A month ago was the Federal tax-filing deadline for most Americans. In 1913 when it was created the US tax code was only 400 pages long. One hundred years later it was nearly 74,000. Is it any wonder that last year 80% of us used a tax preparer or computer software to determine our taxes? I wouldn't be surprised if most professional tax preparers head out on vacation starting April 16th.
Fortunately for them, and your clients as well, calculating the cost of their trip for Travel Insurance through Travel Insured International is a whole lot easier. Basically it comes down to things that are prepaid and non-refundable.
How do I calculate trip cost for each traveler?
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Include pre-paid, non-refundable costs listed below that you would lose if you had to cancel on day of departure.
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Children 17 and under may be insured at no extra charge or at a discounted price but it is still necessary to include their trip costs.
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Airfare: Cost for each person as itemized individually on airline tickets.
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Accommodations: Accommodation expenses that are not itemized individually, are to be evenly split among all travelers.
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Cruise: Cost for each person as itemized individually on cruise receipt.
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Rental Car: Assign whole cost to person who paid for rental. (All licensed drivers on rental contract are still covered.)
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Meals and Entertainment: Cost for each person (pre-paid, non-refundable only).
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Please list travelers with different addresses on separate applications.
To learn more visit Big "I" Markets and take a tour of Travel Insurance.
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Social Media and Disaster Recovery - Agility Webinar
During an emergency, it's imperative that those within your organization know how to communicate effectively. This need to communicate has led to increasing use of social media platforms during recent disasters across the globe. Join Agility Recovery as we dive into the steps and best practices for developing your organization's strategy for crisis communications utilizing social media.
Join Agility for a free "Social Media and Disaster Recovery" webinar on Wednesday, June 10th, 2015 from 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT.
Discussion will focus on best practices and simple steps any organization can take to build their presence in these channels, and ways to bolster your crisis communications plan by integrating social media as a central element.
REGISTER
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ACT presents "The Customer Experience Journey"
June 22, 2015; 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
$59 - Click here to register
On Monday, June 22nd Claudia McClain and Judy DeLaRosa, the co-chairs for Agents Council for Technology ('ACT') 'Customer Experience' Work Group will present a webinar to walk through ACT's "CX Recommendations" document and discuss the top implementations within each phase that can help agents plan and elevate their technology strategy and explain the critical role Customer Experience plays in every consumer and client interaction. Don't miss a chance to review and refine your customer service experience journey and learn more about resources for your agency.
Other upcoming VU webinars include the free webinar on the Biggest Homeowners Insurance Change in 40 Years Explained, Data Breach, The New Wild West? Cyber Risk Exposures and Insurance and Beyond the Basics: Emerging Issues Personal Lines Issues. VU webinar questions can be sent to bestpractices@iiaba.net.
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Remember that you can view the following webinars 24/7 by checking out the BIM Webinar Library. To do that log onto Big "I" Markets and click on "Publications".
- Personal Liability Trends - Fireman's Fund
- TravPay
- Commercial Lessor's Risk
- Affluent Homeowners
- Travelers Select Products (series)
- Travel Insurance
- Community Banks
- XS Flood
- Real Estate E&O
- RLI Personal Umbrella
- Affluent Homeowner
- "Oh, by the way...Flood Sale"
- Habitational
- Non-standard Homeowner
- Student Housing
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BIM WEBSITE TRAINING WEBINAR
For all you folks who recently registered for Big "I" Markets, remember you can participate in a webinar from the comfort of your office to help you learn how to navigate around the system. Every Thursday at 2:00 p.m. EDT we'll show you how to navigate the Big "I" Markets platform, including how to submit a quote! A recording of this webinar can be found under "Publications" after logging into Big "I" Markets.
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Oracle of Omaha and On-line Workers' Compensation
By Paul Buse, President of Big I Advantage
On May 1-2, 40,000 people went to Omaha, Nebraska to see what pearls of wisdom can be obtained from one of the world's most successful investors. Of course, as insurance people, you know Warren Buffett got much of his original investment mojo from insurance when he bought National Indemnity and made it a part of his heretofore textile business. So, whenever insurance is mentioned at the annual meeting, insurance geek ears perk up and two weeks ago was no exception. In the play-by-play summary in the Wall Street Journal you can see the workers' compensation reference. Below that, of some basics on the Berkshire Hathaway companies presence in workers' compensation. When a fast growing and more profitable segment of Berkshire Hathaway makes a possible distribution move, everyone is interested.
WSJ Blog=> "Buffett acknowledges that Berkshire is 'experimenting with online workers comp' and says it's part of an effort at Berkshire to find out how people want to buy their insurance. He notes that Berkshire-owned Geico has adapted over the years. It's now the number two car insurer in the U.S."
Click Graph for larger version
Source: Wall Street Journal and A.M. Best Aggregates & Averages, "2014 Pure Loss - 50 Leading Groups By Line"
P.S. to Last Week: Not much came back from TFT readers on anyone writing non-owner auto, renters with or without an umbrella. It appears most non-owned auto policies are written to fill SR-22 and other financial responsibility requirements.
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Here are the top three items that got BIM agents clicking from our last edition... see what you missed!
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Biggest Homeowners Insurance Change in 40 Years Explained
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Real Life Personal Umbrella Claims Examples
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Fraudulent Funds Transfer-What You Need to Know
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Being prepared can be as simple as a small first-aid kit to an underground shelter stocked with months' worth of food & water. It's a good idea to be prepared for when bad things happen; smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, flashlights, and a list of emergency numbers are a good start for the home. A kit with jumper-cables, blanket, gloves, water, a set of simple tools, flares, can of fix-a-flat, rain poncho, duct tape, etc. for each car is a smart move. Events like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy have shown it can take days for emergency services to get up and running for even basic needs like clean water. If you don't want to tear up the lawn you can still put together or buy a disaster survival kit with several days of preserved food, water, medicines, tarp, flashlight/light sticks, rope, duct tape, portable radio, batteries, etc.
During an emergency, it's imperative that those within your organization know how to communicate effectively. This need to communicate has led to increasing use of social media platforms during recent disasters across the globe. Join Agility Recovery as we dive into the steps and best practices for developing your organization's strategy for crisis communications utilizing social media.
TECHNICAL CORNER
