Insurance: The Secret Weapon of an Effective Savings Plan

For many individuals and families, it is difficult to find the financial footing to start saving for emergencies, vacations, and retirement. With the cost of living rising and paychecks not always keeping pace, savings have become an even more precious asset to protect.

While you might think of insurance as a product that protects “things”, it actually protects your savings because it prevents you from needing to use your personal assets to pay for lost or damaged possessions and liability claims.

Your Property as an Investment

When you buy small ticket items like clothes, accessories and certain electronics, you might not think of them as investments but they are. Often, discretionary dollars are used to make the purchases, which is money that could have been used for savings instead of spending.

Whenever you spend money, you are making an investment. You are trading long hours of work for a product meant to improve your life in some way. By having the proper insurance on the item, whether through home insurance, flood insurance or auto insurance, you give yourself protection like other investors dream of. With your insurance, you’ll be made whole after a loss; and that means you won’t need to tap into your savings.

Liability Protection

Everyone is exposed to potential liabilities. From having a loose walkway stone that causes a neighbor to trip, to running a stoplight and hitting someone, to damaging your neighbor’s mailbox while backing out of your driveway. These are just a few examples of how you face many situations each day that could result in a liability claim.

Liability insurance coverage and umbrella policies help ensure that if you are sued, you won’t suffer financial damages beyond your deductible and those that exceed your limits.

For Your Heirs

Life insurance offers a great way to preserve your savings for your loved ones. Death benefit proceeds can help pay for estate tax liabilities and other expenses after you’re gone. This will ensure that the money you worked hard to save goes to your heirs after death.

When creating your savings plan, you’ll spend a lot of time on your budget. You’ll figure out what expenses to cut and how much to put into certain savings accounts. One of the biggest mistakes you can make though, is to ignore potential shortfalls in your insurance policies. With too little, or nonexistent coverage, you may find that your savings doesn’t stand a chance at accumulating.

Contact an agent at Strunk Insurance to make sure your Oklahoma City Insurance policy is going to protect you in the event of a loss.

Supplementing Your ID Theft Insurance Policy

With the continuing emergence of new ways to steal your identity, ID theft insurance offers a lot of comfort to those who choose to add it to their insurance portfolio. Better still, would be to never have to use the many benefits that ID theft insurance offers you.

Using the following easy steps as a supplement to your ID theft insurance policy is a great way to reduce the likelihood of encountering the frustrating, and damaging, event of identity theft.

• Use only secured internet connections to ensure that identity thieves can’t get your sensitive information. Entering sensitive information only into sites with secured connections, represented by the HTTPS in the address bar. An unsecured connection will simply show HTTP prior to the web address.
• Manually enter web addresses of all sensitive sites. If you get an email from your bank or other financial institution urging you to click an in-email link to clarify your sensitive data, do not click the link. This could be a phishing email meant to look as though it’s from your financial institution when it is really sent by a third party. As soon as you click through the link, the third party will direct you to an address that stores your data for thieves. Instead, always type in the web address for your bank and other financial sites.
• Shred all of your statements. Your statements reveal many items of information about you that an identity thief could use. Shred those and all other documents with sensitive information, including bills and medical documents which could contain your social security number.
• If possible, don’t carry credit cards. Stolen credit cards can lead to identity theft. Only carry a credit card when you know that you need to use it that day. Minimizing how often you carry these cards reduces the likelihood that they will be stolen. On vacation, opt for travelers cheques instead of always using your credit card. You may not be able to re-coop the loss if the cheques are stolen, but it costs you far less than losing your identity.
• Close unused credit accounts. If you no longer use a credit account, and you don’t need to keep it open to help your FICO score, then close it and destroy the card.

ID theft insurance protection helps to make you whole after your identity is stolen. It can’t prevent the theft from occurring, but it can help you work towards getting it back. For information on your Oklahoma City Insurance policy, contact Strunk Insurance today.

What Makes HIPAA So Important

When you have a pre-existing condition, it can be difficult to get insurance coverage. If you delay obtaining insurance coverage until you know you are sick and need treatment, it is an action referred to by insurers as adverse selection. It is adverse because in order for insurance to work with existing premium payment structures, it cannot be purchased only by individuals with costly medical treatment expenses. Insurance must be purchased by a large number of individuals in order to protect against the potential of a serious illness or injury.

One way that health insurance companies protect themselves from adverse selection is to create pre-existing condition exclusions that allow them to collect premiums and provide protection for treatment of injuries and illnesses that are unrelated to the pre-existing condition while excluding claims that are related.

HIPAA, the Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act, limits the pre-existing condition restrictions that a group health insurance arrangement can enforce. It gives group health plans the ability to exclude conditions for the first 12-months (in some cases 18-months) only if the insured had a significant break in creditable health insurance coverage (which excludes coverage like major medical) that lasted more than 62 days. This protection means that as long as you have continuous coverage, a group policy cannot exclude your pre-existing condition.

But HIPAA also protects the privacy of your medical records, something that’s become increasingly important in this digital age. The way that your sensitive health information is handled and disbursed is tightly regulated and penalties are explained within the act, giving many businesses the encouragement they needed to train staff in proper data handling and enforce compliance.

Between helping secure your coverage and protect your information, HIPAA is one of the most valuable legislative protections to affect the insurance industry in recent years.

Check with Strunk Insurance today to make sure your Oklahoma City Insurance has you covered.

The Importance of Cyber Liability Insurance

If you run an online business, then you have a responsibility to keep all your customers’ information private and protected. But even the best laid plans for the protection of private data can be impacted by aggressive cyber criminals who break down your security defenses and distribute customer name, address, credit card number and other data.


Because data is intangible, many business owners overlook it when developing plans to protect themselves from liabilities. But the damage that can be done when your client’s personal records are stolen is vast, and as the keeper of this data, it is your company that will be on the line for losses they experience as the result of a security breach.

Cyber liability insurance protects your business from the losses associated with hackers stealing client data, but its wide range of digital age protection doesn’t end there. It can also protect your business against:

• Copyright infringement claims
• Damages that result from a virus accidentally distributed by you or one of your employees
• Accusations of slander
• Various other problems introduced by digital business platforms.

Some policies even provide benefits that pay for public relations expenses while you recover the image of your company after accusations of slander or security breaches.

Preventing Cyber Liability Claims

Of course, cyber liability insurance policies don’t protect you against the events behind the claims—that is something you need to handle on your own. Some ways that you can reduce the likelihood of a claim are:

• Completely destroy hard drives with unused client data stored on them.
• Limit the amount of sensitive data you collect from clients to that which is vital to your business operations.
• Utilize plagiarism checking software before posting web content.
• Keep the virus protection software up-to-date on all company computers.
• Avoid making negative statements about clients or competitors in email or on company blogs.

The internet has opened up a whole new world of business opportunity, and a new world of business liabilities has quickly followed. Protect your business and employees by taking preventative measures to stop cyber liability claims before they happen. And because you can’t control every situation, invest in a cyber liability policy that covers your potential risks so that you can protect your business if one of these claims gets through.

Make sure your customers and your business are safe with Oklahoma City Insurance from Strunk Insurance today.

Oklahoma City Dentist Insurance: Rating Malpractice Insurance for Dentists

Malpractice insurance is a no-brainer for practicing dentists. Because while your intention may be to always provide the best, error-free service to your patients, sometimes accidents and misunderstandings happen, and you need to be protected against that possibility.

There are many different factors that go into pricing the malpractice side of Oklahoma City dentist insurance. One of the most crucial factors is to consider the type of dentistry being practiced by the proposed insured. For instance, if you practice general dentistry versus a specialty that may involve conducting surgery or administering anesthesia, then you can expect a lower premium because there is less risk of incident. 

Claims history is another obvious factor in malpractice insurance pricing. A dentist with prior malpractice claims presents a higher risk than a dentist with no claims or one with claims that were inexpensive to settle. 

Your exposure to risk, as determined by the frequency of your hours, also has a direct correlation on the amount that you could be charged for malpractice insurance. If you practice on a part-time basis, you will find that your quote is lower than it would be if you practiced on a full-time basis. 

Luckily, the determination of malpractice premium rates is not a one-sided activity. There are many ways to achieve discounts on your malpractice insurance quotes. If you waive your right to consent to claims settlement terms and if you agree to pay your premium in full annually, you could find enough savings to make a big impact on your premiums.

You may be tempted to buy a policy with a high deductible and low claim limit as a means of saving money, but remember, if you do this you may reduce your annual premium expense but you are also putting your practice and career at risk. Any claims that fall below your deductible or above your limits will be your responsibility to pay, which could crush your financial future for the sake of just a small premium savings. Instead, allow your malpractice insurance to do what it’s intended to do—protect you, your career, and your financial future from potential liabilities.

Make sure you have the best possible option for your Oklahoma City dentist insurance policy with Alexander & Strunk today!

Oklahoma City Home Insurance: Homeowners Insurance Post-Divorce

There are a lot of difficult decisions that must be made after a divorce. One often overlooked item that should be reevaluated is your home insurance policy. Because while you may be in the same home post-divorce that you were pre-divorce, there have probably been enough changes around the property that a home insurance overhaul is needed. 

Reduce deductibles: If you have been divorced from a wage earning spouse, then you will be adjusting to living on less income than you were before divorce. But even if you divorced a stay-at-home spouse, your expenses may be higher now that you need help filling the roles that you relied on your ex-spouse to fill. This means that you have some budget changes to make and it may also mean that the deductibles you have are no longer suitable. Finding a deductible that you can afford that also gives you a premium that works for your budget, is an important move. While high deductibles can reduce overall premiums, they leave a large liability on your shoulders that could pose a great financial risk if you can’t afford to pay them. 

Reduce contents limits: When your spouse moved out, he or she may have taken some of your joint property with them. The limits on the contents coverage for your home insurance policy likely includes the value of the items that they were awarded during the divorce, so reducing your limits to reflect the value of the items you kept is important. 

Liability limits: If your household income and savings was adversely affected by the divorce then you may want to consider raising the limits of the liability portion of your Oklahoma City home insurance policy or looking into an umbrella policy. With higher limits, you run less risk of having to pay out of pocket for liabilities because their expense exceeds your insurance benefits. 

Search for discounts: As you overhaul your coverage limits and deductibles, it’s a good time to take a look at discounts you may qualify for as well as those you don’t qualify for, but could by making some easy changes. Also, mention to your agent any risk reductions that have occurred since the divorce, such as the relocation of a dog whose breed made your home insurance more expensive. 

It’s important that you start looking out for yourself as soon as possible after a divorce. One of the ways you can do so is by working with your insurance agent to restructure all your insurance policies so that they fit your post-divorce budget, needs and risks, and not your pre-divorce life.

Make sure you have the best possible option for your Oklahoma City homeowners insurance policy with Alexander & Strunk today!

Oklahoma City Non-Owners Insurance : Do you need it?

In some businesses, a company-owned car for use by your staff just doesn't work. But that doesn't mean that the company never has outside tasks that have to be completed. For example, let's say you have a small jewelry shop. If you never drive to see customers then it might not be reasonable to possess a business auto for your employees' usage. But you might still want staff to go to the nearby business supply shop to buy paper, receipt tape, pens and other extra goods. For several companies, that means that your people will go to the office supply store to run a company task in their own car.

If that person should get into a fender-bender in their own car on the way to run this errand for your company, their own Oklahoma car insurance policy will cover most of the claim. But if the collision is their mistake and the hurt individual chooses to file suit, they could sue your company since the individual was representing your business at that moment. In order to safeguard your company from litigation you may add non-owned car coverage to your business insurance policy.

With non-owned vehicle coverage, you are covered for property damage and liability claims that can emerge from a mishap that happens when a person drives their own auto for a company-related instance. This kind of coverage comes into play when the limits of the employee's own policy are maxed out and this coverage will preserve your company assets from the claims of hurt parties.

When you opt to include non-owned car coverage in your company auto policy, that doesn't actually mean that there will be no consequences as a result of employee fender-bender. Claims against your policy could raise your rates so you should still try to manage the employees who take care of your company to-do-lists using their own cars to decrease liability.

For example:

Collect and keep track of your employees' driving records so that you can determine which drivers are the most trustworthy.

Consider investing in a defensive driving course for staff that regularly perform your outside tasks in their own cars.

Refrain from requesting less mature and less experienced employees to run errands.

Between careful habits and suitable insurance you can safeguard your company from needless and costly claims while buying your office supplies and running errands when needed.

Make sure you have the best possible option for your Oklahoma City business insurance policy with Alexander & Strunk today!

Variable Life Insurance

Variable Life Insurance—The Basics
If you’ve decided to get a whole, or permanent, life insurance policy then you are going to have a policy that not only pays out a death benefit, but also accrues cash values which can earn interest and accumulate. Whole life policies aren’t a singular breed; there are many different types that you can get and one of the most popular is the variable life insurance policy.

What is a variable life insurance policy?

A variable life insurance policy is one that has its cash values invested in funds that the life insurance company sets up. These funds are created from various underlying investments like bonds, money markets, and stocks. The funds may be created based on risk tolerance, type of investment or even for the purpose of diversification.
The important note here is the word variable. That word means that your cash values will perform as any other investment would, and means they may increase and gain in value or they may decrease in value. This can happen throughout the life of your policy, depending on how the underlying investments perform in the fund that you’ve chosen.
Like other permanent policies, the variable life needs to be underwritten only once—when you first apply (unless you allow it to lapse through nonpayment of premium and want to reinstate it). The death benefit and premiums are fixed for the life of the policy and, as long as you pay your premiums, you can expect your beneficiaries to receive the death benefit (normal exceptions including material misrepresentation and two-year exclusions apply).
Can I switch funds?

If you choose a fund when you first take out the policy that you feel is no longer right for you, then you can switch funds. It is important to note that even if you switch funds, any losses you experience will not be gained back upon switching, although your fund could increase in value giving you the opportunity to gain it back again. As you age and your tolerance for risk reduces, you may find it a good strategy to switch from aggressive funds with high historical returns to less aggressive funds.
How does this affect my death benefit?
If you lose money in your cash value, that is held separate from your death benefit and won’t affect any payout to your beneficiaries. If you take a loan from the cash value and do not pay it back, then your death benefit may be reduced.
A variable life insurance policy has more risk than a fixed policy, but it also has the potential for more flexibility and higher cash values. It is important to work with your agent and weigh the benefits and drawbacks of variable life against your personal goals.
Make sure you have the best possible option for your Oklahoma City Life Insurance policy with Alexander & Strunk today!

Why do I need Motorcycle insurance?

Many states require motorcycle owners to have liability insurance. Liability insurance compensates the other party if the policyholder is held accountable in an accident and as a result, causes injury to someone else or damages their property. Usually, because motorcycles cause less damage than a car, liability for a motorcycle is moderately priced. 

Other policy coverage to take into account is comprehensive and collision coverage, which includes damage to the vehicle, but does not cover mechanical breakdown. Collision covers accidents with other objects, such as trees, signs, or another vehicle. Comprehensive, also referred to as Other Than Collision, provides coverage for dangers such as vandalism, theft, flood, fire.  Most policies would pay up to the actual cash value of the bike.

Medical coverage for injuries to your passengers should be contemplated. This coverage is referred to as Guest Liability. This can be highly valuable on the occasion that you are the cause of an accident and your passenger is hurt. Coverage can also be purchased to cover your injuries. 

To guard against injury caused by uninsured drivers, Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist coverage can be obtained. In some states uninsured motorist coverage is restricted to only covering your medical payments, while in other states you can also purchase coverage to pay for damages to the motorcycle in the instance it is damaged by uninsured driver.

Learn more about Motorcyle Insurance from Alexander & Strunk today!

Oklahoma City Insurance

Some lawyers deem reform measure unfair

Some lawyers question fairness of reform measure

Some lawyers say a lawsuit reform measure pending in the Senate is unfair to those who carry insurance.

Senate Bill 864 would require compensation from sources independent of a defendant, such as a plaintiff’s insurance, to be subtracted from the amount of damages recovered from the defendant.

Oklahoma City attorney James Dunn called the proposal “totally egregious.”

When a person pays for life, disability or health insurance, it should not be deducted from the amount of monetary damages that a defendant is required to pay, he said.

“Why should a drunk driver or negligent person get credit?” Dunn said.
Clark Brewster, a Tulsa attorney, said Senate Bill 864 makes no sense.

“Say you have an insurance policy that you are paying $1,500 a month to make sure you have medical insurance and another person is poor and doesn’t have the same policy,” Brewster said.

“You get into the same accident. All the money you get from the insurance company offsets their liability to you so they don’t owe you anything because you are covered by insurance, even though you paid it.

BY BARBARA HOBEROCK - Tulsa World

Make sure you know all there is to know about your Oklahoma City Insurance from the agents at Strunk Insurance!

The Importance of Annual Insurance Policy Reviews

In order to be successful in business, there are some things that you need to do consistently every year. The first is to create, or update, your business plan and financial projections. Next, you need to develop or create your marketing plan. Third, you should pay your insurance premiums.

But paying your insurance premiums annually should not be a knee jerk activity because before you make those payments you should review your insurance policies and make sure the coverages they offer are still relevant to your ever-evolving company.

Call us today at 800-375-8356 to discuss any of your insurance policies or to get a free small business insurance quote.