The Troubleshooter 4-30-25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, ripped up.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
News need advice, so.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
You don't have.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Come running.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Just as fast as we can, the Shooter's gonna help coming. Man.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
This is the Troubleshooter Show, now Tom Martino.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Not Tom Martino, but this is John Fuller filling in
for Tom Martino and the Troubleshooter Network. Today is Wednesday,
April thirtieth, and we have an exciting three days to
look forward to. We're gonna cover a lot of ground.
Update on Tomm. He's doing great. He texted me this morning.
He's doing better than even yesterday, and so we're all

(00:47):
excited to hear that and look forward to his speedy return.
My name is John Fuller. Many of you know me.
I'm a personal injury attorney here in the Denver area
and have been for oh, I don't know, twenty three,
almost twenty four years now, and I am a plaintiff's attorney.
I only represent people that are victims of car crashes

(01:07):
in their claims against the ad fault drivers and their
insurance companies. And so we you know, you guys frequently
hear from me, and it's all one sided and from
the perspective of the guy that's going after the insurance companies.
We have a really special guest today that's going to
add a somewhat different perspective to it. Dan Mahony is

(01:29):
with us. Say hello, Dan. Dan is with the Insurance
Group of Denver. Dan is an independent insurance agency, right,
and so as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong.
What that means is he's not beholden to any particular
insurance company, and that affords you the opportunity to really

(01:51):
try to come up with products that best suit the
customers needs and kind of act more independently and less
you know, one size fits all that you might get
at a branded insurance agency or something along the way.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
Absolutely, you know branded agency is the agents there actually
work for that carrier. When you call a direct carrier,
the person you're talking to on the phone works for
that direct carrier. As an insurance broker, we actually work
for you. We represent you, and we look through the
market to find items for you or products for you
that work best.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
So we are going to talk about all sorts of
stuff today about you know, the different options you have
for insurance, how that insurance comes into play in the
event that something bad happens to you, Whether you're a
victim or even whether you happen to make a mistake
and cause an accident, and that unfortunately happens to listeners

(02:45):
as well. And I get those calls all the time,
and it's sometimes a pretty difficult call because people are
shocked to hear what their insurance companies actually will and
won't do for them when that you know, when that
event happen. And so we encourage your calls here on
the Troubleshooter Network. We solve problems, answer questions, take complaints.

(03:06):
We are here to help you and work through all
of your issues. We have a couple of deputies in
with us today, Deputy Doc longtime OBG y N doc
in Denver and a valuable member of the team. And
we have our ever popular Dmitri who is just a
master of all things and here to chime in as well.

(03:27):
So call us up. We're here to help. We look
forward to your calls no matter the issue. If you've
been ripped off, taking advantage of anything along those lines,
we are here to help and we are looking for
your calls, so we will get started in that. How
let's check in with our deputies here. How's things going there? Dmitri.

Speaker 6 (03:49):
Good John, you know, I'm glad you brought up how
things are going, because we do have an interesting case
that came up a couple of days ago, and I've
been thinking about it and i'd like to get your
input on this, because even though you're not a contract's
attorney per se, I think most of your job is
dealing with contracts and contractual.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Relationships to an extent.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
So a few days ago, lady by the name of
Haley called this. She and her roommate rented a downtown
apartment at an eyewatering price of three thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (04:18):
Everything went well until she and the roommate had some
kind of a falling out. And I guess it was
a serious enough falling out that the roommate had either
applied for a protection order or got one. It wasn't
very clear from the phone call. But that's not the
actually important part. Okay, The important part is this, This
now estranged roommate went to the apartment manager's office and

(04:40):
presented them with this problem that she's personally having with Haley,
and the apartment manager let her out.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Of her lease.

Speaker 6 (04:48):
Oh and unfortunately for Haley, that resulted in Haley being
stuck with the entire three thousand dollars a month rent
plus utilities, which she can't afford. Now, with the mistake
I think that we possibly made during the show a
few days ago, is we evaluated this matter from the
perspective of the lease. What does the lease say? And

(05:10):
sure says that she's jointly and severally responsible. But I've
been thinking. Brad O'Brien confirmed that, of course, right, that's
an easy one. But I've been thinking about this for
the past few days, and I think that we may
we should have and tell me if I'm right or
wrong here, if this is the right approach, I think
we should have evaluated this matter from the perspective of

(05:31):
simply a contractual relationship, which is this, there are three princes.
There are three principles, right, the landlord and each of
the two tenants. Now, each of the two tenants entered
into a contractual relationship between all three of them with
the understanding that each of the two tenants will sign
and perform their obligations under their lease. And everything went

(05:54):
well until Tenant one and a landlord got together without
ten two's knowledge or permission, and decided that Tenant one
is no longer obligated to perform her obligations under this
lease that was done. The effect of that was to
the financial detriment a tenant number two. So if we

(06:18):
look at it from that perspective, is it then fair
and equitable to hold tenant two responsible for both of
these obligations even though the only reason she entered into
this contractual relationship not the lease, but the contractual unwritten
relationship between the three parties, with the understanding that tenant

(06:39):
number one will be equally responsible.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
How in the world did the tenant convince the landlord
to let her off the lease? How did that happen?

Speaker 6 (06:49):
Well, so what we infer from what Haley said is
tenant one went to the landlord and said, hey, this
is now becoming a physically dangerous and vironment. I mean,
I infer that because Hailey said that there was mention
of a protective protection order. So so so the landlord

(07:10):
I assume, Now there are a lot of assumptions in
this assume. Well, you know, we're not we're gonna let
her out because she claims to be in danger and
she gets murdered, we don't want to be responsible for that,
right but I think how she convinced the landlord is
to me irrelevant.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
It's it's just a yeah, it's a tough situation. Let's uh,
let's kind of dive into that as soon as we
get back from the first break. To the callers out there,
the number to reach us today is seven one three
eight two five five three oh three seven one three
eight two five five Help at Troubleshooter dot com. Give
us a call. We're here to help you, and we'll

(07:47):
be right back in just a moment.

Speaker 7 (07:53):
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Speaker 7 (08:03):
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
customer when you choose Frank durand the Real estate Man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Hello John Fuller, coming back at you on the Troubleshooter Show.
Here rapidly filling up the phone lines. We're going to
go right to the lines. We will get back to
Dimitri's issue. That is an interesting deal that's going to
take a little while to discuss, So don't think that
we're not dealing with that. But we have a whole
list of callers here and we're going to get started
right away. Lissa, you have an issue with your lease

(08:52):
or your apartment. What's going on?

Speaker 8 (08:55):
So I had to sign the lease on Monday. Sorry, daughter,
But and after I signed the lease, we had went
in to move our stuff and there was a cockroach
on the wall.

Speaker 9 (09:07):
Mind you, these.

Speaker 8 (09:08):
Aren't newly or what they say are newly renovated apartments.
So I was really shocked when I seen one, and
so I had called the office was closed.

Speaker 10 (09:18):
The next day.

Speaker 8 (09:18):
I had called and informed them I wanted to break
my lease. They said that they would have to get
in contact with corporate because I told them I wanted
all my money back, because I mean, I have a kid,
like you know, I can't live with a roach infestation.
I talked to the tenants nearby, and not a lot
of them spoke English, so it's kind of hard to, like,
you know, understand how bad the situation really was. Well,

(09:41):
I guess it's so bad that they spray these apartments
like fights every two weeks.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
That means that.

Speaker 8 (09:47):
There's like a major roach infestation twice every two weeks,
is like really concerning.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I can appreciate that. Have you seen evidence of
this infestation or just one cockroach?

Speaker 11 (10:00):
Well I had seen too.

Speaker 8 (10:02):
I had seen the first one on the wall, and
then the second one in the bathroom, and then when
we further like looked at the baseboards and stuff, there
was a bunch of dead ones, and so I was like, okay,
well say like bomb. Then frequently I was like, maybe
there's just not that much. I mean it was the
middle of the day. Roaches are like nocturnal, you know,
so they should have never even been out anyway. But

(10:25):
when speaking with other tenants, they said, like, it's such
a bad issue that there's roaches in our TV and
their microwaves.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (10:33):
Yeah, I used to live in New York, like in
New York City, and cockroaches are a scourge. So if
Lisa saw two cockroaches, that means there are two thousand
more they will come out at night. But I think
an even bigger issue than the disgusting revolting cockroaches. Is
the fact that they spray these chemicals to right, and
she has a little daughter, and god forbid, she has

(10:55):
a cat or a dog or something. All of these
creatures are gonna get poisoned or the cockroaches get poisoned.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Face on your experience, what should she do? Oh, I
would definitely find a different place. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (11:07):
Now, I do recognize that I may be unusually sensitive
to cockroaches because of my early experience with him. But
this is a serious issue. I heard her daughter in
the background. She's a tiny little baby. So, John, does
she have a leg to stand them? Does she have
a technically valid reason to be afraid for her health
and the health of her not just being disgusted?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, I think if the apartment poses a health and
safety risk to the daughter, she's got a pretty good grounds,
you know, to attempt to break the lease. Now, you know, listen,
everything in real estate, everything hey By sell contracts, lease contracts,
everything else. It's a contract and your rights are spelled

(11:48):
out in the contract. And so what happens when you
decide to break that lease is either laid out in
the contract or it's not. Now, I think you've got
a valid reason to want to live there, and that
reason may be good enough to carry the day. I mean,
I think you can say to the landlord and to

(12:09):
the management company that you know that the next call
is to the health department and you've got these valley
concerns and stuff, and they may just not want you
in their apartment well enough to get you out of
there and to let you back out of the lease,
especially since you've never really moved into the place. I mean,
come on, it's not like there's any real damage. There's

(12:29):
no move out cleaning fee or any of that crap.
It's just no harm, no foul. Let's move on. But
if push comes to shove and they want to enforce it,
they're going to claim that you breach the contract, and
they can take you to court and a judge can
decide whether or not you've breached it. But I would
warn you that as a person that is you know,

(12:50):
is renting apartments, you know, you don't want to really
have on your record that you've violated a lease and
you've breached it or you've not paid your your obligations
on time, because that's going to cause problems for the
next you know, place that you go to and everything else.
But but I would start by having a conversation with
their corporate office and saying, look, you guys have a

(13:12):
major health problem here and and and bringing that to
their you know, to their attention and and if you've
got a child, particularly one with any with any health issues,
you know, I just don't see them really pushing to
enforce that too much, do you.

Speaker 6 (13:28):
Well, Jean, I haven't. I think you're absolutely right, But
I think that a lot of these problems are resolved
before they even get to court or a default situation.
So what do you think of this?

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Elisa and John?

Speaker 6 (13:41):
Why don't you tell the Why don't you follow up
this conversation with your property manager who hasn't gotten back
to you with the answer yet? With this You discussed
this with a Tom Martino troubleshooter on the radio without
mentioning the apartment complex's name or the name of the
property management company. But we, myself especially, are extremely interested
in seeing how this issue gets resolved, and we asked

(14:04):
you to call and email us with what the property
manager offers as a resolution to your problem, and then
we can update the story on the air without their
name being mentioned.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
On the air.

Speaker 6 (14:18):
It's going to be up to them, and you can
feel free to give them my personal cell phone number, Lisa,
which Kelly here. When we're done with your phone call
on the air, Kelly will give you my personal cell
phone number. And please let me know what the apartment
manager said about you being able to get out of
this lease without incurring any financial burden.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
I mean, there's a reason, Lissa, while we didn't ask
what the apartment complex is at this stage, because you know,
that's kind of the nuclear button when you go and
put it out on the radio that you've got this
massive roach infestation and everything else. So we're trying to
give you as many tools in your toolbag to use.
And what Dimitria is suggesting is that you let them

(14:58):
know that this could go another way without without threatening.
Don't be rude, you know, be nice, because.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
Were extremely interested in prayer and on the air up
there is very interesting, you know, jumping at the bit,
like really really interesting looking.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Forward to it. So does that make sense to you listen?

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Yeah, Yeah, they said that they.

Speaker 8 (15:19):
Would give me a call back today early morning, mid
afternoon to let me know what corporate had said. I'm
assuming they're kind of realizing that if I decide to
take them to court, they probably wouldn't win. I think
the reason why so many of the people that live there,
you know, happen to live there because they can'tward anything

(15:39):
else and they don't understand that this is like borderline illegal,
if not illegal to you praying it so many times.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
So are you in the unit right now?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
No?

Speaker 8 (15:48):
No, we completely After that, After in that road we left,
I was like, I'm not even gonna try to do this.
I don't even want to do this. So we just
went and stayed with my daughter's grandparents for a little bit,
and can you find something different?

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, I think that's important too, to not not actually
take possession of the of the property. But I was
going to say, if you did take possession, you need
to be taking lots of photographs of these of these roaches.
But it's better that you didn't move in at all.
So keep us in the loop, would you please, and
we'll look forward to hearing back and trying to get
you some help on this. Okay, thanks listen for the call.

(16:25):
We're gonna we're gonna move along here. We've got Eric
on the line. Eric is looking for help with a timeshare.
What's going on, Eric, Well.

Speaker 9 (16:35):
Basically, I'm calling and get out for my daughter. She
got roped into the the Vegas Hilton timeshare deal and
as far as I can tell, she didn't really understand
what was going on, and she felt like she was
pressured and manipulated, and she thought what she was actually

(16:58):
getting was ADIT card and either a free or discounted vacation.
How old is you er, Well, this was she was
twenty one at the time. She just turned twenty one
that weekend, and we took her to Vegas, you know,
to celebrate her birthday.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
And okay, so you are.

Speaker 9 (17:19):
Walked into one of the casinos and you know, they
had a kiosk there with a couple of people and
they kind of, you know, coerce her and.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Her So she thought she signed up for a credit card,
and she walked out with a timeshare.

Speaker 9 (17:31):
Yeah, in a three thousand dollars bill. All right on
that credit said credit cards?

Speaker 6 (17:36):
Eric, do you have a copy of everything she signed?

Speaker 9 (17:40):
Yes? I do.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
Can you email it to us please?

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah? Eric, I'm gonna put you back on hold. Kelly's
going to give you the email address. I'd love to
see all that paperwork. If you could get that to us,
that would be great. We're going to go to a
quick break, but do get that stuff to us and
then we'll have a lot better chance of trying to
figure out how to how to navigate through this deal.

Speaker 12 (17:57):
Okay, Eric, thanks, go with a sure thing Denver's best
rufer excelroofing dot com.

Speaker 1 (18:08):

Speaker 7 (18:13):
Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three O three seven to
seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
All right, welcome back John Fuller here with the Troubleshooter Network.
We are rock and rolland one of the coolest things
about this show is that we have such an amazing
audience out there that sometimes we get calls from people
that are experts that chime in and help educate us
about what's going on. And so we're going to go
right to Scott. Scott, I understand you are an entomologist

(19:00):
for the benefit of our listeners. What is that?

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Okay? So I have degrees in entomology, which is the
study of insects, and specifically I'm an urban entomologist because
my work is around cockroaches and ants and termites and
things like that. So how can you I am a
real bug.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Guy, real live bug guy. So what do you have
to offer with Lissa's issue with these roaches in this
apartment with their young child?

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Okay? Well, the first thing is that they really don't
need to be spraying all those chemicals. There are a few,
I guess I call them stone age companies that still
do things the old fashioned way. But we've got a
lot of phenomenal baits, which are basically, it's a food

(19:52):
with a relatively non toxic poison in it, so that
the cockroaches are acted to it, they eat it, and
they die, so you can get rid of them completely
without any spraying at all.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
But Scott, isn't the issue that thing? I mean, it
seems to me that it's more challenging in a big
multifamily building where you have so many units. I mean,
how can you ever really get you know, full saturation
of a baiting program and just completely annihilate a population
of roaches.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Okay, well, well, first of all, if it is actually
an apartment complex and not a condominium complex with individual owners, right,
it's real easy. It's just an accessibility thing. So if
I can get in there and treat that, you don't
have to there's no prep involved, so the tenants don't
have to complain that, you know, they didn't have time

(20:46):
to empty their cabinets and do all these other things.
You can treat it. Well, they're actually there, and so
it's very easy. It's just a matter of coordinating that
with the management company and having access so we can
go to every single unit.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah. So how would you compare the cost of doing
it correctly with the cost of hiring these these hacked
companies or stone age companies that you're talking about that
keep spraying and not really making any dent in the problem.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
Okay, Well, spraying is dirt cheap. The actual cost of
a tank of insecticide is very very cheap, and dates
are very expensive. So upfront there's a huge difference.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Hey, Scott, how.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Much you're looking at an annual and what's that.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Oh, how long would it take.

Speaker 13 (21:38):
Let's say you had access to every apartment in the
multifamily building, how long would it take to have basically
ninety five eradication.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Less than three months? Most of them will be dead
within about two weeks. But of course you're going to
have eggs hatching in a few thing. Sometimes there's deep pockets,
you know, there's there's a lot of variability, you know, insanitation.
But but quite honestly, if you're thorough and debates work

(22:12):
really well. And we combine that too, it's an insect
growth regulator which sterilizes them. So that's kind of a
double whammy.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
So let's say you run up against a landlord that's
just you know, cost adverse. They're not gonna they're not
going to pay to do it correctly, and they keep
paying for the really cheap way that doesn't seem to
do anything, because it at least that lets them claim
that they're trying to address the issue and that they're
being very proactive. What would you then say to Lyssa

(22:41):
about the potential health hazards of her moving in with
a young child with that sort of a spraying regiment
going on so so frequently.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Okay, Well that the first issue is really, uh, the
the health aspects of the cockroaches themselves. And it's well
documented that cockroach feces and cast skins, you know, because
they mold, so that you've got all the shed skins
of the bugs, of all those things induced to asthma

(23:12):
and children, and it's it's very documented. So it's it's
something that's that's real serious that there's a lot of them,
because we see that in inner city areas where there
are a lot of cockroach problems. In low income housing,
kids have a lot of uh, well, there's a high
incidence of asthma. So that's that's one issue then. And

(23:34):
then of course too from a chemical standpoint, depending on
what the guys are spraying, it may or may not
be a health concern for the for the tenants as well,
and that one's hard to know because I have no
idea what they're actually spraying.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
In there, right, Right, that's good information.

Speaker 13 (23:53):
Are you an academic or do you have a company.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, I actually have a pest control company. I'm swamped though,
so I don't even want to see the name of
my company out here. I don't need the extra business.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Right right, well, but that's that's great information. Let me
ask you one other things in your you know experience,
if you you know, if if from an environmental standpoint,
a kid is induced you know too, or introduced to
these sheds and casts and poop and everything else and
and and you know, gets asthma, that's that's something that

(24:29):
follows with them the rest of their life, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (24:33):
That is correct?

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Okay, So, I mean it seems to me that there
ought to be the information out there too to help
lessa if this company wants to really fight this battle,
to say that maybe this is just not the right
apartment and not the least that they want to actually,
you know, try to enforce and stuff. Scott, have you
ever act as an expert and in these kind of matters.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
I have been a.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
Long time, but but I mean, it's it's definitely a
habitability issue, and we do have habitability laws, especially in
the city of Denver. I'm not sure what city she's in.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, well cool, Well listen, Scott, thank you so much
for calling in. That's been great information. We appreciate it.
Thanks for listening, and uh we'll look forward to, uh
hopefully getting the Lissa out of this apartment and moving on.
So thanks again. So we are nearing another break here.
We do have a couple of lines open. The number
is seven one three eight two five five. That's three

(25:29):
oh three seven one three eight two five five. We
are going to, I promise visit with Dan about his
company and kind of explore some of the differences between
the buyer's perspective insurance and the user's perspective after an
event has happened that brings that insurance into play. Before

(25:51):
we go to the break, I'm just going to visit
real quickly and see if we need an expert. Marie,
you have an issue with the sharpest rights. What's going
on with your enclave, Marie.

Speaker 10 (26:00):
Yes, So I bought a vehicle back in March through
the Sharpest Rides. I've been getting the run around in
the past three weeks to get my car walk on.
It'spet because I have a transmissing issue.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Is there a warranty on it or just you just
feel like they should be fixing it?

Speaker 10 (26:20):
Doesn't warranty on it. The onety is underneath the six
months once he was sixty thousand miles.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
You bought this warranty from the sharper rides when you bought.

Speaker 11 (26:29):
The vehicle, Yes, it came with it.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
When did you buy this vehicle back in March March
of this year yes, okay, And what is the problem
with the sharpest rides? Are they refusing to honor it
or refusing to work on it or what?

Speaker 10 (26:46):
So every d they've been getting me the run around
trying to work on it, and I'm thinking a mom
of three kids and have a baby on the way,
and they are telling me that they have to go
to the warrant manager instead. All up there every week,
every day, going up there and stuff like that. The
ward team manager is nowhere to be found. He is

(27:07):
not you can hit ward with me onto getting back
to me or anything. So it's just been very frustrating.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Okay, Well Marie, hang on a second. We'll be right
back from this break. We're going to try to help
you out. Okay, hang Tyger, So.

Speaker 7 (27:29):
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out Now three all three seven
seven to one.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Help.

Speaker 7 (27:50):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Okay, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network, getting back
to the issues that we're going through today. So we're
going to help Marie out here. In just a second,
I've got yet another cockroach caller calling in to comment.
We're going to take that first, because we always appreciate
our callers with comments. So, Bill, what is going on
with these cockroaches? How can we Hey?

Speaker 14 (28:28):
This was around nineteen eighty. Okay, Well, we moved from
downtown Denwood to Thornton and the cockroaches moved with us.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Oh oh, I mean.

Speaker 14 (28:36):
They were sick. I tried everything. I'd set bombs off
and on the weekend and we would go down to
my in laws and spend the weekend and nothing worked.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
What did you do?

Speaker 15 (28:48):
Finally, remember Paul Harvey, Yep.

Speaker 14 (28:51):
He was advertising this stuff was called roach proof, and
I think it was some kind of boric acid stuff,
and I'm and I put it around the house and
it worked because then we bought a new house and
we didn't move with us.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Now, did you disclose the cockroach problem to the new buyers.

Speaker 14 (29:13):
Were renting a cockroaches?

Speaker 2 (29:16):
I'm just kidding there. Uh, you know, I think that's yeah.
I think that bor axes.

Speaker 14 (29:22):
Threw away a refrigerator because they would just swarm and inside,
you know, in the in the back of it and
all the.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
I mean.

Speaker 16 (29:31):
It was thick.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, that's disgusting. Well, thanks for that information. I think
the boor axes, it's really along the same veins of
what the expert that called in with bait stations and
stuff that actually gets into the pores of the the
legs and stuff of the cockroaches, and that's how the
poison enters the system, rather than than you know, a
spray or something that just gets on the surface. So

(29:54):
I appreciate it. Now we know the rest of the story.
Paul Harvey, you know, uh, thanks for calling in, Bill,
I appreciate it. So Marie, back to you, my friend.
So listen, you know that the Sharpest Rides is a
you know, they get a lot of complaints and there's

(30:14):
a lot of articles out there about people that have
issues and problems and that make complaints and sometimes file
lawsuits and stuff. We would like to give them an
opportunity to help do the right thing with you and
see if we can get you, you know, get them
to take a look at your car and see if

(30:34):
we can't get you some help. And so I'm going
to ask our deputy Dmitri to to speak with you,
get a little bit more information and to actually reach
out to the sharpest rides and give them that opportunity
to do the right thing. You're a single mom, you
really need a working car. I can't think of a
more you know, deserving person to have them step up

(30:56):
and help you. You bought the warranty and it's time
for them to do the right thing by you. And
I'm sure that Dimitri can impress upon them how important
it is that they step up and do the right thing.

Speaker 6 (31:09):
So Dimitri, yeah, hey, I'll be really happy to I'll
speak with a caller offline kind of get some summary
of what the problem is. And you know, I've always
had really great luck dealing with viewerships, regardless of their
previous reputation. I ignore that during my nation phone call,
and because most of the time it's kind of a
miscommunication problem or somebody didn't get the message or something

(31:32):
like that. But I'd say more than half the time
they step up and do the right thing.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
That's what we want to see. That's the important thing.

Speaker 6 (31:38):
Except Omera and they never called me back, they never
respond to my emails.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
And if they do, we will dutifully report that they
have done the right thing. That's ree and so we'll
give them that opportunity. So Marie, hang on, We're going
to get your contact information. Dmitri will be in touch
with you soon and we'll see if we can help
you out. Okay, thanks for calling in you you bet
appreciate it. So, mister Dan, we were talking a little

(32:03):
bit off air, and this is exactly the kind of
stuff that I want us to get into. And it's
just the nuts and bolts of you know, Listen, we
live in a state where we have abysmally low limits
that are required by law. You can, you know, have
a completely complying policy of insurance, but it only has

(32:24):
twenty five thousand dollars of liability coverage. So for the
benefit of our listeners that don't know, liability coverage is
what pays for the other guy's injuries if you get
into an accident. So it's the coverage that you carry
so that the other guy doesn't come directly after you.
So it's literally a policy of protection. Doesn't do anything

(32:49):
for you in the way of your medicals and that
kind of stuff, but it literally protects you from the
damage that you did to the other party if you're
at fault for an accident.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
And so.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Dan, maybe the good best starting place is just, you know,
tell me about the discussions that you have with people
about the appropriate level of insurance, because from my perspective
as a plaintiff's attorney, there's almost no circumstance where twenty
five is enough.

Speaker 5 (33:17):
Exactly, any clients that come into any clients that come
to our agency that we write, we have a minimum
in house. We won't write a policy under one hundred
three hundred one. That's nothing to do with us or
our income. It says that we feel like that is
the minimum base level of getting a decent level of

(33:40):
coverage to take care of any sort of well, not
any but take care of a vast amount of losses
that you may have. We were talking a little bit earlier,
is that people are kind of confused with insurance. Is
that Hey, I found a policy, I bought it. It
was cheap, it saved me money. When we're talking about that,

(34:02):
you know people, I use the parallel of cake. It's
like saying to your.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Friends, Hey I have cake. Okay, what does that mean?

Speaker 3 (34:11):
John?

Speaker 7 (34:11):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison,
of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven

(34:33):
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh
three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 17 (34:46):
Rip.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
You don't have.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Run incious as fast as we can.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Shoot's gonna help, come man Dix. He is the Troubleshooter Show. Now,
Tom Martine, Welcome to the Troubleshooter Show. This is John
Fuller filling in for Tom Martino. Many of you know me.
I'm a personally injury attorney in Denver and have been
for the last twenty three years. We are here today

(35:18):
talking about all things insurance as well as taking care
of your problems. We are here to solve problems, take complaints,
answer questions, if you've been scammed, if you've been ripped off,
if you have a problem that we can help you with,
no matter the subject, give us a call. The number
is seven one three eight two five five. You can

(35:39):
also contact us at help at troubleshooter dot com. So
that's seven one three eight two fivey five. Give us
a call. We have some open lines right now. With
us in the studio today is Dan Mahoney. Dan is
with the the Insurance Group of Denver. He is an
independent agent, meaning he's not beholden to any particular insurance

(35:59):
company and is therefore able to give you unbiased advice
about the insurance products that you're considering. And before the break,
we were talking about you know, limits on certain policies
and how you know twenty five is just an abysmally
low requirement by the state of Colorado. And I'll turn

(36:20):
it back over to Dan. At this point he was
talking about in his firm, they actually won't sell a
policy that's minimal limits. You guys have requirements at least
internally that you at least have one hundred three hundred,
and I think that's great. I don't think a hundred
is well. I would say this for the vast majority
of claims, one hundred is enough. You know, our average

(36:43):
claim is probably less than one hundred. It's definitely less
than one hundred. But when it's more than one hundred,
it tends to be a lot more than one hundred.
And that's where you may regret having only one hundred thousand.
So I want to segue into talking about out you know,
umbrellas and stuff like that, and then I'm gonna kind

(37:04):
of inject some real world stuff into the conversation from
my perspective as a plaintiff's attorney. So I'll let you
pick it back up where we left off. Yeah, absolutely,
thank jah. When you look at your policy, you're gonna
see some numbers. You're gonna see typically one hundred slash
three hundred slash one hundred.

Speaker 5 (37:22):
Explain what that means, just yeah, and then you'll see
repeat again, one hundred, three hundred.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
So the first one hundred means outbound care to the
other person.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
That you may endure in an accident. The three hundred thousand,
that second number, that's an aggregate amount. So if you
hurt someone else outbound, three people at one hundred thousand each,
six people at fifty thousand each. However, you break that down,
that is basically the pool money you're working with. That
last number, that last one hundred. In this scenario, this

(37:52):
is going to be property damage. So it's gonna be
covering other vehicles, school buses, motorcycles, trees, this cows.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yeah, or even a highway sign. So let me interrupt
you there. You talked about the total amount necessary for
an accident. So it's one hundred per person, but three
hundred per accident. So what happens if you have four
people in the car. So if you have four people
in the car, that second.

Speaker 5 (38:19):
Number, that three hundred thousand, that aggregate is going to
be what that that share that's going to be divided
between those four people in that instant.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
And how do they divide that?

Speaker 5 (38:30):
Actually that that's gonna be based. It's gonna be claims based. Basically,
what they're actually lost is now, if there's a lot
of damage, like you said, you know, the majority of
cases seem to stay around or one hundred thousand, but
as you said, they can escalate pretty quickly. With our clients, again,

(38:50):
one hundred three hundreds kind of our baseline. We prefer
doing a to fifty five hundred, one hundred, even what
you call a five hundred thousand combined single limit, which
means each level has five hundred thousand dollars. On top
of that, we're big advocates of umbrellas umbrellas. Umbrellas are
relatively inexpensive. An umbrella is just as it says, it

(39:10):
just sits over your home and your auto, and it
just amplifies that underlying covers. So that's that what if
that's that worst case scenario, and I've seen it happen.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
So all that is great and wonderful from a liability perspective,
But all that insurance coverage in the world does nothing.
If it's you that gets injured and the other car
has those same minimal limits that we're talking about, where
does that come into play? So now we're going back
to the uninsured or uninsured.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
Motorist statistics are kind of all over the place, but
I've seen upwards of seventeen percent.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Of the drivers and Kyrod just don't even have insurance.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
Factoring for bad insurance, we're looking at about thirty percent
at all. So when you're driving today, if you look
at the three cars around you, one of them doesn't
have insurance, doesn't have enough.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
That's coblutely true. What could happen? I did some research
one time. The actual numbers in Colorado are two thirds
of the drivers either have minimal limits or no insurance
at all. In Colorado two thirds sixty almost sixty six
percent either have minimal limits which is complying that's legal,

(40:22):
or no insurance at all. So I mean it's not
just the one car, it's both of the cars on
either side of you either have no or minimal limits.
So when when I talk to my clients about buying
buying insurance, I you know, from my perspective, whatever you
buy for the other guy is great, But really the

(40:43):
focus ought to be what you're buying for your family,
right right, because that's the that's the most important cargo
that you carry, is those people that are that are
in your car that you can control, and we are.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
When we're quoting people often we see that flip flopped.
We see that you are buying the least amount of
coverage for yourself and the most for the other guy. Yeah,
Or when we're in a situation where someone's out shopping quotes,
they'll come back. They'll be like, hey, I've found this
great deal. We have a good relationship with our clients,
will be like, here, send us a copy what you find.

(41:14):
And oftentimes that's what we find is that they sacrifice
you to lower that premium, make more attractive to you,
come in and buy. But that uninsured, uninsured motorist. Again,
it's it's matching your your policy levels. I'm a big
fan of two fifty five hundred or more. In that situation,
you do get hit by one of those people, and

(41:35):
now your your costs, your cost of uh living, your endeavors.
You have a pool of money that you can go
back to. And I am seeing this used more and
more and more every year. It used to be pretty
uh I would never see anybody even touch it. But
it's become a reality now that the other guy's not

(41:58):
doing their job because you know, if they're just buying insurance,
they don't know what that means.

Speaker 13 (42:02):
Hey, yeah, I have a question. So the people who
have the minimal insurance. Are they people who can declare bankruptcy?
And the main question is someone has you know, minimal
coverage and they get a judgment. Is that judgment dischargeable
if they declare bankruptcy?

Speaker 5 (42:21):
So, and I'm going to bring John on this because
I've always been trained that in a situation where you
declare bankruptcy, a bankruptcy is essentially a contract breaking your
financial contracts, which you could actually forgive the insurance company
from protecting or defending you in that claim, which means
now you're back on your own.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Well, I mean, the short answer, Doc is yes, I mean,
but the longer answer is what does it matter? I mean,
if you get a judgment of two million dollars against
somebody that has no assets, it's worthless. They don't even
need to go to the court to declare bankruptcy. You're
never going to collect your two million dollars. So that

(43:03):
bankruptcy you know, discharge is about as valuable as that
you know to them, Is that judgment is to you?

Speaker 6 (43:09):
Well, my point is that the people who have this
they don't care.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
They don't care.

Speaker 13 (43:14):
They have the minimum insurance because I have to. But
then they say, well, look, you know you can't. There's
there's nothing to collect. Why should I pay for more
insurance when really I don't need it?

Speaker 2 (43:24):
So so that's my typical argument, is that the reason
you buy more insurance is so that you're allowed to
buy greater limits for your family. Correct. You know, people
call me all the time, and I welcome their calls,
and I truly do. And and the call goes like this,
how much insurance do I need?

Speaker 3 (43:42):
Right?

Speaker 2 (43:43):
And and for some reason they think I'm better qualified
because I exhaust policies frequently, that that I'm a better
you know, a better judge of that and stuff. So
when we come back from the break, I want to
talk about you know, I want to talk about like
what happens when you don't have enough coverage. And I'm
sure that you've had clients in that position. I've had

(44:05):
people call me, I've had plaintiffs that have damages far
greater than coverage. We're going to talk about that when
we come right back.

Speaker 7 (44:16):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content
than time for an insurance check up, free no obligation
comparison call Compass insurance, paying too much your coverage at
dozens of insurance companies.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Find out now three O three seven to seven to
one help.

Speaker 7 (44:36):
durand the real estate man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three three nine two zero sixteen
twenty two.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
All right, all right, all right, good afternoon, John Fuller here,
we are moving rapidly forward in the day. We're talking
about insurance stuff. If we can be of help to you,
give us a call it three O three seven one
three eight two five five. We are here to solve
your problems and help out with any issue that you have.
In the studio today we have Dan Mahoney. Dan is

(45:15):
a principal, meaning the owner of the insurance Group of Denver,
and they're an independent agent, meaning they sell a number
of different lines of insurance, but they're not beholding to
any one, which is kind of cool because you're going
to get the straight skinny and you're not going to
get the party line of some you know, fill in
the blank insurance company. And I was looking at your

(45:36):
list of carriers that you write for, and most of
them I recognize, but there are some that are absent,
and most of them are kind of the big guys
that you hear, you know, advertising around you. You're the
ones we always have problems with, like all State and
State farm and farmers and that kind of stuff. I
would venture a guess that you're able to put together

(46:00):
more diverse policies that are more custom tailored for your
client by being an independent agent rather than just having
a set line of products that you can sell for
one carrier. Is that talk to us about the differences
that you have in the stuff that you can do
for clients. Sure, you know, it all starts at the

(46:23):
beginning when we talk to a client.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
I really want to know a lot more about the
client than just their name and what they want to buy.
Assets drive a lot of that, you know, if you
have a lot of rental properties, things like that. Different
carriers specialize in different areas, and we kind of were
talking off air about uninsured motorists and umbrellas. A lot
of companies are kind of shying away from that because

(46:45):
it's a big loss point. But we can still do those,
We can still put those together, so we really truly
can customize for you A package.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
That makes sense.

Speaker 5 (46:56):
I'm a big advocate if we have one thing for you,
we keep everything in one carrier, especially if we're going
to deal with an umbrella. We don't want any company
pointing to someone else saying, oh, this is your issue,
this is the overlap, this is double indemnity, this is stacking.
We don't want to deal with any of that. We
want it all nice and clean. At the end of
the day, your cost is probably going to come out

(47:18):
about the same as where you're at, and you know,
and even just raising your underlying limits from you know,
state minimums to a relatively decent amount is pretty inexpensive.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
To take that next step up to go to two fifty.

Speaker 5 (47:30):
Five hundred, five hundred combined single limit, you're talking a
couple hundred bucks a year you add an umbrella. Depending
on the carrier what you have, it's going to range
between you know, two hundred and twelve hundred dollars a year.
But again, if you have those assets and you have
things at risk, you really need to have those things.
On a side note, it's interesting the gentleman who called

(47:51):
in earlier about the apartment with the bug problem. Right now,
the way the market is This is a hard market
right now, so nobody wants to write, especially you know,
Colorado's one of the harder hit states after the Superior
fire or Marshall fire, Troublesome Creek, all those things. Rates
have gone absolutely nuts and as a hard market, even

(48:15):
my agency we struggle to even find policies right now
because a lot of curriers just don't want to write business.
So it's an unannounced moratorium if you will. So if
you do, cause we're happy to help you and talk
to it. It's just I don't know if we have
an option for you necessarily, but as the market comes
back online, that's going to prove over time.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
We do help out some.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
Financial firms around town that provide advice to folks on retirement,
and we also do reviews for their clients as well,
make sure everything's stacked up and makes sense on their cory.

Speaker 13 (48:47):
Again, I have a question. Yeah, you know, one of
the things that you see on TV all the time
is this bundling. So does it really save you money
to have you a home and auto with the same company.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
From a straight financial standpoint, it's usually the same.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
I'm sorry if you're splitting everything.

Speaker 5 (49:10):
Off and trying to take advantage of multiple markets, you're
damaging yourself because you are giving up a lot of
multiline discounts. And keep in mind, insurance is all about risk.
So if I'm a product person or underwriter with an
insurance company and you're coming to me with five different lines,
that's five different points of risk. I know that you
are going to be a better value to me because

(49:32):
you're not going to have five areas of risk all
happen at once.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
But there's a bigger issue with that, and it's one
that we kind of run into. It's like, you know,
I think if I'm talking strictly as an insured as
a guy that's buying insurance and stuff based on my experience,
the more opportunities you give an insurance company to point
the finger at somebody else and say that other company
or that other policy should be the one that's on

(49:58):
the hook for this loss, the more app they are
to do that. So when you create this potential, I
don't know if conflict is the right word, but opportunity
maybe between say a homeowners and an auto policy. You know,
was you're out on a bicycle and you crash into somebody,
Is it homeowners or is it auto you know, well,
it's it's most likely homeowners in that situation. But what

(50:19):
if it's an e bike where it's a motorized bike
or something, Eh, not as clear that's more of a
motorized vehicle because that going to go under the auto
policy maybe, you know. Or if you're hit by a driver,
now you are trigging. I mean, we do so much
more in battling these issues behind the scenes, where we

(50:40):
legit have a team of attorneys that's saying we think
the policy says this, and our interpretation is that, and
we have to harmonize those too, and so I mean
that's part of what's so important about getting somebody on
your side is that that these policies are subject to interpretation.
It's never just as easy as looking at a list

(51:02):
and seeing, yep, that's covered.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
You remember the old Farmer's commercials where the guy and
the old tweet sports coat was like, we covered it,
you know, and that's not reality. Reality is we denied it,
you know, and and then we got sued and then
we begrudgingly decided to pay that claim down the road
after you know so and so attorney whatever, you know,

(51:24):
it it's just the first question was are we better
off with the bundle? Yeah, I think so, to the
extent that you can within reason. I mean, don't pay,
don't pay an exorbitant premium for that privilege. But if
you can get everything under one house, it makes sense.
I think it makes sense to do it.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
It's like, Doc, if you go to lunch today, you
go to McDonald's for your fries, burger Kings for your burger,
and a gas station for your Sota because you're trying
to maximize money.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
You missed the boat.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
Yeah, you're you're spending the money anyway. You're you're giving
up discounts, and you're giving up the continuity of coverage.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
I really want one goes wrong.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
Yeah, you don't want to have to point out a
whole bunch of people or have the car carriers pointing
at each other.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
They love that. That's great for them, absolutely, I.

Speaker 5 (52:08):
Mean they can they can stall out a court case
forever just by reversing the point.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Yeah, that's that's absolutely the case. And so you know,
practice pointer to most people. If you're out there shopping around,
really take the time to try to find the best
deal that has everything under one You know umbrella for
lack of a better word, because I think in the
end you'll find that you have better coverage and a
better opportunity to get your damages taken care of. So

(52:36):
we're going to go to a quick break. We will
be right back and continue discussion. Give us a call
if we can help you. We've got open lines right now.
Seven P one three A two five five is a number.

Speaker 7 (52:50):

Speaker 1 (52:58):
On top of it.

Speaker 7 (53:00):
I'm for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison,
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all

Speaker 2 (53:32):
All right, good afternoon, We're back. This is John Fuller
or the Troubleshooter Network, and we are moving along here.
We're talking about insurance coverage and and I'm talking with
Dan Mahoney who is the principle of insurance Group of Denver.
They're an independent agent. The cool thing about that is
they're not beholden to one of the normal carriers there.

(53:52):
They have a whole list of carriers that they're able
to really custom formulate coverages to meet your needs and stuff.
And so one of the things that we were talking
about earlier, and everybody's already always heard these horror stories
about well, you know it, can it come take my
house or my my car, or my dog or whatever
it is that you have to to you know, to

(54:14):
satisfy a creditor. And those are largely wives tales. I mean,
you don't really hear about people taking people's houses literally
as as much as you you know, you might think
based on the TV commercials and stuff that you hear
out there, but the risk is very real and and

(54:34):
it's it's something that that people need to be aware
of the actual mechanics of how that work or how
that works and in the real world. And and so
every now and again we get a call and and
we did recently from a listener to the show here
and and not to not to you know, to use
him as an example, but I think that it really

(54:56):
paints a picture that I suspect a lot of listeners
are in and and this gentleman had had worked his
whole life and had amassed, you know, a house that
was paid for that in Colorado, you know, a decent home.
It was I believe it was just over a million
dollars or so. And that's he admitted to a net
worth of over a million dollars. We didn't pursue it further,

(55:19):
but he was definitely a man of means, but not
not crazy. We're not talking like the Rockefellers here or something.
We're just talking about a person that lived his whole
life that happened to pay off his mortgage and the
property appreciated. He's got a couple of cars that are
paid for in an RV and an old dog and
a you know whatever. But the point is, you know,
at the age that this gentleman was, which was well

(55:42):
into retirement, he's still driving. He's still out there. He
still has risk. And I don't think a lot of
people really believe that they have this risk, and they're
attempted to just have the same old insurance that they've
had their whole life. And maybe twenty or thirty years ago,
having minimal limits made sense when he had less assets

(56:04):
and less earnings and less risk and probably cars at
that time cost, you know, seven thousand dollars or something
for a new car, whereas today they're ninety or one
hundred thousand dollars. It seems like half the cars in
the parking lot. Are you know, a pickup truck that's
over one hundred grand is not hard to do and stuff.
And then you start thinking about this twenty five grand

(56:25):
that you've got for coverage, and you go, holy cow,
this is not enough. And so this particular caller got
into an accident and he didn't think it was that
significant of an accident, but sure enough, the other party
ended up going to the hospital. I think they were
in an ambulance, So it wasn't It wasn't just a bump,

(56:47):
It was something halfway significant. And lo and behold, they
ended up with an attorney, and he began to work
through the issue of do I have enough coverage? And
the plaintiff's attorney he was working through the issue of
what are we going to do with this guy? Okay?
And it brings up this unique process that most people

(57:07):
don't even know exist, which is the insurance companies and
the lawyers all have to figure out what cards they've
been dealt. And so, if a guy has twenty five
thousand dollars of insurance and he's got five dollars worth
of assets, that may be the single most valuable thing
that he owns is that policy of insurance, And it

(57:30):
may make absolute sense to take the twenty five, even
though you may have let's say, just for the sake
of the argument, let's say you have two hundred thousand
dollars of damages. It may be the case that your
strategic best move is to take that twenty five because
that's the most you're ever going to get from this guy.
He's got two nickels to rub together in a twenty

(57:50):
five thousand dollars policy. God love him, right. But on
the other hand, if the guy has a million dollars
or so of assets out there that are unencumbered by
mortgages and he just happens to have this policy that's
the bare bones minimum that the state says that you
can buy, you have to ask the question, is the

(58:11):
guy voluntarily underinsured? What does that mean? Voluntarily underinsured? Dan,
It just means he didn't buy enough insurance relative to
the number of assets that he has, right.

Speaker 5 (58:27):
And he's also going along with what the state says.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
He's just trying to save money, but you know, intentionally
or not, he's putting his own assets at risk instead
of spending a little extra money in buying that extra coverage.
I mean, at its core, buying liability insurance is protection
for your own assets. And so it came as quite
a shock to this guy that what do you mean

(58:51):
by why are they wanting to know about my personal assets?
Why are they wanting to know how much money I
have in the bank, and how much equity I have,
and how many stocks and bonds I have, and you know,
and what my cars are worth. Why are they asking
me all these questions? And the simple fact was the
plaintiff's attorney was evaluating, and probably the uninsured motors carrier

(59:13):
for the injured party, they were evaluating whether or not
you were voluntarily underinsured. And if they conclude that you were,
then guess what they could absolutely not agree to, except
you're twenty five, and they could instead decide to come
after you because you have assets. And that's the worst

(59:36):
thing that can happen to you when you're seventy five
or eighty years old and all of a sudden you're
facing a judgment that could require you to sell your house,
or sell assets, or cash in your stock account or something.
You know, there's lots of assets that are not protected.
That's the reality of getting in an accident and accidentally
hurting somebody. Nobody says you did something on purpose, but

(01:00:00):
not having enough insurance to protect you in the event
that that happened.

Speaker 10 (01:00:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
You know, if that same accident had happened and the
guy had two fifty or something and he's only got
a house and maybe a couple of cars, and he's old,
and there's protections in place, the planet's attorney would likely
conclude that, you know, and the um carrier would conclude
that he's appropriately insured. We're just gonna take the two
fifty if it's offered, which it probably would be. We're

(01:00:27):
gonna take the two fifty, and we'll give him a
complete release that lets this guy off the hook.

Speaker 13 (01:00:31):
Right, and John, can you for both of you you
can get separate covers. So if you have an old
car and can you get like minimal collision and maximum
and maximum liability?

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Yeah, so you can get you can you don't have
to have twenty five.

Speaker 6 (01:00:50):
It doesn't have to be.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
If they get liability only of a big, huge number
and just not have Cadillac coverage for your car. Okay,
I have a gnarly ugly pickup truck that has more
liability in the world, and it's straight.

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
There's nothing either. If it disappears, it disappears, and God
bless whoever would take.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
That exactly, it's probably worth more in the form of
a check point insurance coming off than any buyer would
ever give you on it. So so you know, that's
the backdrop that we're dealing with. Is this real, you know,
circumstance that happens to people when they just try to
save a little money and get the bare bones minimum
coverage and they think this could never happen to me,

(01:01:37):
and it does, and it did to one of our
listeners here at the show. And I hate that more
than anything, because you know, not only is this guy,
you know, whole retirement really in jeopardy, but that planet
that got injured. That person is trying to recover and
be made whole. And I mean, I'm sure they're a
good person, and they don't want to take a guy's

(01:02:00):
or something crazy. So it's just it's it's truly incumbent
upon you to have enough insurance to really reflect today's marketplace,
where a trip to the er can be thirty forty
fifty thousand dollars in a heartbeat and you're twenty five,
no matter what the law says, is just not enough coverage.
So when we get back from break, we're going to

(01:02:21):
talk about my two other favorite things, medpay and medpay waivers,
and then we're going to get into umbrellas. So hang
on a second, we'll be right back.

Speaker 7 (01:02:34):
call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens

(01:02:56):
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
All right, we're back. John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter network.
We are looking at some open lines here and so
we are here to help you if you have any
issues that we can chime in on. If you've been scammed,
if you've been ripped off, if you have challenges with contractors,
issues with your vehicles, problems with your landlord, anything along
those lines, and particularly if you happen to have been

(01:03:34):
in an accident you have questions about that, I'm happy
to answer those questions. That is my specialty. I've been
a personal injury attorney in Denver for the last twenty
three or so years, and we are here to help.
The phone number is three three seven one, three eight
two five five. In the studio with me today are
deputies Dimitri and Doc always ready at the standby for

(01:03:57):
your issues. And Dan mahoney Dance with the Insurance Group
of Denver and we're here having a lively discussion about
insurance coverages and what to and not to do and
that kind of stuff. And so if you have questions
about your own coverage, absolutely pick up the phone and
call is. Grab your deck sheet if you want to

(01:04:17):
run some numbers by us and see if we think
that you're appropriately insured. Or anything along those lines. Those
calls are always welcome. If you have horror stories about
a claim that's gone wrong with you, or that some
example of a lesson that you learned along the way
regarding coverage and stuff, by all means, give us a call.
Those are super helpful for everybody else and the what

(01:04:41):
not to do categories, So we're here for you. Give
us a call. So, going into the break, I mentioned
that my two favorite subjects were medpay and uninsured motors coverage,
and I want to talk about medpay and a lot
of people don't know really the genesis of medpay, where
it where it came from. Uh, but they do remember

(01:05:04):
that a number of years ago we had we had
something called no fault in Colorado, and under no fault,
if you got an accident, it didn't matter whose fault
it was. My insurance company would pay for my meds
and yours would pay for years. And so we literally
had this this you know, this regime or this this

(01:05:25):
you know this this setup in Colorado to where we
didn't really go to our own primary care doctors. We
didn't we didn't really you know, use our traditional medical
providers because they weren't really participating in auto crashes. They
they they weren't on the list, so to speak. And
and so we had all these like injury people and

(01:05:47):
chiropractors and stuff that were all experts and in treating,
you know, auto crashes, and and and the the insurance companies,
of course, perceived that every trip to the chiropractor was
a waste of money, and they thought that the system
was being abused, and so they put it on the
ballot and promised the people in Colorado that they would
save bookoos on their insurance premiums. And so Colorado voted

(01:06:12):
out the no fault and they voted in the system
that we have. And so immediately the after effects of
that law change became became known, which was that now
we had no mechanism to get medical bills paid that
were incurred immediately following an accident, because the at fault
carriers refused to pay. They represent their insurance and they're

(01:06:35):
never going to reduce the amount of policy coverage that
they have without securing a release in advance. And so
they had the ability to sit back and wait for
months and months and never pay any of those bills.
And we had people that would immediately get a bill
from the ambulance and immediately get a bill from the
er and there was no mechanism to get that paid.

(01:06:56):
And so the solution to that, and I should probably
we also had our hospitals weren't getting paid either, and
so they were kind of knocking on the door of
the legislature saying, we have a problem here, people. You've
outlawed this whole mechanism that we had to get paid,
and now we're being asked to wait months and months
to get paid for this er visit that we had

(01:07:18):
to treat the party for. We can't turn them away,
and so what are we to do? And so their
answer to that was medical payments coverage, and we went
through a number of gyrations. Initially it was only one
thousand dollars and it was going to save the day,
as if that would pay for an ambulance ride or
any any real part of an er visit. But that's

(01:07:38):
what the dollar amount was, and we've kind of gravitated
up to where it is today and the required minimal
amount of medpay is five thousand dollars. And so it's
this crazy thing where we have a mandatory coverage.

Speaker 6 (01:07:54):
Then you kicked out, but you can wait it and John,
not only that, but the pay in my case, and
here are the declarations that I'm going to ask Dan
to go over review for me. The maximum is only
twenty five thousand dollars. I wanted a lot more than
that with the insurance company. No insurance company would sell
me more than twenty five thousand medpay.

Speaker 16 (01:08:15):
What turns that?

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Is that going to pay for it? And not many
companies will sell twenty five and I've only seen a
couple that will sell one hundred, and it just varies.
That's their you know, really, insurance companies hate medical payments
coverage because it's it's a coverage that's not dependent upon fault,
and so they can't really you know, they can't really

(01:08:38):
you know, traditionally, their evaluations of risk are evaluating your
likelihood to get in an accident. And we can we
can actuarily determine what our risk level is. But but
you know, we were talking off the air. If you're
carrying six kids to a volleyball.

Speaker 7 (01:08:54):
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(01:09:16):
you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three

Speaker 17 (01:09:29):
Ripped of.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
News, so you don't have come.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Come run in as fast as can.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
Shooter's gonna help.

Speaker 9 (01:09:42):
Come man, This is.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
The Troubleshooter Show Now, Tom Martinez, Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Good afternoon. This is John Fuller on the Referral Network.
We are here halfway through today. We are here to
solve problems, take complaints, an tower quesestions. We're here to
help you. If you've been scammed, if you've been ripped off,
if there's something that we can help you on, give
us a call. The number here in the studio is
seven one three eight two five five. That's three oh

(01:10:11):
three seven one three eight two five five. You can
also reach us at help at troubleshooter dot com. We
have Deputy Doc and Deputy Dmitri and uh. We have
Dan Mahoney in the house today dan is a is
an insurance agent that owns Insurance Group of Denver, which

(01:10:32):
is an independent agency, And we're kind of talking through
the different issues. We just tiptoed into medpay and I
was talking about the history of medpay. If if you're
new to the show this afternoon, we're kind of discussing
all things auto insurance and limits and types of coverage
and stuff like that. If if you have issues that

(01:10:53):
relate to claims on your auto insurance or you have
questions about the level of coverage that you have, give
us a call, because we're here to help work through
those issues. And so I'd far prefer to discuss with
you about whether the coverage is there to do what
you think it's there to do before something happens rather
than after. And so we had just tiptoed into medpay.

(01:11:15):
Medpay is a coverage that's on your policy. It's designed
to help you pay some of the out of pocket
expenses that you immediately incur after an accident. And I
can't tell you the number of times when I have
a client that says, well, I wasn't at fault. The
hospital's just going to build the other insurance company and
they truly think that that's what's going to happen. But

(01:11:36):
the reality is that the other insurance company is never
going to pay those bills as they're being incurred. Those
bills are in your name, they're your responsibility. If you
ignore them and don't do anything with them, it'll be
you that gets a collection company calling you, and it'll
be your credit that ends up getting deemed in the process.
So it's very important that you understand what coverages are

(01:11:58):
there to provide what payment and medpay is kind of
the first line of defense. So I wanted to turn
it over to Dan and just talk about it. It's
a mandatory coverage, but explain the waiver. How does that work?

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
Dan?

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
In your practice?

Speaker 5 (01:12:13):
So it's a mandatory coverage that you can opt out of.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
That's the genius. Why would anybody ever do that?

Speaker 5 (01:12:21):
So when I hear people say I'm going to opt
out of that, they say I'm going to opt out
because I have amazing health insurance or I'm in the military,
or I'm on I'm retired and I have Medicare.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Well, I haven't had an accident in thirty two years
and need.

Speaker 5 (01:12:36):
And you're impervious, right, That's the other one too, and
you know everyone's going to get an accident, and statistics
are out there to yeah, what is it like every
seven years over over one thousand bucks? Either the problem
with that is that is seven years going to be
this afternoon or is it going to be in seven years?

Speaker 3 (01:12:52):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
And it's going to happen, so you have to be
prepared for it. Well, how do you rebut that argument
that I have great insurance, so I have Medicare. I
hear that all the time. I have I have Medicare,
and I have trap care for life and and and
I'm totally covered. There's never going to be a medical
bill that I have to pay. Why the hell should
I have so pay?

Speaker 5 (01:13:11):
When I talked through this, first thing is is that
really medpay? I kind of look at it as it's
it's buying you time. So it's it's giving you some
money at the time of the accident that you can
apply towards any early incurred costs or any ancillary care
that you want.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
To go out. That's going to make you feel better.

Speaker 5 (01:13:31):
Uh So that's that's the first part of it. It's
going to make it a lot easier. It's going to
streamline the process.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:13:37):
Second, especially if you're you're younger, is that uh you know,
if you have kids and you're driving carpool and you
have an accident and you have five kids all tucked
up in your super four wheel drive wagon, if one
of those kids doesn't have health insurance or doesn't have parents,

(01:14:00):
don't have a good policy, all of a sudden, you're
going to be responsible for those costs. And in this case,
now with the medpay on there, they can actually dip
into those funds and same thing, it helps assist them
along the process to get to the treatment that they
need until someone takes responsibility and starts paying the bills.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
I love when people tell me how great their Medicare is,
and it's just a they're just misinformed. They just don't understand.
I mean, a Medicare doesn't cover everything, number one, so
you're not truly impervious to any you know, bill coming
your way following an accident. But secondly, it's like, do
you only drive by yourself forever and ever and you

(01:14:41):
never have anybody else in your car? I mean, do
you and the neighbors never go out to dinner? Do
you never take your grandkids to the park or back
over to your kid's house or I mean, it's it's
everybody else that you buy all this insurance for. You know,
if I have a super you know, gazillion dollar U
in policy, and i'm that because I don't want to

(01:15:02):
have no insurance available if I got killed. It's not
me that's going to get that money, it's my family.
And so I just look at insurance as a necessary evil.
It's a tool that we have to have, but you
darn sure ought to have it built in a way
that's going to benefit the people that are in your
family that are actually going to be the recipient of

(01:15:24):
those funds. And I think medpay is one of those coverages.
It's perfect for copays and deductibles and stuff like that
that are the immediate out of pocket expenses.

Speaker 5 (01:15:34):
And almost anybody you talk to now it used to
be optional back when healthcare shart getting expensive, but it's
pretty standard now. Most policies have five thousand dollars deductible
right out the door.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Yeah they do, and we're able to frequently use the
medpay to at least help knock out that out of
pocket minimum. It maybe doesn't cover every single bit of it,
but it goes a long way. And so if you're
really if you're one of those people that are like, Okay,
do I pay the deductible or do I pay my rent?
That medpay is the difference in being immediately in financial crisis,

(01:16:10):
especially if somebody has to take a week or two
off work, and being able to kind of maintain the
status quo and pay your rent and keep things flowing forward. Dmitry,
you had a question.

Speaker 6 (01:16:21):
Yeah, Dan, you know, I've always been a big advocate
of proper insurance in case I incurliability while driving or
doing something else. But a fundamental shift in my thinking
started occurring back when I I'd say six seven months ago,
and I started seeing John quite a bit over here
in the course of our participation in the show. And
one thing that he impressed upon me is the importance

(01:16:42):
of look at this as buying insurance for yourself. Right
because of what he just said, you know that both
cars on your side are statistically uninsured, are severely underinsured.
So that has been the shift and the reason that
I want to buy and do buy auto insurance. So
here's my declarations page. And in the context of what

(01:17:02):
I just said, can you please review and this is
a state farm policy, and can you please review this.
By the way, these are all limits. They won't sell
me any more insurance. So not only would I ask
you to review my limits, but can you also bring
into that discussion what you said about an umbrella policy

(01:17:24):
amplifying these limits? If so, to what extent would each
of these light items be amplified by million dollar policy?
And also, is that million dollars actually divided into small
sub sections for each of these line items? Or can
I expect a million dollar amplification to each of these

(01:17:45):
line items within the context of a million dollar total limit?
That kind of makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
You're going to have to put that question in writing.
I'm spreadsheet to answer all that. We're going to go
to a break here right now, we'll address Dimitri's declaration
sheet and and we'll sum it up in a much
more concise question right after this break.

Speaker 7 (01:18:04):
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Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
All right, all right, all right, all right, good afternoon.
John Fuller back with the Troubleshooter Network. We are trucking
along here. We are here to help you solve your problems.
We've got a couple open lines here. We'd appreciate your call.
The numbers three or three seven one, three eight two
five five. We are here to help you, not just
with insurance issues. That is a rare opportunity to have two,

(01:19:15):
you know, people that are kind of on opposite ends
of the insurance world. One selling and one really using
what people have bought to its intended use. When you
have accidents and we have people that are that are
injured and making claims and stuff, and so you know,
many times I have cases where I wish the people
had bought new are not new, but different or more

(01:19:37):
insurance or better insurance coverage. And then we're talking here
with Dan Mahoney, who's on the other end of it,
as the person as frequently recommending to people that they
buy different coverage and probably many times is perceived as
you know, doom and gloom and talking about risk of

(01:19:59):
things that never happened. But they do and I make
John's dreams come true. Absolutely. We we like Dan, you know,
so you know, we've we've covered a lot of subjects today.
We'd like to hear from you. So if you have,
you know, if you're one of these that says I
have great coverage and I don't need fill in the blank,
I don't need uninsured, I don't need medpay, I don't

(01:20:21):
need whatever the case may be, I want to hear
from you because not to not to belittle you or anything,
but just it's a valid, you know, perspective that many
people have, and we're here to talk about the effects
that that decision has in the event that something happens.
And the worst thing in the world is to think

(01:20:42):
you have great coverage and then find out that you
really don't, or that you you know, you you didn't
get a particular coverage because you thought it did something else,
or you know, in my practice, I've had so many
people come in and sit in my conference room after
their you know, their loved one is injury and then
the hospital or something, and they're like, god, you know,

(01:21:03):
I got great insurance, you know, and it's like I
got an umbrella. I got a million dollar umbrell. I
got coverage like crazy. And you have to tell that person, look,
that million dollars is liability only, and it's great if
you happen to cause the accident, but it does zero
for you if you weren't at fault and the other

(01:21:24):
person doesn't have great insurance. And so you know, that
conversation I personally had with clients, I bet fifty times
over the years that I've been doing this, and it's
a very real thing. And it's never, you know, it's
it's just never a case where people say, you know, man,
I wish I didn't buy all that insurance because it's

(01:21:46):
you know, what a waste that was. It's always the
case that more is better, and it it helps people
get made whole a lot better. So we were talking
about medpay and some other stuff, and Dmitri brought up
ninety four part question with sixteen subparts and everything else,
but it kind of boiled down to having Dan look

(01:22:07):
over and discuss the limits that Dimitri had on his
own personal insurance policy, his real live declarations page, and
to not only talk about the level of coverages that
he has, but whether or not the you know, his
coverage profile, if you would, would be enhanced, or you know,

(01:22:28):
what would the addition of an umbrella do to your
overall analysis. So with that, I'm going to kind of
turn it over and let you analyze all ninety four
parts of the question.

Speaker 5 (01:22:39):
That's like a college these Good luck with that, so
real quick, let's put a couple of definitions around these things.
So a declaration page is a ten dollars word for
basically your policy summary. Usually it's one to two pages.
Anything that actually has a dollar amount that you're paying,
that's usually your declaration page. So don't be afraid of
it when you go to look at it, because I

(01:23:01):
know that your policy is like ninety some pages. You're
just looking for the ones that actually have dollar mats
that are charging you. That's going to give you your summary.
The second thing to keep in mind to you with
insurance insurance, you know John just said the word make
you whole insurance is really a transfer of risk.

Speaker 2 (01:23:18):
That's that's all it is. It's a transfer risk. So
if it's your house, your car, something you.

Speaker 5 (01:23:23):
Have a value, you go to insurance company you say, hey,
i've got this thing, it's worth something. I want protection
in case something happens. They say, okay, for this amount
of money, we'll protect that. We'll take that risk. So
we're transferring risk. So as we look at Dimitri's deck pages, again,
this is just the summary, and this is a carrier
I don't work with, so I don't know all the

(01:23:44):
ins and outs, but I can talk generally about where
he's at and what we can do with this. So
we start off first with bodily injury limits. This is
the one that usually is listed by number, slash number,
slash number, in this case two hundred and fifty thousand,
five hundred thousand, one hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
What's that saying is that outbound I have two.

Speaker 5 (01:24:02):
Hundred and fifty thousand dollars of coverage towards anyone that
I injure or cause issues for. In an accent, I
have five hundred thousand dollars aggregate. Aggregate just means it's
a pool. You can use it any way you want.
You just cannot exceed two hundred fifty thousand per person
or five hundred thousand total for the accent.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
And what does the word outbound mean?

Speaker 5 (01:24:23):
I use outbound to oversimplify it, but basically, if you
cause an accent, you're at fault.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
You injure someone else. This is where it's coming on.
So it's money that's available to help pay for damages
that you caused in a potential accent. Correct exactly, it's
for that party that you damaged.

Speaker 5 (01:24:40):
So the two fifty five hundred again five hundreds combined
or I'm sorry, it's an aggregate. So if you have
five people one hundred thousand each, you're great. Two people
at two fifty each, you're great in this scenario. Now
you got ten people in there and they all have
one hundred thousand, your policies, it's not gonna sacon. Next
line after that you're going into is the property damage

(01:25:01):
is just one hundred thousand dollars. I just saw a
report the other day is an average new car is
something like forty So if you have state minimums, you're
already you already missed the boat. I mean, if you
toldal someone's car, you're you're totally in bad shape.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
There is that liability coverage also part of the property
damage coverage.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
Yeah, that that last number is gonna be the property
damage portion of it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
The liability amount is intact without any regard to what's
done on property. There's no way you could exhaust the
liability by taking care of a really expensive property claim. Correct,
It's a.

Speaker 5 (01:25:37):
Separate line item, separate coverage that's on there.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Rolling through the policy.

Speaker 5 (01:25:43):
You also have twenty five thousand dollars in medpay typically
that's about the most I'll see a carry offer. We
just got done talking about that. Medpay really helps kind
of close that gap between your first dollar of care
until your other care kicks in, whether it's Medicare or
you're you're awesome insurance policy or whatever it is that
you have in your back pocket that you think is
going to jump in. Also helps out if you have

(01:26:05):
a passingers you're in your car who may not have
insurance or good insurance. Deductibles are deductibles. Again, I'm going
to simplify this comprehensive. Basically, I just say it's like
an active guy. Something happens, your car, tree falls on
and hail hits it. This is where comprehensive. Is you
pay a certain amount, they pay the rest. Collision. Again,

(01:26:27):
to oversimplify it, I say, this is what comes to play.
If you're at fault and you hit something else, now
the collision. If I damage your car, Dmitry an accident,
I'm at fault, my coverage actually starts at your very
first penny, So there's no deductible experience for me or you.
My coverage automatically starts at the first penny. Now my

(01:26:48):
deductible for my car that I hit you with. Now,
in this case, I have to pay the first thousand,
they're going to pay the rest.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
So let me interrupt right there, we're going to go
to a real quick break, and we're going to come
back and get a little deeper into We've actually got
a caller with a question on insurance that will take
right after this break, and then we're going to get
into some of the more nuanced coverage like uninsured motorists
and how that differs from liability coverage. Okay, we'll be
right back.

Speaker 7 (01:27:20):
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Speaker 1 (01:27:24):
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Speaker 7 (01:27:29):
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Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
Good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network. We
are talking about all things insurance this afternoon with me
as a guest. Here in the studio is Dan Mahoney.
He is the principal of the Insurance Group of Denver.
You can contact Dan at seven two oh four to
three six one nine zero after the show with all

(01:28:22):
of your insurance needs. But he's here in the studio
and we're answering questions. We're going to go to the
lines here if you have a question about insurance, if
you have a question about coverage, if you have a
question about claims, property accidents, anything to do with insurance,
by all means, pick up the phone the number seven
one three eight two five five. That's area code three
oh three seven one three eight two five five. We're

(01:28:44):
going to go right to the phones here. Tim, you
have a question about auto insurance. What's going on? Tim?

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
Yeah, guys, thanks for taking my call or a very
informative show. So I need your take on my situation
two thousand and nine. I buy a new vehicle. I
finance it, full coverage on it. It's been paid off
for years.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
Okay, the the.

Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
Value of it right now with the age and mileage
is probably less than two thousand dollars. I'm still carrying
full coverage on it. What should I do? Should I
just go to a straight liability with maybe an umbrella
policy or what would be your suggestion?

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
Okay, well, yeh, I'll let you address that.

Speaker 5 (01:29:35):
And then when we're talking about liability only, I always
ask people what their pain threshold is. Basically, how much
money can you afford to lose if someone came and
stole that car in the middle of the I caught
on fire, tree, fell on.

Speaker 2 (01:29:47):
It, etc.

Speaker 5 (01:29:49):
So, if the value of that vehicle is within your
pain threshold and you don't mind self insuring if you
will for that, I don't think there's a problem at all.
The one of the things that you should consider is
that ask your agent to give you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
A look at the.

Speaker 5 (01:30:10):
Cost of both sides, because sometimes older cars also are
really inexpensive doing sure. So if you're only saving eighty bucks,
I think I would rather pay the eighty bucks than
hold on to the three grand, because you don't know
when somebody is going to steal your car.

Speaker 2 (01:30:25):
Yeah or something, Tim, do you have other cars on
the same policy.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
No, I've just got the one vehicle and that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Okay. Yeah, yeah, So, and I.

Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
Drive very little. You know, I'm a old guy, so
I don't get out on the road much.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:30:44):
If you're a guy who saves money, you got plenty
of money in the bank. You're willing to take the risk.
I think it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:30:50):
Yeah, okay, But the main thing is, maybe compare the
costs between going straight liuability with the umbrellas versus what
I'm paying now.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
You might be surprised at the difference. I was going
to say, it may just be so insignificant that you'd
want to just keep the full coverage. The real important thing,
which I'm glad that you're doing, is that your liability
limits are enough to even qualify to get an umbrella policy,
which for most carriers, I think is usually around the

(01:31:18):
two point fifty mark. And then and then you have
that umbrella above, so you're not going to be in
that position like the listener that we were talking about earlier,
where you know, God forbid something happens. It's you know,
the value of the vehicle is is nothing compared to
the overall potential issue that you could have, you know,
following that accident.

Speaker 3 (01:31:39):
So you know, on the hook for In other words, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
Exactly right, sir, You're exactly right. Hey, thanks for the question, Tim,
appreciate the call today.

Speaker 3 (01:31:46):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
Yeah, you're back, appreciate it. We're going to go next
to Oscar, who has another question about auto insurance. What's
going on? Oscar?

Speaker 16 (01:31:57):
Oh, similar to the gentleman is talked to you. I
have a two thousand and three oh watches see four
point thirty s Nick Lexus. However, I have some coverage,
but I have another power similar and I'd pay about

(01:32:25):
twenty eight hundred dollars a year for both of them. Boxes.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Hey, hey, Oscar, we're going to put you on hope
for just a second. We're having a hard time understanding
of their phone is very garbled. If you can try
to stand on one leg or go to a different
part of the house, we'll come right back to you
in just a second. We just can't hear what the
issue is, so we're going to go next to Tom,
who has a question about motorcycle insurance, and Oscar will
try to come right back to you in just a minute. Tom,

(01:32:57):
what's going on, Hey.

Speaker 18 (01:32:59):
Gentlemen, show really appreciate your information.

Speaker 2 (01:33:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 15 (01:33:04):
I wrote Harley's still do, but.

Speaker 18 (01:33:07):
Not as much in the nineties and insurance back then,
I had supplement to my employer, which was AFLAC, and
also PIP to the insurer. Then I got ran over
in two thousand and then those really helped contribute to
my medical bills. I don't know if PIP or AFLICK

(01:33:30):
are still in the picture for motorcycle riders.

Speaker 2 (01:33:34):
PIP has gone well. PIP was part of that no
fault that we voted out about twenty years ago. That
was called personal Injury Protection. That's what PIP stood for,
and that was the mechanism on your policy. And it
was particularly, you know, really unique on auto policies or
on motorcycle policies because many of the carriers wouldn't offer
PIP for motorcycle riders. So there were a couple out

(01:33:57):
there that did, and you were lucky enough to have one.
But we don't have PIP anymore now. Was your a
flag that's like a supplemental disability type policy?

Speaker 18 (01:34:06):
And that was through my employer? Okay, I work at
a hospital, so I heard lots of stories doctors hanging
out in the er that they knew I ride, and
they told me.

Speaker 15 (01:34:16):
That's what I should get.

Speaker 18 (01:34:18):
Luckily I did because I did end up getting hit
by a drunk driver.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
Gotcha cool? So what is your question today? Are you
looking for what the right coverage is writers?

Speaker 18 (01:34:29):
Is there something they can do for is it supplementary or.

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
DAN?

Speaker 9 (01:34:35):
What do you do with your protection?

Speaker 5 (01:34:37):
Yeah, the supplemental you would still buy through your provider
or your.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
Employer.

Speaker 5 (01:34:44):
But this also kind of ties back to medpay, so
you can also, you know, ramp up your medpay to
twenty five grand. It's it's not a duplicati affleck goes
a little bit further, but it will give you a
lot more latitude in your care and treatment.

Speaker 18 (01:34:59):
So what about using specific to a motorcycle rider? Because
when I went through my accident, Roy Romer had put
a tort in the law, and with my settlement, the
hospital ended up being able to take out how much
they I incurred while I was there out of my settlement.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
So that's a little They took out the amount of
the claim for the supplemental on your settlement.

Speaker 18 (01:35:29):
No, no, for the hospital bills that I incurred.

Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
Yeah, so that's actually exactly how it works. So and
that goes back to what I was talking about earlier.
When you incur bills as a result of an accident,
those are actually your bills. They are your responsibility. There's
no mechanism to just give them the name of the
AFOL party and all of a sudden have them build
that guy because he caused the accident. There's still your bills.

(01:35:55):
It's just that those bills constitute the damages that you
have the right to go after the at fault party for.
And a lot of people don't don't understand that. They
think and even hospitals kind of lead them to believe that, oh, yeah,
we'll just build the we'll just build the at fault
insurance company. Oh that's progressive. We'll send a bill to them.

(01:36:16):
Those bills never get paid, and so a smarter way
to happen are to handle your cases or just to
understand that up front and know that the better way
is to use every type of insurance that you have,
be it medical payments, coverage, be it your own private
health insurance, be it Medicare, Medicaid, your afflex, every single

(01:36:37):
thing that you have that covers you. You want to
deploy that in order to get the personal financial impact
of that accident down as low as possible for you.
And then at the end of the day, we'll go
after the at fault driver for the totality of your damage.
But those two are completely separate numbers. If you're able
to get the out of pocket on your down to

(01:37:00):
next to nothing, that doesn't mean that your damages are
any lower for the guy that caused all of the
need for that medical treatment and all of those bills
in the first place.

Speaker 15 (01:37:10):
Does that make sense, Yeah, it does.

Speaker 18 (01:37:12):
And I think I misspoke because I did get a
settlement from the other driver, okay, and the hospital took
the money off the top.

Speaker 2 (01:37:20):
Of that settlement, yes, sir, Yes.

Speaker 18 (01:37:22):
So it's like they double dip. They got the insurance
and they got my settlement money.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
Also, Yeah, that can actually happen. And you know, the
only benefit of that arrangement is if you use your
private health insurance and it gives you the ability to
reprice the medicals down to a lower contract amount, then
the actual expense of that medical treatment to you is

(01:37:47):
quite a bit lower than what the expense is going
to be to the at fault guy that we're going
after for your damages.

Speaker 9 (01:37:53):
Okay, So is that.

Speaker 18 (01:37:54):
Still a law that they can come after a motorcycles
if it's they get a settlement for their injury accident injury.

Speaker 2 (01:38:03):
It's not just get money. Yeah, it's not just motorcycles there, Tom,
it's it's everybody. Those health insurance companies have a right
to get repaid whenever they use that. So that's a
great topic. We're going to come back and visit about
sebrogation and how that actually works. We'll touch on that
in just a moment. We got to run to a
break right now, Tom, thank you for the call. We've

(01:38:24):
got Oscar still waiting, hopefully he's got his phone worked
out and Dave on the line. We'll get to in
just a moment. Hangk ty, guys, go with a sure thing.

Speaker 7 (01:38:35):
Denver's best roofer excel roofing dot com. You don't pay
a cent until you're content time for an insurance check
up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying
too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find
out now three O three seven seven to one help.

(01:38:57):
sixteen twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:39:04):
Two for here for the Troubleshooter Network. We are rapidly
moving through the afternoon. We are talking about all things

(01:39:25):
insurance today. Our guest in the studio is Dan Mahoney
with the Insurance Group of Denver. Dan's an independent agent,
so he's able to talk about I don't know how
many lines do you guys write for, like thirty different
companies or.

Speaker 5 (01:39:38):
Yeah, we probably have eight to ten what we considers
the standard market Travelers Hartford, Safego, and then we have
a whole nother set back end which are called access
and surplus or specialty carriers.

Speaker 2 (01:39:49):
Right, So I mean the advantage of an independent agent
versus somebody that is, you know, a single branded carrier.
I mean, are you often able to really put together
more you know, competitive packages for your your clients than
than those guys are Who do you think the proper

(01:40:10):
Let me put it differently, all right, who's your ideal client?
Who do you want to see coming through your doors?

Speaker 3 (01:40:16):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:40:17):
You know, auto and homeowner, somebody who wants to do
the right thing. Keep in mind, any income can be garnished.
Even if you don't have means that somebody can come
after you're still exposed. So we want people who want
to engage with us, not just somebody wants a price,
Because if you just want a price, you're you're never
going to get the right product and you're always gonna

(01:40:37):
be unhappy with what you bought. And then the Yeah,
everyone says insurance sucks and they hate it, and that's
wise because you're not buying what you think you're buying.

Speaker 2 (01:40:46):
Sure, no, it's it's absolutely a common sentiment. Dave, you've
got a question on insurance. Let's uh, let's see what
we can do for you there, Dave, go ahead.

Speaker 15 (01:40:57):
Hey, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 17 (01:40:58):
My question is I drive a company car one hundred
percent of the time, both for personal and for business.
And it's one hundred percent paid for by the company. Okay,
when I'm driving that at my personal time. Your discussion
has me wondering, like how safe I am if someone
is uninsured?

Speaker 11 (01:41:17):
You know.

Speaker 17 (01:41:18):
Oh, I was wondering if you could comment on that.

Speaker 5 (01:41:20):
Yeah, if your company's commercial policy allows you for personal use,
that coverage should extend over. An option that you can
do is what they call a non owned auto policy,
which basically structured like an autopolicy, just no car there.
They're actually very cheap to buy. It's also a great
alternative for folks that you know, living downtown Denver where

(01:41:44):
you don't have a car, you're riding scooters, you're taking
uber as, you're driving with friends.

Speaker 2 (01:41:48):
Did Dave, do you have any other cars that you
ensure in your household?

Speaker 17 (01:41:53):
I have a motorcycle, so I have a motorcycle policy.

Speaker 15 (01:41:59):
Okay, and that's say I don't want another car.

Speaker 3 (01:42:01):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:42:02):
So the important thing and what I was kind of
looking for there, is that even when you're in that
situation where the employer is providing you a vehicle and
you're authorized to drive it both personally and for the business,
is you know there are limits to what commercial policies
have for their employees, and you'd be surprised, but a
number of commercial policies don't really have uninsured motorists coverage.

(01:42:26):
They just view that coverage as being redundant because they think, well,
if my employee gets hurt, where comp is going to
cover them. But they don't really think about the circumstance
where the employee is not on the job but it's
still driving that vehicle, where it would not be a
comprolated coverage. And so I still think you need to
be thinking about uninsured motorist coverage and you know the

(01:42:48):
type of things that will stack on top of your
employer's coverage in the event that something happens and it
turns out that they have less than just phenomenal coverage.
And an owned policy is a perfect a non owned
policy is a perferfig way to do that. Even on
your your motorcycle policy, you may have the ability to
add that additional coverage that's not just motorcycle dependent, because

(01:43:09):
some carriers are a little weird about you know, medpay
and UM on motorcycle policies, and the law in Colorado
allows them to do that. But on the non owner's policy,
that Dan's talking about you can get you know, created
for not a lot of money.

Speaker 7 (01:43:24):
seven to one.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
Help.

Speaker 7 (01:43:44):
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:43:59):
With news need advice so you don't help Corn as
fast as we can, Shooter's gonna help, come Dix.

Speaker 4 (01:44:14):
He is the Troubleshooter Show. Now Tom Martine, Hey, welcome back.

Speaker 2 (01:44:21):
To the Troubleshooter Show. This is John Fuller filling in
for Tom Martino. I am a personal injury attorney in Denver, Colorado,
and have been a longtime contributor and supporter of the
Referral page and the Troubleshooter Page. And I'm here filling
in today and tomorrow and Friday. So you're gonna get
a whole bunch of me. But we are having a

(01:44:44):
great discussion today. We've got Dan Mahoney in the in
the studio. Dan is the owner of Insurance Group of Denver,
and he's an insurance agent. He's an independent insurance agent,
and so he's allowed us to have a whole bunch
of conversations from the perspective of the guy that advising
people on what insurance to buy and at the same
time me the guy that's dealing with the after effects

(01:45:07):
of that and how to work through claims and what's
really the appropriate amount of coverage and how it all works.
And so we've opened up the lines to your call.
So if you've had any issues where you're unsure about
your own insurance coverage, you've had a bad claims experience
because of the coverage that you had, or you're just
not sure how it all works between things like medpay

(01:45:27):
and liability and umbrellas and all of this stuff that
gets very confusing by all means, give us a call.
The number is three O three seven one three eight
two five five, and we are happy to work through
every one of those issues with you from both of
those perspectives and hopefully help answer you and a lot
of other listeners questions. We're going to go right to

(01:45:49):
the phones here. We're going to check in with Oscar.
Oscar was telling us about his insurance on his two
thousand and three Lexus and we had a little phone problem. Oscar,
are you still with us here for you?

Speaker 17 (01:46:01):
Hear me now?

Speaker 2 (01:46:01):
Yes, sir, you're coming through loud and clear. So how
can we help you today?

Speaker 16 (01:46:06):
Well, you have a previous callers use along the lines
which I'm going to ask about, and that is, uh,
should I drop the assurance on the waxes and maintain
full coverage on my my seventeen mansa?

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
Is it just the value of the Lexus that has
you thinking about doing that?

Speaker 16 (01:46:31):
Yeah, because Alan Edwins and whoever was between nine and
I just wonder if I should you go straight wi
bils here there's that issue.

Speaker 2 (01:46:47):
Yeah, Dan, I think that does go right down the
lines of the last you know the other color about.

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
That, But it's your pain threshold and also about you know,
getting a quote to see if it really makes sense financially.
Insurance is a little unique that you know, just because
you do something with one car, you think it might
impact half of your policy if you have two cars.

Speaker 2 (01:47:08):
It's not really the truth.

Speaker 5 (01:47:11):
Insurance is measuring a whole bunch of different components and
assigning risks to that. So even if you reduce use
in one car, oftentimes the other car that you have
on there might actually increase because you're shifting risk or
more use to that other vehicle.

Speaker 2 (01:47:25):
Would the caller be better off looking at raising deductibles
and stuff or maybe converting over to you know, uninsured
property coverage or something instead of comping collision or what
do you recommend there? You know, obviously keep all your
liability in place, and again it's just your.

Speaker 5 (01:47:43):
Your pain threshold what you can afford to lose, and
it may not be worth taking that risk either.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
Once you get the quotes back, Yeah, well, hey, thanks
for the call, Oscar. We appreciate it. We're going to
go next to John, who's been holding for a couple
of minutes. John, you have a question about auto insurance.
What is going on? John?

Speaker 15 (01:48:03):
Good show? Guys, I tuned in light, so I don't
know if you've addressed this issue or not. What if
you got a and this is not my circumstance, but
I was just curious, what if you've got a nineteen
year old kid, girl or guy, doesn't matter whether they
have a driver's license or a Colorado ID, and they
have no car, no insurance whatsoever. And they're renting these

(01:48:25):
scooters going around by coors Field, this, that and whatever.
And they lose control of their scooter or they're on
their scooter and they broadside a car, do damage to
the car, person may be injured, whatever. How that insurance handled.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
That's a great question. Is the nineteen year old still
living in your household.

Speaker 15 (01:48:45):
No no kid Whenever he needs anything, he gets rides
from friends, that type of stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:48:51):
Yeah, that's where that non owned auto policy comes and
play again. Right, tremendous amount of coverage on that and
they else that people don't think about is especially nineteen
year old, it's gonna be really cheap for him to
buy that as supposed to actually having a car in there.
And at some point when he goes to buy a car,
if he's had that policy in place for a few years,
when he's coming into the market, he's coming in as

(01:49:13):
a preferred buyer because he's had insurance in place.

Speaker 2 (01:49:15):
Because there's a track record as opposed to coming in
as not having insurance.

Speaker 5 (01:49:19):
Or uninsured, and he's probably gonna pay the difference anyway
by that time.

Speaker 2 (01:49:22):
Yes, sir John, But guys, what if.

Speaker 15 (01:49:24):
You got the nineteen year old and, like I said,
it's not my situation, but they just don't have insurance.
They can't afford it, they don't buy it, they don't
think they need it because they just ride scooters around
and then they friends give them rides to go to
the grocery store or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:49:39):
So is your question from the perspective of the guy's
car that gets hit.

Speaker 15 (01:49:43):
Yes, okay, how does he get his damages?

Speaker 2 (01:49:46):
Yeah, I'll tell you how he looks to his or.

Speaker 15 (01:49:49):
Whether it's does that go on under the uninsured motors
part or what?

Speaker 2 (01:49:53):
Yes, that's exactly right. That's a great question. So it's
just like any other accident where you're hit by somebody
that doesn't have insurance. You're gonna look to your medical
payments coverage, You're gonna look to your uninsured motorist coverage,
and you're gonna try to you know, you're gonna try
to piece together some damages there under your own policy,
which which you know is a crappy deal, and you're

(01:50:15):
gonna probably have to pay a deductible for your property
getting fixed to you know, to fix your car door
where the guy put a big dinger in it and stuff.
But but I mean, that's why we have insurances for people.
Whether it's a guy on a scooter or a guy
in a car that has no coverage, or somebody that
stole the vehicle and and there's no coverage. I mean,
there's a thousand circumstances where the guy that causes the

(01:50:38):
damage is not covered. Dimitri Okay, John, do you edicated me?

Speaker 15 (01:50:43):
I think I heard this right. I have a couple
million dollar umbrella policy, but I don't have that under
the uninsured mot uninsured motors portion.

Speaker 2 (01:50:52):
Yes, sir, have you have you looked into getting that?

Speaker 15 (01:50:56):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:50:57):
Have you looked into getting that extra?

Speaker 15 (01:50:58):
Um?

Speaker 2 (01:50:59):
Writer?

Speaker 15 (01:50:59):
I think I'm gonna call my agent today after I get.

Speaker 2 (01:51:02):
Off one with you guys. There's a lot of carriers.

Speaker 15 (01:51:04):
Has ever offered it or even thought about it. I
always thought, oh, I have two million dollar unbrother policies
my wife and I and you know we're covered. We
don't have any kids in the household anymore. You are
not alone, and you want to pay the additional amount
and get it for the because what is about thirty
three thirty seven percent of people driving around without car insurance.

Speaker 2 (01:51:24):
Yes, that's exactly right. So what you're going to find
out there. And Dan was just telling me that this
morning that a lot of the carriers now they don't
want to ensure that extra risk for the uninsured motors coverage.
But I can tell you that I would shop around
on that basis alone. So if my carrier didn't offer
that on an umbrella, I would go find a different

(01:51:44):
carrier that did.

Speaker 19 (01:51:46):
And there's also specialty carriers that will do it, specialty carriers,
So just the UMBRESSI all they're really concerned about is
that you have the requisite amount of coverage down below
in order to qualify to get the umbrella above.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
So if your carrier doesn't offer that, then I mean
for the amount of money, it's it's pennies to change
that coverage over to additional un for you and your family,
and I think it's well worth every penny.

Speaker 15 (01:52:13):
Okay, Wow, you guys are very much, very well educated
and appreciated.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
Thank you, sir, appreciate the call. Yes to me.

Speaker 6 (01:52:20):
A couple of comments about his call. I have a
feeling he was asking more about the property damage caused
by the scooter rider and his umbro is not going
to help him, and you and my our mind is.

Speaker 2 (01:52:31):
Not going to help him.

Speaker 6 (01:52:32):
So I'm wondering because the scooter is not likely to
do a whole lot of medical kind of damage to
the driver of the vehicle, right, It's more likely a
big dent. So does the scooter company itself have insurance
that extends in these cases in the same way. For example,
a car rental company is not going to let you
take the car off the lot unless you either buy

(01:52:53):
their insurance or have your own. Are the scooter companies
bound by any of those requirements?

Speaker 2 (01:52:59):
I think that's kind of wild, Leon. I don't think
many of them are dimitri most of them have. I mean,
if you've ever rented one of those scooters, you would
know this, and I have not either. But I did
look hard at a case one time where a guy
had been injured, and I was shocked at the length
of the contract that you have to just scroll through

(01:53:19):
and agree to, which nobody reads before they agree to it.
But you scroll through it super fast and get down
to the bottom. And I agree that's absolutely binding. And
what you will find in those is that they disclaim
liability for anything for anything.

Speaker 6 (01:53:36):
But that contract was agreed to by the renter of
the scooter. But if I'm walking down the street that's right.
A scooter rider who's got a head full of dope
right causes serious injury.

Speaker 2 (01:53:48):
There's no state requirement that the scooter company maintained that insurance.
So if the driver of it says I understand that
I am liable for these risks and I agree to
be responsible, then that may be your only avenue. Go
back to the caller. Your nineteen year old kid that
has no assets, it's living in an apartment that you know,
has no car, no money, whatever, that may be your

(01:54:09):
only source of recovery. So we're right back to where
we started, which is using your own comping collision or
using your own you know, you say, well, it's not
likely to be injuries. Well maybe, but maybe it is.
Maybe they swerve to keep from hitting the scooter guy
that ran out in front of him, and they hit
a pole or a building, and then we do have injuries,

(01:54:30):
but still no insurance.

Speaker 6 (01:54:31):
And if I'm a pedestrian on the sidewalk that gets
run over and injured, then is there any case to
be made like this, Hey, that scooter company should not
have given this guy a motorized vehicle that he took
on the sidewalk and ran me over.

Speaker 2 (01:54:45):
Yeah, there's a case to be made. But is there
coverage to be afforded. That's a tricky deal. Let me
tell you, man, these these scooter companies, you will find
that they are so mired in different layers of corporate
shield and stuff that you may find that you've got
to find and figure out how to serve process on
a company in China to actually get service a process.

(01:55:07):
It's in federal court, it gets removed. It's a mess.
And so again, there are circumstances where the only prudent
course of action is for you to make sure that
you're covered enough so that whatever happens to you and
your family, you know that you've got that protection. And
one of those ways is through just like the caller
just had, having enough uninsured motorist coverage, you know, with

(01:55:31):
the um writer, so that you and your family is protected.
That's the only way I know is to have enough
that protects me, because I don't count on the other
guy having anything. So we're going to move along here
we have, John, did that answer your question?

Speaker 9 (01:55:50):
It was right.

Speaker 15 (01:55:51):
I was more worried about the property damage. Okay, so
it was more you know, who's going to fix the
person's car?

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
Yeah, and who's going to pay for it? It's going
to be you.

Speaker 15 (01:56:00):
Guys said, they don't, you know, can they give a
guy to riding a scooter a d u I test.

Speaker 2 (01:56:04):
Or Yeah, they sure can. They can if your bike, Yeah,
and your your bike or your horse. I know buddy's
got a got a DUI on the back of a
mule one time. But but yeah, you're right. Comping collision.
It's your own insurance. That's going to be your only avenue.
You can go through the guy in small claim's court
and and try to get you know, get payments on that,

(01:56:25):
but it it just comes back to you protecting you
and and you know, unfortunately that's just one of those things.
So Hey, appreciate the call, John. We've got another couple
of calls lined up. We'll get to right after the break.
Hang on, just a second, go.

Speaker 7 (01:56:47):
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Speaker 2 (01:57:06):
Help.

Speaker 7 (01:57:06):
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:57:23):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller. Here we are wrapping
up the last half an hour or so here of
the Troubleshooter Show. I am a personal injury attorney. Today's
show has kind of evolved into all Things about Insurance show,
which is very cool because we've we've been able to
talk about some things that we just don't ever, you know,
run into, except when we have these crazy discussions. And

(01:57:45):
we're fortunate enough to have Dan Mahoney in the house
today and Dan is with the Insurance Group of Denver.
You can reach Dan at at Igdenver dot com or
seven two oh four three six one nine nine zero.
Dan's an independent insurance agent, so he represents a whole
litany of companies out there that none of which are
on the sign above the door. He's not a branded

(01:58:07):
like a Farmer's or an all state, you know rep.
So he's going to be able to give you the
benefit of knowing a zillion different companies and what they
offer and how their coverage might best suit you, and
so at least if you're considering a new policy for
your family, it might be well worth your while to
go sit down with Dan and kind of run through
what your options are. We've got a few callers on
the line. We're going to go to Steve at this point.

(01:58:29):
Steve's got a question about auto and home insurance. What
is going on, Steve?

Speaker 11 (01:58:34):
Yeah, I was just interested. I'm retired houses paid for
around a million dollars, and I was just kind of
interested to know what are you what's your take there,
combined the two of you guys in terms of what
kind of coverage for the car and for the home,

(01:58:54):
and do you recommend the umbrella policy. I talked with
my agent the other day and they said an umbrella
policy for me at a million dollars would be about
a thousand a year, and that sounds like a lot,
you know, if you think of it over twenty years
or so. But I'm curious, what do you recommend for

(01:59:17):
people like myself, Dan, what do.

Speaker 2 (01:59:19):
You what do you do with a call like this?

Speaker 5 (01:59:23):
Obviously there's a lot more information I need to know,
but basics are you know, you're showing your home, you
should have at least a five hundred thousand dollars liability
Your auto should be at least.

Speaker 2 (01:59:34):
Two fifty five hundred. For umbrellas.

Speaker 5 (01:59:39):
John might be able to chime in on this, but
I always tell clients that they should probably buy an
umbrella that's roughly equivalent to their assets. Basically, I look
at it as low hanging fruit. So if John's ever
enlisted by someone that you might hurt, he's looking at assets.

Speaker 2 (01:59:56):
John knows that going against.

Speaker 5 (01:59:58):
Travelers hard for safego who whoever it is, for a
three million dollar umbrella is a lot easier to play
in court than going after you individually because you're a
person solutely.

Speaker 2 (02:00:09):
There's a nice deflection there in.

Speaker 5 (02:00:11):
That Umbrellas again range between probably two hundred and twelve hundred.
It's your underlying coverages and any other risk factors that
are going to affect that cost.

Speaker 2 (02:00:24):
I was going to ask, like, Steve, what do you
have for your liability limits? Already? Like are you.

Speaker 3 (02:00:30):
Getting a question, how I met.

Speaker 11 (02:00:33):
One hundred for auto one hundred and three hundred.

Speaker 2 (02:00:36):
Okay, So it might be the case that the reason
that quote sounds pretty high is that they first got
to get you up to that two fifty five hundred
level before you're able to qualify for an umbrella. That's
that's yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:00:48):
And actually if you move your auto too to fifty
five hundred, the umbrella actually will probably drop.

Speaker 2 (02:00:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:00:53):
So I kind of think of your auto policy or
your home policies like the deductible on your umbrella, right,
So the higher that deductible is, the less the umbrella
is going to cost.

Speaker 11 (02:01:04):
Okay, that makes sense. And then do you try to
get the umbrella to match your money that you have
in the bank or your total net worth including your home?
So where do you try to get that?

Speaker 2 (02:01:16):
So I can kind of speak to that as a
guy that represents plaintiffs only. So my clients are people
that have been injured and are going after people like
you that happen to cause an accident, and we're evaluating
what to do about our damages. And so I can
tell you from my perspective. You know, number one, I've
got to have a client who's got damages that are
that are significant. You know, if we're talking of fifteen

(02:01:38):
twenty thousand dollars claim, we don't even have this conversation.
But if we have a client that say, got a
million dollars of damages, and I mean really a million dollars,
they may have half a million dollars of medical bills
and a couple of years of lost wages, and they're
you know, they're going to have a lifetime of care.
I mean, these are real damages that they're going to
have to survive the rest of their life on. And

(02:02:01):
so it's real money. When they're looking at somebody like you,
they're evaluating, or I'm evaluating, does this make sense? Is
this guy appropriately insured? Is his insurance policy the most
valuable asset that he has? Or did this guy voluntarily
choose to buy only enough insurance to satisfy the state

(02:02:25):
limits or something such that his personal assets are more valuable.
And I can tell you you don't get to go
after both. You know it's going to be a well,
with very few exceptions, you don't get to go after both.
Most of the time, the insurance company is going to
mandate that you agree to a release before they'll kick
over those policy limits short of going absolutely to trial

(02:02:47):
and getting a judgment. But if given that choice between
taking the insurance policy and giving the release or not
taking that money and going the long way of getting
a judgment, dealing with the uncertainties of that and the
expense and time, and then trying to go after and
collect it, there's got to be a huge difference between
your assets and the amount of insurance for that to

(02:03:09):
be a worthwhile venture. Does that make sense?

Speaker 11 (02:03:12):
Yeah, it does make sense.

Speaker 2 (02:03:13):
So you know, talk to your agent about about up
in those limits to the required amount that gets you
into the ability to shop for multiple umbrella policies and
then and then give a call to somebody like Dan
to say, run it up the flagpole and just see
what's out there in available coverage and do your price shopping.
Then I think you'll be you'll be surprised that it

(02:03:34):
may actually make really good sense for you.

Speaker 11 (02:03:36):
Okay, all right, good, Thank thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (02:03:38):
Hey, I appreciate the call.

Speaker 12 (02:03:39):
Dan.

Speaker 6 (02:03:39):
How can he get a hold of you? What's the
good number for this guy to call you? Our phone number, our.

Speaker 5 (02:03:48):
Entry number, if you will not a direct number, the
base number seven two zero four to three six one
nine nine zero. That's seven to two oh four to
three six one nine nine zero. Or you can visitor
webs said ig Like Insurance Group and Denver Igdenver dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:04:04):
Cool. Uh, Patrick, We're gonna be right back after this
break and we will take your call first up on
the other side, so everybody, hang on, give us a call.
We'll be happy to work through your issues as well.
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (02:04:21):
dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:04:25):

Speaker 7 (02:04:29):
Wait time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man

Speaker 2 (02:04:57):
All right, all right, all right, good afternoon. You're back
live at the Troubleshooter Network. I'm John Fuller. As you
all know, I'm a personal injury attorney here in town,
and we are talking today about insurance and mostly auto
insurance and stuff. We did have a question from the
YouTube listeners about, you know, your short term care or
your long term care policies that you hear some companies

(02:05:20):
offer out there. Dan, What experience do you have with
those with those policies. What are things that the listeners
need to look out for as they're considering that kind
of coverage. Yeah, great question.

Speaker 5 (02:05:33):
Just to disclose also is that in the state of
Colorado you have to have a special designation to sell
long term care. I surrendered my designation just because the
market is narrowing quite rapidly. A lot of companies are
no longer playing in that space. Short term care is
usually something you're going to get from your employer. It's
going to do that just short term care. Long term

(02:05:54):
care is looking at assisting as you get older, if
you have medical issues you need a lot of treatment
around the clock. That's usually where that's going to kick
in the cost of the policies. They're not cheap, but
they are very good. It's a great way to protect
an estate and assets. Again, not a lot of companies

(02:06:15):
do it anymore, and you need to go through someone
who still has that designation as an option. There are
some term life policies that have what they call accelerated benefits,
and some of those companies will allow you you to
use the proceeds of that policy pre disease to pay

(02:06:37):
for things like critical care other more expensive end of
life treatment options. But they're usually only giving you seventy
cents on the dollar the benefit of the policy. But
it's a nice workaround. It's easier to underwrite, maybe less
expensive to buy.

Speaker 2 (02:06:55):
Okay, Color, If you have any more specific questions, to
give a shout and we'll try to work through that. Patrick,
you've been holding for a while with a question about
auto insurance. What is going on? Patrick?

Speaker 11 (02:07:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 20 (02:07:08):
Hi, So I have a twenty fifteen Ford Mustang and
my insurance Progressive.

Speaker 4 (02:07:15):
I had it.

Speaker 2 (02:07:15):
I bought it.

Speaker 20 (02:07:16):
It was nice, look new, everything was good on the body.
And then about a year later, so I bought it
in June of twenty three, and then about August of
twenty four, the back quarter panel started peeling off and
it looks like someone bondoed a previous repair from a
previously accident on it. And I tried to put in

(02:07:36):
an acclaim and they said it is not covered.

Speaker 2 (02:07:41):
Yeah, and they're saying that because the damage didn't occur
while you owned the vehicle or pre pre existed the
ownership of the vehicle. Is that is that what they're
telling you.

Speaker 3 (02:07:53):
Pretty much. I'm just making sure that's accurate.

Speaker 2 (02:07:56):
And that's I mean, that's not that's not play in dirty.
I mean that that's the insurance company saying, you know,
we're going to ensure against any risk from this date
going forward. We're not going to ensure against anything that's
not yet discovered, you know, So that I have to
say I'd de side with the insurance company on that one.

(02:08:19):
Your recourse in that situation is always going to be
looking back towards a person that you bought the vehicle from,
or the dealership, and whether or not there was full
disclosure of the damage. I mean, those kind of areas
I think would be more fruitful for you than to
look at the insurance company. They're just going to say
we ensured the vehicle. There's not a covered event that

(02:08:40):
has happened here that would invoke our coverage that would
allow you to fix the body, repair or whatever would happen.

Speaker 5 (02:08:47):
So as an alternate, something you might want to consider
is if you pull a carfax and you find the
shop that actually did the work, you might be able
to go back to them and see if there's a
warranty that will apply. Oftentimes, insurance companies, the contract or
the shops that they use, will guarantee the work. But
it's only the life that you own the vehicle, right,
so there might be a limitation to it. But if

(02:09:09):
it's a good shop, republe shop, they did something wrong,
they might get you in and do something for you.

Speaker 20 (02:09:14):
Go ahead, Patrick, Yeah, that's correct, because Calper Collision is
the one who did it, and they did it in
New Mexico. But yeah, as I read their warranty, it's
only for the person who owned the car at that time.

Speaker 2 (02:09:26):
Correct. How extensive is the damage, Patrick.

Speaker 20 (02:09:31):
I got a quote for it. They want forty six
hundred dollars longer because it needs a whole new quarter panel.

Speaker 2 (02:09:36):
Holy moly, I wouldn't think a quarter panel would cost
that much. Do you know how long ago Collision did
the repair?

Speaker 20 (02:09:45):
Yeah, they did it, I think late or early twenty twenty,
early twenty twenty three, I believe maybe late twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (02:09:57):
I think I'd go argue with them because body works
should last long. Absolutely it should absolutely, yeah, warrant.

Speaker 20 (02:10:04):
They literally just bonded it and painted it and called
it good.

Speaker 2 (02:10:08):
You know, Caliber is a big operation. I mean, they
they they're not insignificant. They've got a presence I think
in probably just about every state out there, and many
of them in Colorado. I mean, I kind of think
that I agree that they should. You should be able
to have a hard conversation with them about, you know,
at least compromising the cost of the repair, because certainly,

(02:10:32):
you know, whoever paid them for the first repair didn't
really get the benefit of the bargain out of it.
It was that warranty that you were buying and expecting
to get coverage on. So I don't know that's going
to be a tough one, Patrick, but I don't think
Progressive is going to be on the hook for it.
And if you subsequently have an accident and it damages
that quarter panel, the risk you run is that they're

(02:10:54):
going to say, well, that was previously damaged and we're
only going to pay for our apportionment of the personage
that it was damaged more. And then you're gonna be
you know, you're gonna be kind of double double victimized
there if you will, for lack of a.

Speaker 20 (02:11:09):
Better word, Okay, if I got it properly repaired, like
a whole new quarter panel and all that, would they
then yeah, maybe cover it?

Speaker 2 (02:11:19):
Yeah, absolutely they would because because once it's back to
being all repaired, it's in the exact state that they
insured it in the first place. And as soon as
you actually had a covered event, that insurance policy would
kick in and then they would have to do what
they have to do.

Speaker 20 (02:11:36):
So yeah, perfect, thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (02:11:39):
You bet. So, we still have half of Dimitri's question
over here, and we were just getting into the the
uninsured motors side of the game in the limited time
that we have left, and we're gonna have to go
to break here again in a second. But Dan, I
would like you to talk about, you know, uninsured motorists

(02:12:00):
coverage and talk a little bit about those uninsured you know,
writers that you can kick onto umbrella policies and how
that actually works and why it might be advantageous to
try to get that on your policy and whether or
not what was the word that Dimitri used, whether his

(02:12:21):
coverage was eliminated or amplified. Amplified that was the right word, sorry,
whether his coverage was amplified by the president or lack
thereof of the subpart of the secondary paragraph of uninsured
motors coverage.

Speaker 6 (02:12:33):
From the main overwriting perspective that I learned from John
over the month. I want to insure myself, right, I
want to buy insurance from me.

Speaker 2 (02:12:42):
Right, And that's what you should do exactly. All right,
We're going to address that question right as soon as
we come back.

Speaker 7 (02:12:49):
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Time for an insurance checkup. No obligation comparison call Compass
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(02:13:11):
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Speaker 2 (02:13:27):
All right, all right, all right, welcome back to the
Tom Martino Show, the Troubleshooter Network. This is John Fuller.
We are wrapping up our day here. We've got just
a few minutes and we wanted to end on a
high note with Dan discussing, you know, umbrellas, and then
particularly the ability to add a um writer to an
umbrella and why a party may want to do that.

(02:13:50):
So from your perspective as an agent, and give me
your best shot, right.

Speaker 5 (02:13:54):
So, an umbrella, just think of it as an umbrella.
It sits over your underlying policies. Underlying policies actually require
a certain amount of coverage already being written in them.

Speaker 2 (02:14:04):
The umbrella is going to act essentially as a multiplier
of whatever that underlying number is. So just on liability, just.

Speaker 5 (02:14:12):
On liability, nothing else, and that includes the uninsured motorist.
Some companies will do an endorsement for uninsured motorists on
an umbrella, meaning what meaning that there's not a lot
out there?

Speaker 2 (02:14:28):
No meaning that an endorsement means, oh, I actually extend
the um to the limits of the umbrella. Right.

Speaker 5 (02:14:34):
So, now, in this situation, if you have the UM
of two fifty five hundred, you have injuries exceeding over
a million dollars. You can't mow your own lawn anymore.
You need help, go to the bathroom. All that you
need a lot more money. You can go back now
into your own umbrella, trigger that endorsement, and then you
can go after your own umbrella for that those funds

(02:14:57):
that you need for.

Speaker 6 (02:15:00):
Is that an addition to the auto policy or does
that become the new limit? Okay?

Speaker 5 (02:15:05):
In this case, it's going to become a new limit.
The umbrella will multiply the rest, but the personal injury doesn't.

Speaker 6 (02:15:12):
Usually, So I wouldn't collect one and a half million
with a million dollar un brell policy. I would just
collect the one million.

Speaker 2 (02:15:19):
No, you would.

Speaker 5 (02:15:21):
You would bet you would collect from different sources. So
your underlying policy with a five hundred your umbrella, if
you have the endorsetion, okay, another million, okay, so you
still would get one point five.

Speaker 2 (02:15:29):
Very cool, thank you. Yeah, so it's a it's a
cool thing, it actually. I mean listen, umbrellas are only
for liability. That's all they do is extend the liability.
They don't protect you or your family for anything until
you get into a claim that would trigger your uninsured
motorist coverage. Okay. And if you have a traditional umbrella,

(02:15:50):
what you'll find is that you have a in your
case a half a million dollars of uninsured motorists. But
you turn to your umbrella that you think is wonderful
when you find out that it has no additional coverage
for the underlying uninsured motorist portion of your policy.

Speaker 6 (02:16:05):
Unless I specifically bought the correct kind of umbrella. And
what percentage of umbrella I didn't know about this until yesterday.
So what percentage of umbrellas are there are actually.

Speaker 2 (02:16:16):
Do what I wanted to do? Almost none?

Speaker 5 (02:16:19):
Yeah, I can only think of two or three carriers
that will even offer it. Oftentimes people don't want to
buy it. I actually just did when I think this week,
I think it added two hundred and sixty dollars to
the policy to add the uninsured.

Speaker 2 (02:16:35):
Are you saying almost none of it added automatically or
none of them offer it period? A lot of carriers
just won't even offer it. But you do still have
those that do specialty lines and stuff, and then we
can also go to specialty lines if a carrier doesn't.
I mean, is that a type of coverage that you
recommend for your customers? Yes, you know, insurance.

Speaker 5 (02:16:54):
When you start talking about endorsements, you're starting to talk
about percentages on percentages, risk upon risk.

Speaker 3 (02:17:01):
And.

Speaker 5 (02:17:03):
Yeah, at a certain point you can be over insured.
So you know, if you're just worried about protecting assets,
you've got enough assets you can take care of yourself.
Something horrible did happen, maybe it's not a big deal
to you. But for two hundred and sixty eight bucks
and you have all those assets, yeah, you can afford it.

Speaker 2 (02:17:19):
So why not? Well, I you know, I look at
it from a little different perspective because I'm representing people
that that all of a sudden, through no fault of
their own, are are handed this bill of goods. Okay,
and that bill of goods may include a lifetime of
medical care. It may which maybe they have great health

(02:17:39):
insurance for, but that's really difficult to parlay out into
a lifetime of care. Typically people end up on public
assistance at some point in that process, Medicare, Medicaid through
disability and that kind of stuff. But it's the income thing.
If you're talking a high earning you know, somebody that's
making and I don't mean like super high, but if

(02:17:59):
somebody's making you know, one hundred maybe two hundred thousand
dollars and they're forty years old with a couple of
little kids in the house, and all of a sudden
they're unable to work for the balance of their life.
You're talking a gran amount of money, So I don't
care how much money you've accumulated at that stage in

(02:18:19):
your life, it's probably not going to be enough. And
that's also a good reason why to buy it. As
John is saying, well, yeah, no, that's why I'm saying
it's mandatory. I believe so strongly in it. If my
carrier told me that they didn't offer a um writer
on top of the umbrella that I have, I wouldn't
buy it from them. I would go to a different carrier,

(02:18:40):
and I would go to another one, and another one
and another one until I found that that writer. That's
just me, but I see the effects of this every
day in my practice, where we have so many cases
where we have bad damages and not enough coverage. And
so sometimes you hear Mark talking about all the time
John got limits and John did this, it's like great.

(02:19:02):
Sometimes limits is still a slap in the face and
an insult because you're not even close to made whole.
And a limit is a limit, and that's why it's
called limit is a limit. So listen, we're out of
town today or out of time today, Come back tomorrow,
we'll be doing this all over again. My name is
John Fuller. Save all your troubles for us. Thanks for listening.

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