Auto accidents increasing in Florida due to distracted drivers... and by association, so are auto insurance rates. Distracted driving has always caused accidents. In the past, reaching for the radio, lighting cigarettes, looking away during conversations, all these things caused people to take their attention off the road where it belonged. With the advent of cell phones and especially smart phones, things have changed dramatically. Now it is the norm for people to text, watch videos, and fiddle with their phones during driving. One major auto insurance company (state farm) claims that 36% of drivers text and drive. How serious is the problem? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 40,000 american dies last year in auto accident, and distracted driving caused 9% of these deaths. This resulted in 3600 deaths due to distracted drivers. What the total cost in property and injuries is unknown. What is known is that auto insurance premiums have increased Nationwide auto insurance has gone up 16% since 2011, and in Florida we have seen much more dramatic increases. Auto Insurance rates reflect many things including the cost of repairs, the cost of medical care, auto theft rate, and the frequency and severity of accidents. Of these factors, we can all affect the last one. Put the phone down and text the person on the line when you stop the car. It may save your life or the life of someone your love. ISU Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Hudson, FL (727) 863-5641 and ISU Bauknight Insurance, 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352)-686-0612. They also offer coverage throughout Florida on their website or by calling them direct.

Demotech suspends their Florida Insurance rating model and warns that 10 -15 of their 57 rated property insurance carriers writing in Florida will be downgraded.

Okay, what does this mean, and who the heck is Demotech?

To understand who Demotech is and why this is significant, one needs to understand what it means to have an A rated Insurance company.

Before the Florida property Insurance crises, companies were typically rated 'A', 'B', 'C', or not issued a rating by a company called AM Best, a company with the purpose is to review insurance carriers and offer an independent review of their finances and operations as it relates to their ability to meet their obligations. If your carrier was not A rated, it was generally unacceptable by Mortgage companies.

After Hurricaine Andrew, most companies left Florida. Those remaining were not "A" rated by AM best, including major companies subsidiaries like State Farm and Allstate who had formed subsidiaries for Florida only.

Demotech is an alternative rating company that came in and in some opinons, gave A ratings to companies that did not earn it. In fact, some Florida companies with demotech A ratings have gone bankrupt. However the mortgage companies generally accepted this rating because, well, these were typically the only companies writing property insurance in Florida and of course they did want to sell mortgages to Florida homeowners. it remains a touchy situation.

Fast forward to 2016 which had volatile weather and has caused Demotech to have concern for some of the 57 carriers they rate. in addition, major court cases unfriendly to insurance companies has caused Demotech to rethink their rating model:

"Recent Florida Supreme Court decisions and ongoing abuse in Florida’s insurance market have led Demotech to change the criteria it uses when rating insurers in the state. The announcement comes as insurers get ready to announce their 2016 annual reports that could indicate unfavorable results for many.....[2016 catastrophes] eroded their surplus and after that had been eroded there was the Johnson and Sebo cases,” he said. “No one is in danger of going under, but that being said we have standards that are higher than just not going under.”

So what does this mean? It means that some property (homeowner) companies are not as financially healthy coming into 2017 as they were in 2016, and Demotech will be publishing a list of these companies they will downgrade.

We will publish that list here when it comes available. While we as an agency have no faith in Demotech's ability to predict financial stability, we do take notice when they downgrade a company. It's as if the teacher in school gives out almost all A grades, but gives one kid a C, it causes one to wonder just how bad the kid with a C performs.

If your company shows up on this list, you may run into issues with your bank accepting it. We are in a position to help you here, because we represent many homeowner Markets. Call us at 352-686-0612 if you find yourself in this situation.

ISU Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Hudson, FL (727) 863-5641 and ISU Bauknight Insurance, 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352)-686-0612. They also offer coverage throughout Florida on their website or by calling them direct.

It's Monday!

Dare to do the right things...

Wednesday weird Insurance News

Wednesday Weird Insurance News:

Okay not so much news this week as a precaution against weird drivers. We all know there are risks to driving, in fact we know that driving is the most risky thing we do every day. However, what about an extreme "weird" risk. do they exist? Yes, here is a prime example we ran across recently, a driver sleeping at the wheel in a Tesla with auto driving capabilities. its a crazy and weird world full of people with bad judgement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXls4cdEv7c

ISU Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Hudson, FL (727) 863-5641 and ISU Bauknight Insurance, 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352)-686-0612. They also offer coverage throughout Florida on their website or by calling them direct.

Man's house hit 17 sepearate time by cars

Wednesday Weird News:

Man's house hit by cars 19 times

Fox 5 news, San jose California reported on September 15, 2016 that:

A car crashed into Ray Minter's San Jose home on Monday night. For Minter, it's nothing new. He says it is the 19th time a car has hit his home.

He's lived in the house since the 1950s. He says among the crashes, cars have ended up inside his home four times.

He says this latest crash is one of the worst. He estimates the car was going at least a 100 miles per hour when it went through his fence, two concrete poles and into the garage. It crashed into his Honda Accord.

"First one shocks you. And then, after that, as long as nobody in the house is hurt, you don't care because then everything's gonna get repaired," Minter says.

Minter and his mother were in the house at the time of the accident. They were not hurt but Minter's cat is missing and feared dead.

Minter says the driver in this latest crash appeared to heavily intoxicated by was uninjured.

"We just stay in the back of the house and [laughs] watch everything," Minter says. "Maybe put a ski ramp or something, I don't know."

ISU Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Hudson, FL (727) 863-5641 and ISU Bauknight Insurance, 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352)-686-0612. They also offer coverage throughout Florida on their website or by calling them direct.

Man's House hit by car 17 different times.

Wednesday Weird News:

Man's house hit by cars 19 times

Fox 5 news, San jose California reported on September 15, 2016 that:

A car crashed into Ray Minter's San Jose home on Monday night. For Minter, it's nothing new. He says it is the 19th time a car has hit his home.

He's lived in the house since the 1950s. He says among the crashes, cars have ended up inside his home four times.

He says this latest crash is one of the worst. He estimates the car was going at least a 100 miles per hour when it went through his fence, two concrete poles and into the garage. It crashed into his Honda Accord.

"First one shocks you. And then, after that, as long as nobody in the house is hurt, you don't care because then everything's gonna get repaired," Minter says.

Minter and his mother were in the house at the time of the accident. They were not hurt but Minter's cat is missing and feared dead.

Minter says the driver in this latest crash appeared to heavily intoxicated by was uninjured.

"We just stay in the back of the house and [laughs] watch everything," Minter says. "Maybe put a ski ramp or something, I don't know."

ISU Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Hudson, FL (727) 863-5641 and ISU Bauknight Insurance, 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352)-686-0612. They also offer coverage throughout Florida on their website or by calling them direct.

Reflections of Hurricane Hermine

So after 10 years of no major storm, Florida was guest to a relatively small and weak category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 55 mph and gusts up to 80 mph, Hermine. By comparison, Hurricane Andrew had sustained winds of 165 mph and pushed with many devastating tornadoes accompanying the storm. Furthering our "luck", it made landfall in St. Marks, a town of 300, avoiding major population areas such as Tampa Bay. Still, here is what the aftermath looks like:

~ 253,000 Floridians had their power knocked out
~ Coastal residents evacuated
~ over 10 inches of rain with storm
~ Hermine caused coastal Flooding in pasco, Hernando,Citrus Levy, Dixie, And taylor counties
~ 75 MPH winds all the way down in Pinellas county, 6 counties from landfall
~ state of emergency declared in 51 Florida Counties
~ One death
~Massive Sewage spills due to overwhelming sewer plants, causing spills thruought the West Coast of Florida and causing over 100,000 gallons of untreated sewage to be dumped into Tampa Bay alone.

All of this caused approximately 500 milion dollars in insured damage and economic damage exeeding 1 billion dollars.

Locally, We had houses flooded with up to a foot of water in Hernando Beach and Pine Island, Hudson and New Port Richey, and our office fielded several hundred call for wind damage, mostly minor.

What does this mean for Florida when we get a really big storm? The outlook isn't good for either property and business losses. few final points:

Flood is never covered by your homeowner insurance, you need a seperate policy,and as this huricane taught us, Flood damage can be much much worse than wind, and can accompany relatively minor storms.

One thing to definitely keep in mind is that during a named storm, including a tropical storm, your wind deductible changes to a percent of how much insurance your carry, usually 2%, 5%, or 10% with 2% the most common election made by our clients. If you are confused about this, call us for a review before it takes you by surprise. but as an example, if you insure your home for $250,000 and you have a 2% named storm deductible, all wind losses under 5000 will be your responsibility. This is a compromise, an agreement we have made to self insure small named storm losses as citizens of Florida to help keep our homeowner insurance industry active and engaged with us.