Grundy Worldwide Auto Insurance Example

Big Boy Toy Insurance is proud to insure "Harry's" 2003 Dodge Viper RT/S through Grundy Worldwide.

To Give you an example of how affordable Grudy's Exotic Car Insurance Policy is, we covered "Harry's" Viper with $500,000 Liability, $0 Collision Deductible, $0 Comprehensive Deductible, Towing/Roadside Service, with an agreed value of $35,000 for $460 per year!

Grundy Worldwide was our choice carrier for "Harry" due to his occasional drive to work and "tour" around Southern Arizona without a penalty from Grundy. Grundy also offers coverage for hard to find parts and accessories included in their premium.

We also offer other carriers who specialize in the collector/muscle/exotic car market such as Hagerty, American Modern and Victoria/Allied.

Call or email us for your quotes from ALL our appointed carriers.

"Toy" Market Good Economic Indicator

After marketing to our local "toy" dealerships, I am encouraged about our economic future when I hear the dealership salemen talk about how sales are picking up.

People are begining to buy "toys" again after a 2 year hiatis due to harsh economic situations. A leading economic indicator better than GDP, Unemployment Rate, CPI, or any other statisic is spending on recreational vehicles. RV, motorcycles, boats and sand rails sales are begining to pick up.

One of the first consumer items to stop selling in hard economic times are the "toys". In 2008, when gas prices hit $4.00 per gallon, motorcycle and scooter sales skyrocketed. Dealerships were signing all the way to bank until December "08 when prices settled back down to $2.50 per gallon. Since then, sales have steadily slowed down to an almost stand still forcing many dealerships to close their doors.

More good news from Winnebago last month: the nations largest, oldest and best known RV manufacturer hired back 1,500 assembly line workers to meet increased dealership orders. That is some great news for everyone involved in the "toy" business.

RV Insurance for Summer Travel

As an RV'er traveling accross America stoping at your favorite campground, a very important coverage you need to verify on your policy is campground/premises/full timer liability.

This liability coverage is similar to your homeowners' liability insurance. This coverage is designed to protect you in the event your new neighbors stop by for a visit and become injured while stepping into your RV or trip over your campsite equipment. It is the slip and fall coverage we all know liability insurance to cover.

This compares to the same situation when your neighbors are invited for dinner and accidentily trip/fall and need medical attention.

Your RV's auto liability coverage does not apply as "campsite" liability. It is solely designed to cover your RV when you cause an accident while on the road.

Hope this helps explain why your RV insurance poicy should list two seperate liability limits.

BP Offshore Oil Rig Exposion

It seems suspect to me that shortly after Obama allows expanded Atlantic Offshore Drilling the Gulf Coast experiences one of the worst rig disasters in over 2 decades.

Also, here a few other points that seem suspect as well:

1. Modern offshore oil rigs have several redundant safety devices to prevent such disasters
2. it was reported there was 2 explosions, the second was large and powerful enough to cause toe rig and platform to MELT into the Gulf
3. the unmanned submarine sent down is unable to find the shutoff valve, required to be in place before pumping can begin to prevent such disasters
4. the safety devices located at the wellhead (5,000 underwater on the Gulf floor) are missing

We have to wait and see what the investigation finds before making any true inferences.

Contractors Bonding Basics

Contractors that bid government jobs are required to obtain Bid/Performance Bonds through a licensed insurance agent. Let's look at what a bond is and why municipalities require a bond.

A surety bond is similar to a bank loan with the surety company acting like a bank. The surety company is agreeing to pay an agreed upon amount in the event of a claim (I will discuss later). If the municipality is requesting a $500,000 bid bond, the contractor has to prove to the surety company that the company can make good on that amount. This is where the surety company needs to qualify the contractor for the ability to repay the amount in the event of a claim. The contractor is responsible for paying back the surety company the claim amount. If a full claim is filed against the bond, the contractor is required to pay back the surety company. It acts like a line of credit for a specific event in exchange for a premium.

Contractors that have poor credit can experience difficulty in obtaining a bond just like obtaining a loan. Two options instead of obtaining a bond are self insuring or collateralizing. Self insuring is what it sounds like. The contractor puts puts up the full amount into an escrow account until the project is completed. Collateralizing is where the surety company requires a portion of the bond amount be remitted in the form of cash held in trust until the end of the project.

Why do municipalities require a bid bond? When a contractor enters into a bidding contract with a municipality, the contractor has stated to the municipality of their good faith intention to win the lowest bid for the project. The contractor maybe among several other contractors bidding for the same project. As required for government projects, the municipally has to allow several bids to compete, all of which are under contractual obligation to submit their best pricing. This can create a financial hardship for the municipality and all other bidding contractors if one or more of the contractors withdraw their intentions before the award is finalized. This creates a claim.

The municipality can then file a claim against the withdrawn contractors bond for any amount up to the full bond amount.

The need of the bond is cover any financial hardship realized by the municipality or any of the other bidding contractors.

Big Boy Toy Insurance has secured relationships with several of the nations best and largest bond issuers regardless of current credit standing. We have been successful in obtaining high risk bonds for a few of our local contractors with great turn around and service. For our low risk contractors, we are glad to have the ability to place those risks with either HCC Surety or CNS Surety. CNA is one of the industry's largest and best rated issuers offering highly competitive premiums for all classifications of contractors.

We also have the means to issue aggregate bond limits making future bond issue fast and painless.

Please contact us for more information or apply over the phone for your Surety Bond pre approval.

General Contractors that Grind My Gears

GRIND MY GEARS

A new day and here we are again. How about that stimulus package? Have you felt it yet? I have not nor have Millions of out of work people. How about those people that had jobs but lost them? Are they back to work? I think not. Did they get there jobs back? No? So, how has this package helped the common man? It has not. Well than, who has it helped, BIG Business? Yes, that right the big contractor that is large enough to get the job. The little contractor same licenses same experience can’t do it, why capital. The little contractor who had the capital no longer has it in an attempt to keep alive. And what about the big contractor who is still holding on to the small guys money?

I am not talking out of my head when I say this. I know from experience that it is true. I did a job for a very large contractor for a large municipality in Arizona and I got screwed out of a $250,000 dollars on a project that my company did all the work. The General Contractor basically watched me as I completed the project. But, as it would be, I signed in the change order the GC submitted to the city, the GC received payment from the city, and lo and behold, withheld my payment. My only recourse was to attain an attorney and rack up the attorney fees. You all know who gets rich. Now, they have my money so they can afford their attorney where I am left fending for myself, go figure. Here comes the real gripe.

The city has a clause in there contract that says before the release of the money (90% mine), the GC has to get me to sign off that I have been paid. Did this happen? No, it did not. The GC received my money and the city said they can’t help. The city did not get a release from us in any way or form and of course in Arizona you can’t lien a landfill site. So where does that put the little guy? Bankrupt and the big boy continues to gets work from the city spending the Governments stimulus money that is supposed to help Middle America. Why am I not surprised? Well, if I was a minority (oh by the way, the big contractor is), I would have gotten paid. Well I did not get paid and the city, after 2 years of trying to fight this I am out of money and thanks to this contractor, broke. My family will soon be homeless. Thanks to the Government and the ability to change the rules as they see fit.

Is your Insurance Agent Really Working Hard?

How do you know your insurance agent is really working hard placing your insurance needs with the best available carrier? Do you get multiple quotes to select from? Is your agent reviewing three, five, seven insurance quotes with you? Are you able to select the insurance company you want?

We have an agency policy to review ALL insurance quotes we receive for ALL of our prospective and current clients. We feel, you, the insured, have the right to know what we have done on your behalf. When we complete an application, we notify you that it will take several days before we have ALL of your quotes to review with you. In that time period, we have submitted your application to no fewer than 3 insurance carriers using that many additional supplemental applications. It takes a lot more time than a captive agent, such as Allstate, State Farm and Farmers, to gather the needed data, collect that data on the application, scan it to your new electronic file and email it off to the three or more carriers. We then wait for the replies from the carrier underwriters for additional information or a quote.......read more

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