Exciting news! Ives Insurance will be advertising at Imagines’ Southpoint Cinemas beginning Friday April 26, 2019 in time for the Avengers Endgame movie. If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend, take a drive to Southpoint Cinemas in Leamington.
This is the time of year to contact your Ives Insurance Broker to add road coverage back onto your summer car before you drive it! contact us at service@ivesinsurance.com
We are very proud to announce that Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd. has been named a Top Brokerage in Insurance Business Canada magazine.”
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It’s a great time to prepare your home for the winter, especially if you’re about to leave town for the holidays. Here’s how to protect your home for the winter – and get some valuable homeowners-insurance discounts at the same time.
Many homeowners-insurance claims in winter are caused by frozen pipes, which can result in thousands of dollars of water damage and expensive cleanup. Even though most of your house may be warm, pipes can still freeze in cold spots, such as your basement, garage, and the back of your closets and cabinets. “I was called in on a claim where a pipe was installed between the living room and the unheated garage,” recalls Keith Weinhold, an appraisal technical specialist with Chubb Insurance. “The water came out at such high pressure that it drilled a hole through the drywall, and the living-room floors were all destroyed,” adds Weinhold, who has more than 30 years of experience assessing homeowners’ insurance claims. Here are some of his tips for protecting your home.
Simple steps such as checking the insulation in your home’s cold spots and opening cabinets and doors to let warm air circulate can make a big difference. “Whenever the wind blows and the temperature drops, the wind is forcing air into every crack in your house, and your cold spots are going to be even colder.” he says.
Don’t turn your thermostat down too low when you’re going out of town. “The problem is if you turn your thermostat down to 50 degrees, that’s 50 degrees at the thermostat – but the temperature could be down in the 30s in the cold spots in your basement,” says Weinhold. “You always have to be conscious of what the temperature is in the coldest part of the house.” He recommends reducing your thermostat to no lower than 60 degrees when you leave your home for a winter vacation.
If you travel frequently, you may want to consider an automatic water shut-off system, which cuts off the main water line if it detects a malfunction in the pipes. This type of system could reduce your homeowners-insurance premiums.
An automatic back-up generator can also help protect your home’s plumbing from freezing. If the electricity goes out – which isn’t unusual during winter storms – your heat may go out and your pipes could freeze. The generator will not only keep your house warm, but it will power your alarm system.
Make sure you disconnect and drain any hoses outside your house, shut off and drain the outside faucets.
Trimming trees can protect your home, too. Winter weather and ice storms often make tree branches brittle, causing them to break off and land on your house or your power lines.
One of the best ways to protect your home while away is to have someone checking your home on a daily basis.
When you leave your home, either for a weekend getaway or an extended vacation, you’ll want to take some basic safety precautions to keep your house and belongings safe. This makes most of us think about burglarproofing, but preparations extend beyond locking your doors or setting timers for your lights.
1. Hold Your Mail
A huge pile of mail on the front doorstep, or envelopes pouring out your mail slot is an instant tip-off that no one’s home. If you’ll be gone for more than a few days, go to the post office to place a hold on your mail. Put a hold on your daily paper, too. If you don’t have the time or inclination, ask a trusted neighbor to collect the goods daily.
2. Create the Illusion of Someone Home
Beyond setting your lights on a timer, you can also set the television and radio on a timer to create the typical noise and flickering lights of an average family home at night. But wait that’s not all! Leave a car in the driveway. Arrange for someone to mow at least once a week (an unruly lawn is as bad as a pile of mail). During the winter, arrange for snow removal in case of a storm (neighborhood kids are great for this, if you get their parents’ word that they’ll remember). If you normally leave toys outside, or keep a hose unrolled, or do anything that shows signs of a home being lived in, don’t tidy up too much before you leave.
3. Mum’s the Word
Never, ever announce your departure or vacation dates on social networks. Sharing settings are not foolproof and with new security updates it’s always hard to tell what’s public and what’s private. Stay on the safe side, and don’t mention your trip – until you’re back, with tales to tell and photos to upload!
4. Trust a Friend
Give your vacation contact info and a spare key to at least one friend or neighbor. That way, they can check on your home on a regular basis and they’ll know how to contact you in case of emergency.
5. Advertise Your Security
Especially when you’re away, it can be a great idea to advertise your security measures. If you’re worried that alarm company signs will clue thieves in to how to break in, buy signs from a different company. Install fake security cameras (the kind that look authentic). Do whatever it takes to get across the message, “This is not the home you are looking for.”
6. Unplug
Unplug all unnecessary appliances (except those on timers, of course) to protect your home from an electrical fire or power surge. This goes for the big stuff, like TVs, but also for your toaster, your coffee maker, and other small appliances.
7. Hide the Hide-a-Key
It’s impossible to forget your key if you’re not even home, so go ahead and take any hidden spare keys out of commission. Just don’t forget to re-hide them when you return!
8. Keep Your Cool
Turn down (or up) the thermostat to save on electricity while you’re gone. In the winter, set the heat to about 60° – warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but cool enough to save – and during the summer, set your air-conditioning to 85°. You can also lower the temperature on your water heater.
9. Safe-Keep Your Valuables
Lock up jewelry, the deed to your home, wills, and any other valuables or sensitive documents in a fire-proof safe. This is a good idea whether your are on vacation or at home.
10. Alert Your Alarm Company
Call your home security company to let them know you’ll be away. Make sure the alarm is set and working when you leave.
Do you feel as though you’re paying too much for your car insurance because of everyone else’s driving habits while you’re a model driver?
Telematics could help lower your premium – depending on how you drive. This in-car device uses GPS and a mobile data connection to monitor your driving style such as speeds you drive, times of day you drive, etc. The data is sent to your insurance company and your insurer can then use this information to adjust your premium according to the way you drive.
Can telematics always make your car insurance cheaper? There are questions about how telematics might develop in the future and what additional information insurers might use in calculating an insurance premium, such as how long someone has been driving without a break, are they using their phone while driving, or how many passengers are in the car.
While there can be some potential benefits besides lower rates such as being able to monitor your children’s driving behavior, there could be some potential drawbacks, too. If people struggle with potential annual increase in premiums, they may have more of an issue if there was also a risk of rates increasing mid term because of their driving behavior. The “Big Brother” effect may make people reluctant to give permission to insurers to monitor their driving habits.
How to decide if telematics is right for you? Discuss your personal situation with your Ives insurance broker. Together, you can choose options that work best for your lifestyle!
Winter driving can sometimes be a daunting task, especially when conditions are snowy or icy. Follow these steps to keep yourself safe and collision free during the next few blustery winter months.
Step 1: Make sure that your vehicle is prepared for winter driving.
Step 2: Drive smoothly and slowly.
Step 3: Don’t tailgate.
Step 4: Brake before making turns.
Step 5: Learn how to control skids.
Step 6: Lights On.
Step 7: No Cruise Control.
Step 8: Don’t “pump” the brakes.
Step 9: Pay attention.
There are many preventative measures that a client can do to their home to help prevent water damage claims.
Be Safe, Avoid Floods!
At a ceremony on March 17 at Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference in Toronto, Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd, took the top prize in the Distributor category with the successful implementation of a consumer portal , allowing consumers secure 24/7 access to information in the broker’s management system. Keal Technology and Quindell were recognized as Ives’ partners in the implementation.
“We are extremely proud to be chosen as the winner of this prestigious award. This is game changing technology that will allow insurance brokers to continue to be competitive in today’s ever changing marketplace. Working with the great talent at Quindell and Keal, both leaders in their respective fields and all of our dedicated, professional staff Ives has and will continue to be a leader in our respective industry. Ease of business for our customers along with providing them with access to the best products and services available today is our commitment to our customers. Our customers want immediate access to our services on a 24/7 basis and this will open those doors. It is a first for the broker distribution network and is a game changer for our industry.” Say’s Jeff Ives, President of Ives Insurance Brokers Limited.
Insurance-Canada.ca sponsors the Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards to highlight and reward organizations for innovative implementation of technology that shows a significant impact on the sale, processing and servicing of property & casualty insurance in Canada.
Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd. and President Jeff Ives are honoured and proud to be nominated as being “instrumental in an application in the P&C Distributors and Suppliers of insurance products and services”. We look forward to the ceremony and reception on March 14, 2014!
If you’re caught operating hand-held communication and electronic entertainment devices or viewing display screens unrelated to your driving, fines are rising to a set fine of $490 and three demerit points upon conviction. Novice drivers will receive a minimum 30-day suspension for the first conviction and longer suspensions for subsequent convictions.
You will need to pay closer attention when you open your car door. The “dooring” of cyclists will carry an increased set fine of $365 and three demerit points upon conviction.
New rules will also require drivers to leave a one-metre distance where possible when passing cyclists, or they may face the penalty of a $110 set fine and two demerit points.
Cyclists who don’t use the required bicycle lights and reflectors face a higher set fine of $110. A bike must have a white front light and a red rear light or reflector if you ride between ½ hour before sunset and ½ hour after sunrise, and white reflective tape on the front forks and red reflective tape on rear forks.
Drivers must now leave a safe passing distance between themselves and tow trucks stopped on the roadside to provide assistance. Failing to slow down and move over for a tow truck can result in a set fine of $490.
School buses will be more recognizable, as they will now be the only buses permitted to be chrome yellow.
Read more at: http://windsorite.ca/2015/08/are-you-ready-for-these-new-traffic-fines-they-come-into-effect-tuesday/
What you need to know
March is Fraud Prevention Month, and Aviva is making headlines on fighting fraud!
This past weekend, you may have seen CTV media reports on an Aviva fraud investigation. Hours of video footage collected through our investigation clearly demonstrates that a chiropractor, clinic employee and paralegal sought to counsel undercover investigators to sign forms that would falsely indicate that they were receiving treatment/services and missing time from work.
These professionals, whose job it is to help accident victims, encouraged the role players to lie so they could submit phony forms and collect insurance payments for services never supplied.
The video footage obtained from this investigation underscores the need to get to the root cause of insurance fraud and why the Ontario auto insurance system requires further reform.
CTV News – March 11, 2016
Paul Bliss, news reporter covers why Aviva pursued this investigation.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/undercover-investigation-captures-alleged-car-insurance-fraud-1.2814132
CTV’s W5 Program – March 14, 2016
A 24 minute feature report on Aviva’s investigation.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=826430
Questions
Please direct any questions regarding this investigation to:
Karin Ots Glenn Cooper Liz Wood
SVP, Regulatory and Sr. Mgr., Public Relations Government Relations
Government Relations and Social Media and Communications Specialist
416-701-4792 416-288-2685 416-288-5091
