Tips for a Healthy Holiday Season

 

 

• Consider ‘sticking it’ to The Flu: Flu shots seem to be available at practically every drug store or pharmacy in the St. Louis area. Discuss with your doctor the pros and cons of flu shots for yourself and your family.
• Get some zzz’s: The holiday hustle and bustle can interfere with normal sleep patterns, yet sleep is essential to health and healing. Prioritize getting enough sleep - or taking a quick nap - despite your busy schedule.
• Fill the fridge: It’s easy to allow your pantry to start looking like a sweet shop as the holidays near. Take care to stock your refrigerator and cabinets with healthy snacks and ingredients for balanced meals. Think fruit, nuts, lower-calorie snacks, veggies and lean proteins.
• Get real: Emotional health is important, too, so be realistic about what can be expected through the season. Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean that Aunt Zoe and Uncle Andrew will finally mend their rocky relationship.
• Keep moving:  Despite the many holiday temptations to just relax, don’t give in to being a couch potato. Get to the gym or yoga studio, go for a walk in your neighborhood, jump on the treadmill or dance. The important thing is to just move!

 

From the Crawford-Butz Agency to you, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!

Claims Quiz: Answers!

Did you take our claims quiz? Find the answers, and other helpful claims information, below...
 
1.) True or False: After an accident, it is best not to touch your vehicles or re-arrange anything about the way the cars are situated.

FALSE: After a crash, it is always best to move your vehicles and all people involved off the road. Unless there is an injury involved that requires that person to remain immobile, you are safer if they are off the road. Moving vehicles will not effect how the claim is processed and this is not considered "tampering with evidence".

2.) True or False: It is perfectly fine to take a picture of the other person's insurance card- no need to write it down.

TRUE: If it is easier, feel free to take a picture of the other person's insurance card. However, make sure it is saved safely and doesn't get deleted. Also, it is very important to make sure you have accurate contact information for the other involved party. You can also easily save this in your phone so you don't have to worry about finding a pen. You could call it at the scene to make sure it is accurate.
3.) True or False: If someone hits you and admits fault, it is imperative that you call your carrier and report the incident.

FALSE: If the other party is at fault, there is no need to get your carrier involved. If there is a discrepancy about fault or if the other carrier is not accepting fault, then getting your agent and carrier involved as advocates is a good idea.
4.) True or False: It is not necessary for you to speak with your carrier when reporting a claim. Your agent can completely report the claim for you.

FALSE: You must be the one to answer questions about the claim/ accident directly with your carrier. Your agent is here to help you along the process and be your advocate, but we cannot fully file the claim for you.

Other Helpful Auto Claims Tips 

-Always call the police after an accident. They can write a report that may be helpful for the claims process.

-This is the information you will need when reporting a claim:

　-When the accident occurred
       -Where the accident occurred (be as specific as possible)
        -How the accident happened
       -What kind of vehicle or vehicles were involved (including the year,
         make, and model)
       -A description of the damage on each vehicle
       -The names and contact information of people involved in the accident
       -The extent of any injuries to people involved in the accident
       -The names and contact information of anyone who witnessed the accident
       -The name of the law enforcement agency that responded and the police
          report number, if police were contacted

Make it a summer of giving back to the community

As your local independent insurance agency, we are a part of your community and we understand the need to support a variety of social service and community endeavors. Each month throughout the summer we are going to feature one of the ways Crawford-Butz gives back, either financially or through volunteer work, in our e-newsletter. We know our clients are active in the community as well. Share pictures of the ways you "give back" on our Facebook page through the end of June to enter a chance to win a $50 gas gift card for yourself and a $50 donation towards the organization you are serving. Hopefully you will be inspired, as we were, to get out in the community this summer and give back!

To enter into the drawing for the giftcard and donation to a service organization of your choice, you must be a client of Crawford-Butz, visit and "like" our Facebook page, write a post or post a picture to our page showing how you volunteer or otherwise support the organization. The organization must be a non-profit that helps the greater St. Louis area in some capacity.
https://www.facebook.com/crawfordbutzinsurance/

All who post will be entered into the drawing, to take place on Friday July 1st at the main Crawford-Butz office. The winner will be contacted via Facebook.

To sign up for our monthly newsletter to see how Crawford-Butz gives back to the community please visit: http://www.crawfordbutz.com/sign-up

Crawford-Butz is donating to a summer camp for kids with autism and speech therapy needs for the second year in a row in 2016.

Steve Butz with William Humphrey, the District Director of the Boy Scouts of America. Crawford-Butz has supported the Boy Scouts for a number of years.

Autism Speak Walk 2015. Crawford-Butz was well represented on the Ajdin's Hope Team.

Buying Life Insurance: It Isn't that Complicated

Part 1: Starting the Conversation

The most difficult part of buying life insurance seems to be actually picking up the phone and making the call to your agent. Once you have passed that hurdle, it just gets easier. According to LifeHealthPro there are over 18 million Americans who say they need life insurance, but do not have it.

In that initial conversation your agent will ask for a few pieces of basic information about you - your height, weight, age and tobacco use. This will easily give your agent the ability to generate quotes for you. This is a great jumping-off point to get into bigger discussions about what type (term or whole) and how much life insurance you need.

Umbrella Insurance: What you need to know

You have a retirement plan. This means you are ahead of the game, right? Or perhaps you are getting ready to send your kids off to college next year. You can finally sit back and relax, right? If you don't have an umbrella policy, don't get too comfortable. Getting hit with a liability lawsuit could put all your plans on hold. 

Here is an example that happens all too often. You are in an auto accident and the other driver and passengers are seriously injured. The claim reaches $1.5 million and your liability auto insurance only covers $100,000. If you don't have an umbrella policy to extend that coverage, you will be responsible for $1.4 million. If you don't have that kind of money available, your assets will be seized. No one wants to have to rebuild their lives after something like that. However, umbrella insurance is one of the least known types of liability coverage.  

In the event that a claim exceeds your underlying policy limits, a personal umbrella policy may be able to help by providing:

• Additional liability coverage from $1 million to $5 million for your primary and secondary homes, rental properties, automobile, motorcycle, watercraft, RV and more
• Coverage for most types of accidents - not just auto
• Legal defense fees not covered under your current auto policy
• Extended liability protection that helps protect your current assets and future earnings

Usually umbrella policies start at $1 million in coverage and are sold in million-dollar increments. You will also typically need to have minimum underlying liability limits on your homeowners and auto policies before you can buy an umbrella. To determine how many coverage you need, simply calculate your net worth by taking the value of your retirement and other assets and subtracting your debt. 

The most important thing is to talk to your insurance agent. Call your agent directly or our main office at (314) 752-2500. Don't let something unexpected ruin what you have been working towards your whole life.

Crawford-Butz Sponsors World Pediatric Project Event

The World Pediatric Project (WPP) is a nonprofit humanitarian organization with a mission to heal critically ill children and build healthcare capacity in the world. While that sounds like a lofty goal and an overwhelming undertaking, they are doing it one child at a time.

On May 9th 2015 WPP held an inaugural event called Rock 'n Heal. Crawford-Butz was a gold level sponsor for this event and 10 members of the Crawford-Butz team were able to attend. The $2,500 that Crawford-Butz donated supports surgery for five children reached by WPP traveling medical teams! The party was held at the Jet Linx hangar at Lambert and included food, drinks and entertainment. Most importantly, however, is that fact that is raised $67,000 for the World Pediatric Project and is helping them to Heal a Child and Change the World.

Agent Matt Laux and CSR Jamey Moroney 

One of the children that has received services through the World Pediatric Project was helicoptered in for the event  

This little boy from Peru can now eat and breath without pain because of surgery he received through World Pediatric Project. 

Auto Insurance: Smart phones make showing proof of insurance more convenient.

   There are many among us who are familiar with needing to show proof of our automobile insurance, but for one reason or another we cannot find our ID card when needed. Yet today we all carry our smart phones or tablets wherever we go, and in most states an electronic version of your proof of auto insurance will satisfy the requirements for a proof of auto insurance coverage. It seems like such a trivial detail to remember to put our proof of insurance in an accessible location, but it is a detail that is often overlooked.

 

   New smart phones and insurance company apps have made keeping your necessary insurance documents conveniently accessible. Now whether you have been pulled over in a traffic stop or you are going to register a car, you can pull up a saved PDF of your proof of coverage and show proof instantly. We receive requests for duplicate auto insurance cards all the time. With the expansion of electronic forms becoming an acceptable proof of auto insurance; it has allowed us to better serve our clients by getting any necessary information passed to the correct party in a much more time efficient manner.
   I would recommend that in addition to your physical proof of insurance that is sent by your auto insurance carrier. You might want to request an electronic version to sent to your phone in order to have fall back in the event your insurance card gets misplaced or damaged.





www.crawfordbutz.com