Personal Insurance

Yes. If an insured does not inform the insurer of a “youthful” or “inexperienced” motor vehicle operator (i.e., one who has a driver’s license) who resides in the household, the insurer does not have to pay for a loss due to collision or limited collision which occurs when the covered auto is being operated by that inexperienced household member who is not listed on the policy.

There are four parts to compulsory insurance. Part 1 Bodily Injury to Others, Part 2 Personal Injury Protection, Part 3 Uninsured Motorist Coverage, and Part 4 Damage to Someone Else’s Property are all mandatory coverage’s in Massachusetts. State law does not require that you carry more than compulsory coverages. However, if you have a lien on the auto, the lender may legally require that physical damage coverage be carried. In addition, Part 1 only covers you for Bodily Injury to Others for accidents that occur in Massachusetts.

Safe Driver Insurance Plan was developed by the Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers to handle and provide auto insurance to high risk drivers or others who cannot obtain such coverage in the normal auto insurance market. The plan rewards good drivers with a premium credit. Bad drivers receive surcharges. Any surcharge assessed a poor driver must be collected by the insurer providing the coverage. All credits and surcharges are determined by the State Merit Bureau. It all boils down to, drivers that maintain a clean driving record get credits to decrease their auto insurance premiums.

The auto policy states that an insured on the auto policy is “(1) the named insured or any household (family) member operating the covered auto or trailer; (2) any person using the auto with the permission of the insured; or (3) any other person or organization using the covered auto or trailer as long as the auto or trailer is not owned nor hired by the other person or organization.” Your policy will cover liability and damage caused by the driver you loaned your car to. In addition, if the person operating your car is insured then their policy will be available in addition to cover the cost of injuries and damage.

Items such as these fall into a category of “Special (sub) Limits of Liability”. Certain types of personal property including but not limited to the above mentioned items will be covered for theft, but at a limited dollar value. Scheduling these items insures that they are covered properly.

You should make sure that you are receiving all the discounts you are entitled to. At Rutfield Insurance we will be diligent to ensure that you get all the discounts that are available to you. Such as:

• New Home discounts
• Smoke Detector discounts
• Burglar Alarm discounts
• Multiple Policy discounts
• Higher Deductible discounts
• Nonsmoker discounts

No, you do need to carry commercial insurance to cover your home based business, however, you may not necessarily have to carry a separate policy. Our Home Business package can generally be added to you homeowners policy to give you the coverage you need. It will cover:

• Business Property
• Business Liability
• Business Personal Property
• Loss of Business Income
• Credit and ATM Cards
• Money & Securities