How to keep your home safer

While it may not feel like it, your home can actually be a very hazardous place. We become so accustomed to our homes that we may overlook potentially dangerous habits and situations. Unfortunately, a large number of accidents occur in the home. There are a few simple things you can do that may help prevent many common household accidents and home insurance claims:

• Make sure stairs are clearly lit. Stairs are one of the most dangerous spots in your home.
• Eliminate hazards to prevent falls. Install grab bars in your tubs and showers and use non-slip mats. Have bright lights over stairs and steps and on landings. Keep them well lit and clear of boxes, furniture and other tripping hazards.
• Keep cleaning products, medications and beauty supplies where children can’t reach them. Use child safety locks. Call (800) 222-1222 for information about poisons. If anyone ingests or inhales poison call 911 immediately. (Click here for additional information on poisoning.)
• Regularly check all smoke and fire alarms, and conduct fire evacuation drills with your family. When building a new home or renovating an existing one, install fire sprinklers. Always stay at a stove or heat source when cooking.
• Remove potential choking and suffocation hazards. An item that can fit through a toilet paper tube can choke a young child. Keep coins, latex balloons and hard round foods, such as peanuts and hard candy where children cannot see or touch them. Place babies to sleep on their backs without pillows, blankets, comforters or toys in cribs. When your children are in or near water, watch them very carefully and stay close enough to reach out and touch them. This includes bathtubs, toilets, pools, spas and even buckets of water.

The best way to handle an emergency is to be prepared. Make sure you have an emergency phone list posted by each phone in your house. Ask your agent for a sample list to follow.

Stair safety

Here are some tips that may help keep family and visitors safer on your stairs:

• Install a light switch at the top and bottom of stairs.
• Make sure handrails run the full length of the staircase.
• Fix loose stair carpeting immediately.
• Do not use throw rugs at the top or bottom of a flight of stairs.
• If you intend to paint concrete stairs, add some sand to the paint for a better grip or install rubber or abrasive treads.
• Make sure the outside of your house is well lit, or paint the edges of outside steps white so they are better visible in the dark.

For more insurance advice, contact Farmers Insurance - The Wertzberger Agency at 913-383-3276 or by emailing us HERE.

Life insurance issued by Farmers New World Life Insurance Company, 3003 77th Ave. SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040.

(Re) focus on your future

Here are four ways to help refocus on your finances and recommit to your financial goals:

• Re-evaluate your goals — Make sure you can stick to your plan with goals that are realistic and attainable. Focus on setting several small, short-term goals such as paying off one credit card or refinancing your home at a lower interest rate. Success can be a great motivator — achieving one goal is likely to keep you motivated to tackle the next one. You may hit
• Keep planning — Once you’ve achieved your original goals, set some new ones to focus on, always keeping an eye toward the end goal of improving your long-term financial situation.
• Automate your system — Use automatic deductions from your payroll or your checking account to make deposits in IRAs, or other savings and investment vehicles. You also can set up automatic bill pay through your bank or credit union.
• Call your agent to schedule a Life Farmers Friendly Review®. It’s a free, no obligation consultation that helps you determine if you have the right type and amount of life insurance to provide for your family’s future income needs if something happens to you.

Are you expecting a tax refund? Put it to work for YOU. Let’s get together — the more information you have the easier it will be to devise smart strategies that may help you plan for — and achieve — your near-term and long-term goals. Once you’ve refocused, make it a priority to stay focused.

You can reach Farmers Insurance - The Wertzberger Agency by calling 913-383-3276 or emailing us HERE.

Home Insurance - Extended Replacement Cost Coverage

Hydroplaning - What is it and how to avoid it

What is hydroplaning?

April showers may bring May flowers but they can also cause more accidents. Hydroplaning is a situation that may occur when driving on wet roads, and can happen in an instant. When your vehicle hydroplanes, your vehicle completely loses contact with the road and is actually riding on the water. In wet weather you need to be aware - driving across a wet surface can cause your tires to lose their gripping power, and you to lose control of the vehicle.

The 3 main factors that contribute to hydroplaning:

• Vehicle speed. As speed increases, wet traction is considerably reduced. Since hydroplaning can result in a complete loss of traction and vehicle control, you should always reduce speed, paying attention to the traffic around you.
• Tire tread depth. As your tires become worn, their ability to resist hydroplaning is reduced.
• Water depth. The deeper the water, the sooner you will lose traction, although even thin water layers can cause a loss of traction, including at low speeds.

What you should not do if your vehicle starts to hydroplane

• Don’t brake suddenly. Hydroplaning is a loss of traction to the front tires. Sudden braking slows the front tires but can lock the rear tires causing a spin out.
• Don’t accelerate suddenly. Sudden acceleration can pull the vehicle straight ahead which could be dangerous if, for instance, the vehicle is pointed toward the edge of the roadway when it regains traction.

What you should do

• The type of vehicle you are in:
  - If you are in a front wheel drive with or without ABS and traction control or a rear wheel drive with ABS and traction control and you begin to hydroplane, look for open space and plan to travel in that direction. Stay lightly on the accelerator and steer gently toward the open space you have identified.
  - If you are in a rear wheel drive without ABS and traction control look for open space and plan to travel in that direction. Ease off the accelerator and steer toward the open space you have identified.
• Don’t use cruise control. When engaged, your vehicle may recognize the buildup of water as slowing down and send more power to the wheels. This may cause the car to shift to a lower gear and build even more water under the tires.
• Check your tire tread often. Although thin water layers can cause a loss of traction, as your tires become worn, their ability to resist hydroplaning is reduced. Place a penny upside down in your tread. If Lincoln’s head is hidden, your tread is thick enough. If the tread doesn’t hide Lincoln’s head, your tread is too thin and you should consider purchasing new tires.
• Vehicle speed. As speed increases, wet traction is considerably reduced. Since hydroplaning can result in a complete loss of traction and vehicle control, you should always reduce speed, paying attention to the traffic around you.

How you can tell your vehicle is hydroplaning

It may be difficult to determine when you are hydroplaning. The rear end of your vehicle may feel loose, giving you the sensation that it has moved to one side or the other as if it’s caught in a crosswind. The steering may also suddenly feel loose. Watch the road ahead for standing or running water. Pay attention to the spray being kicked up by the cars in front of you. If it suddenly increases, the driver in front of you may have just hit a patch of water that could cause you to hydroplane.

When all precautions fail

If you do wind up hydroplaning, don’t panic — the situation is manageable if you remain calm. Donʹt slam on the brakes, don’t accelerate, don’t oversteer and keep the nose of your vehicle pointed straight ahead. You should begin to slow and regain control.

Why is this important

There are many things that can happen when you lose control of your vehicle. Accidents can be caused and people hurt. Regardless of what you would hit when you hydroplane, it will likely be categorized as an at-fault accident and may cause your auto insurance rates to go up.

For more information about hydroplaning and how it may or may not effect your auto insurance rates, please contact Farmers Insurance - The Wertzberger Agency at 913-383-3276 or email us HERE.

Home Insurance - The Importance of Building Ordinance Coverage

Have you every heard the saying, "you get what you pay for?" The saying holds true for many things in life and home insurance is one of them.

If you were to scroll through the phone book and gather home insurance quotes from every provider, you'll get many different pricing options. Every provider will have a different product and every consumer will price out differently with every provider. When shopping for insurance, going with the lowest cost provider is not recommended as there is usually a reason they are the lowest cost provider. If/when you have a claim and have to utilize your coverage, you may soon find out that you have "gotten what you paid for". The claim service may not be the best and, many times, low cost policies tend to not provide some of the same coverage that other, more comprehensive policies, will.

One example of something not included with many inexpensive policies is Building Ordinance Coverage. The International Risk Management Institute (www.irmi.com) will define Building Ordinance Coverage as coverage for loss caused by enforcement of ordinances or laws regulating construction and repair of damaged buildings.

Basically, if you have a claim and there are extra costs incurred due to the reconstruction of your home having to adhere to building codes or city ordinances Building Ordinance Coverage would be your saving grace to make sure the policy pays for the extra expense and not you...in addition to your already paid deductible!

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE:

In Kansas City, it is often said that it is not if, but when, the insurance company will buy you a new roof due to hail. However, what if the insurance company comes out after a hail storm and only authorizes a replacement of half the roof? Replacing half of a rood doesn't make a lot of sense. The homeowner would have some options of a re-inspection to possibly see if the decision of the insurance company could be changed but that may not happen. Replacing half of a roof doesn't look right cosmetically and it actually effects the longevity of the entire roof! Cities have become aware of this and have put codes in place that dictate if significant enough repairs are done to a roof, the whole roof has to be replaced. So, if you are replacing a large portion of the roof, the city may require you to do the full roof. If you don't have Building Ordinance Coverage on your policy, the cost of the rest of the roof is on YOU in addition to your already paid deductible.

There are many ways insurance companies cut costs to make the consumer think they are getting the best deal on their home insurance. More times than not though, it is these cut costs that lead to bad claims experiences and the consumer being more-so self insured than they may be aware of.

Educate yourself fully on your Home Insurance and whether or not it includes Building Ordinance Coverage, if not, it may be time to call the next provider from the phone book.

Insurance Agent VS Insurance Broker