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Dear Friends and Family,

I wanted to reach out to you today to thank you for your time and contributions in response to my previous mailer requesting your support for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Man of the Year Campaign! Many of you have already contributed to this amazing cause, and we thank you for your contributions. This email is to not only thank you, but also to let everyone know that if you have not had a chance to contribute, it is not too late! We are in the home stretch of the campaign with the final day to contribute being next Friday, June 12^th.

LLS is on a mission to find cures for blood cancers and to assist patients and families as they battle this disease. Unfortunately, this campaign could not have come at such a hard time, and we are certainly falling short of our goal as a combined group. This is one of the worst times in all of history to be asking for ANY type of donation, but this is ALSO one of the worst times in all of history to be afflicted by Leukemia or Lymphoma.

As we discussed in our prior letters, we recognize that your 401k, retirement account and/or your bank accounts are down a little due to the environment in which we find ourselves.

Many of us are still working from home, if we are so lucky to have even kept our jobs. But as we seek to figure out what lies next in our lives, think about if you were experiencing a different obstacle, a fight for you or your child’s life!

Any support you can provide will go a long way.  $1, $5, $50….ANYTHING.  If the coronavirus didn’t happen and you would have given “$XXX”, please give 50% of that…if that is too much, 25%…if that is too much, please just give something.  Even with everything going on, uncertainty with the economy, my bank accounts being hit, Mappus Insurance Agency, has committed to a $5,000 donation.The good news here is that you don’t have to fill out a check and mail it in as you can donate online at  www.CUREagefortoMORROW.com. You will receive a confirmation of your donation by email and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation.

As we head into this final week of fundraising with a goal of putting to an end to blood cancer, will you be able look back and know that you helped to make this cure possible!! Join us in our support of LLS!

Thank you,

Griffin Morrow, candidate for Man of the Year & Andrew Muller, team member for CUREagefortoMORROW

p.s. here is Andrew’s letter to family, friends, and clients

Many insurance agencies (and many businesses in general) across the country are having to work remotely with very little planning time due to the coronavirus.  Here are a few tips, suggestions and recommendations…along with some “how to” actions you can do to get your insurance agency to thrive working remotely in as little as 24 hours.

Six Topics to discuss and consider:

1. Answering phone calls remotely
2. Helping “walk in” traffic remotely
3. Taking payments remotely
4. Selling insurance remotely (yes, we still have to make money!)
5. Interoffice communication
6. General Servicing of accounts and more

#1 – Answering phone calls remotely

Although many insurance agencies have already moved to voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phone systems, now is the time to do so.  In short, this allows you to answer your office phones from anywhere in the world just as if you were sitting at your desk. There are many companies that can set this up for you in as little as 24 hours over the phone (pun intended) or online.  This is inexpensive and in many cases can cut your phone system costs in half. All you need is the internet to run a VOIP phone system. A few companies to check out are RingCentral, Nextiva, 8X8, LightSpeed Voice, Kotter/Bridge, and BlueWave.  You are probably thinking this is great, but what if a client shows up at our office…go on to number two.

#2 – Helping “walk in” traffic remotely

For many agencies, most specifically small town agencies, walk in “foot traffic” is a daily thing.  Many of you are thinking that there is no way you can shut down your office and work remotely as you have to service these clients.  Well, there is a way and it is called Ring Doorbell (or any other remote video doorbell system).  You heard me, you can easily slap one of these video doorbells onto your main office door and when that doorbell rings, you can service your clients from afar!  Now you are thinking, this is great but most clients show up to make a payment, now what?

#3 – Taking payments remotely

Ok, so you set up your VOIP phone system and have your video doorbell hooked up, now how do I take payments remotely?  The answer is simple, ePayPolicy.  That is right.  Now you can take payments just like your insurance companies do…and the great thing is that this can cost as low as $20 per month.  If you think about the time it takes to process payments on your end, you are probably making money because now you and your team are more productive.  Please note that this is more related to “Agency Billed” policy billing so it it is a “Direct Billed” policy then you can turn your clients to the carrier website to pay directly.  

#4 – Selling insurance remotely (yes, we still have to make money!)

We are all playing our part and trying to do as much “social distancing” as we can, right?  One way to still “sell” in front of your clients and prospects is to do video proposals. Yep!…making money from your kitchen table.  This is something our agency has been utilizing for years through our website provider (Advisor Evolved) but there is a free version you can use called Loom.  Simply download the Chrome add-on and start recording yourself and/or your screen.  Not only is Loom free but you will save countless hours by trimming your “proposal time” down from a one hour phone call to about 5-10 minutes doing a video proposal.  It comes across more visually than just having a phone call and the best thing is that the client can rewatch the video or share it with a business partner or spouse so they can watch and learn.  This is something you can implement literally right away…like go ahead and try it right now, well after you finish reading this article. Ok, great, we have the client communication down, but what about communicating with our team?…great question and now let’s discuss that!

#5 – Interoffice communication

Don’t you hate coming back from an appointment only to find that your inbox is filled with useless group “reply all” email replies saying “thank you” or “sounds good”…yea, me too.  What if you want to ask a quick question about an insurance company’s appetite or if a company will charge a fee if someone does monthly bill pay? Or maybe just letting the staff know you are “going to lunch”?  This probably doesn’t happen to you, right?…WRONG. We have found that the easiest way around these types of emails and communication filling up your inbox is to move to a communication system called SLACK (another is called Microsoft Teams).  The simplest way to describe SLACK is to think of it as an instant messenger (like AOL back in the day) or even Facebook Messenger but on steroids.  SLACK allows you to create “channels” (different topics of conversation) to communicate with your team in real time and not fill up everyone’s email inbox.  It is free and all you have to do is download the desktop and mobile version and get started in about 15-30 minutes. Now let’s move on to the finishing touch and wrap this whole thing up.

#6 – General Servicing of accounts and more

In thinking about the day to day servicing of an account, there are many tools you can use to help you work remotely.  Many are discussed above and there are many not even listed in this article, as this is intended to just get your feet wet.  However, one crucial thing you need to make sure you do is keep security in front of mind and make sure when working remotely you are on a secure internet connection and preferred, using a VPN remote/cloud server.  You also need to make sure that your agency’s management system allows for remote access (most do), however, if it doesn’t you can still “get by” with everything mentioned in this article during situations like coronavirus but you have to make sure everything is documented properly in your management system once back in the office.  One final tool to use that many businesses use today, which is another way to communicate and stay on top of accounts, especially when marketing an account is to use Google Sheets and Google Docs.  Google Sheets and Google Docs work almost identical to Microsoft Word and Excel, except they are “in the cloud” and available at any time.  You can share these documents with just a click and others can even edit them in “real time” to make sure everyone has the most up to date version. Think of them as a live chalkboard to brainstorm, keep lists or tasks, or use as a tool to show examples to staff or clients.

In closing, there are many tools out there to help you work remotely, these are just a few to get you going and work more optimally and efficiently during this time and who knows, maybe moving forward for the foreseeable future.  The key is to start with one and implement, do not try to do them all at them all at once. My recommendation is starting with the VOIP phone system and then pick what you think will be easiest to tackle next and so on. Best of luck!

Due to Coronavirus (aka COVID19), many South Carolina (and across the country) businesses, especially restaurants are having to DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to stay in business.  One major shift in business that many businesses/restaurants are doing is adding a delivery service to their line-up.  Naturally, one would not necessarily think of their insurance (business insurance or a personal auto policy) to confirm whether they have delivery insurance for this type of exposure (delivering food for the restaurant they work at), especially if this is not something they normally did prior to Coronavirus, as people are just trying to make a living for their family and “do whatever it takes” to pay the bills.

So is there coverage?  In short, I would say that virtually every business insurance policy and personal auto policy do not cover the exposure of food delivery (or other types of delivery) when acting in the name of a business.  One would only find this coverage on their policy is if they specifically had this conversation with their South Carolina insurance agent in the past and said insurance agent wrote a policy to specifically cover the delivery service appropriately.

HOWEVER, because we live in such an amazing, beautiful, caring, and “step up to the plate” for your fellow man country, many insurance companies are throwing their guidelines out of the window to assist other Americans and providing insurance coverage for these exposures.

How is coverage provided? This is an excerpt from one of our insurance companies, Auto-Owners Insurance, and how they are covering this delivery exposure as it relates to the personal auto policy in South Carolina and many other states:  “We will provide coverage under a personal auto policy when an insured driver is employed by and engaged in delivering food on behalf of a restaurant impacted by COVID-19. This coverage does not apply to drivers working for a Transportation Network Company or similar delivery service at the time of the loss.  Any broadened coverage provided pursuant to this Bulletin is effective from March 23, 2020, until June 1, 2020.”

What does this mean exactly? This means that for a limited time period, as mentioned in the excerpt, they are waiving this policy exclusion in your South Carolina personal auto policy.  So if you had a loss/accident/claim associated during food delivery; whether it be property damage or liability, your auto policy will now respond.  Certainly, you would need to make sure you have the proper coverages on your policy i.e. comprehensive and collision coverage (coverage for your vehicle should it get damaged in an at-fault accident) or proper liability limits should you be at-fault in an accident and injure someone else or damage someone else’s property.  These insurance companies are not adding any additional coverage, just removing an exclusion that is normally found on a typical personal auto policy in South Carolina and many other states.

How are business insurance policies affected?  Business insurance policies in South Carolina and in other states are acting in a very similar manner to the above mentioned personal auto policy coverage extension.  Here is an excerpt from one of our commercial insurance companies, Main Street America Insurance Group on how they are temporarily adding the exposure of “hired and/or non-owned auto insurance coverage for the exposure of delivery services” (sorry, it is a little long but detailed and should answer most, if not all of your questions).  Many other insurance companies have followed suit:

“If an existing restaurant account with HNOA (Hired and/or Non-Owned Auto) coverage begins temporary employee delivery to respond to this situation, we can accept the delivery operations on a temporary basis based upon the following driver guidelines. Temporary means the acceptability of employee delivery ends when the restaurant operation is legally able to open to customers. New business restaurant insureds with HNOA coverage or requests from existing restaurant accounts to add HNOA coverage, would follow the same guidelines. Agents will need to provide the scope of the driver delivery plans and designated employee driver information as soon as practical, including:

 Coverage for delivery is subject to meeting Driver Eligibility.
         o Employee auto insurance (presuming they are driving their own vehicles) should be verified by the agent to be valid and with limits of at least $300,000. Although this may be difficult to capture, please work with your insureds to try and meet this important insurance verification step.

If there is a commercial auto policy, non-owned auto coverage should be added to that policy. If there is no commercial auto, then the coverage can be added to the Main Line Business Owner’s Policy (Main Line BOP).

 Driver Eligibility (same as current Commercial Auto)
        o All designated employee drivers and their driving information must be submitted.
        o Drivers must be licensed in the U.S. with at least three years of experience.
        o Drivers under the age of 21 are unacceptable, regardless of experience.
        o Drivers must not have a DUI, Reckless Driving or other serious violation in the past three years or evidence of multiple types of these violations, regardless of the number of years.
        o Drivers must not have more than two minor violations and/or at-fault accidents in the past three years.”

What Should I Do?  We recommend that even though your South Carolina (or another state) personal auto insurance company and/or business insurance policies will temporarily provide coverage for the exposure of delivery, that you confirm with your insurance agent and/or insurance company and get something in writing that you do or do not have coverage.

Should you need help navigating this exposure and would like to speak with an insurance agent at Mappus, connect with us below or call/text 843-763-4200.  We pray that you and your family (both actual and business) stay safe during this time and we are here should you need us.

Many people are unaware of a coverage that exist on flood policies that allows you to get $1,000 back from FEMA even if you don’t have a flood loss.  WHAT?!  Yes, that is correct.  You can receive $1,000 for reasonable expenses associated with mitigation a flood loss from occurring.  Keep reading further to understand the details and how South Carolinian’s can receive this money.

WHAT’S COVERED UNDER A STANDARD FLOOD INSURANCE POLICY?

National Flood Insurance Program flood policies will cover up to $1,000 in reasonable expenses incurred to protect a policyholder’s insured property, and up to $1,000 to move the policyholder’s insured property away from a flood or imminent danger of a flood. To be eligible for this benefit, the insured property must be located in a community where:

• a general condition of flooding in the area exists; or
• an official has issued an evacuation order or other civil order for the community requiring measures to preserve life and property from flooding.

WHAT IS ELIGIBLE?

EXPENSES TO PROTECT PROPERTY

• Sandbags (including the sand to fill them)
• Fill to create temporary levees.
• Water pumps.
• Plastic sheeting and lumber used in connection with any of these items listed above.
• Labor – a policyholder may claim labor, including their own or a family member’s labor, at the federal minimum wage. Labor charged by a professional may also be reimbursed.

EXPENSES TO MOVE PROPERTY TO SAFETY

• Up to $1,000 for the reasonable expense to move insured property in order to protect it from flood, or the imminent danger of flood.

WHAT DO POLICYHOLDERS NEED TO KNOW?

• Personal property that is moved must be placed in a fully enclosed building or otherwise protected from the elements.
• Any property removed, including a moveable home (that meets the definition of a building in the flood policy), must be placed above ground level or outside of the special flood hazard area.
• Property removed is covered by a policyholder’s flood policy for 45 consecutive days from the date the move begins.
• A deductible does not apply to these limits.
• The coverage does not increase the policy limits of the liability.

Not a Mappus client yet?  Want to see how we can help you?  Complete the form below.

Car insurance in South Carolina is going crazy right now, let’s face it.  Many insurance companies are taking  double digit increases on an annual basis.  When you add your teen drivers into the mix, this increase can be a major cost to many families.

Below are some solutions to help you reduce your costs while not reducing your coverage, when dealing with car insurance in South Carolina.  ***Please note that if Mappus Insurance Agency works on your auto insurance, we also must review and write your homeowners insurance…but the good thing there is that we represent many high quality home insurance companies in which we can probably put you in a better position there as well!

This is a re-post from one of our top insurance company partners, SAFECO, a Liberty Mutual Company.