The View (Photo by Jeannine Morber)

If you weren’t at the Starry Night Gala   last Friday you truly missed a special night.  Thanks to the Starry Night Gala committee, guests enjoyed sumptuous food, a silent auction, lively entertainment, and of course each other’s company during this holiday season. 

The Starry Night Committee which is part of the Foundation Board includes multiple businesspeople and citizens who all are advocates of the colleges’ mission.   This year the committee really out did themselves. Catering from Johannsons, which included passed cocktails, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and anything from pasta to lamb was terrific.  Businesses and individuals donated a diverse group of items for the silent auction ranging from upscale scotch tastings, Ravens tickets, to tool box sets. 

As the silent auction closed, guests were escorted to the Scott Center, where “The Hit Men” were about to put on a brilliant performance. Throughout the show nostalgia filled the center; as the band played 60’s 70’s and 80’s hits, the members of the audience erupted into dancing.  I can now say, I danced with Dr. Faye Pappalardo. Thank you for the dance!

The Community College Foundation advocates on students behalf by providing grants, academic aid, and raising money for college improvement.  We at Crawford Yingling Insurance are happy to support the foundation and enjoyed the Starry Night Gala immensely

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We have already discussed 3rd party coverage which (Pays the other person).

Now, we will break down the 1 st party coverage (pay me) as well as suggest some research to do before selecting your insurance carrier. Before we dive into the 1st party coverage, let’s talk a bit about Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage.

Make sure you have Personal Injury Protection.

PIP is designed to make is easy to collect money for medical bills and lost wages without the hassle of hiring a personal injury lawyer, although you can have a lawyer help you make a claim for a fee. You have the option to waive PIP, but we do not suggest waiving PIP because it can provide coverage for medical bills and lost wages. Keep in mind, just because you are injured in an accident doesn’t mean you are entitled to 100% of your coverage.

Typical coverage increments start at $2500, and usually max out at $10,000. A great website for information on Maryland PIP is (http://marylandpip.com/).

Do you really need that comprehensive coverage?

Now let’s discuss 1st party coverage and the policy structure. Let’s examine Comprehensive coverage which covers damage to your vehicle for anything other than collision. Examples include, wind, vandalism, theft, falling objects, just to name a few. Collision coverage differs from comprehensive in that it covers a collision with another object, such as a telephone pole, another vehicle etc, both comprehensive and collision you can select different deductibles.

Questions you would want to ask when selecting your 1 st party coverages are, “When I leave this office and wreck my car what out of pocket expense would I be comfortable paying?” and  “How much is my car worth, and if I were to total it would the Kelly Blue Book Value be worth the premium I am paying for coverage?”

For example, if your car is only worth $1,000 and you are paying $400 for comprehensive and collision coverage, maybe it doesn’t make sense to have full coverage. I would suggest looking up your Kelly Blue Book Value (http://www.kbb.com/) to determine the values and have your insurance agent help weigh the pros/cons of coverage.

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There are two primary components to your auto insurance policy.

We at Crawford Yingling Insurance see time after time individuals and family who view automobile insurance as a commodity. We understand. Auto insurance isn’t exactly rocket science, but you should pay attention to certain coverage parts and the carriers as well.

Let’s talk about the policy structure first. For the sake of this blog we are going to have two parts of coverage 3rd party benefits (pay them) and 1st party benefits (pay us).

Third party benefits are usually listed first on your policy.

I will start with 3rd party benefits (although all carriers are different, 3rd party benefits are usually listed first).

First, you have bodily injury or property damage, which defends and protects you if you injure someone or multiple people in an auto accident, or the accident results in damage to someone’s property.When selecting the coverage you have two options: split limits or combined limits. When thinking about coverage levels, you will need to assess what you have “to lose”, if successfully sued for negligence. Examples of personal assets include, real estate, inheritance, life insurance policies, college savings, bank accounts, to name a few.

The second 3rd party coverage is Medical Payments, which are considered to be no fault coverage.

When selecting a limit for medical payment you might ask yourself, how frequently do I travel? Who usually is riding in my vehicle and how often? How well do I know the people riding in the vehicle and what might happen if they were injured? We have seen cases where friends are riding in a vehicle but Medical payments will pay for injured persons medical bills and is sometimes used to avoid litigation.

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