Can you Insure my...

For most of us, our house is our largest investment. It is also our home – the center of our daily lives. As such, your home deserves the right insurance coverage and the right company to make sure it is properly protected. What happens if your home is destroyed but the cost to rebuild exceeds your policy limit? Some policies will go above and beyond the stated dwelling limit. Will you be able to replace all of your personal property? Some items, such as jewelry, require special attention. Is your garage full of “toys”? Let us review your coverage with you.

If your home is a condominium, you have special needs, too. Be sure that your property interest in your condo is adequately covered.

We represent many fine companies that offer great homeowners and condominium programs, including West Bend Mutual, General Casualty, Auto-Owners, Hastings Mutual, IMT, Integrity Mutual, and MFM. Why so many companies? To allow us to find the right match for your needs.

Do you have a “home away from home”? Whether it’s a basic hunting shack, a quaint cabin in the woods, or a true lake-front estate, we can help. It may be best to package your secondary home along with your primary home. Or, it may be better to split the coverage. We’ll find the program that works for you.

Our primary group of personal lines companies (West Bend Mutual, General Casualty, Auto-Owners, Hastings Mutual, IMT, Integrity Mutual, and MFM) can accommodate your primary home and cabin together. Have a mobilehome in the woods? Foremost, the mobilehome specialists, may be the company for you. Have a hunting shack that’s truly “rustic”? We have specialty dwelling programs for properties that don’t fit into our preferred programs.

Maybe your cabin isn’t a cabin at all, but a winter home in Arizona. We can help you there, too. Leitch Insurance Agency is licensed in Arizona and can insure your home and autos there too!

Maybe your home isn’t a house. If you rent, a renters policy is needed to insure your personal property. Renters insurance also provides personal liability coverage. What if you (or your neighbor in the building) have a fire and are forced to move to a hotel or another apartment while repairs are being made? A renter’s policy will provide coverage for those additional expenses.

Adding renters insurance to your portfolio can also reduce your auto insurance premiums. Package discounts make it very affordable.

Our preferred programs from West Bend Mutual, General Casualty, Auto-Owners, Hastings Mutual, IMT, Integrity Mutual, and MFM can be tailored to fit your needs. Are you renting a mobilehome? Coverage from Foremost, the mobilehome specialists, may be right for you.

From a small hobby farm to a large dairy, we’d love to insure your farm. Outstanding programs from Hastings Mutual, Auto-Owners, and American Reliable are available. Have a love for horses? You have special liability needs, and we can accommodate them. Large-scale dairy operation? Let Dave Black, our farm specialist, help. With his farming experience, he can help you arrange the proper coverage.

Your home may be your biggest investment, but your cars may create your largest insurance exposure. Car accidents can lead to serious injury, which requires serious coverage. What limits should you carry? How much is enough? These are questions that you need to answer for yourself, but we can help illustrate how affordable it is to move to higher limits.

Have a good driving record? Our preferred programs from West Bend Mutual, General Casualty, Auto-Owners, Hastings Mutual, IMT, Integrity Mutual, and MFM will provide an array of options for you.

Have a “lead foot” or prior accidents? We have more flexible programs for you from Victoria, Mendota, Deerbrook, Acuity, and Drive Insurance by Progressive.

From cruisers to sport bikes, motorcycles are a passion for many. If you are a Harley owner, you know this to be particularly true. Maybe you didn’t stop with just the bike. Custom paint? Chrome? LOTS of chrome? Make sure it is properly covered.

We represent several companies that know motorcycles and insure them well. Victoria, Foremost, and Drive Insurance have free-standing programs that are very competitive. If you have your home and auto with General Casualty or West Bend Mutual, we can add your bike to your package as well.

Maybe your baby isn’t a baby at all – perhaps it’s a 57 Chevy, a Ford Model A, or a mint Corvette Stingray. Special cars deserve special coverage. We have an outstanding collector car program from Continental Western that provides the coverage your “baby” deserves.

Collector cars can often be added to your primary auto policy. In some cases, that works just fine. However, Continental Western provides agreed value coverage for your car. With many policies, the value of a car is determined by the adjuster at the time of loss. With an agreed value policy, the value is determined and confirmed at the time the policy is written. In the event of a total loss, you know what the company thinks your car is worth. No questions. No negotiating.

With Continental Western’s collector car program, you don’t need to worry about adding or deleting coverage on a seasonal basis. The rates are adjusted on the front-end with the assumption that the car will be used infrequently.

Continental Western can accommodate anything from antiques to classics, muscle cars to true sports cars.

If you are truly a collector, discounts apply to multiple vehicles also!

You didn’t stop with “just a car”. You didn’t stop with a run-of-the-mill sports car. You went all out and bought a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Many companies will shudder at the thought. Continental Western Group, our preferred carrier for classic cars, is also a great place for your limited-production sports car.

Off-road toys need special attention. They are not automatically covered under your homeowners policy. In some cases, it works well to add them specifically to your homeowners policy. In others, it is better to insure your ATV with a specialty program from Victoria, Foremost or Drive by Progressive. Whether you need to insure the value of the unit itself or just want to carry liability coverage, give us a call.

Insure it properly and hit the mud!

Snowmobiles, like other recreational vehicles, are not covered automatically under your homeowners policy. They need to be insured specifically, whether you want to cover the value of the snowmobile itself or just carry liability coverage.

In most cases, the most affordable approach is to add the snowmobile to your homeowners coverage. If you don’t own a home, we have specialty programs through Victoria, Foremost, and Drive by Progressive to fit your needs.

Insure it properly and hit the trails!

Do you own your own cart? If so, insure it properly. Generally, the golf cart can be scheduled specifically on your homeowners policy.

If you have a golf cart in another state, such as Arizona, there may be special coverage needs. In Arizona, the state licenses golf carts for use on some roads, requiring additional coverage from a company licensed in Arizona. Your Wisconsin coverage may not suffice. We can help arrange that needed coverage with Auto-Owners Insurance, one of our preferred companies.

From canoes to cabin cruisers, pontoons to personal watercraft, we can insure your boat. The best approach will depend on the boat’s characteristics. Many boats can be scheduled right on your homeowners policy. Others, such as yachts and personal watercraft, may require a separate policy.

We have specialty boat programs available from Midwest Family Mutual, Drive by Progressive, Auto-Owners (yachts) and Foremost Insurance. Let us find the program that is appropriate for your boat!

Do you enjoy the open road and the RV lifestyle? If your motorhome is your passion, be sure to cover it properly. As with some other recreational items, your motorhome may be able to be insured as part of your existing insurance package under the auto policy, or it may be better to insure it separately with a specialty program through Drive by Progressive or Foremost Insurance.

If you just bought a new unit, you may be interested in replacement cost coverage, that assures you of a new replacement vehicle if yours is totalled, without depreciation.

Like a motorhome, you may wish to insure your camper under your auto policy, or it may be better to purchase a separate policy with Drive by Progressive or Foremost Insurance. Do you have a camper that you keep permanently at a campground or other owned property? Call us to discuss these situations specifically, to be sure that the property and liability exposures are properly insured.

Are you concerned about what you hear and read about regarding lawsuits? We are. Choosing liability limits is a personal decision, but we recommend purchasing as high a limit as you might find practical. As part of your liablity protection, you may consider adding a liabity umbrella policy to provide excess coverage beyond what your home and auto policies provide.

Umbrella policies can be purchased in million dollar increments, and are quite affordable.

Most often, an umbrella policy is available through the same company that provides your home and auto insurance. In some cases, however, such as drivers with longer driving records, it may be appropriate to turn to a specialty market. Through our affiliation with surplus lines brokers, we can work with outside markets as well, finding the program that works best for you.

It is no secret that identity theft is on the rise. This can be devastating for your credit rating and can be a challenge to correct. Many homeowners policies offer identity theft coverage as an option.

Most of these programs provide expense reimbursement, paying for your costs to reconstruct your good credit record and contest fraudulent entries. Some programs go a step farther, providing a “concierge service” with a support person you can call for help & direction. They’ll even do some of the leg work for you.

Contact our office ot confirm what type of coverage might be available to you.

What if you glanced at your diamond ring on your hand, and found that you were missing the center diamond? If it fell out, is that covered by insurance? The answer is “maybe”.

The basic homeowners policy provides some limited jewelry coverage, with a specific theft limit. However, the coverage that applies insures against the same perils as the rest of your personal property. That coverage typically doesn’t cover lost stones.

If the jewelry is scheduled on the homeowners policy (listed specifically and insured under an inland marine form), then the coverage that applies is broader and the theft limit noted above would not apply. If you had the ring mentioned before scheduled, then the lost diamond should be covered.

Review your jewelry insurance needs with us & be sure you have proper coverage.

Have you been saving Hummels since you were a kid? Have a big box of baseball cards stashed away? These items may be covered adequately under your personal property coverage, or there may be good reasons to schedule them specifically. Most policies do not have special dollar limits for collectibles, but if they are fragile or breakable, the broader coverage that scheduling provides may be helpful. If it’s not scheduled, and that Hummel statue falls off the shelf, it may not be covered.

Some collectible items DO have special dollar limits. Coins are subject to the cash & currency limit on your policy (often limited to $200) and stamp collections fall under a separate $1000 limit that applies to securities & other valuable papers. Discuss these exposures with your agent.

Whether scheduled specifically or covered under your personal property blanket, it is a good idea to document your collections well and keep that documentation in a safe place.

As you know, some people are “horse people” and some people are not. Likewise, some insurance companies share your affection for horses and others do not. With most homeowners companies, a horse or two for personal use are fine. Boarding, breeding, or a higher level of equine activity warrants additional consideration.

We can help arrange the proper program, whether that’s a standard homeowners policy, an country estate, a true farm package, or a specialty stable program.

What about the value of your horses? Most homeowners policies do not allow coverage for the value of your horse. Horses of modest value can be covered under a farm policy for specific causes of loss. Valuable horses deserve full mortality coverage, which we can arrange through fine companies such as Hartford.

We all love our pets. Your insurance company may or may not. Homeowners policies do not provide coverage for the value of the pet itself, but generally provides coverage for liability arising from the ownership of the pet. Dog bites are a common (and often expensive) cause of homeowners liability claims.

Because of this, some breeds of dogs are very difficult to insure. Discuss your dogs & other animals with us to make sure that there is no coverage confusion. Different companies have different approaches to dogs – many have lists of breeds that they prefer to stay away from.

If you are shopping for a pet, for your own peace of mind, and to keep your insurance options open, choose a pet that has a low likelihood of biting. Treat it well, and enjoy a good-natured companion!

Kids love ‘em! Insurance companies do not! Trampolines are reasonably inexpensive, great fun, and sadly, highly dangerous. Without proper supervision, they can be used inappropriately, leading to dangerous overloading. Even used properly, injuries can occur just from a user “landing wrong”. These injuries can lead to significant claims. Therefore, our best advice is to “just say no” when it comes to trampolines.

Do you operate an in-home business? Maybe you aren’t a business owner, but tele-commute, working out of the house. Even if these arrangements are casual or on a part-time basis, they create special insurance concerns. Did you realize that, if you use a detached building (garage, pole building, etc) for business purposes, that use creates an exclusion for coverage for that building under your homeowners policy?

While this is an important issue, the solutions don’t need to be complicated. Often, coverage enhancements can be added to the homeowners policy to address these situations. Sometimes, additional policies are needed. The key is to relay these activities to us and we can find the proper coverage.

If you are looking for medical coverage for yourself or your family, we have several options available.

If you are between jobs or waiting for group coverage to be effective, we have short-term plans from Golden Rule and WPS (Wisconsin Physicians Service) that make great gap-fillers.

If you have a more permanent need, we have options from those same companies that range from low-deductible to high-deductible programs, and HSA (Health Savings Account) plans that allow addition tax benefits.

Planning for your future includes looking at needs later in life. This may include skilled nursing care, either in a facility or in your home. Long-tern care insurance can help with these expenses.

We have a great long-term care program available through Auto-Owners Insurance that can be scaled to fit your needs. You can choose several options, including a cost-of-living increase so the policy keeps up with inflation.

You’ve reached your “golden years”. Is your medical coverage keeping up with you? When you become Medicare-eligible, it is the right time to review supplement options. Are you planning on travelling? Will your supplement cover you away from home? Medicare benefits stop at our country’s borders. Will your supplement follow you to Europe? The Medicare Companion from WPS can be tailored to fit your lifestyle with the following features:

• Medicare has deductibles for the Part A and Part B benefits – with WPS you can choose to eliminate those deductibles with the supplement.
• Choose to extend the basic home-health care benefit that Medicare provides.
• Take your supplement abroad! Optional international travel coverage follows you wherever you go.
• Planning on being a snowbird? The Medicare Companion will follow you to Florida, Arizona, or whatever state is your winter destination. Even if you change residency, your WPS policy will stay with you.
• Choice of doctors – The Medicare Companion is not a PPO or HMO program. You are not restricted in choosing your doctor or hospital.

In addition to the traditional Medicare supplement, you may wish to purchase Medicare’s Part D Prescription drug coverage. Contact our office for more information on Medicare Part D, too. Choice of Part D coverage is independent of your Part A & B supplement.

We all want to live forever. Chances are, we won’t. Don’t overlook your family’s needs should something happen to you. We have several competitive term programs available through Auto-Owners Life Insurance, Golden Rule, and Grange Life. Looking for a universal life policy that includes cash value accumulation? We can help with that as well.

Life insurance rates have fallen over the years. Purchasing adequate coverage doesn’t have to break the bank. Call us to review your needs and arrange an appropriate program for you and your family.

According to the National Association of Life Underwriters,

• 1 out of 4 workers, age 35-65, will be disabled for 90 days. *
• Disability is the cause of nearly 50% of all home foreclosures. *

With proper long-term disability coverage, these statistics don’t have to get the best of you.

We have a variety of disability programs available, with one that is right for you. Whether you are employed in a factory, are an engineer, doctor, or business owner, you have unique coverage needs. Let us tailor a program for you.

Your business is your livelihood. Proper insurance assures your business will be here after a loss as well.

At Leitch Insurance Agency, Inc., we’ve aligned with many preferred companies to allow us to find the one that fits you best. Some of our lead carriers include West Bend Mutual, General Casualty, Auto-Owners, Hastings Mutual, and Society Insurance. In addition, we have many other companies that bring their own specialties.

Companies differ, and so do coverages. By getting to know your business, we can find what coverage is appropriate. Replacement cost or actual cash value? Are you in an older business that wouldn’t conform to new construction requirements? Additional building ordinance & law coverage may be needed. Are you at a scenic location overlooking the river? Is flood insurance a concern? These are all items we can address.

Within your “property & liability package” there are additional types of coverage that may be needed:

• Equipment Breakdown – Originally designed for commercial boilers, this now can include caomputers, cash register systems, electronics, and mechanical systems. Don’t let mechanical failure or a computer crash bring your business to it’s knees!
• Computer/Data coverage – Virtually every business is computer-dependent in some way. You may also employ “road warriors” with laptops on the road.
• Contractors’ Equipment – From hand tools to excavators, equipment that leaves your own business location requires specific coverage.
• Business Income – Even if your building and contents are properly covered, a fire can put you out of business if there is no cash flow for an extended period. By adding proper business income or extra expense coverage, you can keep your business alive during the recovery period.
• General Liability – lawsuits continue to be the reality all around us. If you find yourself involved in one, you want to be sure to have adequate liability limits. One- and two-million dollar limits are common, and umbrella policies can be added above those limits.

Many business activities create liability exposures beyond those covered by a general liability policies. If, because of your position, you are expected to show a higher degree of care, you may have a need for professional liability or errors & omissions coverage. Likewise, professional exposures exist if others might face financial losses (not necessarily injury or property damage) due to your services or failure to provide service.

These coverages generally require specialty markets, and we have access to many, through surplus lines brokers as well as professional liability specialists such as Professional Liability Brokers & Consultants.

From computer programmers to attorneys, technical consultants to laboratory operations, we can arrange a professional liability insurance program for you.

Directors & Officers Liability (D&O) coverage is important for any organization. Non-profits, foundations, business associations, and even sports clubs have a need for D&O coverage. A directors & officers liability claim can occur when an interested party (possibly a member of the organization or someone outside of the group) feels negatively impacted by the decisions made by the board of directors or officers of the organization.

A member might feel that funds weren’t managed in a way that meets the defined goals of the organization. A potential beneficiary may feel that they didn’t receive the benefit they were entitled to. An outside party might feel negatively impacted by the decisions the board makes. These can all lead to directors & officers claims. Be sure your board of directors is properly covered!

Employment practices liability coverage protects against workplace issues involving employees, such as failure to hire, wrongful discharge, discrimination, or harrassment. Claims could arise from accusations against you as the employer or supervisor, or they could come from actions or alleged actions by one of your employees toward a coworker. Even if a claim is unfounded, you could face significant defense costs in the process.

With some carriers, EPLI coverage can be added to many commercial insurance packages. In other situations, it can be added as a separate policy. Regardless of the approach, this can be an important addition to your insurance portfolio.

Do you sponsor a social event or public event? Are you planning a one-time celebration or fund raiser? Do you have appropriate liability coverage? If it is a personal or business activity, you may have coverage provided through your existing insurance policies. If not, we can help with short-term special event policies. Coverage needs might include general liability, liquor liability, prize guarantee coverage (for items such as hole-in-one competitions) or rain insurance.

For special events, we have niche programs available through companies such as NSI/West Bend Mutual, as well as several surplus lines brokers that we can work with.

Whether you have one delivery truck or a fleet of fifty, proper insurance coverage is a must. In some cases, this might mean packaging your auto coverage with the same company as your property/liability package. In other cases, better arrangements can be made with another company. As an Independent Agent, we can choose the company or companies that are right for you.

Have drivers with significant blemishes their driving record? We can help there too!

Do you have employees that drive their own vehicles in the course of business? This creates another auto insurance exposure – non-owned auto liability. You, as the employer, could be drawn into a liability claim if an employee is involved in an accident in the course of employment. Non-owned auto coverage will protect you.

Workers compensation coverage is a necessity when you have employees. Our wide choice of companies will help us find the program for you.

If you have a high-exposure business, you may need assistance with loss control & safety. Many of our companies offer pro-active loss control services to help you prevent unnecessary accidents.

Depending on your state of operation, we may be able to arrange dividend programs to help you reduce your workers compensation costs as well.

Your employees may be your most valuable asset. One way of taking care of them is to offer appropriate group benefits, which might include medical, life, disability, or dental insurance programs. Working with great companies such as WPS and Epic Life, we can provide a medical & benefit program for your group.

Medical insurance costs have become a great concern for many employers. Let us review your program and make suggestions on how those costs might be brought under control.

Whether in addition to group medical programs or instead of offering a group insurance program, you may want to consider setting up a “cafeteria” program for your employees. This is a good way to control your cost exposure, transfer a fair dollar amount to your employees, and minimize tax impacts.

Working with TASC (Total Administrative Services Corporation), we can help you arrange a plan that meets your needs and the needs of your employees.

Bonds are financial guarantees to a third party, and may be needed for many different situations. Courts may require bonds for people acting as a personal representative for an estate. The state of Wisconsin requires a bond if you are acting as a notary public. If you provide janitorial services, clients may require that you have a fidelity bond in place. Contractors may need bid bonds or performance bonds for certain projects.

We have several bonding companies available to meet these needs, including NSI/West Bend Mutual, Auto-Owners, IMT, and CNA Surety.