Water Issues

Pat Kerley

Urged businesses to take care of emergency problems, especially water issues, immediately to avoid compounding damage.  One drop of water daily over time can still cause extensive damage.  Get credentials on firms you hire to do restoration work and insure that they take moisture readings on any areas that might have been affected.

Merrill Lynch

Eric Weiss
Financial PlannerTip from 07/30/2008

Re-emphasized the current state of the economy by informing us that Merrill Lynch just recently sold $30 million of mortgage loans at $.05 to the dollar.  And these were just from 2005!  They have not yet addressed ‘06 and ‘07 loans.   For asset protection, Eric advised that cash should be held in brokerage money market accounts, in which money is available to you just like checking accounts.  These accounts are insured to $500,000 through the SIPC as opposed to $100,000 for a single account through the FDIC.

Banks and Business Loans

Ernie Martinez
Attorney

In troubled times, 1) consider shifting corporate bank accounts to an institution where you do not have business loans.  Most loan documents include the provision that, if in default, the bank can take funds from other accounts.  This could  perhaps leave the firm unable to make payroll, etc. leading to a downward spiral ending in business closure.  2) communicate with creditors and suppliers.  Set up payment plans and don’t make promises your can’t keep regarding when they will get their money.

 

 

Businesses partnering with health clubs

Ralph Geronimo
Business Broker

Companies should consider forming partnerships with local health clubs and enrolling their employees. Health issues cost a firm an average of about $1,700 per employee per year.  You can reduce these costs with healthy employees through less absenteeism and reduced insurance premiums.

Are you insured for the correct amount?

Phil Lyons

In an effort to curtail insurance cost many insured’s do not keep a close eye on the value of their property they are insuring. Homes usually have a small inflation guard built in, but typically commercial policies do not. Policies issued by Citizen’s wind and most commercial policies have what is known as a co-insurance clause as part of the policy language.

Typically co-insurance is set at 80%, but could be 90% or even 100%. So as an example you have a property that will cost $1,000,000 to replace today. Five years ago you purchased the building and insured it for $750,000 and have never adjusted the coverage. You suffer a total loss by fire and receive the  $750,000. Yes you are short by $250,000. A business risk you excepted, or didn’t think about.

Second scenario is more likely and that is a partial loss and let’s say it’s $500,000 damage. Are you covered for the total loss? You think so, or you hope so, but in reality you are not!

Here is why you need to pay attention to this clause in your policy. $1,000,000 value/$750,000 insured value = 75% insured. Since it’s below 80% the co-insurance comes into effect and the claim is paid $500,000 X 75% = $375,000 paid minus any deductible. So now you have a shortfall of $125,000 on your claim payment that you didn’t expect.

My tip is every three years have a Replacement Estimator done for your home and your business. Most all agents have access to online software that can give you a close estimate to the proper value. As a normal operating procedure we do this in house every year on our clients, but not all agents take the time. So request one this year and make it a habit every couple years to get it updated.

Appealing Real Estate Taxes

Vladimir F. Golik, P.A.
Broker, Keller Williams Realty Premier Properties

Hello to All. It was great seeing everyone today and sharing our “tips for the day.” As a reminder, if you want to “appeal” your real estate taxes on a property(s), the cut-off date to file is September 17^th, 2008. I would suggest you have a professional handle this important process.

NetBook

Wilson Alvarez
IT Consultant

 

The Netbook is here! Dell announced that they will start promoting this new type of notebook. A picture could be found by clicking here. It has a 7 inch screen, it’s about half the size of a regular notebook. It will NOT run on XP or Vista, but one of the other operating system called Linux.  Do not let the name fool you, Linux acquires “0” viruses and hardly crashes. It also comes with OpenOffice which is an MS Office product compatible program.  I have personally tested it and you can use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.  There is no Outlook compatible program, but there are other Mail clients out there that you can use with this new system. I guess the most impressive feature about this is the price. Asus sells a compatible system now for $300.00. It will have WiFi built in, and a virtual drive, which is basically an internet hard drive as opposed to an internal hard drive.

World Wide Telescope

Wilson Alvarez, IT Consultant

You can now visit the stars and other galaxies by going to www.WorldWideTelescope.com.  From the convinience of your home pc, you can zoom into the planets and black holes that our universe has to offer.

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