Stearns Insurance

ADDITIONAL INSUREDS

Public Relations — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:08:30 +0000

Sharing your customer’s liability limits

Every day we receive multiple requests to add additional insured endorsements to our policyholders’ policies. Typically these requests are initiated by a contract our named insured willingly signed to add the additional insured in exchange for being granted some kind of work or sales transaction.

As insurance professionals, we need to make sure we are cautioning our customers about the effect of these additional insured requests before the time of a loss. Some additional insured requests are reasonable, but many are not. Is there a good reason for our insured to share their limits of liability protection with the additional insured?

Thinking it through

We have had some unusual requests. In one case, our insured was a retail store. They were selling a locally manufactured product and the manufacturer was requesting to be an additional insured on the retailer’s policy. The retail store did not understand that they were being asked to provide the manufacturer with products liability coverage while diluting their own liability protection. When they refused, the manufacturer said “Ok” and continued to sell their product through the retailer.

In another case, we had a tenant asking that they be added as an additional insured on a landlord’s policy. With a little discussion, we found the tenant thought he or she could get by without a liability policy if the landlord provided coverage. The tenant finally agreed to purchase his or her own coverage when the landlord refused.

We cannot protect our policyholders from everything. They have to make their decisions and we are not going to act as their attorneys. If we help them to understand what they are agreeing to as it regards the dilution of their own insurance protection, we have done our best.

DON’T PUT YOURSELF AT RISK OF A WINTER FIRE

Public Relations — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:00:04 +0000

Lighting and Flames

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, in 2008 alone, more than 3,000 people

died in 2008 from fires and more than 16,000 were injured.

Avoid using lit candles. If you do use them, make sure they are in stable holders and place them where they cannot be easily knocked down, out of the reach of children.
Never leave a home or room with candles burning.
Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home. Test the batteries every month and change them at least once a year.
Have your chimney, chimney vent and flue cleaned and inspected annually.
Never burn trash, painted or pressure‐treated wood inside the home.
Never use gasoline or other alternative fuels in a kerosene heater.
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires. Never leave food cooking unattended and keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen at all times.
Is your Christmas tree still up? A dry tree in the house is a kindling for a fire. A tree should never be placed close to a heat source, including a fireplace or a heat vent.

The heat will dry out the tree, causing it to be more easily ignited by heat, flame or sparks. Keep fresh trees watered. When a Christmas tree becomes dry, promptly discard it. The best way to dispose of your tree is by taking it to a recycling center or having it picked up by a community pick up service.

Inspect decorative lights each year for frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in the insulation, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear before putting them up. Inspect them again when you take them down. Do not leave lit decorative lights unattended and only use UL approved lighting.
Do not overload outlets. Connect strings of lights to an extension cord before plugging the cord into the outlet.
Never put tree branches or needles in a fireplace or wood burning stove.
Check on older adults and help them inspect their homes. Older people are at higher risk of injury from fires and are also more likely to die in fires than those in other ages groups of fire‐related injuries.

Keeping Warm

There are more ways to keep warm than just using the fireplace. Here are a few suggestions:

Set the thermostat at 65 degrees or higher.
Never leave fireplaces, woodstoves or space heaters unattended. Always use extreme caution with auxiliary heat sources.
Speak with a trusted contractor about doing a winter survey on your home. You may want to install plastic coating over your windows and doors, a sump pump in your basement, storm windows or consider purchasing special padding or foam to prevent drafts around cracks where air can escape. If a complete storm window upgrade is out of your price range, consider replacing old storm windows on just the northern exposure of your home where it is vulnerable to the cold.
Add extra insulation to attics, basements and crawl spaces. Ideally, the attic should be five to ten degrees warmer than the outside air.
Have the heating system serviced. Furnaces, boilers and chimneys should be serviced at least once a year to prevent fire and smoke damage.

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