Insurance Insights: The Cleary Insurance Blog
The Cleary Insurance blog covers insurance, risk management, and financial planning for New England businesses and individuals. Our team of licensed advisors and specialists publishes regular articles on commercial and personal coverage, employee benefits, life and financial planning, and insurance compliance. Browse recent articles below, or use the category filters to find topics relevant to your business or personal situation.
Are You Ready for the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave?
Be Prepared for the January 1, 2021 Law
- Eligible employees: Consistent with the financial eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance.
- Benefit percentage: Dependent on if employee earns more or less than 50% of the Massachusetts average weekly wage.
- Elimination period: Benefit payments begin on the 8th day.
- Maximum benefit payment period (within a 52 consecutive week period): 12 weeks family leave. 26 weeks family leave to care for a covered service member. 20 weeks medical leave. 26 weeks in aggregate for family and medical leave. Consecutive leave isn’t required. Intermittent leave is acceptable (e.g. each Tuesday for physical therapy appointment).
- Maximum benefit: $850/week for the first year. 64% of the state average weekly wage annually thereafter. In many cases it’s important to maintain your current short term disability program so higher wage earners who gross more than $70,000 annually will not be impacted and employees will have the ability to receive more than 26 weeks’ worth of benefits. Carriers will be able to adjust your rates to accommodate for the state being primary payer.
- Employer has less than 25 employees – Employees pay premiums.
- Employer has 25+ employees – Employees and employers share the premium. Contribution rates are as follows:
- Medical leave – 60% employer, 40% employee
- Family leave – 0% employer, 100% employee
Employees aren’t charged more than the state’s rate. Employers may choose to pay more to give their employees coverage beyond the minimum requirements of the state plan.
Olivia is expecting her second child soon. While her oldest son is in pre-school, she works for a large retail chain in Massachusetts and is paid $14.00/hour. Her schedule is consistent at 30 hours/week — making her weekly pay $420. Olivia gives birth to her baby and doesn’t experience any complications from the birth. Because of the Massachusetts paid family and medical leave, she is guaranteed 12 weeks of paid family leave. Because Olivia makes less than 50% of the state average weekly wage, she receives 80% of her average weekly wage, which is $336/week for a total of 12 weeks.
https://www.mass.gov/guides/prepare-for-paid-family-and-medical-leave
Auto Post Accident To Do Suggestions
Presented by Christopher F. Hawthorne, CPCU, CIC
It is frustrating to see a client’s auto carrier pay a claim to a third party based on false information.
An example being a client who had a car, with four people in it, pull in front of him and slam on their brakes. He stopped his vehicle but he did touch the other car. There was no visible damage to either car and no one was injured. He exchanged information but did not call the police. He then filed the report of the accident in case a claim was made against him.
Soon after we received notice that five people were claiming to be injured and that the other car was totaled. The carrier paid $190,000 and stated without evidence and due to the fact it was a rear-end, they had to make the payment. We see variations on this all too often.
To help avoid this situation, doing the following will put your insurance carrier in a better position to defend you and not pay false or inflated claims.
Once you have made sure you are safe, we suggest you:
- Do not admit fault, apologize or offer unsolicited information such as you were rushing or that you are very busy.
- Call the police with goal of having an official report filed to support your information. Request officer’s name and badge number.
- Obtain name and contact information of driver and the auto’s owner.
- Obtain the name of the other autos insurance carrier and policy number if possible.
- Get the name of all passengers in the other auto and note where they were sitting in the car.
- Obtain the names of any witnesses and their contact information.
- Ask police to ask each person if they are injured or if anything was damaged (EX; Musical Instruments).
- Get the year, make, model and license plate number of the other auto/s.
- Take pictures of your auto, the other auto, as well as, any surrounding aspects that might be useful such as a traffic sign that is shrouded by trees.
- If the weather is a factor, try to capture with picture and print out the weather report for that day.
- Record name and contact information of anyone in your auto.
- Complete an accident report and submit to Cleary Insurance as soon as possible.
If police are not called, do not leave until the other party had driven away. We have seen situations where both parties agree that the police are not needed, one party departs and the other party then calls the police.
If police are called, do not leave the scene of the accident until the police arrive. If you can no longer wait, do not leave without calling the police and getting permission. If you leave and the other party stays, you could be charged with leaving the scene of an accident.
If you would like an accident form to keep in your auto, please contact your Cleary representative.
By obtaining and recording the above information, you can put your insurance carrier is a stronger position to defend you and reduce or eliminate claim payments. As always, it takes a team effort!
Should Parents “Go for Broke” on Youth Sports?
Surveys suggest that many parents are willing to make big financial sacrifices to cover these costs, possibly even taking on credit-card debt or delaying retirement. Unfortunately, some parents may have unrealistic expectations, such as those who are confident their children will become professional athletes, despite the very long odds against it. That doesn’t mean parents should give up hope on their kids, instead of spending money themselves, they can discuss the team fundraiser ideas with the school administration. Schools can contact the organizations that could help in acquiring team sponsorships and funds. Those funds can help yours and other children in sports without parents having to take up financial responsibility for it.
Family Relations, April 2016