As the weather warms up, and given our close proximity to the beaches of Mexico, more people travel on extended weeks to Mexico during this time than any other time.  If you are driving your own vehicle, it is extremely important to buy a Mexican Insurance policy to cover you, your vehicle and others. Here's why:

• Your current auto policy is not recognized in the country of Mexico. However, policies from a Mexican Insurance Company are valid and provide protection.
• The limits of liability differ from each state within Mexico. It will depend on where you travel within Mexico as to what maximum coverage will needed. Some liability limits are as high as $300,000 per fatality and some are left up to a Mexican judges discretion.
• A Mexican Insurance policy does comply with the "proof of financial responsibility" according to Mexican law. Any other non-Mexican insurance policy does not.

A common misconception is that a US insurance policy affords some limited coverage in Mexico. Under Mexican law, any non Mexican insurance policy is not recognized and therefore does not meet the requirement of "proof of financial responsibility". You will be 100% responsible regardless of fault. At a minimum, a liability only policy from a Mexican insurer is required.

A liability policy will cover the damages caused to others - not including damages to yourself or your passengers. This includes other's property or vehicles damaged in an accident as well as any bodily injury. 

Optional and additional coverages available include: 

• Legal assistance in Mexico
• Roadside Assistance - towing, etc.
• Collision, theft and vandalism
• Plane ticket home if you become stranded
• Medical 

Not all Mexican insurance policies are the same. When purchasing a Mexican insurance policy, it is important to compare coverage and options by using a comparative rater. It is easier to understand what the price quote actually covers. Most policies are easily purchased and issued online, in real-time. The policy is emailed and accessible from most smart phones. 

Mexican policies can be purchased for a specific range of days, semi-annual, and annual coverage terms and are priced accordingly. So when traveling to Mexico, don't forget two things: a Mexican insurance policy and sunscreen!

Blog author, Ken Stickler is partner and founder of Stickler Webb Insurance, an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford and Sierra Vista, Arizona

I recently read this quote from the CDC Motor Vehicle Safety Injury Center's website: "Per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash."  It also went on to state that the leading cause for of death for teenage drivers is motor vehicle crashes.  Consequently, the highest insurance rates are paid by any male driver under the age of 25. Adding your teenage driver to your policy will increase your insurance rates guaranteed. However, there are some steps you can take to mitigate the impact on your wallet.

1. You must insure your teenage driver - Every insurance company will require you to insure all licensed drivers that reside in your household. The only exception to this would be if you have a teenage driver who has a learners permit and has not received their license. Your teenager could insure their own car, however, most states do not allow minors to own property or sign contracts (insurance policies included) and would require a parent's consent. The best-priced option is almost always adding your teenager to your existing policy than have a teenager have their own policy with their own car.

2. Have them drive the clunker - As teenagers have little to no experience driving, it is best to let them have to least valuable car to drive. Typically, lower cost vehicles will typically have lower auto insurance rates. Just make sure that the vehicle is in good safe working order.

3. Discounts, Discounts, Discounts - A study done in 2010 of about 1,500 parents of teenage drivers found an average increase of more than $800 a year just by adding their teenage to their policy; and that study is 8 years old! Several auto insurance companies offer good student discounts. Others offer discounts for completing a drivers education course. Additionally, parents can sometimes save by bundling multiple insurance policies together, such as auto, homeowners, and life. If the parents are good drivers with clean records, this can often lower costs. If your teenager is attending college more than 100 miles away (which is my case), you might receive a discount.
 
4. Be a Concerned Parent - Texting and driving have now surpassed drunk driving as the number one cause of teenage accidents. Talk with your teenager about the danger of distracted driving. There are technology tools that allow parents to control the usage of cell phone calls and text messages while a vehicle is in motion. Music volume restrictions and speed limitations also are available. At Stickler Webb Insurance, we ask our clients to schedule an appointment with their teenage driver and us to discuss the seriousness of driving and the implications of poor decision making. If you are in the Show Low or Sierra Vista Arizona area, please visit www.sticklerwebb.com to schedule an appointment with your teenage driver.

5. Get an Umbrella Policy - Consider this statement from the Highway for Motor Safety: " Young people ages 15-24 represent only 14% of the U.S. population. However, they account for 30% ($19 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among males and 28% ($7 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among females." A personal umbrella can cost a little as $25 per month and provide coverage of $1 million. 
 
Blog author, Ken Stickler is partner and founder of Stickler Webb Insurance, an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford and Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Remember the days of having to pay for your email address? I think it was AOL that put email on the map for most of us as it was included with their dial-up internet service. That quickly changed with Hotmail - which most likely was the first stand alone free email service. Free email then became not just a cool new service, but almost a right; kind of like getting a social security number after being born. Honestly, I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have an email address.

Currently, there are a multitude of free hosted email service providers. As my dad used to say, "There is no free lunch." Everything has a cost.  So what's the cost of 'free' email? Consider these terms and conditions of free-mail:

• "Google’s privacy policies explain how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Services. By using our Services, you agree that Google can use such data in accordance with our privacy policies.When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content."
• "You understand that through your use of the Yahoo Services you consent to the collection and use (as set forth in the applicable privacy policy) of this information, including the transfer of this information to the United States and/or other countries for storage, processing and use by Yahoo and its affiliates."
• https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/PrivacyStatement (Too long to copy, but an eye-opener nonetheless)

These free-mail services have access to the content of your messages and have at best a limited global privacy policy. If you work with privileged information, this can present a serious problem. Healthcare professionals, attorneys, CPA's, as well as real estate and insurance agents all handle sensitive privileged information that is commonly protected by law.

With cyber attacks and data breaches at an all time high, everyone is at risk. From the attorney whom uses yahoo to communicate with their client to the dentist that schedules their client appointments through a free gmail app, professionals are at risk and careers could be lost.  It will only be a matter of time before the professional liability insurance carriers ask about their email security procedures.

As a consumer sharing family pictures, receiving newsletters, and getting the latest Groupon deal, free-mail is fine. It is only when dealing in sensitive, privileged information that we could be airing our dirty laundry unknowingly. 

Whether a professional or consumer, it is important to think about the repercussions if their emails suddenly became available to the general public.

Free is not free.

As a business owner, you will need General Liability Insurance.  General Liability is defined as: A type of insurance policy that provides coverage to a business for bodily injury, personal injury, and property damage caused by the business’ operations, products, or injury that occurs on the business’ premises. Commercial general liability, or CGL, is considered comprehensive business insurance, though it does not cover all risks that a business may face. So, let's take a look at six incidents of loss that this policy won't help pay for.

Image you own a pizza restaurant. While your are working late to finish closing up the place, a big storm begins to brew outside.  As you and your employees hurry to close up the restaurant, high winds blow a piece of debris through the front lobby window creating a glass littered mess inside the restaurant.

Your General Liability Insurance will not cover the property damage. It only covers third-party property damage. In other words, it can cover the costs when you or your employees damage someone else's property.  

To be covered for this type of loss, you would need Commercial Property Insurance. This insurance policy can help repair or replace your property when it's damaged by fire, theft, and certain weather-related events.

Your food prep cook prefers mixing the tomato sauce by hand with a spoon instead of using an mixer. Suddenly, his wrist seizes up in pain. Your cook develops carpal tunnel syndrome, an injury based on repetitive motion. General Liability Insurance only covers non-employee bodily injuries, not your food prep cook.

You will need Workers Compensation Insurance to pay for some lost wages, physical therapy, and medical expenses. 

One of your servers starts coming in late or missing shifts with no explanation. You talk to her about the tardiness and no-shows and dock her pay for the unworked shifts. As a result, she quits.

Several weeks later, your former server sues you over discrimination. She says you wrongfully disciplined her and caused her emotional distress. Unfortunately, your General Liability Insurance will not cover you.  You will need Employment Practices Liability Insurance to cover your business for this type of claim.

Business is good for your pizzeria. You decide to buy a delivery vehicle. If your new delivery vehicle gets into an accident, you will not be covered by your General Liability Insurance. Your personal auto policy nor the hired drivers personal auto policy will cover you - even if the delivery driver is using his own car. You need Commercial Auto Insurance.

You have taken the risk of being in business. Make sure that you are adequately covered for those unfortunate events with a comprehensive business insurance package.
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Stickler Webb Insurance is an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford and Sierra Vista, Arizona. Please visit, www.sticklerwebb.com for more information.

On my way home last night, a deer jumped a fence and struck my passenger side front tire fender and broke my windshield glass. The deer wandered off and I was left with a damaged vehicle (Toyota Avalon). I have been asked on numerous occasions from clients if they are at fault if they accidentally hit an animal. 

In addressing this question, it needs to be separated into two different issues: 1. your legal driving record, and 2. your insurance claim record. When your vehicle is struck by an animal unintentionally, you have not broken any laws. Therefore, you most likely would not be issued any traffic tickets and would avoid any blemish to your driving record.  Typically, you would not be at fault. 

If you have comprehensive insurance coverage on your vehicle, and wish to make a claim to have your vehicle repaired, then you will have a new claim on your insurance record. While this does not address the issue of who's at fault, the claim most likely will be taken into account when pricing your premiums - as the insurance company will have to pay out monies to fix the vehicle and have no other 'at fault' party to pursue for reimbursement. 

I am not too excited about having to replace the fender, windshield and side mirror on my car, but I suppose it could have been much worse. Thank goodness I was only driving 35 mph.

​Stickler Webb Insurance is an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford and Sierra Vista, Arizona. Please visit, www.sticklerwebb.com for more information.

Where does this leave you?  This person potentially has damaged your vehicle, caused bodily harm to you and maybe a passenger. If they have no insurance coverage you are out of luck and will be stuck with the cost.  The very best you could do is levy a law suit against the at fault party - which will cost more money out of pocket.

Enter Un-insured (UI) and Under-insured Motorist Coverage (UIM). The UI/UIM coverage typically covers bodily injury of driver and often passengers of your vehicle in the event that you are hit by an uninsured driver/vehicle whose at fault. In some states this coverage is extended to property damage to include your vehicle. This coverage typically costs on average $3-$5 per month. The extreme affordability of UI/UIM makes this a no brainer.  In our agency, we automatically include UI/UIM on every policy that we quote and issue and strongly advise against waiving this coverage. 

​Stickler Webb Insurance is an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford and Sierra Vista, Arizona. Please visit, www.sticklerwebb.com for more information.

Benjamin Franklin was once quoted saying, " in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” It is interesting that he would have chosen these two topics of both death and taxes.  The life insurance industry has zeroed in on these two specific concerns and have crafted solutions to soften the blow. 

Let's start with the obvious: death. No one is immortal (yet... with technology and all). The average age of life expectancy has continually climbed for the past 40 years. However, the body still expires.  The life insurance industry, namely the actuaries, study these trends and historical data incessantly.  Causes of death are not the primary focus, it's when you die. There are life insurance policies that are available from age zero to one hundred years old. Some policies offer coverage for a specific term of time. If you do not die within that time period, the policy expires and there is no more coverage in the event of death. Think of it like your auto insurance. If you pay for auto insurance for one year and never have an accident or claim and do not renew the coverage, the policy expires and there is no more coverage. In either case, no money is return to the policy holder. 

The other type of life insurance is whole life. It is designed to cover you for your whole life. If this policy is kept in force (payment are always made), it will never be cancelled and will pay a death benefit when you die.  The cost of this insurance steadily and gradually increases as you advance in age due to the simple fact that it will eventually pay a death benefit.

The life insurance industry has also created solutions to help with the certainty of taxation. All death benefit monies paid out in the event of death are tax free. Life insurance proceeds are not taxed. Additionally, certain whole life policies allow the option for accumulation of cash value with a rate of return tax deferred and are sometime tax free. 

There are hundreds of life insurance companies. All of them have numerous different life insurance products that service specific needs. Get with an independent insurance agent to discuss and discover what might best fit your needs.

Stickler Webb Insurance is an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford and Sierra Vista, Arizona. Please visit, www.sticklerwebb.com for more information.

Imaging walking into an ice cream parlor and asking the attendant for a scoop of ice cream.  Upon close inspection of the different flavors, you discover that they only have one flavor, vanilla. Now if vanilla is your favorite flavor, you have come the right place. If you get tired of vanilla, you have to shop somewhere else.  In your search for a new ice cream parlor, you discover one that has not only vanilla, but several dozen other flavors too.  With so many flavors to choose from, why would you ever go any where else?

In a similar fashion, there are two types of insurance agents:  captive agent and the independent agent.  A captive agent works strictly for one insurance company. Their insurance product and solutions are limited by what their insurance company has to offer. A captive agent's interests are those of the insurance company. They are compensated directly by the one company they represent, The insurance company they represent dictates what the agent can sell and is expected to protect the insurance company's interests.

In contrast, independent agents are just that, independent.  They are entrusted to represent and offer a virtually unlimited variety of insurance products and solutions from a multitude of insurance companies.  They are not bound nor limited by just any one particular insurance company.  This flexibility allows the independent agent to search and compare the best available insurance solution for their clients. In effect, they work for their clients and are somewhat agnostic as to which insurance company earns their client's business.  The independent agent's interest and loyalty is placed with their clients. 

Stickler Webb Insurance is an independent insurance agency with offices in Show Low, Safford, and Sierra Vista. We look forward to working for you. Look for us on www.sticklerwebb.com .