How to Have a Great Family Vacation in 2022

Name: Vargas & Vargas Insurance
Address: 1133 Washington St, Dorchester, MA, 02124
Telephone: 617-298-0655

Posted on April 27, 2022April 21, 2022 by cvargas

As the summer months close in, it’s time to get ready for that perfect family vacation. Depending on where you’re from, the recent pandemic may have put previous plans on hiatus for quite some time.

Today, we’ll go over a few things that can help you enjoy the summer months away from the home.

To Mask, or Not to Mask…

Although mandates are being lifted in various locations, some local governments and facilities are still requiring masks. Always have a mask on hand in the event you visit a location that has such restrictions.

You could also spend a few moments using Google to search the location where you plan to take your family vacation. You may be able to determine which places require a mask so you can better prepare.

Keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with keeping yourself and your family protected by wearing them. Today, though, it’s more centered around personal preference.

Know the Destination of Your Family Vacation

Before you plan on hitting the road or boarding a flight, take some time to research your destination. Sure, you could follow brochures and “best of” websites. However, you may find some incredible local stores and facilities if you narrow the search on Google.

Perhaps your family loves book stores. Does the location have a unique book store that you don’t have in your area? Instead of visiting a chain store, you could find a unique local experience.

That’s just one example. By exploring the location online, you can get a feel for what’s available and the different venues your family would love to explore.

Are You Covered While Driving?

Many of us will opt to rent a car while on vacation. It’s a way to have freedom of movement instead of waiting for an Uber or Lyft driver. And in many cases, it’s a lot cheaper depending on how much exploring you plan on doing with the family.

Do you plan on getting additional collision coverage?

More than six million car crashes occur every year, with 22% of crashes being weather-related. And because the weather is so unpredictable, it would make sense to make sure your family is covered while traveling.

Keep the Home Safe While On a Family Vacation

Perhaps one of the biggest loads off of your mind while on a family vacation is making sure the home is safe. I’m not merely talking about locking the door and turning off all the appliances.

Although, those are very important things to remember.

If you’re gone for a week, are you absolutely sure your home is secure during the time you’re gone? Before going on vacation, take steps to prevent burglary and other mishaps while you’re away.

The sheer amount of stress relief you’ll feel while on vacation is far worth every moment you’ll spend preparing the home.

What Kind of Family Vacation Are You Planning?

A family vacation is meant to reduce stress while helping to build bonds with those you love. These are moments that will last a lifetime, and you want to make sure everything goes according to plan.

Whether it’s protecting your home while you’re away or protecting your loved ones while on vacation, reducing stress will heighten the experience.

Vargas & Vargas Insurance offers top-rated insurance services that will help keep you and your family protected from unexpected events while you are on vacation! All our clients enjoy customized insurance coverage to match their unique needs, and we offer affordable prices. Contact us today to get a customized plan, or to just get the peace of mind that you desire!

How to Choose a Life Insurance Beneficiary

Posted on April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 by agentinsure

If you are buying life insurance, you have a goal in mind. Maybe you want to support your dependents, pay your mortgage, or ensure your business continuity. But whatever the objective of your life insurance policy is, you have to name a beneficiary to receive the death benefits when you die. But how do you choose a beneficiary? Vargas & Vargas Insurance of Dorchester, MA, is here to guide you if you have no clue where to start.

Choosing a life insurance beneficiary

If you think your financial future is secure with a life insurance policy, it can be wasted if you choose the wrong beneficiary. So, like knowing how important it is to choose a suitable life insurance policy, naming a beneficiary is equally important.

Typically, your beneficiary can be your children, spouse, business partner, parent, or domestic partner. Sometimes, beneficiaries can even be organizations like trusts or charities. Also, when you have several people you want to protect financially, you can name multiple beneficiaries and divide the death benefits among them.

Before signing off the life insurance policy, your insurer will ask you to name the beneficiary. So, when you get that policy, ensure you have your list of beneficiaries beforehand.

To ease the decision of choosing beneficiaries, consider the following:

Who needs the benefit the most? Is it your child, spouse, sibling, or business partner?
Have you considered the applicable rules? Minors can’t receive money directly. Besides, different states have guidelines on who you can name.
If you are single, consider several options, including siblings and parents.
Sometimes, a person isn’t usually the best choice. Create a trust for your beneficiary, especially if the beneficiary is a minor or you don’t want disagreements in case of a divorce
Align your will’s beneficiaries with those in the life insurance policy

Still unsure who you will name as a beneficiary of your life insurance? You can always get in touch with Vargas & Vargas Insurance for guidance.

Captive Versus Independent Insurance Agents For Your Automobile and Home Insurance; An Honest Comparison

Posted on April 19, 2022April 12, 2022 by cvargas

When you’re shopping for insurance, knowing the different types of insurance agents is important as part of understanding whom you should work with.

There are two kinds of insurance agents — captive (who represents one insurance company) and independent (also known as an insurance broker).

Many online insurance companies, like State Farm, Allstate, and Liberty Mutual depend exclusively on captive agents, but some like GEICO and Progressive rely on a mixture of captives and independents.

Both types of agents can provide the kind of quality expertise you need to make one of life’s important financial decisions. But there are some big differences between the two.

Captive agents

Captive agents work directly for a single insurance provider and are limited to the products of that company. For example, if you call a captive agent who works for State Farm, he or she will market and try to sell you only State Farm products. How they get paid is set by their insurance company, and they are paid by that one company.

On the plus side, these agents are experts in what their insurance companies have to offer. But they cannot help a client who doesn’t need or qualify for their company’s products. And captive agents usually have quotas to hit to keep their job and earn bonuses. Although that’s not terribly different from independent agents, you might feel a bit more pressure to buy car insurance from a captive agent when all you really want is term life.

Independent agents

Independent agents, meanwhile, work for themselves and not any one insurance company. They sell policies from a variety of insurance companies, not just one, there is no increase in the premium to work with an independent insurance agent, and make most of their money through sales commissions and bonuses from the carriers.

Independent agents can save you some time by getting insurance quotes from a few different insurers, we have 11 insurance carriers that we can provide you with an insurance quote.

Which is best?

The type of insurance coverage you choose depends on your needs and your budget.

If you’re looking for multiple quotes from different companies, an independent insurance agent probably is the way to go. Vargas & Vargas Insurance can save you time and money, reach our agents at 617-298-0655.

Spring Cleaning & Maintenance Checklist to Prevent Home Insurance Claims

Posted on April 13, 2022April 12, 2022 by cvargas

Want to maximize your spring cleaning schedule to include maintenance items that can help prevent home insurance claims? Read on for some helpful tips!

Organize and declutter

Go through each room in your home and remove any objects that are not useful or needed anymore. Organize your storage space so that useful items are contained neatly. By preventing clutter from accumulating, you are reducing your fire hazards.

Store chemicals and other dangerous items out of the reach of children and pets

While you are going through your home, keep an eye out for any items that could be a potential source of danger for your children or pets. Look for medicine or cleaning chemicals that need to be stored in safe places. Consider adding child locks to certain cabinets to minimize the danger for children.

Create a Maintenance Schedule

Come up with a plan to help you prepare your home for general maintenance to help prevent serious issues down the road. Having a maintenance schedule helps you feel less overwhelmed by scheduling different services throughout the year, while also giving you peace of mind that your home will be up to date and as safe as possible.

Some must-include items for your maintenance schedule

Check your carbon monoxide and fire alarms. According to staysafe.org, carbon monoxide poisoning and fires are two of the leading safety hazards for homeowners. Make sure your alarms have fresh batteries and are in working order.
Change the air conditioning filter. Air conditioning filters are meant to sort out harmful particles such as dust and mold. By preventing the spread of mold you are keeping your house safer and your family healthier!
Inspect your roof. Check for missing shingles and clogged gutters. This helps prevent water damage to your home and its foundation.
Check Your Oil Tank. Unwanted oil tank leaks can cause a huge headache, especially because oil tank leaks are rarely covered with home insurance plans.

Stay one step ahead of your maintenance needs!

By keeping your house clean and up-to-date on maintenance, you minimize your risks of safety hazards and damages in the future. It’s worth it! Click here to read one of our earlier posts on Spring cleaning.

When you finish cleaning your house, give Vargas and Vargas Insurance Agency a call and we’ll help you clean up your insurance portfolio! One of our friendly and knowledgeable agents can review your home insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, and other insurance policies to make sure that you have all the coverage that you need, and at the right price. Don’t hesitate, call now – 617-298-0655.

Is Your Oil Tank Covered On Your Homeowners Insurance Policy?

Posted on April 5, 2022March 30, 2022 by cvargas

Living in Massachusetts has plenty of amazing upsides, but you’re definitely taking a risk if you don’t have your oil tank covered on your homeowner’s insurance policy!

According to state records, over 700,000 homes are warmed by heating oil in Massachusetts, which makes us the second-highest state for residential heating oil consumption.

How Many MA Homes Are Covered If Their Oil Tank Leaks

Despite the heavy use of oil for residential heating, most homes are not covered with their basic homeowners’ policies, sometimes resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs for homeowners. In one recent story, an oil tank leaked on the property of a MA resident battling COVID-19, costing over $500,000 in damages.

We don’t want this to happen to you, but statistically speaking, you’re likely at risk. Data shows that only about 5% of homes in MA are covered in the case of an oil tank leak.

Given that there are 120 spills a year, we want to make sure you’re prepared in case you find yourself in this unfortunate situation.

How To Get Your Oil Tank Covered

Even though you may not have an oil tank leak on your current homeowners policy, the good news is you can relatively inexpensively add this coverage into your policy.

First, you must comply with the Homeowner Oil Heating System Upgrade and Insurance Law by ensuring your oil tank and valves are safe.

Once you’ve made sure your leak-prevention systems are in place, we can help you add oil leak coverage to your policy that covers you and any neighboring properties contaminated by a leak from your tank.

How To Prevent Oil Leaks In Your Home

Even if you decide to make the wise choice to get oil tank coverage, you can do your best to avoid finding yourself in this situation with regular maintenance checks to your home heating system.

The DEP provides a very useful PDF of Tips for Maintaining Your Heating System that’s free of charge. We’d recommend you print it out and include it in your regular home maintenance tune-up list. Commit to running through these checks regularly so you can spot warning signs and fix small problems before they become a huge ordeal.

We’re Here To Help Find The Right Coverage For Your Situation

Are you missing oil tank coverage on your policy, or are you curious about what else isn’t covered in your homeowners insurance? We’re here to help.

Vargas & Vargas Insurance offers top-rated insurance services that will help keep you and your family protected from unexpected events on your rented property. All our clients enjoy customized insurance coverage to match their unique needs, and we offer affordable prices.Contact us today to get a customized plan, or to just get the peace of mind that you desire!

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Month: April 2022