Services
Insurance Cleveland currently offers a wide variety of coverage options for you and your family. Please take some time to learn more about some of the options we currently offer below.
Personal
Insurance Cleveland offers personal insurance to protect all the things you worked hard to acquire. The multitude of insurance policies offered ensures that you and your loved ones can continue to enjoy the quality of life that you want.
Homeowners Insurance
Homeowners insurance provides financial protection against disasters. A standard policy insures the home itself and the things you keep in it.
Homeowners insurance is a package policy. This means that it covers both damage to your property and your liability or legal responsibility for any injuries and property damage you or members of your family cause to other people. This includes damage caused by household pets.
Damage caused by most disasters is covered, but there are exceptions. The most significant are damage caused by floods, earthquakes and poor maintenance. You must buy two separate policies for flood and earthquake coverage. Maintenance-related problems are the homeowners’ responsibility.
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Dwelling Insurance
Similar to homeowners insurance, dwelling insurance only covers damage to the dwelling itself and other structures on the premises. For an additional premium, coverage can be added for Personal Property, Personal Liability, Rental Value, Additional Living Expenses, and other similar coverage to suit your needs.
Mobile Home Insurance
Mobile home insurance covers a mobile home and adjoining structures from most types of loss. Coverage is offered for a wide array of risks, including but not limited to fire, windstorm damage, damage from falling objects, lightning, explosion, and more. The majority of the time, a standard mobile home policy will not cover your mobile home while it is in transit.
Renters Insurance
Renters insurance covers a policyholder’s belongings against perils such as fire, theft, windstorm, hail, explosion, vandalism, riots, and others. It also provides personal liability coverage for damage the policyholder or dependents cause to third parties. It also provides additional living expenses, known as loss-of-use coverage, if a policyholder must move while his or her dwelling is repaired. It also can include coverage for property improvements. Possessions can be covered for their replacement cost or the actual cash value that includes depreciation.
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Auto Insurance
Auto insurance protects you against financial loss if you have an accident. It is a contract between you and the insurance company. You agree to pay the premium and the insurance company agrees to pay your losses as defined in your policy.
Auto insurance provides property, liability and medical coverage:
■Property coverage pays for damage to or theft of your car.
■Liability coverage pays for your legal responsibility to others for bodily injury or property damage.
■Medical coverage pays for the cost of treating injuries, rehabilitation and sometimes, lost wages and funeral expenses.
An auto insurance policy is comprised of six different kinds of coverage. Most states require you to buy some, but not all, of these coverages. If you’re financing a car, your lender may also have requirements. Most auto policies are for six months to a year. Your insurance company should notify you by mail when it’s time to renew the policy and to pay your premium.
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Watercraft Insurance
Watercraft insurance protects you against financial loss if you have an accident in your motorboat, jet ski, pontoon, sailboat, or any other watercraft. It protects theft, damage to your watercraft, and covers any medical costs relating to a watercraft accident.
Umbrella Insurance
Umbrella insurance provides coverage for losses above the limit of an underlying policy or policies such as homeowners and auto insurance. While it applies to losses over the dollar amount in the underlying policies, terms of coverage are sometimes broader than those of underlying policies.
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Flood Insurance
Coverage for flood damage is available from the federal government under the National Flood Insurance Program but is sold by licensed insurance agents. Flood coverage is excluded under homeowners policies and many commercial property policies. However, flood damage is covered under the comprehensive portion of an auto insurance policy.
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Commercial
Insurance Cleveland provides commercial insurance to protect businesses against risk. The wide array of commercial insurance policies we offer allows us to customize each policy to make sure every aspect of your business is protected.
Business Owners Insurance
Insurance companies selling business insurance offer policies that combine protection from all major property and liability risks in one package. (They also sell coverages separately.) One package purchased by small and mid-sized businesses is the business owners policy (BOP). Package policies are created for businesses that generally face the same kind and degree of risk. Larger companies might purchase a commercial package policy or customize their policies to meet the special risks they face.
BOPs include:
1.Property insurance for buildings and contents owned by the company — there are two different forms, standard and special, which provides more comprehensive coverage.
2.Business interruption insurance, which covers the loss of income resulting from a fire or other catastrophe that disrupts the operation of the business. It can also include the extra expense of operating out of a temporary location.
3.Liability protection, which covers your company’s legal responsibility for the harm it may cause to others. This harm is a result of things that you and your employees do or fail to do in your business operations that may cause bodily injury or property damage due to defective products, faulty installations and errors in services provided.
BOPs do NOT cover professional liability, auto insurance, worker’s compensation or health and disability insurance. You’ll need separate insurance policies to cover professional services, vehicles and your employees.
© Insurance Information Institute, Inc.
Auto Insurance
Auto insurance protects you against financial loss if you have an accident. It is a contract between you and the insurance company. You agree to pay the premium and the insurance company agrees to pay your losses as defined in your policy.
Auto insurance provides property, liability and medical coverage:
■Property coverage pays for damage to or theft of your car.
■Liability coverage pays for your legal responsibility to others for bodily injury or property damage.
■Medical coverage pays for the cost of treating injuries, rehabilitation and sometimes, lost wages and funeral expenses.
An auto insurance policy is comprised of six different kinds of coverage. Most states require you to buy some, but not all, of these coverages. If you’re financing a car, your lender may also have requirements.
Most auto policies are for six months to a year. Your insurance company should notify you by mail when it’s time to renew the policy and to pay your premium.
© Insurance Information Institute, Inc.
Property Insurance
Property insurance for buildings and contents owned by the company — there are two different forms, standard and special, which provides more comprehensive coverage.
© Insurance Information Institute, Inc.
Liability Insurance
Liability protection, which covers your company’s legal responsibility for the harm it may cause to others. This harm is a result of things that you and your employees do or fail to do in your business operations that may cause bodily injury or property damage due to defective products, faulty installations and errors in services provided.
© Insurance Information Institute, Inc.
Umbrella Insurance
Coverage for losses above the limit of an underlying policy or policies. While it applies to losses over the dollar amount in the underlying policies, terms of coverage are sometimes broader than those of underlying policies.
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Worker’s Compensation Insurance
Insurance that pays for medical care and physical rehabilitation of injured workers and helps to replace lost wages while they are unable to work. State laws, which vary significantly, govern the amount of benefits paid and other compensation provisions.
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Professional Liability Insurance
Covers professionals for negligence and errors or omissions that injure their clients.
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Inland Marine Insurance
Inland marine insurance indemnifies loss to moving or movable property. The property that is insured under inland marine coverage is typically one of the following:
■Actually in transit
■Held by a bailee
■At a fixed location that is an instrument of transportation
■A movable type of goods that is often at different locations
Bond Insurance
Surety bonds are a contract among at least three parties – the principal, the obligee and the surety. To benefit the obligee, the surety agrees to uphold the contractual promises made by the principal if the principal fails to uphold its promises to the obligee. These types of bonds are frequently used in the construction industry. In order to obtain a contract to build a project, the general contractor (and often the sub-contractors) must provide the owner of a bond for its performance of the terms of the contract. Surety bonds are also used to secure the proper performance of fiduciary duties by persons in positions of private or public trust.
Aviation Insurance
Commercial airlines hold property insurance on airplanes and liability insurance for negligent acts that result in injury or property damage to passengers or others. Damage is covered on the ground and in the air. The policy limits the geographical area and individual pilots covered.
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Agribusiness Insurance
Agribusiness insurance covers property and liability risks associated with farms, ranches, wineries, and other large commercial growers. This can include farm and ranch owners’ policies and equipment breakdown policies. However, it does not cover worker’s comp claims.
Builder’s Risk Insurance
Builder’s risk insurance is a special type of property insurance, which indemnifies against damage to buildings while they are under construction.
Flood Insurance
Coverage for flood damage is available from the federal government under the National Flood Insurance Program but is sold by licensed insurance agents. Flood coverage is excluded under homeowners policies and many commercial property policies. However, flood damage is covered under the comprehensive portion of an auto insurance policy.
© Insurance Information Institute, Inc.
Life and Health
Insurance Cleveland makes it easy to protect the ones you love. The vast selection of life and health insurance policies allows you to feel confident that you are getting the best coverage at the best rates.
Life
There are two major types of life insurance—term and whole life. Whole life is sometimes called permanent life insurance, and it encompasses several subcategories, including traditional whole life, universal life, variable life and variable universal life. In 2003, about 6.4 million individual life insurance policies bought were term and about 7.1 million were whole life.
Life insurance products for groups are different from life insurance sold to individuals. The information below focuses on life insurance sold to individuals.
Term
Term Insurance is the simplest form of life insurance. It pays only if death occurs during the term of the policy, which is usually from one to 30 years. Most term policies have no other benefit provisions.
There are two basic types of term life insurance policies—level term and decreasing term.
■Level term means that the death benefit stays the same throughout the duration of the policy.
■Decreasing term means that the death benefit drops, usually in one-year increments, over the course of the policy’s term.
In 2003, virtually all (97 percent) of the term life insurance bought was level term.
Whole Life/Permanent
Whole life or permanent insurance pays a death benefit whenever you die—even if you live to 100. There are three major types of whole life insurance—traditional whole life, universal life, and variable universal life, and there are variations within each type.
■Traditional Whole Life
In the case of traditional whole life, both the death benefit and the premium are designed to stay the same (level) throughout the life of the policy. The cost per $1,000 of benefit increases as the insured person ages, and it obviously gets very high when the insured lives to 80 and beyond. The insurance company could charge a premium that increases each year, but that would make it very hard for most people to afford life insurance at advanced ages. So the company keeps the premium level by charging a premium that, in the early years, is higher than what’s needed to pay claims, investing that money, and then using it to supplement the level premium to help pay the cost of life insurance for older people.
By law, when these “overpayments” reach a certain amount, they must be available to the policy owner as a cash value if he or she decides not to continue with the original plan. The cash value is an alternative, not an additional, benefit under the policy.
In the 1970s and 1980s, life insurance companies introduced two variations on the traditional whole life product—universal life insurance and variable universal life insurance.
■Universal or Adjustable Life
This type of policy offers you more flexibility than whole life insurance. You may be able to increase the death benefit, if you pass a medical examination. The savings vehicle (called a cash value account) generally earns a money market rate of interest. After money has accumulated in your account, you will also have the option of altering your premium payments – providing there is enough money in your account to cover the costs. This can be a useful feature if your economic situation has suddenly changed. However, you would need to keep in mind that if you stop or reduce your premiums and the saving accumulation gets used up, the policy might lapse and your life insurance coverage will end. You should check with your agent before deciding not to make premium payments for extended periods because you might not have enough cash value to pay the monthly charges to prevent a policy lapse.© Insurance Information Institute, Inc.
Fixed Annuities Insurance
A fixed annuity is an annuity that guarantees a specific rate of return. In the case of a deferred annuity, a minimum rate of interest is guaranteed during the savings phase. During the payment phase, a fixed amount of income, paid on a regular schedule, is guaranteed.
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Individual and Group Health Insurance
Health insurance covers medical expenses for accidents or sickness, on a first-party basis, and regardless of fault. Individual is paid for by the insured individual; in group health insurance, the cost of the premium is usually split between the employer and the employee; sometimes the employer pays for the policy in full.
Bank-Owned Life Insurance
Bank-owned life insurance, or BOLI, is a single premium life insurance contract specially designed for banks to earn tax-free income. BOLI’s tax-free income comes from two sources: growth of the cash value in the policy, and insurance proceeds paid to the bank when the insured dies.
Long-Term Care Insurance
Long-term care (LTC) insurance pays for services to help individuals who are unable to perform certain activities of daily living without assistance, or require supervision due to a cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s disease. LTC is available as individual insurance or through an employer-sponsored or association plan.
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Supplemental Benefits
An amount of coverage that adds to the amount of coverage specified in a basic insurance policy.
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