Sackrison Insurance Agency | Napa

We know life is unpredictable. That’s why we buy insurance anyway, right? Here are a few stories of especially unpredictable situations and how they were resolved. Names are changed for privacy, but the situations are based on true events.

Bill left for his daily visit to see his aging mother. Her health had been failing, so Bill tried to check in on her often.

As he turned onto a residential street, everything suddenly went black. That was the last thing he remembered until he woke up and realized he had run into a new Cadillac parked near a driveway.

Groggily, he took off, picking up momentum and passing out again as he smashed into a house, coming to a stop in someone’s living room.

Thankfully, Bill survived a series of strokes and was able to recover. His accident was deemed an Act of God because his strokes were completely out of Bill’s control. Therefore he was not held liable for the damages he caused.

The only thing Bill’s auto insurance covered was the damage to his own car and his medical costs.

Matilda was so proud of her latest purchase! She had researched for months before biting the bullet and buying her first car.

She parked it in her driveway underneath an ancient oak to keep it shaded from the hot, summer sun. That afternoon a storm began to brew. Matilda glanced out her front window and panicked as she saw a dark sky, flashes of lightning, and high winds.

​Racing out the door in an attempt to move her car out from under the tree, Matilda tripped on her front steps and took a hard fall, breaking her ankle in the process.

Matilda didn’t end up with any damage to her car, but she did have to take full advantage of her homeowners insurance to pay her medical bills and loss of income due to her injury.

Hank took his time driving home from a hectic day at his job site. The balmy, autumn day was perfect for a slow drive with windows down.

Hank took an especially scenic route that wound around a lake, fully enjoying his lazy drive when he suddenly had to slam on his brakes and swerve to avoid a speeding motorcycle that appeared out of nowhere. Unfortunately, he ran into a parked car as he swerved so sharply.

The good thing was, there were some witnesses to affirm his actions when he gave his statement to the authorities. The car Hank hit happened to be an uninsured vehicle that was parked in the road. Because he was avoiding imminent injury or death, Hank was not held responsible for the damage he caused to the uninsured vehicle.

Things don’t usually go the way we expect them to.

Make sure you are prepared for the unexpected. If you don’t have your own agent, I’d be happy to assist you. Give me a call!

Gary and Sue have a basic homeowners policy.

Severe storms caused a tree to crash near their house where the power line worked its magic, taking out their electricity.

They finally got their power restored, but it wasn’t until the following week that Sue discovered her deep freeze had malfunctioned, not turning back on after the power was restored, and causing her well-stocked food cache to completely spoil.

In this scenario, Gary and Sue had damage that was caused on their property by a covered peril, thus making it possible to use their homeowners insurance policy to step in and cover around $500 of their loss.

Any loss beyond that may not be covered, and they did have to pay a deductible to take advantage of that reimbursement.

Valerie lives in a nice home near the Bay Area.

After taking a short vacation to visit family in Utah, she returned home to discover the power company had shut down temporarily to prevent wildfires during a period of high winds.

Everything seemed in order when she returned from her trip, but the same thing happened to her freezer during the power outage. It had malfunctioned just like Sue’s, and she didn’t discover the damage until it was too late.

She called her insurance agent, only to find out that her homeowners policy would not cover damage caused by a power failure that did not originate on her property.

The power company refused to compensate for any losses, so Valerie was resigned to replacing her food stash as she could afford to.

Business owners insurance:

Businesses have the potential losses on a much higher scale, but insurance coverage works much the same way.

As a business owner, you can purchase business interruption insurance for times when your company shuts down due to an unforeseen crisis.

It’s a lifesaver when you need to continue paying your employees and drawing a salary after a catastrophe causes your business to halt temporarily.

But if your lights are out, and there’s no physical damage to your actual structure or machinery, you face paying your employees out-of-pocket.

Your best plan is to have a back-up power source for those times when you might face an extended power outage.

There are always variables, and each household and business is unique. You will want to discuss your coverage with an agent if you have any questions or concerns.

If you don’t have an agent or are looking to find one in the Bay Area, give me a call. I’m happy to help you with your insurance needs.

​Sheila finally has her dream business up and running. She jumped through all the legal hoops, got her tax ID number, found a domain name to create an online entity, and started up business accounts on the biggest social media websites. Her company is insured with all the basic commercial insurance coverages.

She thinks all of her bases are covered. Word of mouth has been creating new customers. Sharing and advertising on social media is spreading the news of her presence. Sheila is adding new employees regularly as her business increases.

Success is finally within her grasp.

You know I’m going to throw in a sob story that crushes dreams and crumbles the castle in the clouds? After all, this sounds too good to last and this is an article about insurance.

How about I spare you the sob story and introduce a hero who saves the day… before possible tragedy hits?

Sheila’s Uncle Keith stopped by her office to check out her successful endeavor. He is her favorite uncle, the businessman she’s looked up to since she was young and began dreaming this dream of hers.

Uncle Keith asked all the right questions and discovered that Sheila never purchased any commercial coverage beyond the basic requirements.

As it happens, Uncle Keith is the one with a sob story. He told it to Sheila, and she paid close attention to his advice.

Uncle Keith had an unfortunate event take place at his company the previous year.

One of his employees was running an errand for the company when she swerved to avoid hitting a cat. Tragically, she ran into a biker instead, causing extensive injuries that called for a lengthy hospital stay and great loss of income for the biker.

A lawsuit brought on multimillion-dollar expenses for Uncle Keith’s company. Thankfully, Uncle Keith had a commercial umbrella policy in place for his business.

That coverage took over where his basic coverage left off. Without that extra coverage, there would have been no way for him to pay for the extra expenses out of pocket, and his company would have gone under.

Uncle Keith’s story put a healthy fear into Sheila, so she took his advice and called her insurance agent to discuss how commercial umbrella insurance would work for her.

Does this resonate with you?

If you are a business owner, you realize the importance of having good coverage for your company. But do you really know how quickly things can go downhill?

With how litigation-happy people are, and with how quickly a catastrophic loss can take place, paying a little more for commercial umbrella coverage is a wise choice.

​This type of coverage is like an add-on coverage to your basic commercial insurance. It takes over where your basic liability coverage ends.

Ask your insurance agent about commercial umbrella insurance, and the many ways you can customize it to work for your company.

If you don’t have a local agent to hash things over with, give me a call.