Homeowners can take a tip from commercial kitchens. There is now a product that I found  that acts like a commercial kitchen fire suppression system. The product is called Stove top Firestop  and it hangs above the stove. A grease fire will cause it to discharge a fire suppressant powder. The video of the product in action was most amazing. Fire leaping out of the pan on the stove followed by a puff of powder and no fire. They did not say how hard it was to clean up the powder but having seen a couple of kitchen fires, It has to be better than fire damage repair. The product is made by Willams-Pyro, Inc. A great name for some one in the fire suppression business. Insurers are beginning to take note and there is at least one company that will offer discounts to apartment complexes for having these installed. The product has a shelf life of five years and the discount over the years more than pays for the system. Inattention at the stove can cause a fire very quickly. Cooking the bacon, ...

  Yet another entry to our motto. This story is not a happy one. In this case insurance was needed but wasn't there. Of all the risks that are covered by homeowners insurance have you ever thought about landslide. To be honest neither had I, but a homeowner in Oregon found out that their policy like every other policy excluded flood , earthquake and earth subsidence ( read landslide ). They had a very complete homeowners package from the looks of the article, but were unaware of the exclusions. An insurance package usually starts out with language that insures everything and then through the exclusions removes coverages the insurer is not willing to offer or will only offer at an extra premium. So the exclusions become the most important part of the policy. When you have concerns or questions you should call your agent and ask questions about what the exclusions means. Many are straight forward but so many of them are confusing and worded in insurance ease. Insurance ease is a language spoken by very fe ...

  I was introduced to a product new to me. The product is called FloodStop by aqua managers. It is a product that can detect a water loss from a leaking appliance or ruptured supply line. The unit senses water and shuts of the water supply. It just takes a small amount of water to trigger the device. What is the big deal you might ask. Well if you or any one you know has ever come home to find water coming out the front door  or a flood in the bathroom you know. Water damage claims run in the thousands. The loss is almost completely valued on the amount of time the water has been running. The more water in the home the higher the loss. Clients who insure with Capital Insurance Group can go to The Protector Network and get the product at a discount. I am going to check out where else it is available and I will post that here later. I just got so interested in the idea I had to share. This product seems to be a very valuable addition to home security, the same as a smoke detector or fire extinguisher ...

This may be old news but the State of California passed bill AB2499. The bill went into effect on July 1, 2011 and changed how traffic school masked traffic violations. A first time offender can still get a ticket masked by taking traffic school but there is no help if another violation occurs within 18 months. This is intended to keep  the repeat offenders from appearing to have good driving records. The insurance companies will not give credit for traffic school if the ticket is not masked by the courts. California law still says that a driver with 2 violations is not a California good driver by definition and that insurance companies must charge a higher rate. That increase is usually at least 30%. Another issue in the law was that if you hold a commercial drivers license or were operating a commercial vehicle at the time of the violation traffic school will not mask the violation. Any major violations such as DUI or Reckless driving will not be masked as well. We at Ted Hamm Insurance hope this news ...

Sales closing for wine grapes is January 31st. That is this coming Tuesday. For wine grapes in San Luis Obispo county there is still time to get your crops insured. Requirements for new vineyards are the grapes must be in their fourth leaf and have produced two tons of fruit. The USDA sets the price but you can use your contract to get a better price coverage. The crop average is set by using your own production history and if you do not have 4 years of production we can use a portion of the USDA posted  county average.

This year the crop insurance companies wrote many checks for loss of production. We hope like you do that you have a big crop to sell next year, but if you don't we would like to make sure there is a check coming your way. Give Ted Hamm Insurance a call at 805-238-1818 to get the protection before the clock runs out.. Last call is January 31st.

This questions gets asked in many of our client reviews, Why do I need non-owned auto coverage? First things first, what is non-owned auto. The definition of non-owned auto is as follows: Only those autos you do not own,lease hire rent or borrow. Makes sense after all it says non-owned. Here is where the coverage starts to become valuable. Non-owned includes autos owned by your employees, partners if you are in a partnership, members if you are in a limited liability company but only while used in your business or personal affairs.  So here is why the coverage can be valuable.  You employee or a neighbor are coming from town and you catch them before they leave. Hey, could you pickup that  hose for my tractor on your way back out here? Still no problem but on the way to the property, they have an accident and serious injuries occur. The driver only has state minimum liability and that is gone in minutes. The lawyer for the injured finds out they were bringing you a part and bring you into the ...

Yep another installment. This week I talked to a couple of clients that wished to lower their liability limits. Liability is a tough call because you never have too much and having too little can be a disaster. This is the story I told them. I had a client have an accident where there were several people in the other car. We had just bumped up their liability limits and felt relatively confident in that amount. Well it became touch and go as the medical bills reached $600,000 for the people in the car. We were fortunate in getting the claim settled for just under their liability limit of $1,000,000. Remember we had just raised the limit. The good news was that no one lost their house over a liability claim. Adjusters get a bad reputation and sometimes it is earned but this claim was handled very well. The client was protected and the company never moved away from their responsibility. Most all of the time in a clear liability claim, the adjusters work very hard for the client with their sole goal to settle ...

Sales Closing is rapidly approaching on January 31. If you currently have crop insurance look at the numbers. The rates this year are down, at least in crush district 8. The reduction varies but looks to be about 30%. This gives you an excellent opportunity to buy additional insurance for a small increase in premium.

For the person new to crop insurance, there has never been a better time to buy. The rates lowered and the option for contract price up to 100% of the government set price.

San Luis Obispo county has had some very interesting weather this winter and we can only guess what the spring is going to bring. We at Ted Hamm Insurance believe that crop insurance can level out the drops in income that come with the spring freezes. We would rather see an excellent crop, but if that doesn't happen we want you to get enough to keep going and crop insurance can help. Give us a call at 805-238-1818 for more information.

  Its in the news, cyber attacks, What information do you retain in your computer about your wine club members? Credit Cards, home address, birthdays; all the items can be used to attack someones identity and they might get them from you. What is your exposure if you are hacked? What kind of protection do you have? Are you on your own? The answer to most of these questions is really scary. Most companies do not provide cyber protection. The good news is there is a product out there that addresses these problems head on. You can buy protection from cyber attack and not have to worry as much about the effects of being hacked. Cyber liability comes in several forms and can protect you from Website publishing liability and security breach liability. They can also provide protection for the following: Business income for web site, business computer coverage, extortion threats, interruption of computer operations, security breach expense and public relations expense. Premiums vary from company to company s ...

Yes, Here it is again. Our motto " Insurance stinks until you need it" Here is another story about insurance premiums and why we hate them until something happens. This story is about an insured with a renters policy. He hated paying the premium for his contents coverage. Everytime we talked it was let's lower the amount I certainly don't need that much. Go ahead and lower it by half I will still be OK. Being a bit stubborn I talked with him each time and told him I did not want to have something happen and have him come up short on a claim check than I figured he already was. Well one afternnon on the way home from work I saw smoke in the air. It was coming from an area where I had several clients so I drove out to see if I could help. The house my client was living in was totally engulfed in flames. Nothing was going to be saved, A total loss. The claims process went quickly and he did his inventory. When it was aded up he was underinsured by a small amount but he ended up getting the entire policy limit. H ...