Latest / Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy / Covered: A 4th-Generation Insurance Pro's Guide to Not Getting Burned

Transcript

Covered: A 4th-Generation Insurance Pro's Guide to Not Getting Burned · Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy

• Chari Martinen [Mary Meyer] Welcome back to Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy. We have with us today Cheri Martinen and she is all about insurance and her family has been doing this for four generations. So she is a whiz and has written a book called Covered and the Smart Buyer's Guide to Home Auto and Business Insurance. I read my notes and that's about to come out real soon. Cheri, we do have a podcast sponsor, Mindiii, M-I-N-D-I-I-I and they are an IT company that does all the back end stuff for businesses to keep data safe and working well on the website and beyond. So tell us a little bit about how did this book come about? [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, so the book came about because we are, I'm an agent, I'm an agency owner and we seem to get like the same questions from our customers over and over and over again. And I was like, how could I help the public be a better insurance consumer? And a lot of that isn't taught in school, not taught at college, maybe your mom when you got auto insurance the first time was like, go down and meet Bob, he's a nice guy, get auto insurance from him, like maybe. Besides that, you probably learned what you know about insurance from commercials. And I was just like, it's time, it's time that there was a nice guide for anyone that was interested in the product, for anyone that's interested in being a smart consumer of the insurance products, so that when they go to purchase, they know what they're buying so that they're not disappointed, right? Because I think that's what we think of a lot of times is with insurance is you think you have something and then when the claims denied, you're like, what was I paying that money for? It was a waste of money. [Mary Meyer] So, and then when your book or there's a little bit about it about gaps in coverage, common gaps in coverage that can cost money. So if we start like with an auto insurance policy, what are some of those that people need to look for? [Cheri Martinen] I feel like people are always looking at price with auto, which is fair, right? This is a financial product. We're trying to protect our pocketbook as well. But I think where people get like pigeon-holed as they say, well, I need the cheapest auto insurance. Well, you get what you pay for a lot of times. And like personally, in our office, we don't sell state minimums because state minimums are not that a state minimum is the limit that the state makes mandatory for you to have insurance to drive on the road. But we realize for our state, where I'm in Oregon and many states around us, it's not enough. If there was an accident and there was a lawsuit, you would be under insured and you'd be fine for it. And you wouldn't have enough coverage to take care of the individuals that might have been injured in the accident or sometimes even to replace the asset that was lost like the vehicle that you were insuring, right? So I think the very, very first one is probably coverage limits. If you have an agent that's selling you the lowest coverage limits that is mandatory by the state, run away by someone else. It's probably the biggest gap that we see. And then other ones are really simple that I think people just assume are covered because maybe commercials like roadside assistance or towing coverage or some people, if you drive a lot, you probably get chips in your windshield and making sure that you have maybe the windshield coverage so you don't have to pay the deductible first. Right. These are like little tiny things that are added on to an auto insurance policy to make it more robust and honestly take care of you better in the event. Something happens. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. So in your state in Oregon, how much difference in monthly cost would you imagine it being from the state minimum to where you feel like, OK, this is no gaps and you're going to be good? [Cheri Martinen] It could be 50, it could be 100. This is really dependent on the individual. This is the fun thing about insurance, too. So insurance also looks at credit ratings when they when they quote. And part of the reason they do that is because they want to know that you're going to be a good consumer and pay your bill on time. And if you have a high credit rating, most of the time, that means you're good about paying your bills on time, whether that was your mortgage or your credit card statement or your auto insurance. So this is very personalized. So everything from credit all the way to what kind of car you're driving to where you garage the car. So where you're parking the garage at night, is it inside a garage? Is it on the street? Is it in a city? Is it more rural? All of these things are taken into account when you're getting a quote. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, I did experience that. I moved from Nashville to Atlanta. [Cheri Martinen] Oh, yeah. [Mary Meyer] And if you know the cities at all, a little bit about the coverage, I think it doubled my monthly rate doubled. And I'm like, I've had no accidents. I'm the same. [Cheri Martinen] Doesn't matter. I think another one. Do you have have you gone through the teen driver yet? [Mary Meyer] Oh, yes. Yes. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. So the teen driver, I think, is also a big surprise for a lot of people. Because they have less experience, they tend to cost more to insure. And what's funny is this goes on the other side, too. So you can look forward to this if you're ever helping a grandparent insure as well, what the older you get, the higher likelihood you are of car accidents and your rates go up as well. [Mary Meyer] Oh, I know. So it's all these all these different things. And I know insurance companies, they have all this data to know how to to manage the risk mitigation. It's a risk mitigation business. And so they take all these things in general into account where you're living. You're how old the the teenager, the age, the place that all I didn't know about the current history. So that's also. [Cheri Martinen] And so a lot of that state by state. Yep. Driving record. Do you have do you have any do you have any past incidents? How old are they? A lot of times, like we get it, like you're going to get in an accident. Sometimes that happens. It might not be your fault. They know that they're going to look at the severity of the crash as well. So if it's like a fender bender, that's three years old versus a total loss. That's a year old. That's going to affect your rates as well. [Mary Meyer] You have a thought on deductibles, auto deductible. [Cheri Martinen] I mean, yeah, the deductibles just in general is your risk tolerance. So what is your risk tolerance? And this might depend on your current finances or financial situation as well. So two hundred and fifty dollars could be the most you have in your savings account. And that is all you can imagine putting forward first in case of an emergency to get your vehicle back and get on the road. Right. Some people, they might have been saving longer, have more built up in their own account. They might have a lot more things in place. So a two thousand or five thousand dollar deductible. They're like, yeah, it's fine. Like if that came to me, I would be fine. I'm just going to pay it and move on, especially businesses. Right. Once you have like a fleet of vehicles, you're like, yeah, whatever. If I get a wind windshield chip, whatever, like we're going to replace it and keep going. So it's really about your risk tolerance and where you want to see that go. And the deductible also fluctuates with the premium, like what you were talking about. So the lower the deductible, the less risk you personally take on. So that two hundred and fifty dollars that you're less, you're taking on less risk personally, your premiums going to be higher because they realize that the likelihood of you having an incident that costs less than two hundred and fifty dollars and you paying by yourself is less likely than if you had a thousand or two thousand dollar deductible that you would cover that without even calling the insurance. So then if you had a higher deductible, you'd have a lower premium. They tend to run parallel to each other. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. So let's say there's someone in their 20s and they're like, they've had a habit of having a few too many fender benders. Their insurance is a little too high. They're they're in a little bit of a struggle. What for someone like that could look, those are usually the ones that are like auto insurance cars. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. [Mary Meyer] What would you say to them? [Cheri Martinen] Man, really work on getting your stuff cleaned up because their insurance rates could be double or triple what yours and mine are. Like it is they they will be penalized by the insurance company, especially if they're asking for an S.R. Twenty two or something like that for the DMV and other like reporting requirements based on their driving history. They like they are complaining for good reason. It is very high, but it's also because they've made some mistakes. So. [Mary Meyer] So what can they do to clean it out? Do you have thoughts on that? [Cheri Martinen] Man. Stop driving. No, I'm like, move to New York, sell your car. I know, right. There's not much you can do. It's all about consistency, right? This is like a healthy, wealthy wise. Insurance is a lot about consistency, too. Are you consistently making the correct choices when you're driving, whether that's not driving under the influence or not driving with a cell phone within reach, or is that making sure that you're always under the speed limit and you use tools in your vehicle to help you with that, right? Like you can track your driving and have different tools in the vehicle to make sure you're not abruptly breaking or to make sure you're not excessively speeding and tracking and trying to help you lower that risk down. Maybe it's not driving during rush hour. Maybe you have to get up really early and drive in really early before there's anyone else to hit on the road. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, there's no magic bullet. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, painful life changes, I think with that. Yeah, golly. So a parent who has teenagers, what what do you recommend? What are your thoughts on for them? [Cheri Martinen] Parent with teenagers, I would highly recommend taking some sort of driver safety class. A lot of times if you have a completed course, you can turn that into your insurance company and they'll give you like a little discount. It's not a lot. It's a little tiny one. And if they have good grades, tell your agent in the company about that too. If it's above a 3.5, a lot of times they can get a good student discount as well for being a good student who drives. Besides that, a lot of it is education on the parents part, walking around the vehicle, teaching them about tire safety. Teaching them about how to use mirrors properly when backing up. I know this is really boring, like normal stuff. Also, just talking to them about having friends in the car, or a lot of accidents nowadays are because of phones. So creating some sort of safety system that they can do, whether that's turning off all notifications and locking the phone when it's in drive mode or making sure that their music is connected correctly to the vehicle so that they're not like trying to get to that song they want while driving. Which none of us should be doing that anyway, but I know we do it. And then a lot of it is just the stuff you know. Just practice makes perfect. In our state, we have like a year-long period where they drive just with family or adults. Some of that is to make sure that they're practicing at four-way stops. They're practicing at intersections that might be busy. They're practicing getting on and off highways and freeways. They're practicing those daily things that are coming up. And with boys, really work on speeding. I don't know why, but for some reason, the boys tend to go a little bit faster than the girls, and it shows them their insurance premiums. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, I feel like there is a tracking thing I used once with a teenager, but I'm like, yeah, he's for sure going to be a speeder. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, it's a tracking. [Mary Meyer] For a while, it was just something to put on the car where you could track it. And in that first year of driving, it might be the thing to do. Because you know, kids go in 70 miles an hour in a 30 because it's fun. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, these are like super small things, but like install a camera. I know that sounds like super like overhead, you know, like watching over the kid and stuff. But if you install a camera like on the dash, if they get in an accident that is not their fault, they have a better chance in court to prove it's not their fault. Because what happens a lot of times is if there's any accident involving a teen, they just say, well, it was immediately the teen's fault, even though it could not have been the teen's fault. So sometimes having like a dash cam or something like that can also help protect the teen, not just helping them to drive safer. [Mary Meyer] So you're saying that the camera faces out or faces the teen? [Cheri Martinen] You could do both. You can do both. But like, if you have it facing out, sometimes you can then use that for like corrective. Just be like, oh, I noticed there was like a weird incident that happened here on the road. Let's talk about what you should have done. Or like I said, I actually have an agent friend who did this with his son. He had it on the dash cam and when his son got t-boned. And the person who t-boned him said it was his son's fault. They brought up the camera footage and immediately proved that his son was not at fault for the accident. And it helped them a lot in a lot of the legal case that followed for medical payments. [Mary Meyer] Oh, gosh. [Cheri Martinen] I know. [Mary Meyer] This is stuff. There's nothing that's more nerve-wracking than a teenager starting. I don't know if there's anything more nerve-wracking than a teenager starting driving outside of teaching them how to drive. And then that's forget it. You can forget about any thought about being a good parent, in my opinion. Forget it. It's going to be bad. I'm kind of joking, but it's so stressful. So stressful to me to do that, especially if you're in a high traffic area. So that's stuff. [Cheri Martinen] I was like, I haven't had to do it yet. But when I do, I will probably be the one that's like holding on. Quietly. [Mary Meyer] So with the cameras, would it be like a dash cam? Would you just buy that on just kind of anywhere? [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, you can find them on Amazon. They use them a lot in commercial vehicles as well, and very, very similar, right? So if you have a whole fleet of vehicles for your commercial, a lot of times having the two cameras, one on the driver and then one out, is helpful in the event of a claim. You can go back and be like, oh, you're right. My employee did fall asleep. That was bad. Or you could be like, no, my employee did rear end this person, but this person cut them off and then stopped, right? Because sometimes businesses are targeted for accidents and things like that because they are perceived to have more cash available to then pay claims out. I know. It's ucky, but it happens. [Mary Meyer] So anything else with auto before we move on to the next topic? [Cheri Martinen] Oh, gosh. If you drive in another country, check this. This is like most of the time auto insurance is just for your country, but I'm just going to say this for anyone going to Mexico or Canada because sometimes we have some snowbirds or just love of travel individuals. Your coverage doesn't always extend in those countries, and you might have to pay additional car insurance for those countries. If you're going for a weekend trip, that's one thing. But if you live like half the year in Mexico or you live for a period of time up in Canada, you might want to look at additional coverage. And I think that surprises people a lot. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. And I have friends who do go to different countries to stay for extended two months to eight, nine months out of a year. Yeah. And that is in Canada or Mexico. So does that mean they have to get insurance there in that country? [Cheri Martinen] They should for their vehicle. Yeah. If they get in any sort of accident, it will be brought up in that country's courts. And a lot of times the insurance in the United States may not extend. [Mary Meyer] Okay. [Cheri Martinen] I know. I know. [Mary Meyer] So another question on auto. One more. So if your car, there's always depreciation. So you and that's, I think, a trap that we fall in that we're going to get something that's not enough money to buy another car to drive. Is there, what do we do with insurance with that? Is there a way to mitigate that? Or do we just need to be saving money? [Cheri Martinen] I kind of just need to be saving money. Unfortunately, I don't even think that that's like an insurance thing. I think that's just if you sold your car and you didn't get in an accident and you took it to the dealership, the dealership would be like, thanks 5,000, right? And you're like, ugh. So it's kind of the nature of the beast with cars and insurance just follows the resale market. So when used cars became hot commodities not that long ago, obviously you got paid more. It's like you were looking for a 2012 Honda Civic, right? Instead of a new 2026 Honda Civic. So it does change with how the market is perceiving the value of that asset. In auto insurance, you do have to look at it, but they do it pretty regularly. So most policies are six months or year policies. So just reviewing and making sure that it's the correct amount on there. For your buildings, it's a little bit different. For the buildings, I always suggest just checking it every two or three years and making sure the replacement cost is accurate for what it costs today to build, not what it costs in, I don't know when you built it or bought it, 2016 when you built it, right? It was a different time, different cost. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. Well, and that's a good transition over to ensuring your home. So I feel like that's a whole different beast. So you just mentioned one thing with that. So make sure that replacement cost is not going to be what you paid for it. [Cheri Martinen] So yeah, so this is a fun one. I like that you said what you paid for it. So replacement cost and retail are two different things. So you could have a, I always use this, you could have a shack on the beach and it's a million dollar home. It's still a one bedroom cottage, right? I don't have to call it a shack. I can call it a one bedroom cottage on the beach. It's like a $1 million home, right? It wouldn't cost a million dollars to build that one bedroom cottage, right? If you had to rebuild that one bedroom cottage, it would probably be under 400,000 to rebuild because it's a nice little spot. But retail wise, it's a million dollars. So what insurance cares about is how much it costs to rebuild. So the rebuild cost, not particularly the retail cost. And I think people get those confused all the time because they'll be like, well, I just got my home appraised and my home appraiser says I need to increase my insurance to 2 million. And we're like, that's great. Like, does it cost 2 million to rebuild your home? [Mary Meyer] Like, probably not. The home burns down. There's still the land and the land value. Yep. The location of the land has value, a lot of value. [Cheri Martinen] It does. And the location. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. [Cheri Martinen] My mom always says by land, you can build a new house. That's how I take it too. Got to build by the view. [Mary Meyer] Right. I did that. I'm still waiting to build. [Cheri Martinen] But yes, I did that too. And we're building right now. And it's a lot. So good luck. I wish you luck. It'll go smooth. It'll be a smooth process. [Mary Meyer] Thank you. Okay. So what else with home? What are things that people usually miss in homeowners insurance? Gaps in coverage or? [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. A lot of people are working from home now. Like you yourself, you could be recording from home. I'm not sure. Or it could be at an office building. And if you have any business that's happening on the property, it's not covered by your homeowners insurance. And I think a lot of people get surprised by that. And so that could be anything from like Lululemon leggings. If you have, you know, $10,000 worth of retail in your home, it is not covered. To Mary Kay, to anything, like maybe what you're doing here. Like if you're doing a company just from the bedroom. Like if you're providing a service or you're doing a podcast or you're doing multimedia, if it makes you money, it is not covered under your homeowners insurance. [Mary Meyer] That is very interesting. I don't think I ever knew that. Yep. [Cheri Martinen] So a lot of people know about like the tax advantages of claiming maybe their small office as a business, right? Here's the other half of it. It's not covered on your insurance. Make sure when you buy your business owner's policy or your professional liability policy, or your general liability policy that you mentioned, that you have a location with, I don't know how big that your room is that you're working out of. 200 square feet. That that's part of that's work and that it needs to be covered as such. And that anything that is in there, including, like I said, retail, good costs, and all of that kind of stuff need to be covered under your business policy, not under your homeowners. And then if you're providing like a physical service, I've seen this sometimes, like Pilates studios in house or like a massage studio in a home. Like you've probably seen that. If you have people walking into your home, you need to make sure that you have liability insurance and that it's bumped up. Because if for any reason, let's say they trip and fall on the way in, you're liable and your business is liable. And you should not assume your homeowners will cover it because they will not. It will be denied. [Mary Meyer] Ouch. Yeah. That's very good advice. Yeah. Speaking of liability in general, like how much do you normally, like I remember a time when we really bumped up our liability insurance on our home, just to feel like we were safe here. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, millions. No, it's kind of like, so liability insurance is you're protecting yourself in the event of lawsuit for harm to others, right? And if for some reason harm comes to others because of something on your property or something happens at the property, that's what the liability is for. So in general, you want it pretty high because lawsuits tend to be pretty high. As a business owner, I always suggest to bump up your liability on the homeowners and even look at an umbrella. And an umbrella is something that goes on top of the liability insurance. You have your liability insurance at your base, like let's say it's $3 million, and then you put the umbrella on top for an additional million. And I always suggest that business owners do this just because again, the perceived value that people assume that you must be a business owner so you are more wealthy. Therefore, if they sue you, they will get more, right? So just making sure you have that additional coverage. And then if you've got kids and you're like carpooling, I also suggest getting the umbrella because chances are you're handling other people's children in a vehicle, which doesn't sound scary when you're like, sure, I'll take Joey over here to soccer practice. It's super scary from a liability side. So add the umbrella. Fun. [Mary Meyer] I had never, all in terms of carpooling, I never thought of that either. Have more liability on your car when you're carpooling. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. Where you're just taking care of somebody else's children. And if something happened, just making sure that you had enough in the insurance to protect you and your family and what you've built, and then also take care of the injuries or anything that could have hurt another family or individual, especially kids. [Mary Meyer] And liability insurance doesn't, from my experience, tend to be super pricey. [Cheri Martinen] No. No, you should just buy it. [Mary Meyer] Just buy it. [Cheri Martinen] Just buy it. Yeah. [Mary Meyer] It never seemed like it was that pricey to me, like almost like an extra $10 a month or something. [Cheri Martinen] Like the umbrellas are pretty affordable. Like really? Yeah, it's, yeah. [Mary Meyer] Worth it. Worth it. Against something that could happen like that, that would be just catastrophic otherwise. Yeah. What else with homeowners insurance should people be looking at? Or how, maybe how do you, as an insurance agent, is a better question, figure out what replacement cost is going to be? [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, so technically, as an insurance agent, I'm not supposed to tell you. I know. This is fun. So there is a ton of online tools that are available. A really simple one is Google. You can just say like, what is the going rate to build a brand new home in my zip code by square foot? And so $250, $300, $500 per square foot, take the square foot of your home, do the math. You've got like a base rate, right? Now, if your home has add-on, like any sort of, any sort of additions. So this kind of reminds me of like, when you see like a track home and they're like, this is the base product. And then this is the one with the nice cabinets and the trim and, and, and, and, right? So if you have the base one, that's what the square footage calculation is just from Google. If you have the souped up one with the nice quartz countertops and the crown molding and you upped for not just carpet, but for hardwood floors and heated tile, bathrooms, whatever, right? Like start getting, start getting in there. Obviously, you need to increase the rebuild cost because all of that goes into it. And honestly, for some homes that are older, they can't, like some of the items can't be replaced the same way. Like they're, they're handmade, you know, it could be a hand, handmade crown molding or something and it's just like, it just doesn't exist anymore, right? So sometimes you're just replacing with the best that you can. And I understand that some pieces, especially on like historical homes are kind of priceless. But like, yeah, keep that in mind. There's something, oh, roof age. So this is becoming more and more popular and maybe your other guests have talked about this. [Mary Meyer] They did, we did. [Cheri Martinen] They did. Roof age is becoming a thing. It's always been a thing, but the insurance companies are getting a little bit pickier about it recently. The newer your roof, the easier it is to insure. The older your roof, the harder it is to insure. Sometimes even saying like, no, you don't get insurance because your roof is too old. And I think the thing that really drives homeowners nuts is, you know, when you get a brand new roof, they're like, 40 year like warranty. I got a 40 year roof. You're going to be great for the next 40 years. The insurance company is like, no, 20 years. I know. And it makes you mad as the homeowner because you're like, no, there's nothing wrong with it. [Mary Meyer] Oh, gosh. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. So roof age. Also, if you have like, again, this is like wonky stuff, but every once in a while we say, see it. If you have like anything special about the home, like you're like, oh, I built it with hay bales or I made this sunroom completely out of glass bottles because I was inspired off of YouTube. Like really cool. It's going to be harder to insure. What else? [Mary Meyer] All this stuff. What is that stuff in your yard? Does, you know, outbuildings. [Cheri Martinen] Oh, the outbuildings. Yeah. Always tell your insurance agent about your outbuildings. They're going to add to the value of the house and add to the square footage of the storage. And we'll just, it's an easy add-on. Schedule, nice. Schedule items that are above the limits in your homeowner's policy. So that, like, what does that mean? Jewelry. If you have an item in jewelry that's more than $500, you should probably schedule it, which means you tell the agent what the piece of jewelry is and then what it retails for. And even having a picture is better, right? And they might ask for receipt if it is something like fine art. So if you are scheduling fine art, you just bought this piece of art from an auction house. You're super excited. Take that receipt. Send it to your insurance agent. They'll add it to your policy as a scheduled item. Increase the value of replacing that item so that in the event it's gone, you can try replacing it with similar kind of quality. Obviously, I know that some art is one of a kind. You can never get it back. But replace with similar kind of quality or at least if you back something, right? So jewelry, art, any sort of collectibles that are over the limits of your current one. That could be anything from, like, Pokemon cards to shoe collections, depending on the shoe collector, to, like, I'm trying to think of other things that people love collecting, baseball cards. Yeah, all, if it's over that, like, $500,000 in value for an item, schedule it. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, diamond ring. [Cheri Martinen] Diamond ring. Schedule your diamond rings and your diamond earrings and the necklace. And yes, schedule it. I know it's rude to ask your husband after he gives you something, hey, do you have the receipt for this? I am that person. My husband got me a beautiful diamond necklace and I was like, I need the receipt. And he's like, I don't want you to know. And I was like, then you need to turn it in. Like, you need to put it on the schedule. Exactly. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, yeah, for sure. So let me ask you this. So what do people need to know? Like, they gotta go get insurance. How do they know when someone is really doing them right and knows what they're talking about and when they're maybe being a little shady or something? [Cheri Martinen] Well, first of all, they should be licensed. To sell the insurance product, we have to be licensed and you have to be licensed in the state that you're living in. So easy to find. You can search for them on your insurance. Well, there's a couple of different places, but they are licensed in your state. So like going to the state, looking up their name should be able to help you pull their license. Or like all of my agents that work with me, we literally put our license on our business card. You can search it. So they should be licensed. Other things to look for is kind of like what I said earlier. If they're selling you the cheapest policy, ask why. Like, is it because they're giving you the bottom limits for your state? Are they giving you the lowest possible limits or are they trying to protect you and make sure that you have more coverage when it's necessary? It's okay to ask questions. Ask all the questions you want if you don't understand something. I'm trying to think of some other red flags. If they're really rushing you, you don't have to buy insurance and one phone call. You can if you want to. You don't have to. Like you can get multiple quotes from multiple different places. I think what a lot of people don't know is that there's like brokers or independent agents and then there's captive agents. So a captive agent is somebody that you might have met from like State Farm or Allstate. They can sell one brand of insurance and it's State Farm or Allstate, right? That's it. But with that, when State Farm or Allstate wants to ensure you, they will make the price very competitive because they can, right? They've done all the due diligence on the underwriting side and they say, this person's a good risk. Give him a good price. On the independent agent side or the brokerage side, we can shop multiple locations. So kind of like flow with her little like shopping tool. So you're not just shopping for an auto policy at Allstate. You're shopping 15 carriers for an auto policy. And then taking the best coverage plus price and add-ons and then showing it to the customer. So if you feel like you have to go to multiple places, sorry, there's no like special bullet. I mean, you can go online and use an online radar but just realize that the online radar is going to show you kind of what you want and then what we call it bridging. When you actually bridge to the carrier, all of your content and all of your data, it might change. Or you might not be really understanding what you're purchasing. I think is the two pieces I see when sometimes people shop online by themselves. [Mary Meyer] And you know, insurance is a form of sales, right? And I had someone on and I liked his take and his book, which is that teach people. So this is Dan Roshon He wrote Teach to Sell. So I'm going to use this as an example because I know this is sales. I'm in sales. So it's like, just tell them every option and explain to them and then they can choose. A hundred percent. This is your policy. This is it. This is great. You haven't explained to them, would you like this? This is why this could be good and then they can weigh it and decide. So in education, teach them all the reasons why it's what the options are. [Cheri Martinen] A hundred percent. And then I think the other thing I hear a lot is I want to quote based on my current policy, I need apples to apples. How insurance works. Every single company wants to be special. So they purposely write their policies in a way that makes them feel like they stand out and are better than the competition. So there is no apples to apples, but there might be like Granny Smith to Red Delicious. Are those two apples the same? No. Are they both still auto policies? Yeah, so I think there's a lot of misconception just in general about that. But you can just copy one thing and have it exactly the same sitting next to it. It doesn't work like that. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, and I know we can read our insurance policies, but I know I haven't. [Cheri Martinen] And that's okay. Yeah, I always suggest people at least to read the first page. The who's insured should be your name if you want any money back. And if it's a business, then it should be the business name. If the business is supposed to be paid back because of a loss. So this comes into play, especially after death or divorce. So just checking the policy and checking who is insured. It says insured and then should say your name. And then the limits. What's your deductible? And are you comfortable with that amount that is on the deductible? Whether that's a lower deductible or a higher deductible like we talked about earlier. And then your limits for, depending on the risk, if it's for property or for auto, you're going to be looking at your liability and then your comprehensive coverage on the auto and your replacement costs. On the homeowners insurance and you're going to just be making sure that those limits for like the liability are high enough or for like your the property that it's high enough. [Mary Meyer] I tell you what insurance is one of these things like we don't like to think about. We don't like to deal with it, but we have to deal with it and we have to have it. [Cheri Martinen] So I know I always tell people I'm like you don't have to have it if you never borrow money from a bank, but the bank wants to protect its asset as well. So because most of us have a mortgage, you need it. And then for driving a car, you really have to have it because the state mandates it for good reason, right? Yeah, like because if you've ever been a car accident, it wasn't your fault and you're like, oh my gosh, I have whiplash. Like how am I going to pay for all the P.T. that's involved in this? Having the insurance makes a huge difference. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So transitioning to business insurance. I know we did a little of the crossover if you're running a business inside your house and you have, I imagine too, if someone is like has tools in their garage. [Cheri Martinen] If you're running like any sort of, yeah, the tools. So it's funny. Garage is like a funny topic too because they have a little bit of extra risk with like oil storage or pollution. So like if you have 15 views, like I'm just, I can see the homeowner on my street that doesn't run a business out of his garage, but totally runs a business out of his garage. He's got like 15 cars on the lot and they all have like oil and different liquids in them just sitting there. And if for any reason they leak, it could be any acclaim for pollution if it got into the water supply, like all this stuff, right? I know. So if you have a garage, business out of your home garage, I would actually highly suggest that you move it to commercial space. A lot of places aren't even zoned to have those type of businesses in them. But yeah, they kind of go under the radar. You're right. [Mary Meyer] So and then if you have your home-based business and you have just certain like you're selling maybe stuff that you ship off or something like that, all that needs to be insured. Anything you might be using like that. [Cheri Martinen] Anything like that. [Mary Meyer] Yep, all of your something like that. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. Anything that you're using for business to make money. Just let the agent know there's a ton of different policies, but the most basic one, we call it a business owner's policy or a BOP. It's going to combine the general liability and the coverage for any equipment that you might have or use. And it's just nice and easy. It's perfect for the small business or solopreneur and they aren't that expensive. So BOP, business owners policy. [Mary Meyer] I feel like that would make a really good commercial, wouldn't it? Do you have your BOP? Did you get your BOP? [Cheri Martinen] Do you have your BOP? [Cheri Martinen] I'll start one. [Mary Meyer] It's going to be super cute. Did you get BOP'd? [Cheri Martinen] Did you get BOP'd? [Mary Meyer] Great. It's a great acronym. So business insurance that isn't in your home. So you have your place of business. This is something I'm not super familiar with. So what would be an insurance policy that you need as your place of business? [Cheri Martinen] So you could still do that BOP or a package policy. We also call it package where you're going to have depending if you're renting or owning the property coverage and all of your equipment and everything inside the building of your contents. And then as well as the general liability, you're going to have that. And then let's pretend you have employees and employees automatically trigger workers comp. Workers comp is done by state. So if you have just employees in your home state, that's great. It's going to be one workers comp policy. But let's say you've got a whole bunch of work from home employees and you all work together to help make social media campaigns or something like that. You would have to have workers comp in each state that the employee is located in. That's a fun one for people or any states that they are living in. So if they're traveling to your place of business to work over state lines, you still need to have it in the one that they're living in. I'm thinking in our area, it's Washington and Portland that it's like just over the river. So a ton of people will live in Washington but then work in Oregon you have to have workers comp for both states. It depends on what you're doing. So workers comp is based on the risk of the chances of somebody getting hurt on the job. So let me use like an example. Desk worker is going to be less expensive because the chances of us injuring ourselves besides like maybe tripping and falling or carpal tunnel is much lower than a roofer. Yeah, so roofers tend to have higher claims on workers comp because people fall off roofs because they're on them in gravity. That darn gravity. So workers comp is going to vary. It's going to vary by occupation and we actually have it all coded out. There's like little codes for each occupation. I'm not going to bore you with that. But yes. [Mary Meyer] I mean, that's necessary. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, so workers comp can vary in cost but most of the time if you just got one employee you're going to be fine. You can pay for it. You're going to be good. It's not too bad. Other things that you might have you might need professional liability if you are say like a dentist or a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant. Those professions where you're giving advice and then there could be harm based on the advice that was given. Obviously, no malintent. It was an accident. But if you were an accountant you said I think this would be the best way to handle your taxes and then something went wrong and your client had to pay $20,000 in fees. That could be a claim. Errors of admission. We use that a lot in my industry that is like when somebody makes a mistake and it could be a clerical mistake. Let's use insurance because I have this personally for my business. Let's say you were supposed to be insured for $5 million but $1,000,000 was clerically left off on accident. Ouch, right? That's not enough. That was an error. So that's like a good example. You can also look into why is the name of it escaping me? EPLI which is going to protect the employer from the employee. Example of this could be failure to hire. So like if you were doing interviews and then you just chose not to hire somebody and they decided it was because of something that was a protected class. Like they could sue you for that. It could be they could say it was based on my ethnicity the way they didn't hire me and they could sue you for that. The EPLI coverage would come in and help with that. Or if they were wrongfully terminated for I'm trying to think of a good example of a wrongful termination for their sexual preferences. They were wrongfully terminated for their sexual preferences. Okay, like that would also be a lawsuit to your business. Cyber, you kind of touched on this earlier, actually your sponsor. Your sponsor would be great for this cyber insurance that is protecting from phishing and protecting from malware and ransomware. I bet your sponsor helps with all that so that people don't have to mess with it. But having the cyber coverage make sure that if there is a breach and let's say your customer's personal identifiable information like their emails, date of birth, or social securities were taken. That it was protected and that there was insurance coverage for it. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, what is that called? Cyber insurance. [Cheri Martinen] Cyber insurance. Yeah, cyber. If you store anybody's personal identifiable information I would strongly suggest that you have cyber. Another one that's kind of fun is taking any sort of money online. Or like I think of the really big ones. So the really big ones that come up to mind for cyber are like when Target got hacked. I don't know if you shop at Target but all the customers that shopped at Target for like six months got a notice that was like, hey, your data was stolen. Yeah, we're giving you the money to buy identity protection, right? Another one was like ransomware that was really big. It was a couple years ago. The oil pipeline that got shut off by bad actors and oil couldn't get from the northeast to the southeast. Cyber insurance. Ransomware. [Mary Meyer] That's not for insurance. [Cheri Martinen] Ransomware. [Mary Meyer] It's just, there's just so many things. [Cheri Martinen] I know. Like AI is the new one. So AI, people are using AI in their businesses. And it used to go under the general liability but they've taken it out of the general liability and now you have to ask for an AI writer. And asking for the AI writer gives you the coverage for AI created material that could have harmed others. Again, without, this is all without malice. Like you're not trying to. But the example we have that actually went to court was someone was using like a chatbot on their website you know, to like answer FAQs like frequently asked questions. And the chatbot, the AI chatbot told the customer that something could be done. And then the company couldn't, couldn't produce those results. And so they were sued. And they had no coverage. Because. [Mary Meyer] Because it's too new and who knew? [Cheri Martinen] Because it's too new and it's who knew? Yeah. And what I think of for AI, like for especially for people who are creating like lots of content for customers and things like that using the tool which I know is very popular. And a lot easier than sitting down and writing a blog. Right? I get it. Like, yes, just like think make sure we're all thinking of these things and proof just proofread. Yeah. Yeah. [Mary Meyer] And I'll just say chat GPT lies, you know, so they just yeah, GPT is really bad for just making stuff up. Yeah. It just makes stuff up. [Cheri Martinen] It just makes stuff up. So I would just, you know, like this, this is new. We're all learning. And including insurance. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, I've had so many different AI conversations and there's so much to say and think about it for sure. But one thing is, I know I use it just like to create show notes. It's super helpful. There's certain things that you automate and will save you, especially as a small business owner. Hours and money that you don't have because there's just too much to do in a business. [Cheri Martinen] A hundred percent. And I don't think anything in your show notes based on like the transcript is going to be like fraudulent or hurt any of your guests. And I'm sure you proofread it. So I'm sure it's fine. But like, yes, like AI is coming to the point where it's answering the phones for small businesses. And if, you know, maybe they take a payment AI virtually and maybe that payment isn't distributed correctly or it is goes to bad actors. Like who pays for that? Where does it come from? You know, so. Yeah, it's not like, yes, I think you're using AI ethically. There's other people out there that are not. [Mary Meyer] Wow. So an AI insurance writer. [Cheri Martinen] Yep. [Mary Meyer] Something new. [Cheri Martinen] Something new. That's brand new April 2026. Like that one's new. [Mary Meyer] Okay. Good to know. If you have a store where people are walking in and out a lot, I'm assuming there's a whole is there a way to judge liability on that? Or like your store. [Cheri Martinen] That your liability is going to cover that. But I will say slip and falls are like the number one's workers comp claim as well as liability claim. I tell people all the time you think we'd be better at standing up when we do it all day and we have two feet and all of us do it. But it was like the number is the number one claim. So if you're ever like, what should I be worried about? It's where you placed your courts in your home office. That's what you should be worried about. [Mary Meyer] Slip and falls. That's crazy. [Cheri Martinen] Slip and falls. [Mary Meyer] I mean, it does make sense. Yeah, I had a small business attorney on here too. And she was like talking about slip and falls and how just to you can also talk to an attorney about how to kind of silo your businesses. So it's harder to be sued. Yes, and assets are protected from lawsuits. [Cheri Martinen] Insurance is very similar with that. So like I always tell people just like the attorney was saying you want to separate your personal from your business, right? That's what an LLC is. You're saying if there was an event that happened at the LLC or the business, the business or the LLC would be sued. And the assets inside of that business is what would be affected. Not your home over here in your personal life. So by creating the LLC and creating the business, you are creating a safety wall. And then make sure that the assets that are for the business are listed as the business and then insured as the business. So this one gets tricky with like business auto. So is the business registered as the auto's owner? And then the insurance also covered as business auto underneath the business policy. It should all match. [Mary Meyer] Okay, that's a confusing one if you're just using one car for business and auto. [Cheri Martinen] So at that point, because like you're thinking taxes, right, you're like, well, I get a write off if I use it for business. Where do you want the lawsuit to go and how much are you using it? Like if you're using the truck, let's just say it's a truck and you're a contractor and you're going from place to place to place and your jobs move all over. So you're driving there. I would put that one under the business because the likelihood of you getting in an accident while on the job is probably higher and you'd want that lawsuit again to go to the business not to your personal auto. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, okay. So that's a big one. I can see that. And I know business owners, I've worked with them quite a bit in the last two years and they're just, you know, trying to keep track of it all. It is a lot to keep track of. [Cheri Martinen] It's a lot to keep track of. [Mary Meyer] I have to call the insurance plus just the doing the business, engaging with people and then, you know, your personal life and I haven't even covered it all. So keep an updated on AI and on the new products coming in and what the new trends are and whatever the business is. So it's a lot. [Cheri Martinen] No, it's not easy. I feel you all. Me too. [Mary Meyer] It's a lot. But I do think it's the trend. I think it's the trend that we're going to have to be ready to jump into earning our own money and AI might be part of that reason. So get ready. [Cheri Martinen] We'll see what it looks like. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, get some insurance. You know, that's a get your insurance correct for sure. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. [Mary Meyer] So yeah, anything else on that topic? Business insurance. [Cheri Martinen] Oh gosh, there's so much. But I'll just leave it there. Just leave it there. Yeah, it's all based on, you know, what each business needs. A contractor is going to need tools coverage where someone working from home probably doesn't. Well, unless you said like the garage, then they need tools coverage. So yeah, it's going to be dependent on the needs of your business and the services you're providing. [Mary Meyer] Let me ask you this. Do home and auto insurers agents usually provide business insurance and are they up to date on that? Or is it something that you should really go look for someone who specializes in business insurance? [Cheri Martinen] So if you're like, I'm going to like, I'm going to specify a little bit. So if you're a hairstylist, your home and auto guy can probably help you get the correct insurance that you need to perform all the duties that you're performing at the salon that you're contracted at, right? If you are doing a very specific type of business that might be harder to ensure or just is more unique, I would look for a business specialist that specializes in that type of coverage. So like for at our agency, Bancorp Insurance powered by One Digital, we specialize in wildland firefighter insurance. Not everybody knows how to ensure people that are running the wrong way towards a fire. It's something that we've done for decades. We've worked with the different companies to make sure that we are going to understand these people's businesses and take care of them completely and put them in the right places. Because what happens a lot is agents mean well. We really do. Every I honestly think most insurance agents mean well and they try to cover the best they can, but they might not know of all of the intricacies. And so they don't know how or where to get the correct coverage. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, so look, can you tell us more about that? I know the podcast just last week. We're covering wildfires and I'm in Reno. Horrible fires going on. It's just, you know, this year. So it is something that is increasing. So been covering. So your coverage, you're specializing in people who fight the fires. [Cheri Martinen] Correct. So like the ground crews who were like literally on the ground fighting the fires, the water tenders that come in with the big trucks filled with water that spray water on the fire. The command centers where all of the firefighters eat sleep and get data to fight the fires more effectively. And so and like helicopters and all of the aerial support that you think of, you probably have them flying over right now. Like the huge ones that drop either water or retardant onto the fire. So all of those individuals are people that we work with and ensure to make sure that they can be doing their job and not worrying about insurance when they're working, which is right now. They're really busy, like you said, in Reno and up in Spokane in Oregon. We had quite a few as well, but we luckily didn't lose very many structures. So we're still feeling the fire season now. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, yeah, yeah. The count was 36 fires from the Hawk fire. [Cheri Martinen] Yes, a lot. [Mary Meyer] So this is this is something I don't know that too many people think about, but the specialization and I'm sure that's such a high risk if you're fighting a fire is I can't even imagine too much fire risk than that. So correct. [Cheri Martinen] So just like with your career firefighters for people fighting fires at homes, right? The fire station just down the street. So those businesses need coverage as well. But yes, it is like a very specialized niche. We're working with people on ensuring their vehicles, which you don't realize a lot, but those guys drive a lot. So some of the firefighters that could be helping you fight your fire right now, we're in Spokane maybe two weeks ago. Right. So like they're driving up and down the coast, up and down California all over the western states fighting fire where it happens. It's not like they can sit at home. So they have a lot of fleets of vehicles. They have a lot of support vehicles like trailers and things like that as they go. They've got a lot of tools, everything from, you know, $5,000 chain saws to hand tools. We talked about the water tenders, which are like the large vehicles with water in them that put out the fire. And then a ton of like digging tools because they're they're digging line. So it could be digging tools are going to be looking like bulldozers or they're going to be looking like I can't I think of it right now. Words. [Mary Meyer] Sir, is it called a dozer? [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, like a dozer or take of the one with a scoop and I can't at this moment. Anyway, large equipment that is on the line to create breaks. They call it breaks, which is where you will have vegetation. They create a break in the vegetation, making like a dirt line and then more vegetation. And the idea is to make that break wide enough that it stops the fire and ideally doesn't have enough embers and things like that travel over and start another fire on the other side of the break and continue the fire. So they're creating breaks to stop the fires. They're rerouting the fires or back burning, which means they would create that break, maybe back burn the area across the way. So there's nothing to catch on fire. So again, the fire stops. And then in the off season, they're doing fire mitigation and the off season, they're laying down trees that are dangerous that burns the previous season. They're removing underbrush from local national forests and other locations to try to support wildfire, wildland fire fighting. The next season, right, by not having any controlled burns. Those are really popular in the wetter months, trying to make sure that again, the fuel is low and the chances of a fire are less. Yeah, they do a lot of work. [Mary Meyer] Yeah, I mean, I've only been here a couple of years. So I have not been in, you know, I've been in the southeast, which is a wet climate. Georgia's almost like a rainforest and in the Midwest. So it is really something to be in a climate where there's a wildfire. And I'll tell you, sorry, even last year, I had my mom and her husband in town and we went down to Carson City, which is our- And at Carson City. Yeah. [Cheri Martinen] And they're once a year too. [Mary Meyer] Okay, it's just pretty dry. I thought they'd enjoy the state capitol and we're on our way back going to catch some ice cream with my son and his family. And we can't drive back because there is a wildfire. And we were in it so, and that's an hour. And we were so early on the scene of the wildfire that they hadn't closed the roads. And I know my mom's husband, this is Iowa. He's like, well, they haven't closed the roads. It's probably fine. We can just keep going because a fire in Iowa is not a fire out here, right? So I started driving towards it and some other cars were just kind of circling back because they hadn't closed the road. And this ended up being the Davis fire. It's a very big dangerous fire that happened a year and a half ago or a year ago-ish, something like that. But I finally was just like, I don't like it. I don't like it. And we just went to Tahoe because that's how you get around that. But that's just a personal story of the issues that do come in the West with fires. But I'm certainly glad that there are people like you that are ensuring it and certainly glad there's people fighting the fires and knowing how to manage all this. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah, if you are thinking to yourself, man, I want to be a wildland firefighter. You have to get contracted by the federal government. And there's still spots. So work with somebody first. That's already doing it. And then you can start your own business too. [Mary Meyer] Oh my goodness. Because they're contractors. A lot of them are contractors. [Cheri Martinen] A lot of them are contractors. Correct. And like I said, there's stuff from command centers. So there's entire people that all they do is bring trailers with rows of laptops and internet connection. So that again, people, the firefighters can make the best decisions with the information that is provided to keep themselves safe and try to fight the fire as quickly and efficiently as possible. So from that to like mobile catering, showers, bathrooms, sleeping facilities, they make little cities. They make little cities. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. Wow. So the whole support system for the whole thing. So all those are possible small businesses for those who are willing to do the risk work. Yeah, correct. [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. [Mary Meyer] Yeah. Cherie, thank you for coming on. Could you tell us when your book is out and how people can get it and how they can reach you? [Cheri Martinen] Yeah. Covered The Smart Buyer's Guide to Home Auto and Business Insurance will be coming at September 15th. It is my first published book. I'm looking to be a best author, which means I need your help. I need you to buy and read the book and just leave a review and tell others how they can learn more about insurance, which is the goal. And you can find more about me at CheriMartinen.com or if you want to learn more about fun insurance facts that are easy to digest in your social media feed, you can follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. And like I said, small insurance facts, not as long, one minute each and you get to be a little bit smarter than your friends on this fun financial topic. [Mary Meyer] Cheri, thank you so much and I appreciate your sharing all your wisdom on this great risk mitigation through great insurance. So, thank you and have a great day. [Cheri Martinen] Thank you, you too.