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Are You Covered?
  • Changing Your Address Means Changing Your Insurance
    May is National Moving Month and every year more than 40 million Americans will move, according to the American Moving and Storage Association. As you pack up your belongings and move across town or across the country, make sure you don’t forget to “pack” your insurance coverage.
  • Summer Storm Recovery Tips
    Independent insurance agents not only advise clients about insurance, but they’re disaster readiness consultants. It is imperative to know what your risks are and what to do in the
    event of a hurricane. We recommend meeting with a Trusted Choice® independent insurance agent who can consult with you in assessing your risks and ensuring that you, your family and your home are prepared in the event of a disaster. Trusted Choice® offers many disaster-specific readiness and recovery tips for consumers.
  • New Development, New Flood Risk
    One factor to consider when evaluating your risk of flooding is development and new construction in your area.
  • Landscape Ready: Utility Marking, Underground Septic & Sewer Back-Up
    Homeowners: Before you hit a gusher—and we aren't talking oil—get the 811 from Trusted Choice.
  • Spring Forward: Spring Cleaning and Safety Updates
    Temperatures are getting warmer and now that it’s spring, it’s time for spring cleaning and making spring time repairs around the house. Taking care of our homes is important, so take a moment to understand how taking care of things around the house can impact your insurance.
  • A Little Less than Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: Insurance and Tax Issues with Nannies and Housekeepers
    With more and more families every year having both parents work full time, there has been an increasing need for help around the house with childcare and chores like cleaning, laundry and running errands. If you’re hiring household help it’s important to understand how having domestic workers (including nannies, housekeepers, caretakers, etc.) around your home can impact not only your insurance coverage- both your auto and your homeowners- but also how it could have tax implications for you. If you don’t understand these issues, the result could be something quite atrocious.
  • Earth Day and Going “Green” with Your Homeowners Insurance
    "I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us." – Theodore Roosevelt
    With Earth Day on April 22nd, Roosevelt’s call for responsible use of resources remains as relevant today as when he wrote it over a century ago, and many Americans are taking up the call as part of the “green” movement, particularly in the areas of construction and building. Whether you’re building a new home or are interested in retrofitting your home to be a “green” home, it’s important to recognize how taking these steps to make your home more environmentally friendly may require some special “green” insurance to protect them.
  • Notable Omissions/Limitations in Your Home Insurance Policy
    Do you know what types of losses your home insurance policy will cover? Perhaps more important, do you know what types of commonly occurring losses it will not cover?

    Knowing the limitations in your policy is the first step to finding the fix. Following is a list of commonly occurring events or exposures that can cause significant financial damage to you and your family. What do they all have in common? Coverage for them is either limited or excluded under a typical home insurance policy.
  • Death and Taxes: The Uncertainty of What Happens With An Insurance Policy When A Loved One Dies
    As Benjamin Franklin said, “…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” When a loved one dies, as family and friends settle their affairs, one important question should be asked: What happens to the insurance policy on the house when the owner dies?
  • April Showers: Umbrellas Are for More Than Water
    At the mention of umbrellas, you likely think of protection from falling water drops. Your Trusted Choice® agent would like to remind you the proper “insurance umbrella” could also protect you from a “rain” of lawsuits. Personal liability claims against homeowners and drivers are increasing in frequency and severity. The question is simple: Are your current limits of liability on your homeowners, boat, and personal auto policies adequate?
  • Think your home, condo or business insurance policy covers flood damage? Think again!
    A standard home insurance policy will cover losses caused by water that accumulates in the home resulting from the accidental discharge of a system of appliance, such as a broken hose or valve. That same policy will not cover losses caused by water that accumulates as a result of the overflow of a body of water or runoff of surface water.
  • Are You Prepared for a Flood?
    March 3-9 is National Severe Weather Preparedness Week, and as we move from winter into spring, spring rains coupled with melting snow and ice can increase the risks of flooding, and it’s not just those in high risk flood zones who are vulnerable. Here’s some information on evaluating your flood risk and how you can protect your home with flood insurance.
  • Avoid a Bracket Busting Claim: Insuring Special Events
    It’s time for March Madness! Are you planning a blowout that will make render an entirely new meaning to “bracket busting?” Has your neighborhood community center asked for a either a hold-harmless agreement or a damage deposit exceeding your current mortgage payment?

    Welcome to the world of personal event risk management!
  • Flood Safety Awareness Week
    March 12-16th is Flood Safety Awareness Week, and as we move from winter into spring the risks of flooding can go up, and it’s not just those in high risk flood zones who are vulnerable. Here’s some information on evaluating your flood risk and how you can protect your home with flood insurance.
  • Before, During and After a Tornado
    Tips for dealing with tornadoes from Trusted Choice.
Downloading that Music or Video? Avast, Me Hearty!
onlinepiracy.jpgNo doubt that music video just begs to be shared with your friends. That latest song will be perfect as the soundtrack for your slide show. And look here—a link to that blockbuster that’s still in theaters! Best yet, all yours for the downloading and all free! You gotta love this Internet!
Piracy, it appears, is no longer just a practice for the high seas. Even if a video or song is publicly posted on popular websites such as Hulu or YouTube, there are rules regulating proper use. For example, here is the paragraph from YouTube’s Terms of Service Agreement for “Your Use of Content”:
 
“Content is provided to you AS IS. You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service and as permitted under these Terms of Service. You shall not download any Content unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content. YouTube and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content.”
And penalties can range from a cease and decease order to significant fines and lawsuits for copyright infringement. In some situations, criminal prosecution is possible. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), here are the legal realities under copyright laws and the “No Electronic Theft Law”:

 

  • Criminal penalties for first-time offenders can be as high as five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
  • Civil penalties can run into many thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees. The minimum penalty is $750 per song.
  • Criminal penalties can run up to five years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines, even if you didn’t do it for monetary or financial or commercial gain.
  • If you did expect something in return, even if it just involves swapping your files for someone else’s, as in MP3 trading, you can be sentenced to as much as five years in prison.
  • Regardless of whether you expected to profit, you’re still liable in civil court for damages and lost profits of the copyright holder, or the copyright holders can sue you for as much as $150,000 in statutory damages for each of their copyrighted works that you illegally copy or distribute.
Given these realities, and the fact you will not be protected for such acts under your homeowners coverage, your Trusted Choice® independent insurance agent reminds you the best protection against an accusation of digital piracy is not the oft-cited cliché of “better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.” The best choice is to honor the wishes of the content creators and providers.
 
As the YouTube terms make clear, many artists will freely give permission to share their work via links and posting on such social sites as Facebook. But for those who don’t, help them protect their investment in time, talent, resources and future career by agreeing if it’s worth your attention, it’s worth playing (and, if necessary, paying) by the rules.
 
Leave the piracy to the high seas. When surfing those digital oceans, deal, don’t steal.

Sound & Fury, Signifying Nothing?

Many critics of digital copyright enforcement against consumers claim the entertainment industry is just crying wolf; that financial losses are either exaggerated or not worth the threatened enforcements and lawsuits. A few recent facts put the issue in perspective:


• Only 37 percent of music acquired by U.S. consumers in 2009 was paid for.


• Digital storage locker downloads constitute 7 percent of all Internet traffic, while 91 percent of the links found on them were for copyrighted material.


• Fast Five was the #1 pirated movie of 2011 with 9.2 million downloads. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came in at #10 (6 million).


• In 2011, more people illegally downloaded the TV show Dexter (3.6 million) than watched it on Showtime (2.2 million).

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Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 800.221.7917
Fax: 703.683.7556
Email: Trusted.Choice@iiaba.net