to their vehicle under their parents' policy. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:19.938)
Yeah, that's a point. You know, you just made me think of, we're talking about these, the young ones, right? They're, maybe they're doing a side hustle. And so if they are an Uber or a Lyft driver and they don't contact their insurance company, what kind of risk would they take it on?
Well, they're possibly looking at a situation where they may not be covered, right?
or a limit to like how many hours or miles per month they can do without having to get additional coverage.
No, no, I mean, for those that do do it, let your carrier know if they don't offer typically carriers nowadays are going to offer a rider on their policy that says, Hey, if you do Uber or Lyft or Uber eats or what have you, then then we can offer coverage for you, but you have to check this box, right? There's going to be, there's going to be a little surcharge that's going on there for it too.
Wait, what would you, I mean, what is it? Is it, is it 5%, 20 % like what just, know it's, I'm not gonna hold you to it, but just ballpark it. What's the incremental cost?
Speaker 2 (19:23.604)
I would guess roughly 10%, maybe more, depending on the carrier. varies between carriers and it's not something that I've looked at a whole lot lately. I guess you have to ask the questions for it. I do ask a lot of questions, but I assume that most of the people that I deal with and on the corporate side of things that they're not running around doing Uber, Uber eats or Uber drives back and forth in the airport, you know, at night.
Well, I know this makes me think of a long, this was a long time ago. can't remember how long ago this was. I remember talking with somebody and I told them, was like, should have some umbrella coverage. And, and they're like, oh man, that was really expensive. But I think what they were trying to say was they had such low minimums on their home and auto that those had to be raised a little bit to get an umbrella policy. So let's, let's talk a little bit about what is an umbrella coverage.
I'm still surprised that people that have a million bucks or more, like liquid or retirement accounts, and they don't even have an umbrella policy. So let's talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, sure. I mean, for as cheap as it is, it is certainly worth its premium. It's a, given the litigious nature of the state of Georgia, if you've got teen drivers, if you've got swimming pools, if you've got rental properties, maybe you just like cars, you know, there's so many different scenarios to where, you know, again, they're so cheap as far as the premium for the umbrella. Like you said, getting to that coverage that you have to have in order to qualify for the umbrella.
There may be costs also associated with that, but once you get to that point, you know, the umbrella is going to be minimal, you know, two to 500 bucks for the year, but they're all a cart also. they kind of cover, you know, per driver per vehicle. If you, just a home, single home and two auto, you're probably looking at 250 to 300 bucks. throw kids on that, youthful kids on there. There's surcharges for that.
Speaker 2 (21:27.79)
usually about 125, 150 bucks a kid. But everything you add or take away will either increase or decrease the premium on an umbrella. So let's say you've got the primary house, you've got your secondary house, you've got, you've got jet skis at the secondary, you've got a nice little pontoon boat. And then you've got, you know, like a four wheeler. Well, all those things can be covered underneath the umbrella with
proper coverage, they all have to have the same coverage on it to qualify for it. But all of those things can be covered. if you say, I sold my, sold the Ponson, sold the jet skis, boom, boom, take those away. And then the premium decreases.
So let's take a step back for a second, because for an umbrella policy, let's give an example of, let's take an auto-wreck example. Maybe you had bad luck, hit a doctor or surgeon or who knows, it could be even a lawyer that maybe they lose some brain damage. So in that situation, first of all, my first question would be what's the minimum
Auto insurance they could have, they have a million dollars of umbrella coverage. And what's the minimum auto insurance that we need to have $2 million coverage and kind of walk us through like how that helps in that situation.
Sure, right. The umbrella is just additional liability protection, right? It covers you against any of the liability. that car accident, right? You're involved, you're at fault. The other party sustains a terrible injury. What it's going to do is it would exhaust the liability limits on the auto side. Typically every carrier in the marketplace has a minimum of 200, either 250, 500 split limits.
Speaker 2 (23:17.934)
Right. Or a $500,000 combined single limit. I'll tell you more about those work in just a second, but you have to have those limits for liability in order to qualify for that umbrella liability. Right. So it, again, in that case, it would exhaust the liability limits on the auto for $250,000 per person up to $500,000 per occurrence. So if there's three people in the other vehicle, they all sustain injuries.
It would split that $500,000 three ways or according to his or her need up to that limit. Then the umbrella, anything above and beyond that to a million would kick in and you have that additional layer of coverage. $2 million umbrella is typically going to be just less, little less than half of what a 1 million would be.
Okay. So now if someone has their auto insurance with one carrier and they have their homeowners with a different carrier, do they get two umbrella policies in that JQLR instance?
No, typically the umbrella is going to follow your autos. Whoever you do your auto with, you can do an umbrella with, but whoever you do your home with, if your auto is not with them, you can't do an
Okay. Now, you know, let's say something bad happens on someone's property though. What's going to cover them there just to hire a homeowner policy limit or how are they going to cover themselves in that?
Speaker 2 (24:50.198)
As for what? Say like a tornado or?
No, no, no, no. I'm saying like, you had a party in the, unfortunately the deck fell down or, you know what I mean? The diving board broke on the pool, something like that happened. know,
Well, same scenario would apply, right? When the claim's filed, they're going to exhaust the liability limits on the home policy, which would be a minimum of 300,000, right? Of coverage that you would have to have. So it would exhaust that. And then you have a million dollars on top of it. Right? So just like the auto, essentially on the home, you would have 1.3 total in coverage. If you have 500,000 liability on the home, it's 1.5. If you add the umbrella to it.
Right. So that umbrella just kind of goes above and beyond, but in the same fashion, anything that you would be deemed liable for, would, would constitute for the umbrella to kick in. once your liability limits are exhausted.
That's good.
Speaker 2 (25:52.622)
But for the home and for the audit, see the umbrella encompasses all, right? Like I said, it's going to do the home, going to do the auto, the jet skis, the motorcycles, the RVs, all the toys.
Right, right.
Everything's underneath you.
So if we were to give some tips on savings, going back to maybe auto, what are some of the best discounts? For example, good student discount, defensive driving. Like what are some ideas around that? Or if they have multiple kids that are driving around, like you got any kind of tips you don't mind sharing on what they could do to save some money? Because it is expensive.
Yeah, it's good. Super expensive. If still in school, 3.0 and above get you a good student discount, right? Any type of defensive driving training. I've gotten really now where I'm hitting the parents on them, right? I just did one about a month and a half ago. Cost me 20 bucks. It's good for three years. Made my premiums go down about 125 bucks. So times three, that's 375 for a good $20 investment. As far as
Speaker 2 (27:01.708)
financial planner is concerned, that's a pretty good ROI, right?
Right, right, yeah.
And guess what? In three years, I'll do it again. Carriers will allow you to apply that discount as long as you've had typically each carrier. Again, they're not all the same. have different appetites, but majority of them, if you've got everybody in the household has 36 months of clean driving history, no violations, no accidents. They can do a defensive driving course to help lower their premiums.
Okay. And how about credit stores? Do those impact them much or not really?
Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, do you have, people call it credit on the insurance side. It's not credit. It's probably more based off of your FICO or insurance scoring. But again, that part of it goes back to what I mentioned earlier, you and I and two other people can go get the quotes on the same house, same coverages, same deductibles, and we'll have four different rates. Right? So everybody's going to score differently. Zip codes are going to score differently because, you know, insurance bases their rate off of the law of large numbers and they break that down per zip code.
Speaker 2 (28:06.39)
Right. So for every dollar of premium they're bringing in, how much are they paying out in claims? Right. And if they're in the red, they've got the goals to get to the black because insurance isn't a not-for-profit business and it's hard to operate out of the red. But we've seen a lot of that though over the last couple of years. And that's why we've seen some of the increases we've seen.
That actually makes me think about deductibles. for a car deductible, what are some of the, and I like to talk about trends too, like, are you seeing a particular trend in the auto insurance as well as homeowners? I know with all these roof replacements that we see and disastrous plumbing claims and things like that, what are some of the trends you see when it comes to deductible strategies for both auto and home?
Yeah, well, I'm going to try to always push a higher deductible. know, cars, it's, know, cars are pretty cut and dry, right? It's typically going to be a $5,000 deductible on the collision just because of the impact that it would make on it on the premium. If it's, you know, 50 bucks a year to take it from 500 to a thousand, I don't think many people see the value in that, right? But if you've got thousand dollar deductible on a 20, to looking at a $2,500 deductible on the home.
You can see a $400 decrease in your premium. Right. So what is the likelihood? First of all, what's your appetite, right? As the introvert, how much could I afford out of pocket emergency? God, Lord willing something happened to the house, right? is it, is it a thousand bucks? Is that going to put me in a financial peril? Is it 2,500 bucks? Is it, Hey, I know, you know, I've got an emergency.
fund 20 grand, put a $20,000 deductible on a for-name. It really is going to depend on each person and their appetite for what they want to see.
Speaker 1 (30:06.114)
Are you seeing any trends with roofs? are the insurance carriers starting to treat those differently? Like what are we seeing out there with these roof replacements?
Yeah, I'll just say they're pretty much tired of replacing them. You know, over the past several years, I've had a wonderful opportunity to be involved with some good real estate offices and I've heard roofers go in there and say, Hey, we can get your clients a free roof. I'm like, no, you can't. It's not free for anybody, right? It's not free for the insured. It's not free for the carrier. It's not free for the roofer. So I don't even know how they can promote insurance fraud that way and get away with it consciously.
But there's a lot of them also that do not. know some great, great roofing companies and great contractors, but you know, that happening over the course of so many years, know, insurance companies responsibility is not to cover you for routine maintenance, right? So if you've got a 17 year old roof, right? And it hasn't leaked yet, you're lucky, number one, but number two, you know that that thing's pretty much on its last leg and it's time for replacement.
You got four bald tires on your car, Ray. What do you do?
and get new tires.
Speaker 2 (31:21.32)
That's Do you file a claim with your insurance company to do that? No, you don't. put new tires on your car, but your roof is essentially the tires of your home. know, it's so that being said, people have treated their homeowners policy as a maintenance policy for so long that carriers are finally saying, we're not doing this anymore. Right. We've got to put some of the honest back on to the homeowner because it's our responsibility as a homeowner to maintain our property. Right.
So you're seeing, I've seen a lot of pushback here over the last couple of years. Carriers are looking at it from the standpoint of how old's the roof that we're rating on this property. You know, if it's 10 years old or older, we don't want to touch it because statistics show we're going to be on the hook for putting a new roof on this house in the next couple of years. All right. So it's gotten, it's gotten very tight. Personally, I think the carriers need to move to what is called a payment schedule. That way from day one.
You know, they know what it's going to pay out in the event they file a claim on their roof, right? Or they do what Florida does and go with a wind hail deductible of 1 % or 2%. Because, know, I don't, and, and it seems very logical to me, but for someone that has that 17, 18, 19 year old roof, it shouldn't be on the insurance to go and put a full replacement on there for a thousand or $2,500 deductible.
And still there's wear and tear that has occurred over the course of years. know, it's not that it wasn't that last storm that came through that caused the damages, right? Like it was a buildup over time. so, you know, again, with the block of not having it again, it's our responsibility to keep that maintenance on it. And if it, if our house needs new tires, put some new tires on it.
Yeah. Well, you know, we've kind of covered a lot of ground here with, homeowner and auto, umbrella policies, you know, and some people have the same captive agency for years and there's nothing wrong with that. great. But if somebody was wanting to get in touch with, with you guys over there, we look at lots of different carriers. What's, what'd be a way to, someone could reach you, Alex.
Speaker 2 (33:34.91)
So I just would tell people to reach out on my cell phone six seven eight six nine seven 1908 and that's the easiest way that's always on but I'm on it a lot also right so if I do miss you then I will be happy to return that call as soon as I'm able we have a website www.gableinsurancegroup.com it's about to be going under some construction from when I purchased the agency and the blast year
So that'll be getting updated here very soon. I have an amazing assistant as well, Ashley, and she is an incredible help to me. And without her, would, I'd say I'd be bald, but I already am. I'd probably lose my mind, you know?
Yeah, it's something to be said for having good help on the team for sure.
Well, 100%.
Well, I think I gave you a little heads up. We're to do some trivia today. So like our guests ask a trivia question. I try not to stump people, but I'll be honest. I run it through chat and it gives me some tough questions at times, but I wanted it to be Cleveland related. We're not doing Buckeyes today, but we're going to Cleveland related. So let's see how you do with this one, Alex during the. know you're a young guy, right? Maybe Bobby, you know, nice young guys. So.
Speaker 2 (35:00.856)
They don't a sweet talk to me, Ray. I already like you.
See you.
Speaker 1 (35:05.454)
1881 strike shortened season, which the Cleveland Indian, which Cleveland Indians pitcher led the American league with an ERA of 2.4. You need a hint? Let me know.
1981 I was five. Yeah. But let's see.
Did he also pitch for the Braves?
I don't think so. We'll give you a hint. First initial B, last name begins with a B.
Bert Blylevin.
Speaker 1 (35:41.218)
Yes!
Hey, want to develop this, trivia all-star team before this year's over.
Like on the manning cast where they've got the board up there and you pick like what the next play is. The score of the touchdown. Is that it? Is that an all-in trivia question?
Right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:01.272)
That was the only trivia question today, my friend.
Wait, man, bat in a thousand.
I mean, you know, some, had one guy surprised me. like boomeranged it back to me. He's like, well, what about this? And I had to answer the question. I don't, I think I got it wrong, but yeah, that was all I had ready for us today.
Yeah. Well, look, man, this has been fun for our listeners out there. Remember to like, share, and subscribe to the show. We're on all the major platforms, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Until next time, I'm your host, Ray Gavleski. This has been Financially Fluent. Have a good one.
Thank you
Speaker 2 (36:38.712)
listening to the financially fluent class, click the subscribe button below to be notified when new episodes become available.
This communication is informational purposes only and should not be considered taxable or accounting advice. You should consult with qualified tax professional or legal advisor regarding your situation and any financial decisions. Investment advisory services are provided for regulations raised opinion on the special situation of any investor and may be unsuitable for some investors. The information is not for solicitation of the sale or purchase of securities. Professional or executing a security trade or tax
counted eyes are specific situation for me
Speaker 1 (37:16.782)
Securities and investment advisory services offer through Osaic Wealth, Inc., FINRA, SIPC. Osaic Wealth is separately owned and or other entities and or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Osaic Wealth.
