HALLOWEEN – AND A “HAUNTED HOUSE” … AND INSURANCE IMPLICATIONS

The Entrance to McKamey Manor (image credit: McKamey Manor)

Readers of this blog understand that Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency can find an insurance angle – a business of insurance angle – in almost any issue or aspect of society.

Indeed, insurance has an impact on … or is connected to … almost all that we do.

And, in that Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency, always independent and family owned, has been in business for close to 80 years, we have are familiar directly, or are aware of and educated on, just about every type of insurance event or circumstance.

It’s no surprise that we hunted down – for a Halloween post – stories and information on holiday and its ties and relevance to insurance.

If you click here you will be taken to a story that posted today at Fast Company, titled, “Running A Haunted House is Scarier Than You Think.”

Written by KC Ifeanyi, the article tells the story of Russ McKamey and his challenges and tribulations in running the famed and notorious haunted house, McKamey Manor, in San Diego, which subjects visitors to the intense form of scary

Yes, if you venture into McCamey Manor you could, among other frightening experiences, get tied up, or dunked in a tank of eels, or both – and then there are the hands that grab you.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Before stepping foot inside [McKamey Manor], participants are required to sign a 10-page waiver, have notes from a doctor and a psychiatrist assuring peak physical and mental health, and they must go through a thorough background check. And even if someone successfully checks everything off McKamey’s laundry list, there’s still a slim-to-none chance that person will ever go through the manor because according to McKamey’s last count, the waiting list is 27,000-people deep.”

So, as you can see, Mr. McKamey is keenly and highly focused on liability, and protecting himself against lawsuits.

In fact, one of Mr. McKamey’s operating expenses – as explained in the article is spending “somewhere between $15,000-20,000 per year on specialty insurance from Lloyd’s of London.”

That specialty insurance policy is a smart investment, believe us – and we feel the more you will agree the more you learn about McKamey Manor (we encourage you to conduct a web search of the term “McKamey Manor”).

Happy Halloween!!

BILL, TRENT, AND LISA – CONTINUING THE FAMILY OWNED LEGACY OF HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY

October 22, 2015

As we make sure to frequently emphasize in this space – because we consider it so important – is that, continuously, for the almost 80 years we have been in business, Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been independent and family owned.

We are a business and a legacy – and a tradition.

Fred Magoon launched Magoon Insurance Agency in 1937, on Clifton Avenue, in Brockton.

The Habig family would become part of the business when Bill Habig, married to Fred Magoon’s daughter, Betty, joined the agency.  He soon became a partner. 

Bill and Betty had three children – in order of birth, Bill, Trent, and Lisa. All the children were brought up in Easton, and all graduated from Oliver Ames High School – Bill Jr. and Trent in the early ’80s, and Lisa in 1988.

And all the children, today, work at Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency – making it a third generation family business.

The Habig kids know insurance.

When Bill Jr. graduated from what was then called Norwich Academy he went to work for three years as an underwriter for Plymouth Rock Assurance in Boston; he then worked for Travelers for three years, also as an underwriter, and also in its Boston office.

“I left Travelers to go to New York City and work for a UK based insurance group, Hogg Robinson Insurance Brokers, one of the world’s largest insurance brokers,” said Bill Jr. “It was a tremendously positive experience, and I learned a lot, and living and working in New York City is exciting – but I have a strong affection for the Boston area, and when, after two years in New York, an opportunity arose to work for the family agency, I took it.”

Bill Jr. has been with Habig & Magoon ever since.  

In 1998, Bill Jr. bought Magoon Insurance from his father, and the new entity was renamed Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency.

Trent, today Vice President of Sales for Habig & Magoon, also went right into the insurance field after graduating from college, from Curry College in 1987.

Trent first worked in sales for Gaudette Insurance in Whitinsville, MA, and then Rodman Insurance in Needham, before launching his own business, TRH Insurance Agency, which he ran for 12 years before signing on with Habig & Magoon in 2012.   

Lisa Habig Pearce started working part-time for the agency not long after she graduated from Emmanuel College in 1991.  She continues to work part-time for Habig & Magoon in accounting and bookkeeping, and has been with us now for a little more than 20 years.

“Trent, Lisa, and myself – we all respect and value highly the legacy of Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency,” said Bill Jr. “And we seek to honor that legacy in our work, in our relationships with our client, and in our involvement in the community.”

NFL PROSPECTS PROTECT THEIR FUTURE EARNING POWER; THE RISE OF THE LOSS-OF-VALUE INSURANCE POLICY

Washington Redskins Running Back Silas Redd (image credit: Mark E. Tenally, Associated Press)

October 13, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been serving the people of southeastern Massachusetts, and beyond, for almost 80 years.   We have always been family owned, and always independent.

Forging and practicing strong relationships and communication with our customers is fundamental to the value we provide our customers – and a primary reason we have been the choice of generations of many families.

Of course, this blog is one a way we communicate with our customers, and with the community at large.

We endeavor to make this blog a place to find helpful insurance related information.

As well, we also use this space to provide fun and entertaining information that is related to our business, and to the local community.

For example, the post about the New England Patriots and the team’s tie to Easton, which appeared on September 30^th.   Please click here to access the post.

In keeping with the NFL football theme, and tying it to insurance, today we moseyed around a bit online and found some interesting information about NFL prospects and a form of insurance called “loss-of-value” insurance.

This is a type of insurance that an NFL prospect will take out to protect himself in the event of an injury or illness that may decrease his signing and market value.

Actually, loss-of-value insurance, is taken out by athletes that are prospects to play in other pro sports leagues – but because of the injury laden nature of football, especially big-time football, loss-of-value insurance is more prevalent and popular with players that the pro football ranks has its eyes on, than it is with players that are meriting attention from other professional sports leagues.

Loss-of-value insurance, to protect potential livelihoods earned in pro sports, is a relatively new phenomenon.

Two NFL players making the news recently for their loss-of-value policies are Silas Redd, running back for the Washington Redskins, the first in the league to collect on a loss-of-value policy, and Ifo Ekpre Olomu, cornerback for the Cleveland Browns.

Mr. Redd received an undisclosed amount.  Mr. Ekpre-Olomu is scheduled to collect $3 million on his policy.

Both Mr. Redd and Mr. Ekpre-Olomu sustained injuries on the collegiate level that affected their NFL earning power.

To learn more about loss-of-value insurance policies, please click here.

It is almost certain that loss-of-insurance policies will become more popular among athletes that are strong prospects to play at the pro level.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency will provide updated information on these policies here on this blog in the future.

GO PATS!! HABIG & MAGOON SHARES SOME INTERESTING NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HISTORY

(image credit: New England Patriots)

September 30, 2015

So, here we are, about a month into the football season, and in these parts fans of the New England Patriots are about as happy with the team as can be, at this juncture in time.

Yep, the Sons of Bill Belichick are putting a whoopin’ on the competition, with a record of 3-0, and making it look easy – and, just, perhaps, fully intending making a “How you like me now?” statement, in the wake of investigations of, and accusations leveled at, the program.

Everyone at Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency is a dedicated Pats fan.

For as long as their has been a Patriots franchise, there have been people working for our firm that cheer on the team.

Indeed, our agency was founded prior to the New England Patriots franchise being established – as the Boston Patriots – on November 16, 1959. Yes, our agency was launched – on Clifton Avenue in Brockton – some 32 years prior to their being a Patriots organization.

Of course, in 1959, the Patriots were not an NFL team; they were one of the eight original teams in American Football League, a challenger, if not widely considered a serious challenger to the NFL, for which 1960 would be its inaugural season.

It would not be until 1969 that the AFL would merge with the NFL.

For the first 10 years of its existence, the Boston Patriots franchise did not have their own stadium; for its first two years, Patriots home games were played at Boston University’s Nickerson Field, then from 1963 through 1968 at Fenway Park, and for the 1969 season, at Harvard Stadium.

For the 1971 season, the Patriots finally had their own stadium, Schaefer Stadium, in Foxboro. With the move to Foxboro, the team also changed its name, to the New England Patriots.

Now,, here’s a bit more history, and this ties to Easton, where Habig & Magoon has been headquartered for more than 30 years.

There were 10 investors who pooled finances to purchase the Boston Patriots, the final AFL franchise awarded, with Billy Sullivan, the president of three Boston area coal and oil companies, heading up the investment group.

Also among the investors was an Easton guy, John Ames Jr., a lawyer, president of North Easton Savings Bank, and a member of a true family of American aristocracy.

Through the years, many New England Patriots have lived in Easton, and in the surrounding towns where reside people who, and businesses that, are valued Habig & Magoon clients.

****

Yes, for sure, it is charmed life, being a New England Patriots fan.

Next up, the Cowboys, on the road – and the team’s record to improving to 4-0.

GO PATS !!

SMART USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND DATA IS A BEDROCK OF HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY – BUT IT IS CARING AND IN-PERSON INTERACTION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT DISTINGUISHES US AND SETS US APART

September 9, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been in business for close to 80 years.   And since our founding, on Clifton Street in Brockton, in 1937, we have always been family owned, and always independent.

A major component of our success, and our longevity – indeed, fundamental to both – is that we forge strong relationships with our customers.  We take the time to listen, to ask questions, and develop for individuals and families insurance policies and coverage that is fine-tuned, specific, and the most appropriate.

Here is where we deliver prime advantage over the big box and giant insurance sellers that sell policies without in-person interaction and consultation.

It says something that many of our long-time customers have been serviced by the same Habig & Magoon employees and insurance professionals for more than 25 years.

Like all industries, the insurance industry is in a state of constant change and flux and transformation.

And, as is the case with all industries, technology is the driver of transformation – and improvement.

There is a good argument to be made – especially in that a bedrock and underpinning of the insurance industry is data and actuarial science – that “big data” has as profound an impact on the business of insurance as any other.

Directly, and indirectly, Habig & Magoon relies on technology and data to best serve and respond to our clients, and to run our enterprise most efficiently.

Yet, still, caring and in-person interaction and customer service – which is what Habig & Magoon has always provided all our customers … from 1937 onward – are out-front and priority factors in the decisions of people and families to stay with us year after year, decade after decade.

Caring and in-person interaction and customer service is how we operate and how we work.

This has always been the case, and it will always be so.

OF HURRICANE KATRINA, INSURANCE LOSSES, AND CHANGES IN PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE THAT THE HURRICANE BROUGHT ABOUT

New Orleans, LA, August 30, 2005 (photo credit
Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA)

August 30, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency – in business for close to 80 years, and always family owned and always an independent  agency – serves the people and businesses of southeastern Massachusetts, and beyond.

We protect people, property, and legacies.

As we are now in late summer, we are in the season that provides its own particular threat to life and property in the form of the atmospheric event called the hurricane.

Ten years ago, yesterday, the primary thrust of a hurricane – Hurricane Katrina – hit New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Katrina that provides information and background on the storm:

Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969, Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.”

If you click here you will be taken to the full Hurricane Katrina Wikipedia entry.

Almost impossible it is to get close to getting one’s arms around, and understanding, the human loss and pain of this event.

Loss in terms of dollars and cents, that worth and value is far more accessible. As reported in the Wikipedia page referenced above, “Total property damage was estimated at $108 billion.”

With such extraordinary material and financial loss, Hurricane Katrina necessarily became an immense insurance phenomenon. In fact, no event has resulted in more insured losses – $41 billion in insured losses – than Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina caused a tremendous amount of rethinking about hurricane preparedness – which has been smartly and productively acted upon.

Property and casualty (P&C) insurance has changed because of Hurricane Katrina.

To read about some of these changes, please click here to be taken to a story, titled, “5 Major Changes in P&C Insurance since Hurricane Katrina,” published August 11 in PropertyCasualty360 magazine. The story was written by Jayleen R. Heft.

Habig & Magoon is expert at helping people and businesses secure just the right P&C insurance – including that which protects and insures against potential loss caused by hurricanes – at an affordable price.

If you are looking for home or property insurance, or have questions regarding a policy, or would like us to review and evaluate a policy you have, we are here and are most appreciative of the opportunity to help and serve you.

HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENY HONORS AND BUILDS ON LEGACIES THAT WE HOLD WITH OUR CLIENTS. WE FORGE STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS EARLY IN THEIR INSURANCE BUYING EXPERIENCE – AND MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS WITH THESE CUSTOMERS THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been in the insurance business for a long time. That’s right – as we frequently recount here – we opened our doors in 1937.

Perhaps … 1937 …. not the most economically favorable time to launch an enterprise – in that the Great Depression was going on. But we weathered that difficult period.

And almost 80 years later we are still in business – and still, as always, family owned and independent.

We are also thriving … growing.

It is tremendously heartening and rewarding for Habig & Magoon Insurance that the coverage and personalized, valuable, and attentive service we provide is a legacy for many families.

As testament, consider that customers we have now are the grandchildren of Habig & Magoon Insurance customers. Families stay with us.

Within families … from generation to generation … Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency is a constant.

From generation to generation, Habig & Magoon establishes … immediately in a relationship with a customer … trust and accountability.

Habig & Magoon feels it is immensely important to guide and educate those in early adulthood – a demographic heavy in those purchasing insurance for the first time – on the various types of insurance, and to deliver to them access to the right insurance coverage at an affordable and valued price.

If you are in your late teens, or in your 20s, and you have questions about insurance – Habig & Magoon is the right agency with which to work. There is no question you can ask us that is not a valid and important question. There is no concern you have that is not a valid and important concern.

Again, we are family owned and independent. We are not an impersonal big box insurance behemoth.

Insurance coverage is important. Very important.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency seeks to be the the insurance partner and provider that people initially go to for their insurance – and with which they stay throughout their lives.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency seeks to be the agency, the relationship with which families transmit to the next generation.

Habig & Magoon will always honor and remain faithful to the legacy we hold and build with our customers.

HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY ADVISES MASSACHUSETTS DRIVERS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN OPERATING AS A RIDESHARE DRIVER, TO FIRST UNDERSTAND THE AUTO INSURANCE YOU WILL HAVE WHILE DOING SO. A HELPFUL NOTE: YOUR PERSONAL AUTO INSURANCE POLICY WON’T CUT IT

(image credit: Huffington Post)

March 25, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been helping people and companies in southern New England  … and beyond … for almost 80 years.

And, during this period, continuously, we have always been family owned – ever since Fred Magoon launched, in 1937, in Brockton, the insurance business that would become Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency.

We have seen a lot of history – and a lot of societal and economic and international ups and downs.

We are still here – and stronger than ever.

Through the years, almost all significant changes in business and the economy, and technology, have had an impact on the insurance sector.

A major disruptive change (and disruptive change can largely be good) ongoing now – one that surely has insurance consequences of which drivers and the public at large should be aware – is ridesharing.

Ridesharing, as defined by Wikipedia, is “a service that arranges one-time shared rides on very short notice. This type of carpooling generally makes use of three recent technological advances.”

A ridesharing company may also be called a transportation network company (TNC).

Among the leading ridesharing enterprises are Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar.

The March 5, 2015 edition of the Massachusetts Agent, a publication of the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents, included an article on ridesharing.

In the following excerpt from the article, addressed are insurance coverage issues for those owning and operating a car in Massachusetts, and use it for ridesharing, or are are considering doing so:

If you have a Massachusetts personal auto policy, there is NO coverage for anyone injured while occupying your car while it’s being used as a public or livery conveyance. In addition, the coverage will not pay for Property Damage, and coverage under all optional insurance parts – like Optional Body Injury, Medical Payments, Collision, Comprehensive and Underinsured Auto Bodily – is excluded. If driving for a TNC is your ‘job’, you are not eligible for a personal auto policy at all. The only policy which will cover you as a TNC driver is a Taxi/Limo/Car Service policy. As you can imagine, the cost of this type of commercial auto policy is substantially more than your personal auto policy.”

Operating as a rideshare driver can be a good way to make money – for sure.

But, please keep in mind, that while doing so in Massachusetts, your personal auto insurance policy is woefully inadequate.

You need additional and specific insurance offered through the rideshare company for which you are providing a service.

And It is important to check with the company to understand the extent and type of insurance and coverage under which you will be working.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, IN BOSTON, THE LARGEST ART HEIST IN HISTORY TOOK PLACE. AS FOR THE INSURANCE ON THAT ART? WELL ….

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), by Rembrandt; this painting is among the 13 pieces of art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 18, 1990 (image credit: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

March 18, 2015

Habig Magoon Insurance Agency, in this space, today, shares information on … and points to .. an epic art heist that took place 25 years ago.

And, yes, there is an insurance angle.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 18 – which, of course, followed a full Saturday of St. Patrick’s Day in Boston – thieves, dressed as police officers, entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

The museum, a bequest of Boston arts patron, philanthropist, and grand society dame, Isabella Stewart Gardner, was opened in 1903. Styled and designed to emulate a 15^th century Venetian palace, it housed an extraordinary collection of art – among the world’s finest small museum troves.

The thieves gained easy access to the poorly secured building, and quickly tied up the two security guards on duty (whom the robbers did not hurt).

Within 81 minutes after entering the museum, the robbers made off with 13 pieces of art, valued at approximately $300 million.  Included among the stolen artwork were two Rembrandt paintings, a painting by Vermeer, five drawings by Degas, and a vase from the Shang Dynasty.

In terms of art dollar value, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery remains the largest theft in U.S. – and maybe even world – history.

To this day, the art has not been recovered – although there have been many strong leads.

As terrible as was the loss – at least the art was insured, right?

Well, actually not.

A primary reason that the art was not insured is explained in the following excerpt from a 2010 Boston Magazine story on the theft, written by Paige Williams:

The 1980s and early ’90s were good years for art crooks. Between 1985 and 1988 alone, the number of thefts reported to Interpol doubled. The illicit international art trade had become a $1 billion-a-year business. Thefts drove up prices, which drove up the cost of insurance. Like a lot of smaller, private museums, the Gardner wasn’t covered for theft. Nor did it have a particularly sophisticated approach to hiring and training its guards or fortifying its valuables.

Please click here here to be taken to the full story.

There is a $5 million reward offered for information leading to recovery of the art.

Today the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is insured.

If you click here you will be taken to a story, in today’s Boston Globe, on the crime.

HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY SHARES HELPFUL INFORMATION, AND A VALUABLE RESOURCE, FOR TAKING ON THOSE ICE DAMS

(image credit: Stay Comfy, Minnesota!)

February 18, 2015

“If you don’t like New England weather, than just wait a few minutes.”

MARK TWAIN

Mark Twain surely had that right. And that is just one of many reasons that, if you have ice dams, even if you don’t hava any leaks, you should start attacking and dealing with the ice dams on your property right now.

Mother Nature – in her New England form – surely doesn’t care to give warning, and she surely has not signed off on providing gradual temperature change from day to day, so that we can ease into taking on those damn ice dams.

And, yes, it is going to be in the 40s Fahrenheit on Sunday.

When the ice on roofs and in gutters starts melting, and the water gets backed up behind ice dams, that water can flow under shingles – and then down into ceilings and walls, and end up dripping and even spilling inside our homes and businesses.

For almost 80 years, Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency, always family owned and always independent, has served the people and businesses of southern New England, and beyond.

We know ice dams well.

So do two of our valued partners: Bunker Hill Home Insurance and its affiliate and separate company, Plymouth Rock Assurance.

Recently, the two companies sent out a valuable email – signed by Chris Olie, president of Bunker Hill Insurance, and Curt Troutman, vice president of Bunker Hill Insurance – in which was provided helpful and targeted advice in safely and effectively tackling the nasty ice dams.

Here, below, we share an excerpt (in italics) from the email:

There are two basic approaches to dealing with ice dams:

1. Hire a professional. This is the safest way to remove snow and ice from your roof. However, if you wish to tackle the problem yourself, follow these recommendations from roofing experts: 

• Use a roof rake to remove snow buildup on the roof
• Try not to damage your shingles
• Avoid standing under icicles or roofs with large amounts of snow
• Use extreme caution when using ladders because rungs become very slippery with snow and ice on them
• Don’t use a roof rake near electrical wires
• Have someone nearby check on you in case you need assistance or are injured 

2. Create channels in the ice dams. 

• If you notice an ice buildup, use a large sock with a melting agent (preferably calcium chloride) and lay it across the dam perpendicular to the gutter
• The sock will release the melting agent gradually and create a channel in the ice for the water to empty through
• You may need several socks for an ice dam that runs the length of the roof

Does my house have ice dams?

Look for these warning signs:

• Large icicles hanging from the gutters
• Water dripping from the roof overhang
• Leaks, stains or damaged ceilings or walls inside your home

What If water is dripping inside my home?

• Collect the dripping water in buckets and pans
• Mop up standing water
• Move furniture, clothes and valuables out of harm’s way
• Call a professional to deal with the snow on the roof and to dry out your house

By the way, if you are looking for a high quality and highly professional company that can help you clear and prevent ice dams, we enthusiastically recommend 24 Restore, a provider of full-service restoration services that has offices Maine and Massachusetts, and whose coverage area is Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.  The 24 Restore Massachusetts operations, based in Easton, are a Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency client.