July 2, 2024 • 49 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Brian Chapman of JD Chapman Insurance Agency — an independent, family-owned fiduciary insurance agency who has been serving the community for over 60 years! Brian and his team are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to insurance. He can be reached at: Email: brian@jdchapmaninc.com Phone: 315-986-4062 Address: …
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to Dear Rochester
Retire well. Here's your host, Dave Po,
cf.
Alright, Folks. Welcome back to Deer Rochester Tire
well. We are in a new studio today.
We're renting 1 until we finish our space.
Right? So Are we're here with Brian Chapman
from Chapman Insurance agency. What's the name official
(00:21):
name? Jd d Chapman Agency. Yep Agency. I
knew that. How a hell my guy.
How are you, brian? Good. I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on, man. Yeah. What's
Alright. Let's start right away. How long have
you been doing this? So I've been in
this industry for 4 years. 4 years. Yep.
What is the scariest insurance thing that you
seen? I love it. The scariest insurance thing
that for the person. Yeah. Go. Yeah. That
(00:42):
I've seen
it was the... There was a restaurant that
we had ensured pretty well known restaurant in
kind of the Canada area.
And I remember I wasn't personally involved in
this I do remember this vividly because I
was a kid. So my dad would always
get insurance calls in the middle of the
night. Sometimes when people saying, hey, I got
this thing happen or so on, But
and so he got a call from the
(01:02):
owner of this restaurant, and he said, hey,
the my restaurants completely up in flames. I
mean, I think this is gonna be kind
of a total loss thing. So
I drove in the car with my dad
down there and sat and watched this guy's
whole restaurant, probably his whole life, poured into
this thing, just go up in flames. Did
he call the fire department first or did
do he caught your dad?
(01:23):
We're not firefighters.
So I definitely call the right people for.
But... No. I think, yeah. It's just kind
of the service we offer. Right? They... They're
a good friends. So now he called them
to get my heads up. My dad's like,
hey. Let's go down there and let's you
know, eases woes a little bit and just
kinda be with them during that time. So
yeah. Just total loss of everything. Oh, yeah.
Completely to the ground.
(01:44):
Fryer was left on overnight on accident,
temperature sensor monitored didn't work. Mh 1 small
little thing like that, and your whole, you
know, blood sweat and tears that I went
into that business just up in flames. So
what happens that business owner? Like, they they
they are now out of cash flow?
They make an insurance claim. Like, how does
that actually work? Yeah. So the way that
(02:04):
works with insurances is,
we basically, you know, turning the claim to
the insurance provider.
And we'll take them through the process. So
he'll have... If you own the building, he'll
be able to recuperate the money that he
spent, either to renovate the building or if
they own the building, the building itself.
There's also something in insurance called business interruption
or business income and extra expense. Okay. So
(02:24):
if you purchase that coverage based what it
does is it gives you the ability to
recoup that income that you're losing during the
time that you're down or maybe you need
to spend a little bit of more money
to, go get a shipping container to to
store some things or maybe you need to
go lease a spot so that you can
keep your restaurant open. So business income and
extra expense, those types of things would kinda
kick in. All of the property that he
(02:45):
has in there that he owned.
So the Fryer, tables, chairs, point of sale
systems, you know, all that type of stuff
is covered under insurance.
So... Yeah. I mean, that he had the
right plan in place, so thank goodness. It
worked out well for him. It's nice to
have your dad as a friend, I got
in that case. With the
what what about the employees?
They still get paid.
Stay in trouble. Yeah. That is like, yeah.
(03:06):
That's a different... That's actually a really good
question, Dave. I... To be honest with you
wouldn't know the answer to that. I mean,
if somebody was injured, it's like a worker
comp type I of a claim, but to,
like, recoup your payroll and stuff. I don't
know, man You're asking the good questions. Yeah.
Oh, I'm I'm just thinking my own place
burning and what would I do? So,
I have to pay... Still have to pay
the people. Right? Right. Yep. So you so
you mentioned your dad
(03:27):
call middle of the night when you were
a kid, Did he start your insurance agency?
So no. Actually, my grandfather started in 19
58,
heart of his home on Victor Road. Yeah.
And the story goes that, you know, he
bought a book of business from this guy
Henry Kemp that was in Palm mara. He
ensured a bunch of, like, the farms in
the area.
And he was looking to retire. My grandfather
was marine, then he was a ph ed
(03:50):
teacher, and he came back home to Palm
meyer. I was looking for something, you know,
to do a little train income.
So started this... Bought that book of business
from him started it out of his house.
He would have the farmers come over. The
story goes that my dad would eat the
the snow off of the farmer's boots and
it would make them sick. So they were
like, okay. We are growing we need to
expand into like, a different, you know, area.
(04:10):
So that kinda gives the catalyst.
I do a. Yeah. Exactly. Yep.
And then they they moved in down into
Main street,
mas.
And then my uncle joined in the seventies
my father joined in 19 90, my cousin
in 2001, and then myself 4 years ago.
Wow. Alright. So your third generation. Yeah. My
(04:31):
cousin and I. Yes. Don't screw this up
guys. That's the statistic. Right? Right? That third
generation is the 1 that takes and and
blows. Don't you dare ruin this for your
grandpa, man. I I love it. How's
so you guys... I was gonna ask you
how business is going. But we don't have
to answer that. How's the... Like, what is
your... When you guys are now looking for
clients who... Who's, like, your ideal
Who's the best fit for what you guys
(04:52):
do and tell a little bit more about
that? Yeah. The ideal client for us is
you know, we certainly do both personal and
commercial side of the business. The commercial side
of the business is really what we focus
on. And to be honest with you, somebody
that has a couple years of experience that
maybe hasn't looked at their insurance policies in
a while.
You know, we'd really have a good niche
in restaurants,
(05:13):
automobile services, so repair,
paint shops, those types of things.
And then we do really good with your
mom and Pop, you know, main street type
businesses as well.
So somebody that either has a couple years
of experience a new business owner is always
a good 1 as well,
because we can make sure that they get
set up on the right policy.
But we do have the ability to and
we certainly like to... We handle some school
(05:33):
districts Mh. And some larger, you know, higher
end type clients so to speak.
You know, but we really run the full
gamut, but somebody that is, got some years
of experience under them and actually,
not enjoys talking about insurance, but cares about
the policy that they have because nobody likes
to talk about insurance.
There wouldn't be an ideal client if they
enjoy talking about insurance. Right.
(05:54):
What's
You mentioned that somebody hasn't reviewed it in
a couple. You're like, how often should someone
review their insurance policy?
So we try to have an annual review
with all of our clients. I think you
should review your policy on an annual basis
just because there's a lot of factors that
go into it.
You know, the bigger, more complicated of a
of a business that you have, the more
complicated the insurance becomes, So it's always good
(06:14):
to have that yearly review if not, probably
6 months in.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah or any big changes. Right?
Yeah. Anytime you have big changes, so you
add employees,
you go into a new sector, You add
vehicles,
even on the personal side, if you, like,
redo your kitchen, you install a pool,
any, like, high end type renovations that you
at a pole bar, and those are all
(06:35):
things that you should call your insurance agent
on.
Does anybody do that?
The the ones that know like, hey, like,
I have some risk here. Yeah. They'll call.
But, you know, your life's busy. So I'm
not everyone's like, oh, Gotta I'll call my
insurance agent on this.
So that's where we come in, we try
to be, like, you know, on your yearly
review, what's new? Do you see any insurance
on your payroll that just follow the pool
(06:56):
delivery you guys around.
No. There's an idea. They're you go. Yeah.
We're gonna have a huge business by the
end of this with 74 more employees. Thinking
else review your own insurance policy. There you
go. What's up? When you say school district,
I've done a lot of work at school
tricks with retirement and pension stuff and all
that. What what are you guys actually doing
for a school district? I'm just curious. No.
(07:16):
That's a good question. So the insurance for
school district ranges from everything from just, like
your typical general liability, your property for the
buildings,
you know, a lot of them have, like,
either some type of a board. So there's
directors and officers, types insurance, errors and emissions,
you know, the biggest thing now with schools
is, like, having a sexual,
abuse and mole station type policy, Mh or
(07:37):
something called employment practices liability.
So if somebody feels like they've been unfairly,
maybe passed over for a promotion,
or that they
have some type of Qualms with the school
district,
those are the types of policies that, you
know, we'll have in place for
that type of a risk. Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, school districts in general are typically frugal.
(07:57):
I'm always wondering, like, a how often are
they reviewing? What are they looking for? There's
consortium stuff. Right? The... Yeah. For sure. And
actually, 1 of the more popular things that's
happening now school districts is having the right
cyber policy in place.
So, I'm sure if you follow the news,
all the cyber attacks that have happened to
like, hospitals and stuff like that.
School districts are target for that. Right? A
lot of personal
(08:17):
information in there, on students and so on.
And, you know, it happened to a local
school district here not that long ago, locked
up their whole system, weren't able to go
to school.
So cyber policies for school districts are becoming
real popular.
Wow. What's okay. So
We we could put this honor, we can
edit this out. You're? Yeah. If you could
talk to, like, your ideal client business owner.
(08:39):
Mh. Right now, you go to them and,
like, no, man I'm not interested.
I, I'm good. We're all set.
If you could say anything to those people,
what would you say?
On the 1 thing I would tell somebody
that hasn't
like, my ideal client, the 1 thing that
I would tell them is, how friendly are
you with your insurance agent? Is it somebody
that you can call? Did they review it
(08:59):
with you every year?
Because a lot of the policies are probably
the right policy, but it makes a world
of difference having the right agent, somebody that
you can call somebody that reviews it, somebody
that looking out for you.
I think all too often people write of
an insurance policy and then the agent just
kinda sits back on it. And wait for
it to renew every year without any type
of follow up. And then when there is
(09:20):
an issue, you know, you didn't talk to
your insurance agent in 2, 3 years and
you know, hopefully, everything goes well. But to
have somebody guide you through that process that
you know and trust, that's always my biggest
question is do you know and trust your
insurance agent Yeah. Well, in listen in our
world sometimes that backfire too. Yeah. Have a
buddy that's doing it or an uncle that's
my financial adviser, and it's like, well, they're
not actually doing anything for you because they
(09:42):
probably know you're not gonna leave them? Yeah.
So how how do you get someone to
leave a family member or close friend? That's
a great more. I haven't figured that out
by the way. I have not figured that
out either. And honestly, this whole thing and
probably a lot of, like, what you do.
It's a relationship business. Right? So you're you're
talking to people and people buy from people
that they like to work with. Yeah.
I am not. I won't be over aggressive.
(10:03):
That's just not my style. But tell them,
hey, look, the door is always open
on the off chance that maybe they do
have a claim in their uncle or brother,
whoever does their insurance and doesn't really go
that well. Now you gotta see that person
at a family dinner all the time or
you see them in your circles, and now
it becomes awkward, You know, if you ever
wanted to just remove that, you know, we're
here for you on that end. I know
(10:24):
but listen for us to. It's like, now
if I fire my financial adviser as my
uncle, and then I see him at the
family party.
That might be even more awkward.
Yeah. All you're fired. Yeah. For sure. It's
definitely a conversation. So I'll just... I always
leave the door open look. You know, I'm
here for you. If you ever want a
second set eyes or what I. Those are
tough. Do you guys have a lot of,
like, on the other side of it, new
(10:46):
folks that get into your business,
set up a bunch of policies and then
leave
Yeah. There's so a lot of the, like,
what you would consider a captive agent, so...
And I don't wanna disturb anybody, but, like,
all states and farmers that the big captive.
Yeah. Yeah. The the the the gen geico
guy. Yeah. The those those types of things.
Those those are what I consider, like, churn
(11:08):
and burn type shop, so they'll get a
young producer or somebody in there, and it's
just how many policies can you sell. There's
really not a whole lot of service behind
it.
But, yeah. That happens a lot, or what
you might see in our industry too is
somebody that has worked really hard to build
a book a business, and then it becomes
stagnant. They just sit on it. Collect the
renewal on it. Yeah. And, you know, unfortunately,
the customer might suffer because the customer service
(11:29):
end if it's not there anymore, they're just
kinda collecting on it. Yeah. So I mean,
I think sometimes people because obviously I'm not
in your business.
It... And I'll ask you this. I I
know the answer. Is it more expensive to
have a yearly review with my insurance person?
It cost you 0 to have an insurance
review? A yearly. Yeah. I mean, there's there's
no,
charged to to have any type of review.
(11:50):
It's just a quick phone call or even
an email.
Just to say, hey, look, this is what
I've got going on. That's so easy man.
It's free. That's So he's
just sending... So let me ask this. Is
it on the client to reach out to
you guys? Or do you guys proactively reach
out to them? We tried too as best
we can. Mh. Proactively reach out get. But,
you know, ultimately, yeah. The the owners is
(12:11):
on the insured. Right? The that you're kind
of responsible for your own stuff. Yeah So,
you know, we always tell people or I
try to when I write a policy, hey,
If you do any of these things, make
sure you re, you know, call us so
that we can update your policy.
Yeah. We try to,
and the guys in our office know this
and and the folks that work with us.
Like, we have a communication calendar.
There's all these catalysts events that if something
(12:33):
happened, so we're
consistently trying to be in front of folks,
but what we always say is if we
don't hear from you,
about anything. That's fine. You don't have to
respond 9000 emails a year, our videos or
whatever.
Or we try to get them subscribed to
the podcast or our videos or our Youtube,
whatever it is. And
but if they don't respond to any of
that stuff, they know at least once a
(12:55):
year for some people, twice your for others
in in our world, maybe 3 or 4
times per year for other folks. They will
hear from us proactively. Yeah. So it's a
system that is built and they know that
they're going to hear from us even with
that in financial planning for managing millions of
dollars for folks,
sometimes they still don't respond. Right. So that's
why I'm like, if... Nothing has changed for
(13:15):
an insurance. It must be really hard to
get people to actually pay attention, but
I would think a yearly email. If I
get a yearly email for my insurance person.
And by the way, folks to be clear.
I don't work with Brian. Yeah. We'll talk
about this slater, but, like the
if I got a yearly insurance
email just saying hey heads there been any
up. That'd be extremely helpful. It's just 5
(13:35):
minutes. Right? Like,
we have a program that we use that
sends out emails. And that's 1 of the
things that we implemented when we got that
program was, hey, we need to send out,
like, a yearly just check. What we do
is, like, 30 days before your policy renew?
Hey, homeowners policies come due, auto insurance policies
come due. Have you experienced any of these
life changes?
You know, give us a call. We'll we'll
(13:56):
get everything updated, but you're working with people.
So, you know? Yeah. Well, it... I'll tell
you what man, you know this The the
give us a call. Is a deterrent. So,
yeah. Can I text or email you? Like
this a lot of people just want it
to be even more... Easy... I don't even
wanna talk to anybody anymore. Right?
Yeah. No. That's the kind of the way
things are going and and when we did
that email, we actually got a bunch of
(14:17):
response, people saying, well, I actually, yeah. I
I redid my kitchen or forgot to call
you added my 16 year old son on
as a driver.
So it actually worked out well. But you're
right. I think the day of, like, picking
up the phone and colin.
It seems like it takes so much longer
if you can just rifle text or an
email. It seems to be the best way
to go. Or do that to schedule the
time. Yeah. I'm a big fan of, like,
just shoot me an email schedule a time
(14:38):
to talk rather than out of the blue
phone calls from hundreds of people. Totally. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Because there's a lot that you
an deal with red. I mean, that's that's
can be a whole another podcast. Oh totally
hanging. Yeah. I'm it's 10:20 in the morning
as of this recording. I have I'm sitting
here looking at this, which I shouldn't be,
but, like,
75
messages and 20 minutes, man. Like, the... It
just keeps happening. Totally. But that's okay. And
(15:00):
a lot of missed phone calls.
I'll call back later.
So you you guys are 66
years in
as of now? That's crazy. What's like the
biggest challenge you guys
face as a business right now. Is it
scaling, expanding. You're trying to take it easy.
Who, what's going on? The biggest thing that
we've faced like right now as a business
(15:21):
I would say,
particular to our
agency.
We're gonna have some hiring coming up, and
I know that that's tough sometimes
I find the right people for the seat.
So that's certainly a challenge that that that
we'll have coming up. On the insurance side
of things,
insurance right now is what they consider a
a hard or a tough market.
So we're dealing a lot with carriers,
(15:44):
pulling back on stuff that they used to
write. Premiums going up, res shopping policies.
Underwriting guidelines are getting
exorbitant harder,
stuff that people
stuff that companies used to love to write.
That was their bread and butter. Maybe didn't
perform so well in terms of losses, so
now they're moving on from that.
So it seems like
(16:04):
you know, we don't ever just sell an
insurance policy and move on from it. There's
always some maintenance to it, but but even
more so now. You're kinda re touching clients
a lot more than
you were previously.
Yeah. Interesting. So, like, this is stuff that
we don't think of as consumers is
insurance companies write a... To them, it's a
block of business. Right? And then if it...
If they get a bunch of claims, which
(16:25):
is the reason we bought the insurance,
then they just won't do it anymore. Yeah.
It seems, you know, people are asked me
is insurance a scam, and
I I... No. I mean, it's there. It's
got a purpose and it and it's there
to, you know, for your financial well being
as well.
But it comes down to having an agent
that helps that can help you navigate that.
So, you know, okay. Let's look at this
(16:46):
claim. Is this something that
you know, should be turned in. Yes. It's
a catastrophic claim. 100 percent we're turning this
in. We're helping you out. Or, you know,
hey, had a fend bender in a parking
lot.
Or I need my tote... My car towed.
Okay. Well, you've you've gotten 4 window claims
already and adding another towing clint, maybe we
can figure out a way around that or
maybe we can advise you differently. You can
(17:08):
use the insurance as much as you want,
but to have an adviser to go to
say, hey, I know I've putting in some
claims should I do that or what's my
ramifications that... That's a huge thing. Yeah. It
might be cheaper just to pay for it.
Sometimes even the premium going forward if your
ninth claim on a window break somehow.
Do you nailed the day? What's the record
Right? What's your record on claims or no?
Like the... Like, how many claims I've seen?
(17:31):
The most claims that I think I saw,
I believe somebody had,
and it was a family of 4. There
was about 15 claims in a year,
all little window.
How claim baseball for the cars. I was,
like, Crash Band who was driving the car
and just playing ping pong. I don't really
know. Yeah. Claim everything. Yeah. Should to keep
it off the records, man. Yeah Well, that's
(17:52):
the thing right towing claims, flat tire
toll claim, window chip, you know, window claim.
Yeah. Do you guys get a lot of
call for flat tires?
Yeah.
Believe it or not we do.
I'm always like, you know how to changing
it yourself?
That's kinda where I was headed with it.
I was with a group of guys on
a trip.
It was a work conference about 3 years
(18:12):
ago. And we rented a car at the
airport. We flew there from Rochester was in
it. I,
I think it was in Atlanta.
Wherever we were. We rented a car. And
we were almost... We were going to be
late for this conference to start.
And we got a flat tire on the
way. It was about an hour drive, we're,
like, an hour and 20, so I get
a flat tire. The other 3 guys I'm
with are just... I mean, they're financial advisers
(18:34):
I could pick on them. Losing their mind.
We're gonna be late. We're gonna be late.
Cut 1 1 guy... His answer was called
911.
Another one's like, well, I have triple a,
but I'm not the driver.
I'm like, did it ever cross your mind
to change the tire guys? Like, there's a
tire in the trunk?
For sure. These... Okay. These are
I was the youngest. And I'm I was
(18:55):
what, 42 at the time. These are... They're
not like they're... It's not like 18 year
olds, which which by the way, 18 year
olds if you're listening this shit not to
change the tire. Like these guys had no
clue. Right. I was shocked to fill get
call 911,
call my aaa and call my insurance company.
Yep. I'm, like, or we could just change
the tire and on time.
Like, didn't cross their mind. Yeah. No. Exactly.
(19:18):
That's the way things... That's the way it
is now. I feel like with everything. It's,
you know, what's the easy solution, call call
somebody, call some, you know, call the number.
I mean, it took form... Whatever you guys
get. So we could change subject on idea.
What's
So when you guys... When you're doing... Just
because we're on the car thing.
People think
And I mentioned this too before that like,
(19:38):
okay. We're in New York state we have
to have insurance now. That. I remember when
that changed. I think I was driving It's
like, people actually didn't have to have insurance
before, and then there were some year that
that changed. I don't remember when that was,
but it mandatory car insurance and people were,
like, up in arms about it. But the...
When that changed people just went and bought
something,
and it could be Geico. It could... I'm
going online and doing this myself, What's the
(20:00):
biggest mistake? So I... I go online. I
do it myself?
I'm a do it myself insurance guy? What's
the biggest mistake you see with that? That's
a great question. The the biggest mistake that
I see from folks that go online and
quote their own insurance. Yep. They go in
New York, you have to have a minimal
set amount of liability,
75010
in property damage.
(20:22):
That liability limit is what the minimum that
you need to get your car on the
road. Those limits are so small that if
you have 1 even decent claim and your
eating right through those limits. So the biggest
thing that I see is folks go online.
And the insurance industry has done that. They've
made it kind of a comm thing. It's
about a price. So you go on, and,
(20:44):
you know, they might offer you all these
extras, but you're just on their shopping for
the price. So, you know, I don't want
towing. I don't want this. I don't want
that. I want the lowest limit.
And then, you know, they get that policy.
Something happens, and they come to find out,
I don't have the right coverage in place.
I don't have,
you know, uninsured motor coverage. I don't have
the right liability coverage,
(21:04):
you know, I've done more than 10000 dollars
in property damage. Now I'm paying out of
my it because I went online, clicked a
few buttons got the lowest price, and I
moved on. So that's the biggest thing that
I see right now with people going online
and buying. I have so many questions about
this, mainly.
So with,
first of all, I can completely relate to
that,
(21:24):
there are a lot of folks that will
go, and I'll just use, like, life insurance
as an example. They'll go on online, Oh,
or better you got is my buddy. My
buddy got a quote. Right? My is my
my friend only pays 30 dollars a month
a million dollars of insurance. And it's like
your friend is an ultra marathon runner, who's
31 years old.
You're 73
and you smoke 3 packs a day and
drink 74 beers.
(21:46):
I think the rate's gonna be a little
bit different.
Exactly. We're hundred percent. Yeah. Exactly.
So for you... When you talk about, like,
uninsured motorists,
what it's some... I'm making this up. Some
guy from, Florida drives up here,
runs into my vehicle.
He does not have insurance is what you're
saying.
Yeah. And then
my insurance might cover some of that if
(22:08):
I have on uninsured motor coverage?
Yeah. So I'd have to get into the
particular language of it, but there you
it's called un
uninsured and under uninsured motorists or... Correct. If
you were to get into an accident where,
let's say I rear end you, I'm flying.
I
Put my front of my car into the
back of your trunk. I have 0 insurance.
(22:29):
You you can't recoup anything for me because
I'm uninsured. Yeah. You know, your insurance company
does have some coverage there for you to
help, you know, obviously get the car repaired.
Yeah. You know, if you're unable to sub
back or sue against the other person because
they don't have an insurance policy.
So those are things that are on a
policy that people might not know about. What
what if you're really wealthy and you do
(22:49):
that to me. I'm can come up few
personal. With my insurance company go after you
personally?
So, yeah, That's where an umbrella policy will
come. That's I out of with the whole.
Yeah. No. I read mine, man. Yeah
so... Yeah, I'll I'll give you a prime
example. Actually, I just got off the phone
with my wife, and her
uncle is
(23:10):
orthopedic surgeon I believe, Mh. And he is
an, Avid Biker, High net worth individual. Yep.
1 day away from retiring. He's riding his
bike
a lady in a van with children probably
distracted, pulls out in front of him. He
crushed the
car with his bike.
Now has is just bicycle or a motorcycle.
(23:31):
Bicycle. Okay. Like, without a. Yep. Pedal bike.
Yep. And he has fractured every single 1
of his ribs collapsed along, broke a collar
bone,
injured a hand in this gentleman is an
orthopedic surgeon, so he needs to be... Yeah.
You know, He's a high net worth individual.
Yeah. That that claim will probably be fairly
large, especially for the bodily injury piece, and
(23:52):
he's in the hospital. If this lady doesn't
have the right insurance in place or if
she doesn't have an umbrella to tap into
that extra amount.
You... You're you're coming after assets.
They say you can doc pay and things
like that, but they're gonna probably do some
type of an asset test if it becomes
such a large claim to see where they
can recuperate, recuperate.
It's cheese. So what... Okay. So I'm gonna
(24:12):
go way back when you said 85000.
Mh.
I know what those are, but
so
That happens.
This lady is 25 50 and 10. Yep.
How much money can that guy get from
her insurance company?
Those are the limits. So that... That's that's
all
that's all that could tap to get 85000
(24:33):
dollars from the insurance company.
And let's say it's 2000000
for him to get fixed and better and
lost and all all the stuff.
So the 2000000
I mean, will they literally, like, go after
equity in her home?
Well it... It would
It's gets scary. It does it definitely gets
scary. So...
Yeah. I mean, that's definitely a potential, You
(24:53):
know, it'll it'll come down to probably some
type of a legal battle, and they... They'll
probably... Like I said, do some type of
an set test, and you know, if he's
got a good lawyer, which you assume a
doctor probably does.
That they're looking to to recuperate as much
as they can from your home from your
personal asset that's maybe you have a business
that you haven't totally protected.
So, yeah, It can get ugly and it
(25:14):
cannot get ugly quick. Yeah. And we're so
for that guys, almost like the business at
the beginning. What happens in the meantime? So
there... They have to go after this person
to get a bunch of money that may...
She maybe doesn't even have? Mh.
How does his stuff get paid for? Does
his insurance company front the money or does...
He just
have to figure it out. So something on
(25:35):
that would... His personal health insurance would probably
kick in. Yeah, you know, and it covered,
like, his medical bills and things like that.
Since he wasn't in a vehicle.
There's, you know, there's no
insurance on, you know, maybe he's got the
bike share. There's no vehicle other vehicle of
his involved. So, yeah. Basically, I I would
imagine that just as help personal health insurance
(25:55):
would kick in,
you know, and there'd be a record of
all of his medical bills,
that then would get passed on to that
person that hit him or pulled out in
front of them. What if she could never
pay him,
That's a good question. You know, Talking better
Yeah. Yeah. I've thought about that a lot.
You know, it's like, getting blood from a
stone. Yeah.
I I don't know how that works. There
there probably some type of court settlement that
(26:16):
happens.
But, you know, if if you're just kind
of... Scraping to get by, and now you're
involved in a 2000000 dollar
lawsuit,
you know, or it's your pay doctor for
10 years. I don't really know how that
happened. That's crazy. Well, I then,
if... What's her incentive to work.
Right. Right? Like, I... You go down that
rabbit hole pretty decent. For sure. The,
(26:37):
yeah. That's interesting, man. So no fault of
his own runs into a van
could be out of money. Getting blood from
a stone
for just... For her to save what. So
let's say, let's say she was the person
clicking online.
25 50, 10000 dollars for coverage,
for her to get an umbrella policy. And,
again, I know the numbers on this. I
recommend umbrella policies all the time to our
(26:59):
clients. It's a big thing because I've seen
bad things happen, which this isn't my day.
This is about you, so I won't get
into the stories. But, like, for a million
dollar umbrella coverage
for a normal person,
what are those normally cost? Because people hear
that and they're, like,
that that must be, like, 15000
dollars a year. That Yeah. For a million
(27:19):
dollar umbrella. Yeah. Typically, it's around 200 bucks
or so. Per year. Per year. 1 time
1 time, you know, payment of 200 dollars,
and you have a extra million and liability
that that can protect you. And that sits
over, not just your home, but it's your
home, your auto,
you know, on the commercial side, if you've
got a business that sits over all of
your your buildings, your property, you know, like,
(27:41):
literally, an umbrella that sits over everything. Yeah.
Yeah. I I did a video on that.
It actually was smart. It it took off.
That was that was a good 1 people
in the. Thanks, man.
So
my washington. We haven't We know.
Yeah. Yeah. Well the hell? Yeah. We we
we definitely do.
We do.
So the umbrella positive thing like, I had
(28:03):
I've had friends who...
The Amazon driver slipped on their porch.
And they are dealing with, like, this
nagging,
what's gonna happen? Are these people coming after
me? There's also a video tape of it
actually not happening?
Oh, so there's that.
But they they still to deal with it.
(28:24):
So that is something.
Listen if someone's listening to this podcast.
Them or their spouse probably orders. That's the
that's my catch all. 2... A lot from
Amazon. Yeah. Fedex showing up all the time
all of the things. Right?
Umbrella policies
cover
that happening. Right? Or would that be a
homeowner thing. Well, so your umbrella sits over
(28:45):
your homeowners. So, yeah, there would probably be
and every claims is different. Right? You've gotta
kinda pick... You gotta pick through what happened
on the claim. But an incident like that.
So maybe let's say that they your friends
didn't...
You know, they've out a front step that's
got some concrete that's loose this dude slips
or, you know, steps up on the concrete
slips, Let's say, knocks his head or something.
There's a
liability portion of your homeowners policy that that
(29:07):
that would go through first, probably. Okay but,
you know, again, let's let's say Dudes brains
bleeding something happen he's in Icu. Now you're
racking up bills. If you have that umbrella,
then you right tap right into that. As
you know. And that's scary stuff. It's like,
no wonder people are over insured, or think
it's a scam. Well, yeah. And the other,
you know, it's just claims are going more
nuclear is what they're calling them. So in
(29:28):
the nas of
you know,
I don't know if fair settlement is the
right word. But, you know, where it was
like, okay, well, I had x amount of
damage, you know, we're gonna recoup... Recuperate X
amount in in money. I just kinda got
out the window, you know, everybody's so inclined
to call the the personal injury attorney on
Tv to see how much money they can
get. Yeah. And then you wonder your insurance
rates go up. Yeah. Yeah. Hate.
(29:50):
What was it my case was worth 440000,
but they got me 8000000. Correct. Yeah. Which
that's a different. I've I actually had a
podcast on that and how that money actually
never shows up to. I an attorney to
talk about that. Way way back. A couple
years ago.
Which it wasn't an interesting story on how
they actually get they... Most of the time
those folks don't get that money. So you
see they get 8000000 dollars. They usually don't
(30:10):
get it. It goes back to like... It's
trying to get blood from a stone.
So... Okay. That guy who got hit by
the bike if he was to get by
the van. If he got 8000000 dollars in
this person,
is no insurance. There's nowhere to get the
8000000 from. The attorneys can still say, yeah,
We said of 3 8000000, but they didn't
get the money.
Yeah. Okay. I was wondering that. Way more
to it. But, yeah, You see these giant
(30:32):
settlements unless there's something behind it. It doesn't
doesn't happen for those folks.
So I homeowners insurance real quick. When you
said, like, improve the kitchen or,
obviously, a pool is a large improvement or
let's say somebody remodel the inside of their
house.
You you should review with an insurance agent
to... What what do you do there? Like,
(30:54):
that's a good 1 guessing at the value
of replacement to like, My am I as
a homeowner supposed to take pictures of these
things to prove? Like, what what should I
do as a homeowner? That's a great question.
As a homeowner if you were to add
an addition? Upgrade your kitchen, those types of
things. Yeah. Taking a picture is actually not
a bad idea.
Some people will do, like, a yearly walk
through video and of their home just to
(31:16):
kinda document things. Yeah. On the event that
maybe there is some type of full loss.
They've got some
documentation
but, you know, if you upgrade your kitchen,
you know, the value of your home obviously,
is gonna go up. If you add an
an addition onto your house.
You know, your square footage goes up, the
value of your home goes up The the
replacement cost to rebuild it goes up. So
(31:37):
you wanna make sure those things are keeping
up with it.
You know, we we we have had an
incident where there was a, folks redid their
kitchen.
They had a had a loss. They had
a fire
took out, you know, most of their...
Most of their home. Home was or considered
a total loss. They
and there was sq over the value of
the home, ultimately ended up going to court.
(31:59):
But, you know, we were never notified that,
hey. I just put in a 60000 dollar
kitchen.
So... Yeah. You know, unless you have that
on your policy, you're kind of
right. Not aware... Yearly video is a great
idea as part of the process. Yep. So
I wrote that down. We're gonna do yearly
video from now 1. Yeah. Yearly video. Quick
walk through the house, so... Yep. Do that
once a year. I'm making this up on
July first.
(32:20):
Takes
1 and a half minutes. Mean house 17000
square feet that's different. But
business will be different. Right? Should business owners
do the same thing? I mean, yeah. It's
always
here. It's probably good to always have some
type of a record. I know probably it's...
Not, like, feasible to do that all the
time. But, yeah. Anything that you have that
can help build your case. I'll give you
(32:40):
an example I wrote,
a company that's out in Sodas. They've got
these really cool tree houses that they've got
Yep. Rented,
and it's a beautiful piece of property,
and the the gentleman there is extremely handy,
knew how to build this
building at a certain cost. The insurance company
comes in and they say, no way that
thing's worth like, a hundred thousand. Because so
(33:01):
he had documentation on how we built it,
all the materials and stuff that he got.
We went back to the insurance company he
said, hey, really, you can rebuild this for
40 grand. They said, yep. There's your documentation.
They lowered the premium back down and insured
it for the value that both him and
the insurance company agreed on, and they moved
on. But because he had the proof. Well
and and you guys... Yeah.
I'm not picking on Geico, but, like, some
(33:23):
some person at a call center not gonna
handle that for them.
Right. Yeah. And that... Again, that's where it
comes back to having an agent that you
can call and be like, hey, man. This
is what's going on. We do that with
audits. I just worked with a...
Gas station. Mh. So their gas is on
consignment, So it shouldn't be considered their income.
But on the audit, the insurance company looked
like they had made x them amount more
(33:44):
money. So he got hit with a 7000
dollar audit and he's calling me saying, you
know, hey, this isn't right. What's going on
here. So,
me the documentation. Send it back into the
insurance company. I called them yesterday. It's rare
that when you can make, like, a good
call. I call them like hey you're getting
1500 dollars back. Gave He's like, holy.
Thank you. This is great. I appreciate that.
But, you know, maybe again, if you call
(34:05):
a big box. Type store.
You just go through the 1 800 number
and voice mail hell, and then maybe someone
gets back to you. I don't know. Well,
it seems like they're not on your side.
I've dealt with it before I... You're right
know it's like, ad aerial rather than, like,
help me out for sure, man. So you
guys... If if if I were looking for
new insurance as a
Let's do a consumer first and then a
(34:25):
business owner second.
If I'm just a normal person with a
house and some stuff going on. What questions
should I ask my insurance person. That's a
great question. If you have, like, your own
personal insurances with your insurance agent. Some of
the questions that I would ask them are?
Or I'm looking for 1. Or if you're
looking for an insurance agent? Let's yeah. Let's
see. I'm look, I'm looking for some new
(34:46):
insurance. What should I ask you Yeah. Absolutely.
You would wanna know if they're an independent
broker like we are. So if they can
shop the market for you, which is always
an advantage because we're not pigeon hold to
just... Putting it with 1 company, or if
they're a captive, you know, like, a allstate
standard or state farm worth. They only have
1 place that they can go.
Then you might wanna ask,
(35:07):
you know, about
you know, get get their recommendation on, do
a little research ahead of time. And then
get their recommendation on what they would recommend
you have. Yeah. And then you can kinda
make a judgment call and on... This person
is, you know, Savvy and what they're doing.
Maybe,
you know, some things that some people maybe
don't think about is, you know, what's your
support staff like at the office?
(35:28):
You know, when I call, do I call
just Do I call you the agent right
away or is there A18 hundred number? You
know, I think people really like to make
1 phone call. Somebody picks up
and Can answer the question.
So the that might be something that somebody
doesn't always think about, you know, if their
support staff is my policy go handled by
1 person or do I have a general
inbox that I call?
(35:48):
Could... I mean, you could also call, like,
if if I work with an independent person
which I wanna ask you more about because
huge fan, by the way. Yeah. Same thing
in our world. Yeah. The...
I have a... You write me a policy
through name a company that you guys are
using right now for New York Essentials mutual.
Okay. So I... Have a policy. I could
call them directly as well. You can. Yep.
You you you you always were we're... And
(36:09):
we don't charge to be the broker. By
the way, there's no fee to use an
independent broker. Yep.
We have agreements, you know, with our companies
mh payment and so on. But, yeah, you
can always call the insurance company directly.
Miss a bill, you need to make payment.
You can come us. You can call the
insurance company.
You know, again, we pick up the phone
right away. Yeah. Call the company might,
(36:30):
you know, go through. All Yeah. Push 1
for this. Push you for. Yeah. Oh, your
dad's answering the phone in the middle of
the night for a fire. So
brian guarantees folks that answer the phone. Anytime,
anywhere or any place. Yeah. Don't put this
Steve put that 1 out.
Yeah alright. Oh, wait. Do not edit it.
I need a life. I love it. Oh,
anywhere.
This love it. So the the independent part
(36:52):
of it is,
that's a big thing in our world too
because and I don't know if it works
its way for you.
But in our world if someone is captive,
so they work at XYZ
mutual.
And I'm an adviser at XYZ mutual. Many
times, I have to sell a certain amount
of their stuff to a client who's looking
for financial planning.
(37:13):
And
this is where a fiduciary sander comes in.
Right? So, maybe XYZ
is okay for this client.
Like, let's say Brian needs life insurance.
X y is okay, but I get stock
options and bonuses and trips and I get
recognized, and I might even get a higher
payout out on the rest of my business
because I wrote XYZ,
(37:35):
life insurance, but it's okay for you. It's
not the best.
Abc b is way better for you.
But I don't get any of that recognition,
and I don't win stock options and bonuses
and trips, and there's no higher payout on
that business.
Clients do not know that. No. So
when you talk about independent, Don't know if
it's the same in your world. That's what
(37:55):
we talk about. Like, when you... In
first thing, are they an independent fiduciary adviser.
If they are, they can give you Abc
b or XYZ in most cases
at no extra cost,
and they have to act in your best
interest. Yeah. Rather than trying to win themselves
a trip because
we wanna be cool, 25 year old salespeople.
(38:16):
Right?
Is that the same, like, with you guys
when you're... When you say independent, that means
you can use
all of different companies?
So I know for us, then I want
you to answer. Like, if you wanna... I
I just keep using life insurance because we're
talking about insurance.
You want life insurance, we send it out.
I don't know, a couple hundred companies look
get back to us, and we could pick
the ones with the best rating.
(38:37):
The cost has to be competitive.
Which, by the way, and III don't know
if we... Even have time to get into
this. Like,
people go by the cost.
First, and it It's like, listen. If this
one's 38 dollars and this one's 40, but
the 40 is an a rated company and
you could convert your policy at any anytime
and there's other features and benefits, and they're
actually gonna be in business, and they're not...
They're gonna sell your insurance 27 times.
(39:00):
I'll pay the 2 bucks a month. Right.
Yeah.
But the independent world is allowed to quote
that out amongst. Everybody, get the information back
and then give it to the client at
no extra cost. So in that case that
I just gave the 38 or 40 dollars
if the client went directly themselves it's still
gonna be 38 or 40 bucks.
It's just they have us to help them.
It's probably the same for you guys. Right?
(39:21):
You nailed it. I mean, our armada I
know exactly the same.
No, man. You nailed that that's exactly right.
And we're... It's the same type of independent
model. We're not tied to just writing 1
policy with 1,
you know, with 1 care year. So, yeah,
we have options to go and shop it
out for you.
We do get incentives and things from different
companies, but, you know, we never... It very
(39:44):
rarely steer us in the right... In the
wrong direction, you know, it terms of, like,
well, I'm gonna put you here because it's
more expensive because I get some type of
perk. We always try to do what's best
for you as the client. Sometimes I'll give
you some options. Right? So, like, here's your
here's your policy if your budget conscious or,
you know, here's a policy that we would
recommend that gives you the coverage that you
need and then help make some decisions from
there. It's all education. I'm sure you do
the same thing. Yeah. You're doing now. Like,
(40:06):
all the videos we produced, a lot of
it is education. Because as you were saying
the consumer has no idea kinda what an
independent agent is. A lot of times they
come to me and they're like, I'm not
working with you. You're gonna charge me a
hundred dollar fee. That's not not true. You
know, it's not like it's...
We're getting, like, landscaping quotes right now. And
it's like, alright. This one's 7500
and this one's...
(40:26):
3000. Mh. It's not like getting landscape. It's
too totally different. It's different
things going on. It's there there are pros
and cons
each of those, and it's it's very hard
to describe to people. But so if you
can talk to the person that logged online,
and they say, hey, it's 80 dollars a
month through them,
And it's a hundred and 10 through you
(40:47):
guys? Why would I ever go with you
guys?
Like, I have a I have a totally
loaded answer for you guys on this? But,
like, what would you say to those people?
1...
If somebody were to go online and get
a cheaper quote and then I'm giving them
something that's a little bit more expensive.
I would say, can you call that person?
Can can you call the Ge Lizard and
ask them questions.
(41:07):
You know, did did they... Who who review
that coverage with you? Do you do you
have an understanding of what you're being covered
on? Yep. You know, I'll give them some
real world scenarios, You know, hey, what if
this were to happen, where would that money
come from?
You know, Just kind of start asking some
prodding or leading questions.
Right. And then, hopefully, they kind of come
to the realization. Like, okay. This is more
(41:28):
money, but it's got
a person attached to it that I can
call, and it's got the right coverage for
me. I I think the right coverage was
the key. Yeah. The right the person call
is a bonus, but the right coverage. If
you have do we say 25 50 and
10,
and you need... I don't even know what
the numbers would be man? Let's just 10
x that? 2 5500
and a hundred. Yep.
(41:48):
People don't even know that that is... That's
why it's more expensive. Yep. So it's not
the same thing. It's not apples to apples.
So
when folks are doing their insurances, they need
to note, like, pure apples to apples. They're
all gonna be about the same. Mh.
And you can have an agent Right. But
the Agent typically is trying to act in
your best interest and do the right thing.
Therefore, it's more expensive.
(42:10):
Yeah. Because you're picking the minimum when you're
doing it yourself or somebody this meeting with
somebody that might be new or they don't
know what they're doing at or they're just
trying to make a sale
where you guys are gonna walk them through
and do the right thing. Which by default,
will probably be more expensive. For sure. Absolutely.
And I think like you people take a
look at it it's like, I'm going from
25000 to 250000
(42:30):
that's gonna cost me thousands of dollars in
a reality, it doesn't. I mean, the the
the the the jump is so minimal that
you know, if you break it down it
makes all the sense in the world it
could be a coffee a day that you
don't buy or something that that that Yeah.
And you have x amount more coverage.
You need the million dollar umbrella? Yeah. Right.
An example, most... Who who could not benefit
for I mean, there's obviously people that would
(42:50):
benefit from that. But, like for 200 bucks
a year, go get a million bucks of
coverage. That's crazy not to. For sure. Yeah.
Just the stuff that I've seen. And I...
I'm not, like, trying to be the cheesy
insurance guy. I don't even do that stuff,
but, like,
folks real listening this you don't have an
umbrella policy. Please go by 1. Yeah.
There's our commercial Brian. Call Call him.
You probably wanna do all of those. Right?
(43:12):
Because you get 900 calls on a 200
dollar umbrella policies,
but it's... It is true. It's a it
it won't hurt.
Correct. What's what's the largest umbrella policy that
you've seen? The largest umbrella policy that I've
seen? Yeah. On the commercial side was at
10000000 umbrella. 10000000? Yeah.
Are there there has to be ones that
are huge. Right and then they probably get
(43:34):
multiple companies involved Right? Yeah. It becomes tricky
because...
And I'm sure there's much larger umbrellas there
the. The, you know, we're not in that
space. Yeah. But
you know, the umbrella company, if it's not
the same company that wrote all the underlying
policies,
typically, if it's, like a different company and
their oops, and they're, like, putting, you know,
they're ensuring over these other policies. They need
(43:55):
to...
Those policies need to meet, like, certain financial
ratings. Yes. They they might not write over.
So somebody else's company.
So there's a whole thing to it. But...
Yeah.
Question. I just totally. I hit the mic
and scream me. No. You're good. The
I'm always just thinking like extreme examples because
those are questions I I... If I'm listening...
That's that's the stuff I'm thinking. What's the...
So, like, a 10000000 dollar umbrella policy, what's
(44:17):
the cost for that?
The
on the commercial side,
I believe for a 10000000 umbrella, the person
was paying, like, 6500 dollars maybe. For 10000000.
Yeah. And it's coming from the business, which
is deductible.
Well, sure. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yep.
So in a high tech bracket, they're paying
about 4 grand, 3500 a year for 10000000
(44:38):
of coverage. Mh. Alright. Those are the people
I want to call Brian after this again.
Yes, please. Oh.
Alright, man, Last question I'll let you go
because we're running up at a time here
and I appreciate your time. The
where do you see insurance
This
it can go anywhere. Where do you see
it headed in the next 5 to 10
years? We got Ai stuff coming out. We've
(45:00):
got
people suing for the maximum dollars, is it
gonna cost all of us
tremendously more money. You can answer that any
way you want to, but there's 3 ideas.
No. Yeah. You you nailed it. Insurance is
moving in in the next probably 5 to
10 years.
Definitely. It's already Ai integrated.
Where I see personal lines insurance, like, your
(45:21):
auto insurance and stuff, that's gonna become more
of a commodity kind of deal.
So there'll be algorithms and models That can
help you price stuff and get coverage is
that are right.
The other thing is with, like, self driving
cars. And vehicles. Yeah. I don't think the
insurance market's caught up to that yet because
who's liable. Right? Okay. I own the car,
but I didn't drive the vehicle. So... Is
(45:44):
XYZ company that made my vehicle crash. Are
they liable. So but there's gonna be some
probably rules and regulations that changed throughout them
all that?
But they're already using Ai models for
like, aerial imaging of people's homes to see
if there's roof damage.
Which is a blessing and a curse because
it if there... It was just a rain
(46:04):
storm, and the Ai model looks at the
roof, obviously, there's some dark spots on there.
They might think that that's, like, an uni
uncontrollable roof when in reality, it was just
some rain.
I think that there's always gonna have to
be some type of human element involved,
because the Ai models, it... Sometimes there's, like,
they can't... If it doesn't fit in a
little box.
(46:24):
You know, like, they can't think outside of
that. Yeah. But it'll it'll go definitely more
Ai integrated. You'll see
you'll probably see, like, the quote your own
insurance type policies
become probably a little bit better. Yeah.
But, you know, I just... I you can't
take the human aspect out of it yet.
Even the people choosing. So if I got
(46:44):
went on, and got my own quote, and
it's an Ai tool, and I entered some
financial figures, and they give me a recommendation,
and I still choose the cheapest policy. Right.
Like, it... There's no recommendation happening. Right. I
mean, it could even pop up folks and
say,
No. We really recommend you get this based
on your financial situation. Yeah. People will still
pick the cheapest 1. For sure. So for
(47:05):
sure.
Yeah. It's it'll it'll be interesting. And like
you said, the nuclear claims are just, you
know, everybody. I think in now is condition
to get the most that they can. Like,
we were talking about it Tv. You know,
right it was 40000. I got 8000000.
So,
yeah. It's an interesting time. It it bra
my brain just thinking about it. Yeah. Well,
you guys are we can become... I think
it become more important because of it. For
(47:27):
need more help. People are gonna wonder what's
going on. We can't go right to Elon
Musk can sue him for self driving accidents
Yeah, maybe we can. I don't know for
anyone out,
Por Elon.
But
so if if folks meet with you to
ask you questions about this stuff or get
a hold of any of the guys at
the agency or any of the folks that
you work with, How do they do that?
To get a hold of us if you
wanted to work with any of us, you
(47:47):
can our mass in office is 315986
04:06 2. You can always email me directly.
It's brian, BRIAN
at jd d chapman inc dot com.
We have a website that has a request
a quote or contact us. It's just jd
d chapman inc dot com.
You can go there. You can always stop
in into either our Massive location on Main
Street,
(48:08):
or our Canada location
anytime and someone can help you out. Awesome.
Listen. Appreciate the time. Our time is up
today. I know you're busy. So we will
talk soon folks make it a great day.
Thanks, Dave. Appreciate it.
Sweet on man. Thanks, man. I could I
appreciate. Thank you for listening to the Dear
Rochester
retire well podcast.
The information represents the views and opinions of
(48:29):
the guest and does not necessarily represent the
views and opinions of 6 point financial partners.
The content has been made available for informational
and educational purposes only.
The content is not intended to be a
substitute for professional investing advice.
Always seek the advice of your financial advisor
(48:50):
or other qualified
financial service provider with any questions you may
have, regarding your investment planning.
Welcome back to Dear Rochester
Retire well. Here's your host, Dave Po,
cf.
Alright, Folks. Welcome back to Deer Rochester Tire
well. We are in a new studio today.
We're renting 1 until we finish our space.
Right? So Are we're here with Brian Chapman
from Chapman Insurance agency. What's the name official
(00:21):
name? Jd d Chapman Agency. Yep Agency. I
knew that. How a hell my guy.
How are you, brian? Good. I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on, man. Yeah. What's
Alright. Let's start right away. How long have
you been doing this? So I've been in
this industry for 4 years. 4 years. Yep.
What is the scariest insurance thing that you
seen? I love it. The scariest insurance thing
that for the person. Yeah. Go. Yeah. That
(00:42):
I've seen
it was the... There was a restaurant that
we had ensured pretty well known restaurant in
kind of the Canada area.
And I remember I wasn't personally involved in
this I do remember this vividly because I
was a kid. So my dad would always
get insurance calls in the middle of the
night. Sometimes when people saying, hey, I got
this thing happen or so on, But
and so he got a call from the
(01:02):
owner of this restaurant, and he said, hey,
the my restaurants completely up in flames. I
mean, I think this is gonna be kind
of a total loss thing. So
I drove in the car with my dad
down there and sat and watched this guy's
whole restaurant, probably his whole life, poured into
this thing, just go up in flames. Did
he call the fire department first or did
do he caught your dad?
(01:23):
We're not firefighters.
So I definitely call the right people for.
But... No. I think, yeah. It's just kind
of the service we offer. Right? They... They're
a good friends. So now he called them
to get my heads up. My dad's like,
hey. Let's go down there and let's you
know, eases woes a little bit and just
kinda be with them during that time. So
yeah. Just total loss of everything. Oh, yeah.
Completely to the ground.
(01:44):
Fryer was left on overnight on accident,
temperature sensor monitored didn't work. Mh 1 small
little thing like that, and your whole, you
know, blood sweat and tears that I went
into that business just up in flames. So
what happens that business owner? Like, they they
they are now out of cash flow?
They make an insurance claim. Like, how does
that actually work? Yeah. So the way that
(02:04):
works with insurances is,
we basically, you know, turning the claim to
the insurance provider.
And we'll take them through the process. So
he'll have... If you own the building, he'll
be able to recuperate the money that he
spent, either to renovate the building or if
they own the building, the building itself.
There's also something in insurance called business interruption
or business income and extra expense. Okay. So
(02:24):
if you purchase that coverage based what it
does is it gives you the ability to
recoup that income that you're losing during the
time that you're down or maybe you need
to spend a little bit of more money
to, go get a shipping container to to
store some things or maybe you need to
go lease a spot so that you can
keep your restaurant open. So business income and
extra expense, those types of things would kinda
kick in. All of the property that he
(02:45):
has in there that he owned.
So the Fryer, tables, chairs, point of sale
systems, you know, all that type of stuff
is covered under insurance.
So... Yeah. I mean, that he had the
right plan in place, so thank goodness. It
worked out well for him. It's nice to
have your dad as a friend, I got
in that case. With the
what what about the employees?
They still get paid.
Stay in trouble. Yeah. That is like, yeah.
(03:06):
That's a different... That's actually a really good
question, Dave. I... To be honest with you
wouldn't know the answer to that. I mean,
if somebody was injured, it's like a worker
comp type I of a claim, but to,
like, recoup your payroll and stuff. I don't
know, man You're asking the good questions. Yeah.
Oh, I'm I'm just thinking my own place
burning and what would I do? So,
I have to pay... Still have to pay
the people. Right? Right. Yep. So you so
you mentioned your dad
(03:27):
call middle of the night when you were
a kid, Did he start your insurance agency?
So no. Actually, my grandfather started in 19
58,
heart of his home on Victor Road. Yeah.
And the story goes that, you know, he
bought a book of business from this guy
Henry Kemp that was in Palm mara. He
ensured a bunch of, like, the farms in
the area.
And he was looking to retire. My grandfather
was marine, then he was a ph ed
(03:50):
teacher, and he came back home to Palm
meyer. I was looking for something, you know,
to do a little train income.
So started this... Bought that book of business
from him started it out of his house.
He would have the farmers come over. The
story goes that my dad would eat the
the snow off of the farmer's boots and
it would make them sick. So they were
like, okay. We are growing we need to
expand into like, a different, you know, area.
(04:10):
So that kinda gives the catalyst.
I do a. Yeah. Exactly. Yep.
And then they they moved in down into
Main street,
mas.
And then my uncle joined in the seventies
my father joined in 19 90, my cousin
in 2001, and then myself 4 years ago.
Wow. Alright. So your third generation. Yeah. My
(04:31):
cousin and I. Yes. Don't screw this up
guys. That's the statistic. Right? Right? That third
generation is the 1 that takes and and
blows. Don't you dare ruin this for your
grandpa, man. I I love it. How's
so you guys... I was gonna ask you
how business is going. But we don't have
to answer that. How's the... Like, what is
your... When you guys are now looking for
clients who... Who's, like, your ideal
Who's the best fit for what you guys
(04:52):
do and tell a little bit more about
that? Yeah. The ideal client for us is
you know, we certainly do both personal and
commercial side of the business. The commercial side
of the business is really what we focus
on. And to be honest with you, somebody
that has a couple years of experience that
maybe hasn't looked at their insurance policies in
a while.
You know, we'd really have a good niche
in restaurants,
(05:13):
automobile services, so repair,
paint shops, those types of things.
And then we do really good with your
mom and Pop, you know, main street type
businesses as well.
So somebody that either has a couple years
of experience a new business owner is always
a good 1 as well,
because we can make sure that they get
set up on the right policy.
But we do have the ability to and
we certainly like to... We handle some school
(05:33):
districts Mh. And some larger, you know, higher
end type clients so to speak.
You know, but we really run the full
gamut, but somebody that is, got some years
of experience under them and actually,
not enjoys talking about insurance, but cares about
the policy that they have because nobody likes
to talk about insurance.
There wouldn't be an ideal client if they
enjoy talking about insurance. Right.
(05:54):
What's
You mentioned that somebody hasn't reviewed it in
a couple. You're like, how often should someone
review their insurance policy?
So we try to have an annual review
with all of our clients. I think you
should review your policy on an annual basis
just because there's a lot of factors that
go into it.
You know, the bigger, more complicated of a
of a business that you have, the more
complicated the insurance becomes, So it's always good
(06:14):
to have that yearly review if not, probably
6 months in.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah or any big changes. Right?
Yeah. Anytime you have big changes, so you
add employees,
you go into a new sector, You add
vehicles,
even on the personal side, if you, like,
redo your kitchen, you install a pool,
any, like, high end type renovations that you
at a pole bar, and those are all
(06:35):
things that you should call your insurance agent
on.
Does anybody do that?
The the ones that know like, hey, like,
I have some risk here. Yeah. They'll call.
But, you know, your life's busy. So I'm
not everyone's like, oh, Gotta I'll call my
insurance agent on this.
So that's where we come in, we try
to be, like, you know, on your yearly
review, what's new? Do you see any insurance
on your payroll that just follow the pool
(06:56):
delivery you guys around.
No. There's an idea. They're you go. Yeah.
We're gonna have a huge business by the
end of this with 74 more employees. Thinking
else review your own insurance policy. There you
go. What's up? When you say school district,
I've done a lot of work at school
tricks with retirement and pension stuff and all
that. What what are you guys actually doing
for a school district? I'm just curious. No.
(07:16):
That's a good question. So the insurance for
school district ranges from everything from just, like
your typical general liability, your property for the
buildings,
you know, a lot of them have, like,
either some type of a board. So there's
directors and officers, types insurance, errors and emissions,
you know, the biggest thing now with schools
is, like, having a sexual,
abuse and mole station type policy, Mh or
(07:37):
something called employment practices liability.
So if somebody feels like they've been unfairly,
maybe passed over for a promotion,
or that they
have some type of Qualms with the school
district,
those are the types of policies that, you
know, we'll have in place for
that type of a risk. Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, school districts in general are typically frugal.
(07:57):
I'm always wondering, like, a how often are
they reviewing? What are they looking for? There's
consortium stuff. Right? The... Yeah. For sure. And
actually, 1 of the more popular things that's
happening now school districts is having the right
cyber policy in place.
So, I'm sure if you follow the news,
all the cyber attacks that have happened to
like, hospitals and stuff like that.
School districts are target for that. Right? A
lot of personal
(08:17):
information in there, on students and so on.
And, you know, it happened to a local
school district here not that long ago, locked
up their whole system, weren't able to go
to school.
So cyber policies for school districts are becoming
real popular.
Wow. What's okay. So
We we could put this honor, we can
edit this out. You're? Yeah. If you could
talk to, like, your ideal client business owner.
(08:39):
Mh. Right now, you go to them and,
like, no, man I'm not interested.
I, I'm good. We're all set.
If you could say anything to those people,
what would you say?
On the 1 thing I would tell somebody
that hasn't
like, my ideal client, the 1 thing that
I would tell them is, how friendly are
you with your insurance agent? Is it somebody
that you can call? Did they review it
(08:59):
with you every year?
Because a lot of the policies are probably
the right policy, but it makes a world
of difference having the right agent, somebody that
you can call somebody that reviews it, somebody
that looking out for you.
I think all too often people write of
an insurance policy and then the agent just
kinda sits back on it. And wait for
it to renew every year without any type
of follow up. And then when there is
(09:20):
an issue, you know, you didn't talk to
your insurance agent in 2, 3 years and
you know, hopefully, everything goes well. But to
have somebody guide you through that process that
you know and trust, that's always my biggest
question is do you know and trust your
insurance agent Yeah. Well, in listen in our
world sometimes that backfire too. Yeah. Have a
buddy that's doing it or an uncle that's
my financial adviser, and it's like, well, they're
not actually doing anything for you because they
(09:42):
probably know you're not gonna leave them? Yeah.
So how how do you get someone to
leave a family member or close friend? That's
a great more. I haven't figured that out
by the way. I have not figured that
out either. And honestly, this whole thing and
probably a lot of, like, what you do.
It's a relationship business. Right? So you're you're
talking to people and people buy from people
that they like to work with. Yeah.
I am not. I won't be over aggressive.
(10:03):
That's just not my style. But tell them,
hey, look, the door is always open
on the off chance that maybe they do
have a claim in their uncle or brother,
whoever does their insurance and doesn't really go
that well. Now you gotta see that person
at a family dinner all the time or
you see them in your circles, and now
it becomes awkward, You know, if you ever
wanted to just remove that, you know, we're
here for you on that end. I know
(10:24):
but listen for us to. It's like, now
if I fire my financial adviser as my
uncle, and then I see him at the
family party.
That might be even more awkward.
Yeah. All you're fired. Yeah. For sure. It's
definitely a conversation. So I'll just... I always
leave the door open look. You know, I'm
here for you. If you ever want a
second set eyes or what I. Those are
tough. Do you guys have a lot of,
like, on the other side of it, new
(10:46):
folks that get into your business,
set up a bunch of policies and then
leave
Yeah. There's so a lot of the, like,
what you would consider a captive agent, so...
And I don't wanna disturb anybody, but, like,
all states and farmers that the big captive.
Yeah. Yeah. The the the the gen geico
guy. Yeah. The those those types of things.
Those those are what I consider, like, churn
(11:08):
and burn type shop, so they'll get a
young producer or somebody in there, and it's
just how many policies can you sell. There's
really not a whole lot of service behind
it.
But, yeah. That happens a lot, or what
you might see in our industry too is
somebody that has worked really hard to build
a book a business, and then it becomes
stagnant. They just sit on it. Collect the
renewal on it. Yeah. And, you know, unfortunately,
the customer might suffer because the customer service
(11:29):
end if it's not there anymore, they're just
kinda collecting on it. Yeah. So I mean,
I think sometimes people because obviously I'm not
in your business.
It... And I'll ask you this. I I
know the answer. Is it more expensive to
have a yearly review with my insurance person?
It cost you 0 to have an insurance
review? A yearly. Yeah. I mean, there's there's
no,
charged to to have any type of review.
(11:50):
It's just a quick phone call or even
an email.
Just to say, hey, look, this is what
I've got going on. That's so easy man.
It's free. That's So he's
just sending... So let me ask this. Is
it on the client to reach out to
you guys? Or do you guys proactively reach
out to them? We tried too as best
we can. Mh. Proactively reach out get. But,
you know, ultimately, yeah. The the owners is
(12:11):
on the insured. Right? The that you're kind
of responsible for your own stuff. Yeah So,
you know, we always tell people or I
try to when I write a policy, hey,
If you do any of these things, make
sure you re, you know, call us so
that we can update your policy.
Yeah. We try to,
and the guys in our office know this
and and the folks that work with us.
Like, we have a communication calendar.
There's all these catalysts events that if something
(12:33):
happened, so we're
consistently trying to be in front of folks,
but what we always say is if we
don't hear from you,
about anything. That's fine. You don't have to
respond 9000 emails a year, our videos or
whatever.
Or we try to get them subscribed to
the podcast or our videos or our Youtube,
whatever it is. And
but if they don't respond to any of
that stuff, they know at least once a
(12:55):
year for some people, twice your for others
in in our world, maybe 3 or 4
times per year for other folks. They will
hear from us proactively. Yeah. So it's a
system that is built and they know that
they're going to hear from us even with
that in financial planning for managing millions of
dollars for folks,
sometimes they still don't respond. Right. So that's
why I'm like, if... Nothing has changed for
(13:15):
an insurance. It must be really hard to
get people to actually pay attention, but
I would think a yearly email. If I
get a yearly email for my insurance person.
And by the way, folks to be clear.
I don't work with Brian. Yeah. We'll talk
about this slater, but, like the
if I got a yearly insurance
email just saying hey heads there been any
up. That'd be extremely helpful. It's just 5
(13:35):
minutes. Right? Like,
we have a program that we use that
sends out emails. And that's 1 of the
things that we implemented when we got that
program was, hey, we need to send out,
like, a yearly just check. What we do
is, like, 30 days before your policy renew?
Hey, homeowners policies come due, auto insurance policies
come due. Have you experienced any of these
life changes?
You know, give us a call. We'll we'll
(13:56):
get everything updated, but you're working with people.
So, you know? Yeah. Well, it... I'll tell
you what man, you know this The the
give us a call. Is a deterrent. So,
yeah. Can I text or email you? Like
this a lot of people just want it
to be even more... Easy... I don't even
wanna talk to anybody anymore. Right?
Yeah. No. That's the kind of the way
things are going and and when we did
that email, we actually got a bunch of
(14:17):
response, people saying, well, I actually, yeah. I
I redid my kitchen or forgot to call
you added my 16 year old son on
as a driver.
So it actually worked out well. But you're
right. I think the day of, like, picking
up the phone and colin.
It seems like it takes so much longer
if you can just rifle text or an
email. It seems to be the best way
to go. Or do that to schedule the
time. Yeah. I'm a big fan of, like,
just shoot me an email schedule a time
(14:38):
to talk rather than out of the blue
phone calls from hundreds of people. Totally. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Because there's a lot that you
an deal with red. I mean, that's that's
can be a whole another podcast. Oh totally
hanging. Yeah. I'm it's 10:20 in the morning
as of this recording. I have I'm sitting
here looking at this, which I shouldn't be,
but, like,
75
messages and 20 minutes, man. Like, the... It
just keeps happening. Totally. But that's okay. And
(15:00):
a lot of missed phone calls.
I'll call back later.
So you you guys are 66
years in
as of now? That's crazy. What's like the
biggest challenge you guys
face as a business right now. Is it
scaling, expanding. You're trying to take it easy.
Who, what's going on? The biggest thing that
we've faced like right now as a business
(15:21):
I would say,
particular to our
agency.
We're gonna have some hiring coming up, and
I know that that's tough sometimes
I find the right people for the seat.
So that's certainly a challenge that that that
we'll have coming up. On the insurance side
of things,
insurance right now is what they consider a
a hard or a tough market.
So we're dealing a lot with carriers,
(15:44):
pulling back on stuff that they used to
write. Premiums going up, res shopping policies.
Underwriting guidelines are getting
exorbitant harder,
stuff that people
stuff that companies used to love to write.
That was their bread and butter. Maybe didn't
perform so well in terms of losses, so
now they're moving on from that.
So it seems like
(16:04):
you know, we don't ever just sell an
insurance policy and move on from it. There's
always some maintenance to it, but but even
more so now. You're kinda re touching clients
a lot more than
you were previously.
Yeah. Interesting. So, like, this is stuff that
we don't think of as consumers is
insurance companies write a... To them, it's a
block of business. Right? And then if it...
If they get a bunch of claims, which
(16:25):
is the reason we bought the insurance,
then they just won't do it anymore. Yeah.
It seems, you know, people are asked me
is insurance a scam, and
I I... No. I mean, it's there. It's
got a purpose and it and it's there
to, you know, for your financial well being
as well.
But it comes down to having an agent
that helps that can help you navigate that.
So, you know, okay. Let's look at this
(16:46):
claim. Is this something that
you know, should be turned in. Yes. It's
a catastrophic claim. 100 percent we're turning this
in. We're helping you out. Or, you know,
hey, had a fend bender in a parking
lot.
Or I need my tote... My car towed.
Okay. Well, you've you've gotten 4 window claims
already and adding another towing clint, maybe we
can figure out a way around that or
maybe we can advise you differently. You can
(17:08):
use the insurance as much as you want,
but to have an adviser to go to
say, hey, I know I've putting in some
claims should I do that or what's my
ramifications that... That's a huge thing. Yeah. It
might be cheaper just to pay for it.
Sometimes even the premium going forward if your
ninth claim on a window break somehow.
Do you nailed the day? What's the record
Right? What's your record on claims or no?
Like the... Like, how many claims I've seen?
(17:31):
The most claims that I think I saw,
I believe somebody had,
and it was a family of 4. There
was about 15 claims in a year,
all little window.
How claim baseball for the cars. I was,
like, Crash Band who was driving the car
and just playing ping pong. I don't really
know. Yeah. Claim everything. Yeah. Should to keep
it off the records, man. Yeah Well, that's
(17:52):
the thing right towing claims, flat tire
toll claim, window chip, you know, window claim.
Yeah. Do you guys get a lot of
call for flat tires?
Yeah.
Believe it or not we do.
I'm always like, you know how to changing
it yourself?
That's kinda where I was headed with it.
I was with a group of guys on
a trip.
It was a work conference about 3 years
(18:12):
ago. And we rented a car at the
airport. We flew there from Rochester was in
it. I,
I think it was in Atlanta.
Wherever we were. We rented a car. And
we were almost... We were going to be
late for this conference to start.
And we got a flat tire on the
way. It was about an hour drive, we're,
like, an hour and 20, so I get
a flat tire. The other 3 guys I'm
with are just... I mean, they're financial advisers
(18:34):
I could pick on them. Losing their mind.
We're gonna be late. We're gonna be late.
Cut 1 1 guy... His answer was called
911.
Another one's like, well, I have triple a,
but I'm not the driver.
I'm like, did it ever cross your mind
to change the tire guys? Like, there's a
tire in the trunk?
For sure. These... Okay. These are
I was the youngest. And I'm I was
(18:55):
what, 42 at the time. These are... They're
not like they're... It's not like 18 year
olds, which which by the way, 18 year
olds if you're listening this shit not to
change the tire. Like these guys had no
clue. Right. I was shocked to fill get
call 911,
call my aaa and call my insurance company.
Yep. I'm, like, or we could just change
the tire and on time.
Like, didn't cross their mind. Yeah. No. Exactly.
(19:18):
That's the way things... That's the way it
is now. I feel like with everything. It's,
you know, what's the easy solution, call call
somebody, call some, you know, call the number.
I mean, it took form... Whatever you guys
get. So we could change subject on idea.
What's
So when you guys... When you're doing... Just
because we're on the car thing.
People think
And I mentioned this too before that like,
(19:38):
okay. We're in New York state we have
to have insurance now. That. I remember when
that changed. I think I was driving It's
like, people actually didn't have to have insurance
before, and then there were some year that
that changed. I don't remember when that was,
but it mandatory car insurance and people were,
like, up in arms about it. But the...
When that changed people just went and bought
something,
and it could be Geico. It could... I'm
going online and doing this myself, What's the
(20:00):
biggest mistake? So I... I go online. I
do it myself?
I'm a do it myself insurance guy? What's
the biggest mistake you see with that? That's
a great question. The the biggest mistake that
I see from folks that go online and
quote their own insurance. Yep. They go in
New York, you have to have a minimal
set amount of liability,
75010
in property damage.
(20:22):
That liability limit is what the minimum that
you need to get your car on the
road. Those limits are so small that if
you have 1 even decent claim and your
eating right through those limits. So the biggest
thing that I see is folks go online.
And the insurance industry has done that. They've
made it kind of a comm thing. It's
about a price. So you go on, and,
(20:44):
you know, they might offer you all these
extras, but you're just on their shopping for
the price. So, you know, I don't want
towing. I don't want this. I don't want
that. I want the lowest limit.
And then, you know, they get that policy.
Something happens, and they come to find out,
I don't have the right coverage in place.
I don't have,
you know, uninsured motor coverage. I don't have
the right liability coverage,
(21:04):
you know, I've done more than 10000 dollars
in property damage. Now I'm paying out of
my it because I went online, clicked a
few buttons got the lowest price, and I
moved on. So that's the biggest thing that
I see right now with people going online
and buying. I have so many questions about
this, mainly.
So with,
first of all, I can completely relate to
that,
(21:24):
there are a lot of folks that will
go, and I'll just use, like, life insurance
as an example. They'll go on online, Oh,
or better you got is my buddy. My
buddy got a quote. Right? My is my
my friend only pays 30 dollars a month
a million dollars of insurance. And it's like
your friend is an ultra marathon runner, who's
31 years old.
You're 73
and you smoke 3 packs a day and
drink 74 beers.
(21:46):
I think the rate's gonna be a little
bit different.
Exactly. We're hundred percent. Yeah. Exactly.
So for you... When you talk about, like,
uninsured motorists,
what it's some... I'm making this up. Some
guy from, Florida drives up here,
runs into my vehicle.
He does not have insurance is what you're
saying.
Yeah. And then
my insurance might cover some of that if
(22:08):
I have on uninsured motor coverage?
Yeah. So I'd have to get into the
particular language of it, but there you
it's called un
uninsured and under uninsured motorists or... Correct. If
you were to get into an accident where,
let's say I rear end you, I'm flying.
I
Put my front of my car into the
back of your trunk. I have 0 insurance.
(22:29):
You you can't recoup anything for me because
I'm uninsured. Yeah. You know, your insurance company
does have some coverage there for you to
help, you know, obviously get the car repaired.
Yeah. You know, if you're unable to sub
back or sue against the other person because
they don't have an insurance policy.
So those are things that are on a
policy that people might not know about. What
what if you're really wealthy and you do
(22:49):
that to me. I'm can come up few
personal. With my insurance company go after you
personally?
So, yeah, That's where an umbrella policy will
come. That's I out of with the whole.
Yeah. No. I read mine, man. Yeah
so... Yeah, I'll I'll give you a prime
example. Actually, I just got off the phone
with my wife, and her
uncle is
(23:10):
orthopedic surgeon I believe, Mh. And he is
an, Avid Biker, High net worth individual. Yep.
1 day away from retiring. He's riding his
bike
a lady in a van with children probably
distracted, pulls out in front of him. He
crushed the
car with his bike.
Now has is just bicycle or a motorcycle.
(23:31):
Bicycle. Okay. Like, without a. Yep. Pedal bike.
Yep. And he has fractured every single 1
of his ribs collapsed along, broke a collar
bone,
injured a hand in this gentleman is an
orthopedic surgeon, so he needs to be... Yeah.
You know, He's a high net worth individual.
Yeah. That that claim will probably be fairly
large, especially for the bodily injury piece, and
(23:52):
he's in the hospital. If this lady doesn't
have the right insurance in place or if
she doesn't have an umbrella to tap into
that extra amount.
You... You're you're coming after assets.
They say you can doc pay and things
like that, but they're gonna probably do some
type of an asset test if it becomes
such a large claim to see where they
can recuperate, recuperate.
It's cheese. So what... Okay. So I'm gonna
(24:12):
go way back when you said 85000.
Mh.
I know what those are, but
so
That happens.
This lady is 25 50 and 10. Yep.
How much money can that guy get from
her insurance company?
Those are the limits. So that... That's that's
all
that's all that could tap to get 85000
(24:33):
dollars from the insurance company.
And let's say it's 2000000
for him to get fixed and better and
lost and all all the stuff.
So the 2000000
I mean, will they literally, like, go after
equity in her home?
Well it... It would
It's gets scary. It does it definitely gets
scary. So...
Yeah. I mean, that's definitely a potential, You
(24:53):
know, it'll it'll come down to probably some
type of a legal battle, and they... They'll
probably... Like I said, do some type of
an set test, and you know, if he's
got a good lawyer, which you assume a
doctor probably does.
That they're looking to to recuperate as much
as they can from your home from your
personal asset that's maybe you have a business
that you haven't totally protected.
So, yeah, It can get ugly and it
(25:14):
cannot get ugly quick. Yeah. And we're so
for that guys, almost like the business at
the beginning. What happens in the meantime? So
there... They have to go after this person
to get a bunch of money that may...
She maybe doesn't even have? Mh.
How does his stuff get paid for? Does
his insurance company front the money or does...
He just
have to figure it out. So something on
(25:35):
that would... His personal health insurance would probably
kick in. Yeah, you know, and it covered,
like, his medical bills and things like that.
Since he wasn't in a vehicle.
There's, you know, there's no
insurance on, you know, maybe he's got the
bike share. There's no vehicle other vehicle of
his involved. So, yeah. Basically, I I would
imagine that just as help personal health insurance
(25:55):
would kick in,
you know, and there'd be a record of
all of his medical bills,
that then would get passed on to that
person that hit him or pulled out in
front of them. What if she could never
pay him,
That's a good question. You know, Talking better
Yeah. Yeah. I've thought about that a lot.
You know, it's like, getting blood from a
stone. Yeah.
I I don't know how that works. There
there probably some type of court settlement that
(26:16):
happens.
But, you know, if if you're just kind
of... Scraping to get by, and now you're
involved in a 2000000 dollar
lawsuit,
you know, or it's your pay doctor for
10 years. I don't really know how that
happened. That's crazy. Well, I then,
if... What's her incentive to work.
Right. Right? Like, I... You go down that
rabbit hole pretty decent. For sure. The,
(26:37):
yeah. That's interesting, man. So no fault of
his own runs into a van
could be out of money. Getting blood from
a stone
for just... For her to save what. So
let's say, let's say she was the person
clicking online.
25 50, 10000 dollars for coverage,
for her to get an umbrella policy. And,
again, I know the numbers on this. I
recommend umbrella policies all the time to our
(26:59):
clients. It's a big thing because I've seen
bad things happen, which this isn't my day.
This is about you, so I won't get
into the stories. But, like, for a million
dollar umbrella coverage
for a normal person,
what are those normally cost? Because people hear
that and they're, like,
that that must be, like, 15000
dollars a year. That Yeah. For a million
(27:19):
dollar umbrella. Yeah. Typically, it's around 200 bucks
or so. Per year. Per year. 1 time
1 time, you know, payment of 200 dollars,
and you have a extra million and liability
that that can protect you. And that sits
over, not just your home, but it's your
home, your auto,
you know, on the commercial side, if you've
got a business that sits over all of
your your buildings, your property, you know, like,
(27:41):
literally, an umbrella that sits over everything. Yeah.
Yeah. I I did a video on that.
It actually was smart. It it took off.
That was that was a good 1 people
in the. Thanks, man.
So
my washington. We haven't We know.
Yeah. Yeah. Well the hell? Yeah. We we
we definitely do.
We do.
So the umbrella positive thing like, I had
(28:03):
I've had friends who...
The Amazon driver slipped on their porch.
And they are dealing with, like, this
nagging,
what's gonna happen? Are these people coming after
me? There's also a video tape of it
actually not happening?
Oh, so there's that.
But they they still to deal with it.
(28:24):
So that is something.
Listen if someone's listening to this podcast.
Them or their spouse probably orders. That's the
that's my catch all. 2... A lot from
Amazon. Yeah. Fedex showing up all the time
all of the things. Right?
Umbrella policies
cover
that happening. Right? Or would that be a
homeowner thing. Well, so your umbrella sits over
(28:45):
your homeowners. So, yeah, there would probably be
and every claims is different. Right? You've gotta
kinda pick... You gotta pick through what happened
on the claim. But an incident like that.
So maybe let's say that they your friends
didn't...
You know, they've out a front step that's
got some concrete that's loose this dude slips
or, you know, steps up on the concrete
slips, Let's say, knocks his head or something.
There's a
liability portion of your homeowners policy that that
(29:07):
that would go through first, probably. Okay but,
you know, again, let's let's say Dudes brains
bleeding something happen he's in Icu. Now you're
racking up bills. If you have that umbrella,
then you right tap right into that. As
you know. And that's scary stuff. It's like,
no wonder people are over insured, or think
it's a scam. Well, yeah. And the other,
you know, it's just claims are going more
nuclear is what they're calling them. So in
(29:28):
the nas of
you know,
I don't know if fair settlement is the
right word. But, you know, where it was
like, okay, well, I had x amount of
damage, you know, we're gonna recoup... Recuperate X
amount in in money. I just kinda got
out the window, you know, everybody's so inclined
to call the the personal injury attorney on
Tv to see how much money they can
get. Yeah. And then you wonder your insurance
rates go up. Yeah. Yeah. Hate.
(29:50):
What was it my case was worth 440000,
but they got me 8000000. Correct. Yeah. Which
that's a different. I've I actually had a
podcast on that and how that money actually
never shows up to. I an attorney to
talk about that. Way way back. A couple
years ago.
Which it wasn't an interesting story on how
they actually get they... Most of the time
those folks don't get that money. So you
see they get 8000000 dollars. They usually don't
(30:10):
get it. It goes back to like... It's
trying to get blood from a stone.
So... Okay. That guy who got hit by
the bike if he was to get by
the van. If he got 8000000 dollars in
this person,
is no insurance. There's nowhere to get the
8000000 from. The attorneys can still say, yeah,
We said of 3 8000000, but they didn't
get the money.
Yeah. Okay. I was wondering that. Way more
to it. But, yeah, You see these giant
(30:32):
settlements unless there's something behind it. It doesn't
doesn't happen for those folks.
So I homeowners insurance real quick. When you
said, like, improve the kitchen or,
obviously, a pool is a large improvement or
let's say somebody remodel the inside of their
house.
You you should review with an insurance agent
to... What what do you do there? Like,
(30:54):
that's a good 1 guessing at the value
of replacement to like, My am I as
a homeowner supposed to take pictures of these
things to prove? Like, what what should I
do as a homeowner? That's a great question.
As a homeowner if you were to add
an addition? Upgrade your kitchen, those types of
things. Yeah. Taking a picture is actually not
a bad idea.
Some people will do, like, a yearly walk
through video and of their home just to
(31:16):
kinda document things. Yeah. On the event that
maybe there is some type of full loss.
They've got some
documentation
but, you know, if you upgrade your kitchen,
you know, the value of your home obviously,
is gonna go up. If you add an
an addition onto your house.
You know, your square footage goes up, the
value of your home goes up The the
replacement cost to rebuild it goes up. So
(31:37):
you wanna make sure those things are keeping
up with it.
You know, we we we have had an
incident where there was a, folks redid their
kitchen.
They had a had a loss. They had
a fire
took out, you know, most of their...
Most of their home. Home was or considered
a total loss. They
and there was sq over the value of
the home, ultimately ended up going to court.
(31:59):
But, you know, we were never notified that,
hey. I just put in a 60000 dollar
kitchen.
So... Yeah. You know, unless you have that
on your policy, you're kind of
right. Not aware... Yearly video is a great
idea as part of the process. Yep. So
I wrote that down. We're gonna do yearly
video from now 1. Yeah. Yearly video. Quick
walk through the house, so... Yep. Do that
once a year. I'm making this up on
July first.
(32:20):
Takes
1 and a half minutes. Mean house 17000
square feet that's different. But
business will be different. Right? Should business owners
do the same thing? I mean, yeah. It's
always
here. It's probably good to always have some
type of a record. I know probably it's...
Not, like, feasible to do that all the
time. But, yeah. Anything that you have that
can help build your case. I'll give you
(32:40):
an example I wrote,
a company that's out in Sodas. They've got
these really cool tree houses that they've got
Yep. Rented,
and it's a beautiful piece of property,
and the the gentleman there is extremely handy,
knew how to build this
building at a certain cost. The insurance company
comes in and they say, no way that
thing's worth like, a hundred thousand. Because so
(33:01):
he had documentation on how we built it,
all the materials and stuff that he got.
We went back to the insurance company he
said, hey, really, you can rebuild this for
40 grand. They said, yep. There's your documentation.
They lowered the premium back down and insured
it for the value that both him and
the insurance company agreed on, and they moved
on. But because he had the proof. Well
and and you guys... Yeah.
I'm not picking on Geico, but, like, some
(33:23):
some person at a call center not gonna
handle that for them.
Right. Yeah. And that... Again, that's where it
comes back to having an agent that you
can call and be like, hey, man. This
is what's going on. We do that with
audits. I just worked with a...
Gas station. Mh. So their gas is on
consignment, So it shouldn't be considered their income.
But on the audit, the insurance company looked
like they had made x them amount more
(33:44):
money. So he got hit with a 7000
dollar audit and he's calling me saying, you
know, hey, this isn't right. What's going on
here. So,
me the documentation. Send it back into the
insurance company. I called them yesterday. It's rare
that when you can make, like, a good
call. I call them like hey you're getting
1500 dollars back. Gave He's like, holy.
Thank you. This is great. I appreciate that.
But, you know, maybe again, if you call
(34:05):
a big box. Type store.
You just go through the 1 800 number
and voice mail hell, and then maybe someone
gets back to you. I don't know. Well,
it seems like they're not on your side.
I've dealt with it before I... You're right
know it's like, ad aerial rather than, like,
help me out for sure, man. So you
guys... If if if I were looking for
new insurance as a
Let's do a consumer first and then a
(34:25):
business owner second.
If I'm just a normal person with a
house and some stuff going on. What questions
should I ask my insurance person. That's a
great question. If you have, like, your own
personal insurances with your insurance agent. Some of
the questions that I would ask them are?
Or I'm looking for 1. Or if you're
looking for an insurance agent? Let's yeah. Let's
see. I'm look, I'm looking for some new
(34:46):
insurance. What should I ask you Yeah. Absolutely.
You would wanna know if they're an independent
broker like we are. So if they can
shop the market for you, which is always
an advantage because we're not pigeon hold to
just... Putting it with 1 company, or if
they're a captive, you know, like, a allstate
standard or state farm worth. They only have
1 place that they can go.
Then you might wanna ask,
(35:07):
you know, about
you know, get get their recommendation on, do
a little research ahead of time. And then
get their recommendation on what they would recommend
you have. Yeah. And then you can kinda
make a judgment call and on... This person
is, you know, Savvy and what they're doing.
Maybe,
you know, some things that some people maybe
don't think about is, you know, what's your
support staff like at the office?
(35:28):
You know, when I call, do I call
just Do I call you the agent right
away or is there A18 hundred number? You
know, I think people really like to make
1 phone call. Somebody picks up
and Can answer the question.
So the that might be something that somebody
doesn't always think about, you know, if their
support staff is my policy go handled by
1 person or do I have a general
inbox that I call?
(35:48):
Could... I mean, you could also call, like,
if if I work with an independent person
which I wanna ask you more about because
huge fan, by the way. Yeah. Same thing
in our world. Yeah. The...
I have a... You write me a policy
through name a company that you guys are
using right now for New York Essentials mutual.
Okay. So I... Have a policy. I could
call them directly as well. You can. Yep.
You you you you always were we're... And
(36:09):
we don't charge to be the broker. By
the way, there's no fee to use an
independent broker. Yep.
We have agreements, you know, with our companies
mh payment and so on. But, yeah, you
can always call the insurance company directly.
Miss a bill, you need to make payment.
You can come us. You can call the
insurance company.
You know, again, we pick up the phone
right away. Yeah. Call the company might,
(36:30):
you know, go through. All Yeah. Push 1
for this. Push you for. Yeah. Oh, your
dad's answering the phone in the middle of
the night for a fire. So
brian guarantees folks that answer the phone. Anytime,
anywhere or any place. Yeah. Don't put this
Steve put that 1 out.
Yeah alright. Oh, wait. Do not edit it.
I need a life. I love it. Oh,
anywhere.
This love it. So the the independent part
(36:52):
of it is,
that's a big thing in our world too
because and I don't know if it works
its way for you.
But in our world if someone is captive,
so they work at XYZ
mutual.
And I'm an adviser at XYZ mutual. Many
times, I have to sell a certain amount
of their stuff to a client who's looking
for financial planning.
(37:13):
And
this is where a fiduciary sander comes in.
Right? So, maybe XYZ
is okay for this client.
Like, let's say Brian needs life insurance.
X y is okay, but I get stock
options and bonuses and trips and I get
recognized, and I might even get a higher
payout out on the rest of my business
because I wrote XYZ,
(37:35):
life insurance, but it's okay for you. It's
not the best.
Abc b is way better for you.
But I don't get any of that recognition,
and I don't win stock options and bonuses
and trips, and there's no higher payout on
that business.
Clients do not know that. No. So
when you talk about independent, Don't know if
it's the same in your world. That's what
(37:55):
we talk about. Like, when you... In
first thing, are they an independent fiduciary adviser.
If they are, they can give you Abc
b or XYZ in most cases
at no extra cost,
and they have to act in your best
interest. Yeah. Rather than trying to win themselves
a trip because
we wanna be cool, 25 year old salespeople.
(38:16):
Right?
Is that the same, like, with you guys
when you're... When you say independent, that means
you can use
all of different companies?
So I know for us, then I want
you to answer. Like, if you wanna... I
I just keep using life insurance because we're
talking about insurance.
You want life insurance, we send it out.
I don't know, a couple hundred companies look
get back to us, and we could pick
the ones with the best rating.
(38:37):
The cost has to be competitive.
Which, by the way, and III don't know
if we... Even have time to get into
this. Like,
people go by the cost.
First, and it It's like, listen. If this
one's 38 dollars and this one's 40, but
the 40 is an a rated company and
you could convert your policy at any anytime
and there's other features and benefits, and they're
actually gonna be in business, and they're not...
They're gonna sell your insurance 27 times.
(39:00):
I'll pay the 2 bucks a month. Right.
Yeah.
But the independent world is allowed to quote
that out amongst. Everybody, get the information back
and then give it to the client at
no extra cost. So in that case that
I just gave the 38 or 40 dollars
if the client went directly themselves it's still
gonna be 38 or 40 bucks.
It's just they have us to help them.
It's probably the same for you guys. Right?
(39:21):
You nailed it. I mean, our armada I
know exactly the same.
No, man. You nailed that that's exactly right.
And we're... It's the same type of independent
model. We're not tied to just writing 1
policy with 1,
you know, with 1 care year. So, yeah,
we have options to go and shop it
out for you.
We do get incentives and things from different
companies, but, you know, we never... It very
(39:44):
rarely steer us in the right... In the
wrong direction, you know, it terms of, like,
well, I'm gonna put you here because it's
more expensive because I get some type of
perk. We always try to do what's best
for you as the client. Sometimes I'll give
you some options. Right? So, like, here's your
here's your policy if your budget conscious or,
you know, here's a policy that we would
recommend that gives you the coverage that you
need and then help make some decisions from
there. It's all education. I'm sure you do
the same thing. Yeah. You're doing now. Like,
(40:06):
all the videos we produced, a lot of
it is education. Because as you were saying
the consumer has no idea kinda what an
independent agent is. A lot of times they
come to me and they're like, I'm not
working with you. You're gonna charge me a
hundred dollar fee. That's not not true. You
know, it's not like it's...
We're getting, like, landscaping quotes right now. And
it's like, alright. This one's 7500
and this one's...
(40:26):
3000. Mh. It's not like getting landscape. It's
too totally different. It's different
things going on. It's there there are pros
and cons
each of those, and it's it's very hard
to describe to people. But so if you
can talk to the person that logged online,
and they say, hey, it's 80 dollars a
month through them,
And it's a hundred and 10 through you
(40:47):
guys? Why would I ever go with you
guys?
Like, I have a I have a totally
loaded answer for you guys on this? But,
like, what would you say to those people?
1...
If somebody were to go online and get
a cheaper quote and then I'm giving them
something that's a little bit more expensive.
I would say, can you call that person?
Can can you call the Ge Lizard and
ask them questions.
(41:07):
You know, did did they... Who who review
that coverage with you? Do you do you
have an understanding of what you're being covered
on? Yep. You know, I'll give them some
real world scenarios, You know, hey, what if
this were to happen, where would that money
come from?
You know, Just kind of start asking some
prodding or leading questions.
Right. And then, hopefully, they kind of come
to the realization. Like, okay. This is more
(41:28):
money, but it's got
a person attached to it that I can
call, and it's got the right coverage for
me. I I think the right coverage was
the key. Yeah. The right the person call
is a bonus, but the right coverage. If
you have do we say 25 50 and
10,
and you need... I don't even know what
the numbers would be man? Let's just 10
x that? 2 5500
and a hundred. Yep.
(41:48):
People don't even know that that is... That's
why it's more expensive. Yep. So it's not
the same thing. It's not apples to apples.
So
when folks are doing their insurances, they need
to note, like, pure apples to apples. They're
all gonna be about the same. Mh.
And you can have an agent Right. But
the Agent typically is trying to act in
your best interest and do the right thing.
Therefore, it's more expensive.
(42:10):
Yeah. Because you're picking the minimum when you're
doing it yourself or somebody this meeting with
somebody that might be new or they don't
know what they're doing at or they're just
trying to make a sale
where you guys are gonna walk them through
and do the right thing. Which by default,
will probably be more expensive. For sure. Absolutely.
And I think like you people take a
look at it it's like, I'm going from
25000 to 250000
(42:30):
that's gonna cost me thousands of dollars in
a reality, it doesn't. I mean, the the
the the the jump is so minimal that
you know, if you break it down it
makes all the sense in the world it
could be a coffee a day that you
don't buy or something that that that Yeah.
And you have x amount more coverage.
You need the million dollar umbrella? Yeah. Right.
An example, most... Who who could not benefit
for I mean, there's obviously people that would
(42:50):
benefit from that. But, like for 200 bucks
a year, go get a million bucks of
coverage. That's crazy not to. For sure. Yeah.
Just the stuff that I've seen. And I...
I'm not, like, trying to be the cheesy
insurance guy. I don't even do that stuff,
but, like,
folks real listening this you don't have an
umbrella policy. Please go by 1. Yeah.
There's our commercial Brian. Call Call him.
You probably wanna do all of those. Right?
(43:12):
Because you get 900 calls on a 200
dollar umbrella policies,
but it's... It is true. It's a it
it won't hurt.
Correct. What's what's the largest umbrella policy that
you've seen? The largest umbrella policy that I've
seen? Yeah. On the commercial side was at
10000000 umbrella. 10000000? Yeah.
Are there there has to be ones that
are huge. Right and then they probably get
(43:34):
multiple companies involved Right? Yeah. It becomes tricky
because...
And I'm sure there's much larger umbrellas there
the. The, you know, we're not in that
space. Yeah. But
you know, the umbrella company, if it's not
the same company that wrote all the underlying
policies,
typically, if it's, like a different company and
their oops, and they're, like, putting, you know,
they're ensuring over these other policies. They need
(43:55):
to...
Those policies need to meet, like, certain financial
ratings. Yes. They they might not write over.
So somebody else's company.
So there's a whole thing to it. But...
Yeah.
Question. I just totally. I hit the mic
and scream me. No. You're good. The
I'm always just thinking like extreme examples because
those are questions I I... If I'm listening...
That's that's the stuff I'm thinking. What's the...
So, like, a 10000000 dollar umbrella policy, what's
(44:17):
the cost for that?
The
on the commercial side,
I believe for a 10000000 umbrella, the person
was paying, like, 6500 dollars maybe. For 10000000.
Yeah. And it's coming from the business, which
is deductible.
Well, sure. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yep.
So in a high tech bracket, they're paying
about 4 grand, 3500 a year for 10000000
(44:38):
of coverage. Mh. Alright. Those are the people
I want to call Brian after this again.
Yes, please. Oh.
Alright, man, Last question I'll let you go
because we're running up at a time here
and I appreciate your time. The
where do you see insurance
This
it can go anywhere. Where do you see
it headed in the next 5 to 10
years? We got Ai stuff coming out. We've
(45:00):
got
people suing for the maximum dollars, is it
gonna cost all of us
tremendously more money. You can answer that any
way you want to, but there's 3 ideas.
No. Yeah. You you nailed it. Insurance is
moving in in the next probably 5 to
10 years.
Definitely. It's already Ai integrated.
Where I see personal lines insurance, like, your
(45:21):
auto insurance and stuff, that's gonna become more
of a commodity kind of deal.
So there'll be algorithms and models That can
help you price stuff and get coverage is
that are right.
The other thing is with, like, self driving
cars. And vehicles. Yeah. I don't think the
insurance market's caught up to that yet because
who's liable. Right? Okay. I own the car,
but I didn't drive the vehicle. So... Is
(45:44):
XYZ company that made my vehicle crash. Are
they liable. So but there's gonna be some
probably rules and regulations that changed throughout them
all that?
But they're already using Ai models for
like, aerial imaging of people's homes to see
if there's roof damage.
Which is a blessing and a curse because
it if there... It was just a rain
(46:04):
storm, and the Ai model looks at the
roof, obviously, there's some dark spots on there.
They might think that that's, like, an uni
uncontrollable roof when in reality, it was just
some rain.
I think that there's always gonna have to
be some type of human element involved,
because the Ai models, it... Sometimes there's, like,
they can't... If it doesn't fit in a
little box.
(46:24):
You know, like, they can't think outside of
that. Yeah. But it'll it'll go definitely more
Ai integrated. You'll see
you'll probably see, like, the quote your own
insurance type policies
become probably a little bit better. Yeah.
But, you know, I just... I you can't
take the human aspect out of it yet.
Even the people choosing. So if I got
(46:44):
went on, and got my own quote, and
it's an Ai tool, and I entered some
financial figures, and they give me a recommendation,
and I still choose the cheapest policy. Right.
Like, it... There's no recommendation happening. Right. I
mean, it could even pop up folks and
say,
No. We really recommend you get this based
on your financial situation. Yeah. People will still
pick the cheapest 1. For sure. So for
(47:05):
sure.
Yeah. It's it'll it'll be interesting. And like
you said, the nuclear claims are just, you
know, everybody. I think in now is condition
to get the most that they can. Like,
we were talking about it Tv. You know,
right it was 40000. I got 8000000.
So,
yeah. It's an interesting time. It it bra
my brain just thinking about it. Yeah. Well,
you guys are we can become... I think
it become more important because of it. For
(47:27):
need more help. People are gonna wonder what's
going on. We can't go right to Elon
Musk can sue him for self driving accidents
Yeah, maybe we can. I don't know for
anyone out,
Por Elon.
But
so if if folks meet with you to
ask you questions about this stuff or get
a hold of any of the guys at
the agency or any of the folks that
you work with, How do they do that?
To get a hold of us if you
wanted to work with any of us, you
(47:47):
can our mass in office is 315986
04:06 2. You can always email me directly.
It's brian, BRIAN
at jd d chapman inc dot com.
We have a website that has a request
a quote or contact us. It's just jd
d chapman inc dot com.
You can go there. You can always stop
in into either our Massive location on Main
Street,
(48:08):
or our Canada location
anytime and someone can help you out. Awesome.
Listen. Appreciate the time. Our time is up
today. I know you're busy. So we will
talk soon folks make it a great day.
Thanks, Dave. Appreciate it.
Sweet on man. Thanks, man. I could I
appreciate. Thank you for listening to the Dear
Rochester
retire well podcast.
The information represents the views and opinions of
(48:29):
the guest and does not necessarily represent the
views and opinions of 6 point financial partners.
The content has been made available for informational
and educational purposes only.
The content is not intended to be a
substitute for professional investing advice.
Always seek the advice of your financial advisor
(48:50):
or other qualified
financial service provider with any questions you may
have, regarding your investment planning.
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