According to Los Angeles Times article, number of fatalities due to DUI related accidents dropped to a record low in past 14 years in California. Alcohol was the reason of 791 deaths in 2010 comparing to 950 deaths in 2009. Increased amount of Dui checkpoints is definitely helping. As California highway patrol states Dui checkpoints main purpose is to build awareness, educate and decrease unnecessary deaths caused by intoxicated drunk drivers.

It looks like its working and hopefully there will be less drunk drivers on American roads killing innocent people.

Speaking of the cost of insurance, DUI stays on your record for 10 years, good driver discount, which is %20-25 is removed, SR-22 filing might be required…

It’s just not worth it. Don’t drink and drive.

Slavsky.com

Slavsky Insurance is not a huge company like Geico or Progressive. Our financial resourses are not “unlimited” but we still try… We try as much as we can to help our customers and our community, we try to give back as much as we can and we really appreciate you appreciate us trying…

This year was a great year for us. One of the things that made it great is the fact that we realized one more time that we are in business not just to make a profit but most importantly enjoy the fact that we’ve helped many people get affordable auto, home or business insurance. Saving money for our clients is a great thing and we are looking forward to find ways to be more efficient, cut unnecessary costs, so that we can pass the savings toward helping our clients get even more affordable insurance policies.

It would be awesome to have you tell us what else we can do to be a better company for you, so if you have any suggestions, reach out to us. Give us a call at 1(888)Slavsky or 650-351-1113

If you live in California, 800-insurance has a promotion for you that will end at the end of February, 2011.

Basically, the offer is that 800-insurance will send you $40 gas card for you after you purchase auto, home or business insurance if you were referred to 800-insurance by 800-insurance client.

If you are not a client of 800-insurance and were not referred, you can still get a quote and if you like the price you can purchase insurance policy and receive $20 gas card as long as you mention the promo code: “Thanks40″.

So, for those of you who is not happy about your insurance or think you are paying too much, give 800-insurance.com a try, get a free quote.

This offer is for Californias only.

When we posted our video about why people should consider buying insurance from Slavsky insurance, we received tons of positive feedback. Mainly, those that watched that video, liked it for too reason: 1. It’s funny and 2. They liked our consept and the way Slavsky Insurance does business.

Here is the link to one of our video. Let us know what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58fsUNcgzQo

An inquiry in California alleges that the company violated state laws on how policies are priced and sold, perhaps affecting thousands of customers.

Mercury Insurance Group violated state laws meant to regulate how coverage is priced and sold and, as a result, overcharged perhaps thousands of Californians for homeowner and automobile insurance, the state Department of Insurance said Monday.

The state’s fourth-largest auto insurer failed to ensure drivers were not charged more after accidents in which they were not at fault, and refused to cover bartenders, artists and others unless they met stricter underwriting standards than other customers, a state investigation alleges.

Mercury could face fines of at least $5,000 for each violation under an enforcement action filed Friday, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said. The company continued a number of activities that it had been ordered to stop years earlier, he said.

“Mercury Insurance has disregarded California’s consumer protection statutes and overcharged consumers,” Poizner said. “In addition, the department’s examination finds that Mercury Insurance has apparently continued to violate the law despite agreements with the state to terminate its illegal behavior.”

Mercury spokesman Coby King said the company had not overcharged customers or violated the law. He said the practice of restricting customers in certain occupations, such as artists and bartenders, was ended more than 10 years ago. In a statement, King intimated that Poizner released the report to further his campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

“This report appears to have been leaked to reporters in a manner designed to further the political interests of the commissioner, not the people of California,” the statement said.

Darrel Ng, a department spokesman, denied any political motives for the department’s action.

“The Department of Insurance takes very seriously its role in ensuring that insurance companies follow the law,” Ng said. “Mercury should spend less time imagining conspiracy theories against them and more time following California’s consumer protection statutes.”

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Confuse on which California car insurance provider to pick? The State mandated drivers to secure insurance. Getting an online quote will help you find an insurance company. Pick one that meets the State’s requirement. Include Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Bodily Injury. Read this article for more insurance information.

You can get a California car insurance quote online. Quotes are now quite common on the internet. There are a variety of different types of quotes that you can get. Some types are just a single quote from particular insurance company. Other quotes from a website can come from several different sources.

Having California car insurance is critical, so if you don’t have it, go get an online quote right away. But before you start your quote, get some basic information on the insurance cover you want and list your vehicle information. Do always go for the cheapest insurance, but get the insurance you can afford.

You do not really need to spend a fortune just to get auto insurance regardless of its nature. There are different kinds of car insurance for you to choose depending on your needs and your budget of course.

Before you can actually get the best car insurance in California you need to know California car insurance requirements. This will help a lot in getting the California car insurance quotes that is right for you.

You must know that the state of California follows a Tort system in its automobile insurance. This means there must be someone found to be at fault for the accident. Hence, that person and his or her insurance firm should be responsible for all the damages caused by such an accident as stipulated in the policy.

In getting California car insurance quotes, it is important for you to know that the tort system varies for each States. State Law in California, in particular, requires a minimum of $15,000 per injured person up to a total of $30,000 per accident for Bodily Injury Liability limits. It also requires a minimum limit of $5,000 for Property Damage Liability coverage. This is most often referred as 15/30/5 coverage.

Residents in California had an average auto insurance premium of $1,650 in 2009. Since the national rate is $1,735, people have this feeling that the state has been collaborating with insurance companies to fix the rates so that there would be no need to look for better California car insurance quotes. This is why it is really important for you to look around to find the cheapest California car insurance.

Get insurance quote @ Slavsky

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The insurer had delayed the increases till May 1 pending a review by an outside actuary appointed by the state insurance commissioner. That report is expected within two weeks.

Thousands of worried Californians who buy individual insurance policies from Anthem Blue Cross will soon learn whether they face rate increases of up to 39% that were put on hold for two months amid a public outcry that helped revive national healthcare legislation.

California’s largest for-profit health insurer agreed to postpone the increases for many of its 800,000 individual policyholders until May 1 while an outside actuary, appointed by state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, evaluated its spending practices.

The actuary report from Axene Health Partners is expected within two weeks.

Poizner said in February that he would stop Anthem’s rate hikes if the report shows that the Woodland Hills insurer spends less than 70% of its premium dollars on medical claims, as required by state law.

At the time, Poizner said that Anthem’s proposed increases could have a “devastating financial impact on hundreds of thousands of its policyholders in California.”

Poizner did not respond to requests for an interview. On Friday, representatives from his office and Anthem’s parent, WellPoint Inc., said the two sides had yet to address the rate hikes despite ongoing speculation that WellPoint might delay them an additional 30 days or limit the increases to 10% to 15% through the end of the year.

Poizner’s office is awaiting the actuary’s study. “Our next action is predicated on what the report says,” said Darrel Ng, a spokesman for the Department of Insurance.

A WellPoint spokeswoman acknowledged Friday that the Indianapolis insurer will not have adequate time to notify customers of any changes within two weeks. The company, Kristin Binns added, has no agreement with Poizner to extend the delay 30 days.

“No formal decision has been made yet, but it’s unlikely we’ll be in a position, given the timing, to implement any rate increase May 1,” Binns said. “It’s unclear at this point what happens.”

Frustrated policyholders say they have heard nothing from Poizner’s office and little from Anthem beyond a letter in early March informing them that their rates would not change for 60 days.

“I don’t know what we are going to do,” said Mary Feller of San Rafael, Calif., who faces a 39% increase for herself, her husband and daughter that would push the family’s annual insurance bill over $25,000.

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SAN DIEGO — The earthquake that rattled Southern California this week was a gentle reminder that not many Californians, and not may San Diegans, have earthquake insurance. Only twelve percent of homeowners are insured.

This could spell trouble when the big one actually arrives. But there are reasons why so many people have chosen not to be covered.

The epicenter of the earthquake felt in San Diego on Sunday was in rural Baja California. And it did some structural damage in Mexicali, Calexico and El Centro. But it could have been much worse.

“California homeowners, in this most recent event, basically dodged the bullet,” said Glenn Pomeroy, CEO of the California Earthquake Authority, which is a state-managed non-profit that provides 70 percent of the earthquake insurance in California.

“Let’s say the 7.2 that happened on Sunday happened under Los Angeles. We would see massive destruction. Homes destroyed. Infrastructure badly damaged,” Pomeroy said.

The California Legislature created the earthquake authority after the costly Northridge Earthquake in 1994 drove most private insurance companies out of the temblor business. Pomeroy said the authority has the ability to cover billions of dollars worth of claims.

But property owners won’t get anything if they don’t purchase policies.

Pomeroy points out that the typical homeowner’s insurance policy explicitly rules out coverage for earthquake damage. He says many homeowners don’t realize this, or they believe federal disaster aid will come to their rescue in the event of a big earthquake.

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“I’ve been ‘unofficially’ told by the H.R. manager of my employer,” wrote RG from Los Angeles, “that it will be cheaper for them to take the penalty than to continue insuring us.” RG’s question — whether it was true that “many, many companies will start dumping health insurance benefits” — was one of several we fielded last week about how the new health care reform law would affect small businesses. And though this query came from an employee, not an owner, of a large company, not a small one, clearly many entrepreneurs are also worried that they’ll have to abandon group coverage.

But as we’ve reported before (here and here), health policy analysts have told The Agenda that this massive dumping scenario is pretty unlikely. The fact is that most businesses that provide insurance for employees will continue to do so.

The concern arises from a misunderstanding about who actually pays the employer penalty. The term is something of a misnomer, economists say, because it is the workers who ultimately bear the penalty’s cost. As the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office put it in an issue brief published last July (emphasis added), “Firms decide how much labor to employ on the basis of the total cost of compensation and choose the composition of that compensation on the basis of what their workers generally prefer.”

“Every increase in your health care benefits package is a decrease in your dollar wages or other compensation — it’s almost a one-to-one relationship,” added Robert Moffit, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in September when we first approached the topic. Conversely, then, any decrease in the health benefits package is an increase in other compensation, like cash wages, because employers can seldom cut compensation in a competitive labor market.

So the calculation that a small-business owner (or any employer, really) that offers insurance must make is not whether paying the penalty costs* less than providing coverage. Rather, it is whether paying the penalty on top of the wage increase necessary for the employee to buy coverage on the individual market is cheaper than providing employees with company coverage. But even that is not quite the total equation: because the company’s contribution toward insurance coverage is not taxable income for the employee, the value of that exclusion to the employee must also be added to the mix. (For an employee in the 25 percent tax bracket whose company pays 80 percent of the premium cost, say, that’s at least an additional one-fifth of the cost of coverage.)

Now, for a company deciding whether to dump coverage, here comes the hard part. (And you thought the last paragraph was the hard part?) Beginning in 2014, health insurance reform will provide inducements for poor and some middle-class families to gain coverage. Medicaid will be available to people making a third more than the federal poverty level. Those making up to four times the poverty level will get tax credits to defray the premium expense. At the same time, the individual mandate will require everyone to buy insurance or face a penalty.

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Consumers can save money on car insurance by understanding what they really need as determined by their individual situations. Study first to understand the terms, then shop wisely.

What does Car Insurance Cost

Generally, car insurance consists of a policy to protect a car if it is damaged and to protect the car owner in case of legal action resulting from a automobile accident. Medical bills incurred by passengers can also be covered as well as damage to a car resulting from a falling tree, hail, or other “acts of God.”

The price of the insurance will be determined by how much coverage is purchased in the different categories described above. Collision insurance, which pays for damage to the car in an accident, typically has a deductible amount that the customer is willing to pay. For example, if the policy holder has collision that is $500 deductable and the cost of having a car repaired as a result of an accident is $1200, then the policy holder will be responsible for $500 and the insurance company will pay the balance of $700.

There is a substantial savings in carrying a higher deductible of perhaps $1,000, so customers must weigh their ability to shell out the deductible amount against paying a larger fee for a lower deductible. Predicting and accident is impossible, but if one drives little in a location where traffic is light a higher deductable might save lots of money over the years.

Furthermore, if the car being insured is a clunker, there is little sense in having a low deductible. The car’s value may be such that the owner would not consider having it repaired, so a high deductable is wise. The money saved by having a high deductable can be put in the bank to help pay for an accident.

If a car is “totaled” in an accident, the insurance company will not replace it with a new car, even if it is new. Cars depreciate as soon as they are driven off the lot. The replacement cost will be based on the “book value” of the car generally based on mileage and condition.

Liability Insurance is a Vital Part of Car Insurance

All states require car owners to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance and many people carry the minimum to save money. However, a person with considerable assets to lose is advised to adjust liability insurance upward to protect assets. Also, more driving generally will increase the risk of an accident. Those who drive substantially more than what might be considered average might want to consider carrying more than the minimum.

Determining the exact amount of liability insurance is to purchase is always a guess. It is basically a matter of risk tolerance. The Internet is a good place to look for advice on risk tolerance and management.

Save Money on Comprehensive Insurance

Once again the decision of how much comprehensive insurance to carry is a guess, and it is subject to a deductable amount chosen by the buyer. Comprehensive insurance covers events not generally considered accidental like vandalism, hail, or other damages that result from unexpected events. A buyer can get an informal idea about how often comprehensive insurance is used by asking friends.

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