Insurance Made Easy

Tracy (00:08):
Welcome to the Feeling is Mutual podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Bedeker, Vice President of Marketing at First Federal Savings Bank. We are a community bank with a mutual charter. If you thought banking was boring, the feeling is mutual. But we're here to take the boring out of banking. In this podcast, we will bring our listeners real life stories and education on financial topics, and it's all going to be delivered in a quick, fun and interesting format. Hello and welcome back to another podcast with the Feeling is Mutual with your host. Of course, you all know me by now, Tracy, and I am so lucky to have with us today, Sam Bolin, who is our insurance agent here in our corporate office. So, hello Sam, how are you?

Sam (01:09):
Good. How are you?

Tracy (01:09):
Good. Thank you so much for being our guest today. So we have insurance on our mind and more specifically seeking. Sam is here to talk to us about property and casualty insurance. We were visiting before we came up, and Sam has a lot of great tips and information that she is going to share with us. But before we get into all of that, what I would like you to do, Sam, if it's okay, just tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got started here at First Federal, your journey through the bank, your different responsibilities and roles.

Sam (01:43):
Sure. So this week actually marks one whole year with the agency. Yay. So yeah, I got my p and c license about a year ago today, and then I started here as a teller working over at Main Street, and now I'm here. I got my license doing good, going strong one year strong here.

Tracy (02:03):
How was the whole, I know, I remember when I took my insurance test it was grueling. Yeah,

Sam (02:08):
It was rough. I'm also getting my Life in health license next month, so that is to come. Good

Tracy (02:14):
For you. You have a lot of studying on your brain then right now?

Sam (02:18):
Yes, I sure do.

Tracy (02:19):
Well, I'm in the process of renewing my insurance license and I think the test is even more grueling than it was the first time around. But you know what, I'm going to get through it. I can do it. I believe in you. Okay, well thank you. So yes, I know we were talking earlier about property and casualty. Why don't you tell what exactly is property and casualty insurance?

Sam (02:40):
So property, that's just anything that you own, whether it is your home, your car, whether you have any other vehicles in your possession, and then casualty that covers your vehicle. And then liability insurance, if anyone were to get hurt medical to others, if you injured somebody else or someone slipped and fell on your property and you'd have coverage for that. So a whole bunch of things. Yeah,

Tracy (03:08):
It sounds like it kind of covers us. I think we might've said earlier we don't always plan on using our insurance, but it's just there in case it's a in case we need it and we all safety net. Exactly. A little safety net. So are there different types of PNC insurance?

Sam (03:24):
Sure. So we do offer home and renters for people who rent. We also do auto, we also do commercial insurance for people with businesses. Also on the auto side of things. We also offer full coverage for motorcycles, boats, RVs, ATVs, snowmobiles. And we also offer full coverage for e-bikes and compact tractors as of recently through Progressive. So that's a new thing.

Tracy (03:50):
Well, that's interesting. I see more and more e-bikes as they're becoming more popular. Oh yeah. And then compact tractors. I live on a farm, so I'm guessing that that type of tractor is not the type of tractor I'm used to. Yeah,

Sam (04:03):
They're usually pretty small for people that have a couple acres of land that farm kind of on the side, not professionally. So we got full coverage for that, whether you're on or off your property, even towing coverage for the tractors if you need it.

Tracy (04:18):
Oh boy. Does that include golf carts too?

Sam (04:21):
Yes, we do golf carts, yes. Do you do?

Tracy (04:22):
Okay. We just have it all We do. And now also, I know a lot of people talk about bundling. Can you maybe explain bundling and what its advantages are?

Sam (04:33):
So we do have two different companies that we are able to bundle through, and that's travelers and Auto-Owners. So we can bundle home auto umbrella. And even with auto owners, we also offer life insurance policies with auto owners. So there is a life insurance discount there as well. Plenty of opportunities to save there within those two companies.

Tracy (04:56):
I know we talked a little bit about discounts too, and you really brought to light a lot of things that I didn't realize that may be included for somebody who is looking for maybe a cheaper rate.

Sam (05:09):
For instance, with auto, we have anti-fat discounts. There's usually a category one, two or three, three being the strongest, most effective. And then if your car has lane assist, you can also get a discount for that. Now where Travelers released that

Tracy (05:25):
Recently, I do have that and sometimes it gets to be a little annoying because it kind of moves it all, but I know it's a safety feature,

Sam (05:32):
It's optional. And then we also offer our telematics products through Travelers and Progressive. For instance, travelers, it's an app that you download on your phone and they monitor your driving behaviors for 90 days and based on

Tracy (05:46):
Your, I dunno if I like that,

Sam (05:48):
Based on your driving behaviors, you can save up 30%, which is great. It can stay on your policy throughout the life that you have it. So if you can do it and do it well, I would because that is some great savings.

Tracy (06:01):
So it monitors your behavior, not maybe your verbal talk to yourself just while

Sam (06:07):
You're

Tracy (06:07):
Driving, you're talking about the other driver ahead of you or the one who keeps coming over in your lane. I might be in trouble if it monitors for that too. It

Sam (06:14):
Just monitors card braking and the time of day that you're driving and then your seed. Oh boy,

Tracy (06:21):
I might forego that benefit, Sam, that's

Sam (06:24):
Okay. But Progressive is very similar as well. I think you can save 15 to 20% with M by choosing that feature. So it's a great opportunity if you want to take your price into your own hands and be able to lower it yourself.

Tracy (06:38):
And I know it is quite a bit of a discount. I might have to buckle down and tell myself I can do this. I can go the speed limit. Every little bit helps. And I know I heard you guys on the phone with all of your customers, you really do a great job with them from the minute they call you and your team are very patient with them. So what are some common questions that you get on a daily basis?

Sam (07:02):
I think a lot of people are just curious on how they can save a lot of people willing to their deductibles. Some people aren't and that's okay. That is an option with your home and your auto to save and self-insure. And then another thing, a lot of people don't know that they can put storage coverage on their auto if it's not being actively driven. So we can just put comprehensive on the vehicle. So if your car's in the garage and a tree falls on top of it, you're still going to be covered, but it won't be covered for liability coverage and collision coverage if you were to take it out. In that case, our customers just give us a call and let us know to take it out of storage. But that is always an option. Liability only is always an option to try and save money.

Tracy (07:47):
All kinds of

Sam (07:47):
Options. A lot of people are just looking to save, seeing where they can save money.

Tracy (07:51):
So I know that it's always smart to review your insurance. And can you talk a little bit about when that's a good time to revisit that and for what reasons?

Sam (08:03):
Yeah, so we usually recommend reviewing your policy every year. Every so often you might have a new driver that's turning 16, 15 or 16, they got their permit, they're starting to drive your vehicles. That's definitely a time to call and get them added and make sure that they're covered. If you have someone in your household, a student that has a 3.0 grade point average and you want to turn in their report card and get additional savings for that, it's usually about 5%. Definitely give your agent a call. They might even ask if they know that your student's in school,

Tracy (08:36):
So that would probably not be your new driver probably. It's not wise for them to do that Positive behavior.

Sam (08:42):
I mean, it's an option also, if you just added some square footage to your home, a new bedroom, a new bathroom, that's definitely a good thing to let your agent know. Make sure you have the proper amount of dwelling coverage. So if your house burns down, we got to have the right replacement cost value on there.

Tracy (08:59):
Exactly. I know we've personally done a couple of additions to our home and it's the little things you don't realize that we have to make sure we have adequate insurance. And I know also if any additions to the family, not necessarily the house, but any additions to your family.

Sam (09:15):
If you've got a driver turning 15, that's usually the point that you'll want to do that.

Tracy (09:20):
Well, I've already been through that process, so I know that it's always wise to have that insurance that covers all of our drivers. Okay, Sam, anything else that we need to know?

Sam (09:30):
I don't think so.

Tracy (09:31):
Well, the most important thing is how does someone contact you?

Sam (09:35):
So we can be reached by phone. Our phone number is eight five four four zero five six three or you could always shoot me an email. My email is s olin at ff insure do com. Or you could just stop by our corporate office here on LaSalle Street. We're just located on the first floor off to the left. We're one of the first faces that you see

Tracy (09:56):
How apropos, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to come in and talk to you about insurance, Sam. All right. Well, thank you all for listening to Our Feeling is Mutual Podcast with insurance on our mind. Thank you again for listening and be sure to visit us on our website, go into community and events, scroll down and go to our podcast section to hear this recording of Sam Boland and myself. We look forward to another. You're Revealing is Mutual Podcast. Stay tuned.