4 Facts About Texas Auto Insurance You Should Know

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Texas is the second-largest state in the US in terms of population and size. Besides, the Lone Star State features popular cities like Houston and Dallas. Whereas Texas is a great state to live and drive, it’s home to some of the most dangerous highways.

For this reason, you shouldn’t drive in Texas without car insurance from Jason Ridley Agency in Colleyville, TX. While auto insurance is mandatory in Texas, this coverage cushions you financially when mishaps happen. Ready to get started with auto insurance? Here are four facts you should know about Texas auto insurance.

Proof of insurance

You must provide proof of insurance or financial responsibility when driving in Texas. As such, always carry your insurance card to show proof of insurance whenever pulled over.

Required auto insurance in Texas

Like most states, auto insurance is mandatory in Texas, and you are required to include the below coverages in your car insurance:

  • Property damage liability: This insurance policy protects you when accused of property damage by other people.
  • Bodily injury liability: This coverage protects you when third parties accuse you of causing physical harm to them following an auto accident.

While the state requires the above coverages, we usually advise motorists to increase limits and consider other optional car insurance coverages.

Penalties apply for non-compliance

If you drive without proper auto insurance, you pay fines ranging from $175 to $350.Additionally, you pay $250 per annum for three years if you are a first-time offender. Of course, the penalties are more severe for repeat offenders.

Texas is an at-fault insurance state

If the other party is responsible for the accident, you don’t have to file a claim with your insurance. Instead, you can follow up with the other party to pay for your damages. And if they have insufficient coverage, you can sue.

Find out more about auto insurance

Would you like to learn more about car insurance? Please get in touch with Jason Ridley Agency for more information.  You can also pop in our Colleyville, TX offices to speak to one of our agents.

What can happen to a business that does not have commercial insurance?

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Anyone that dreams of being their own boss should consider moving to Colleyville, TX and starting a business. There are several advantages that come with owning a company here, which include benefiting from the good local economy and support for small businesses. If you are going to start a company in this region, you need to have proper insurance. If you do not have a proper commercial insurance plan, you are at risk of a few negative outcomes. 

Loss of Major Assets

One risk that comes with not having a commercial insurance plan is the risk of losing a major asset. If you buy equipment, inventory, or other major assets for your company, there is always a risk that you could lose them to a fire, vandalism, or other situations that result in a loss. If you are not insured properly, you will not have the coverage in place to replace these items.

No Liability Mitigation

Any business owner in Texas will also need to make sure they get the right liability risk protection in place. As there is always a chance you could be named in a liability claim, having coverage and support to offset this risk is very important. If you are not insured with a commercial insurance plan, you are not going to have the necessary coverage to mitigate this risk. 

People who are in the Colleyville, TX area will always want to make sure that they have proper insurance protection for their business. To ensure you are getting the appropriate coverage, calling the Jason Ridley Agency is a good idea. The team with Jason Ridley Agency can help you identify all of your business insurance needs and then build a plan that helps to protect your company. 

What Does Your Home Insurance Policy Cover?

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Home insurance is a vital part of many people’s lives and can protect them from various issues that may otherwise occur. And at Jason Ridley Agency, we can provide Colleyville, TX, area residents with the high-quality coverage that they need to avoid serious issues, including multiple types of damage. 

What Your Policy Will Cover

A high-quality home insurance policy will cover problems in your home, including potential liability cases caused by negligence. However, they also cover theft, natural disasters, personal accidents, and additional living expenses for a variety of different problems, including:

  • Structural damage that may occur due to various types of covered natural disasters, like fire and hail
  • Personal belongings damage caused by appropriately covered natural disasters or other issues 
  • Potential lawsuit cases that may occur if people are injured in your home, including pet bites 
  • Additional living expenses to pay for temporary relocation while your home is being repaired 

You can also add many extra coverage options to your policy to keep yourself. For example, a flood policy is a wise investment for most people. Remember – up to 30 percent of all floods occur in areas without a high risk of flooding. Protecting yourself in this way will ensure that you are safe. 

Some homeowners may even want to consider high-quality umbrella policies to minimize the potential dangers caused by expensive liability cases. Often, this option is best if you run a business in your home and want to avoid running into serious financial complications due to injuries.

Preventing Serious Issues 

As you can see, high-quality home insurance can protect you from a variety of issues that would otherwise affect your home. So, if you’re interested in a policy and want a high-quality option, please contact us at Jason Ridley Agency, serving the Colleyville, TX area, right away to learn more.

Benefits of Life Insurance

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What are the benefits of life insurance? There are many, but most of all, it is there to benefit your loved ones and beneficiaries after you are gone. The Jason Ridley Agency serving the city of Colleyville, TX would like to help you plan for the long term.

Before we talk about some of the benefits, let’s first mention the two main types of life insurance policies. These are term life insurance policies that have a specified time limit set either in years or when the policyholder reaches a certain age at which point it expires or is renewed. The second is a permanent life insurance policy. This type of policy has several variations, but it has death benefits plus savings.

Each has its benefits. A term life insurance policy is usually cheaper in the beginning and may offer the option to convert to a permanent life insurance policy. This is beneficial if you are on a tighter budget when you start with your policy. It does get more expensive as you get older or renew, but you do not need to go for another medical exam.

Permanent life insurance has the benefit of accumulating savings throughout the lifespan of the policy and has a guaranteed payout. It also allows loans against the cash value of the policy and the cash value is tax-deferred. This type of life insurance is more expensive in the beginning but flattens out eventually.

The best benefit of life insurance is knowing that, if you have structured your policy carefully and correctly, your beneficiaries will be cared for after your death. Speak to the Jason Ridley Agency today and secure your family’s future. Serving the city of Colleyville, TX.

Do I Need Comprehensive Auto Insurance?

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How to Know When Comprehensive Car Insurance Makes Financial Sense

At Jason Ridley Insurance Agency, we love helping clients in Colleyville, TX make smart financial decisions for their families. Customers often ask us about whether or not comprehensive automobile insurance makes sense for their situation. When is it safe, or even wise, to drop comprehensive auto insurance and save money on your yearly premiums? When do you really need it? Here are a few guidelines to help you determine whether or not you need to carry comprehensive insurance. 

When You Should Carry Comprehensive Insurance

Generally speaking, there are three situations that make carrying comprehensive auto insurance a good financial decision: 

When You are Leasing or Financing Your Vehicle. 

In this case, it’s not only wise to carry comprehensive insurance but also required! Lenders will typically require borrowers to have comprehensive insurance, because this protects their interest in the car in case it’s severely damaged in an accident or stolen. If you skimp on comprehensive insurance and your car is damaged, you could find yourself owing more than your car is worth and unable to buy a new vehicle until you get your loan paid down.

When Your Family Relies on One Car.

Between working from home and car services like Uber and Lyft, more families than ever are choosing to be one-car families. This can be a great decision for your wallet, but if you are depending on one car, you should definitely protect that car to the fullest. 

When You Don’t Have at Least a Down Payment Saved for Your Next Car.

If you’ve paid off your car and you’re looking to purchase a new one in the next year or two, it can be tempting to drop comprehensive insurance to save some money. However, this can lead to disaster! Take it from our clients who dropped comprehensive insurance 6 months before they planned to buy a new car. During a windstorm, a neighbor’s tree fell on their car just a few weeks before they were going to trade it in for a new car. They lost all their trade-in value and had to finance the full cost of their next car—$8,000 lost trying to save 6 months of insurance premiums. 

Of course, residents of Colleyville, TX are always required to carry liability insurance, and any decision to drop comprehensive coverage also depends on your personal financial situation and your ability to absorb a loss. If you’re wondering what coverages make the most sense for your specific situation, talk to your insurance specialist at the Jason Ridley Agency.

Types of Commercial Insurance

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Navigating the world of commercial insurance can be confusing for some business owners, especially with the different options in the market. Entrepreneurs must make the right decision in choosing the right policy if they are to protect their investment sufficiently. Below, Jason Ridley Agency takes Colleyville, TX business owners through the different types of commercial insurance.

General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance helps protect a business from common perils like a customer getting injured on your business premises or their property getting damaged. This type of commercial insurance also helps a business cover legal fees if sued for libel or slander.

Workers Compensation Insurance

Although not mandatory in Texas, it is still advisable that a business owner gets this type of policy to protect themselves and the company’s assets. It helps cover medical expenses arising from an employee getting injured or sick at the workplace. Also, if an employee decides to sue you, it can help cover the legal fees.

Commercial Auto Insurance

This type of insurance helps to protect the company’s vehicles, providing cover for property damage when the car is involved in an accident. The cost of replacing or repairing the car is covered here, allowing your company to keep running with few interruptions.

Cyber Insurance

If your company faces cyber attacks like being hacked or a data breach involving confidential customer information like account numbers, this type of insurance can provide compensation for monitoring costs, customer notification costs, and legal fees.

Professional Liability

This type of commercial insurance is common with businesses providing services such as financial or legal consultation. If your business is sued due to a mistake you made that costs a client a significant loss, professional liability can help cover the legal fees.

If you own a business in Colleyville, TX, and you want to protect yourself and your assets from financial loss in case of anything, you should get commercial insurance. You can reach out to Jason Ridley Agency, where we will help you pick the right type of commercial insurance that suits your business needs.

Do You Have Enough Life Insurance?

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There are many benefits you accrue when you purchase life insurance from the Jason Ridley Agency of Colleyville, TX. The most obvious one is cushioning your dependents financially even when you pass on. While life insurance offers numerous benefits, do you know how much you need? How do you ensure that you have adequate life insurance to cover your financial interests? If you are about to invest in life insurance, the first step is to figure out how much you need.

Understand your financial landscape

How does your financial picture look like? The first thing to see how much life insurance you need is to understand the big picture of your financial landscape. This way, you can establish how life insurance fits in the plan. Unsure of where to start? A knowledgeable insurance agent can help you spot gaps and strengths of your financial plan and help you figure out how life insurance can plug in your plan. 

Calculating how much life insurance you need

Establishing the amount of life insurance you need doesn’t require you to be a mathematics guru. A few simple formulas can help you achieve your goal. These include:

10 times income rule

While it’s not the best rule, it can give you a rough idea of how much life insurance you need. On the flip side, this rule doesn’t consider your family needs, current savings, and the number of life insurance policies you have. 

The DIME formula

This method enables you to take a deeper dive into your finances. This rule postulates that you should consider your debts, income, mortgage, and education when determining your life insurance needs. 

In addition, if you would want to know how much life insurance you need, you can use life insurance calculators. Better yet, you can sit down with an agent like Jason Ridley Agency to help you determine the life insurance needs. If you need help, please contact us today or visit our Colleyville, TX offices to have a sit-down with one of our agents.

Which auto insurance coverages are most important to have?

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When you step out to shop for auto insurance in Colleyville, TX, one thing is always in your mind—coverages. While the Texas government requires you to have the minimum property damage and bodily injury liability, there are so many other coverages you can buy to stay protected. It’s also important to know that what the law requires is too little and may not be enough to cover for an accident where multiple vehicles are involved. Here are some of the critical coverages to have.

Liability

Liability coverage is the most important coverage you will ever need. Whether at school, work, business, home, or on the roads, you need adequate liability coverage to pay for damage or injuries you cause or defense fees when you are sued.

Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage

Unfortunately, we still have drivers who drive without insurance. Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage helps reimburse you in case an uninsured driver hits you. At Jason Ridley Agency, we recommend never accepting money from uninsured drivers. Wait patiently for the police to arrive.

Comprehensive coverage

Comprehensive insurance covers damage or loss if your car is stolen, vandalized, or burned. If a covered peril like hail damages the car, comprehensive coverage can help repair or replace the vehicle.

Collision coverage

Collision is a critical coverage that repairs or replaces your car if you collide with another vehicle or object. For instance, the coverage can repair the damage if you hit a stone, fence, pole, animal, or tree branch when driving.

Personal injury protection (PIP)

Your liability coverage will pay other people’s medical bills but does not pay your bills. You need to buy personal injury protection or medical payments to help pay your bills if you are injured in an accident.

Drive defensively and get to your destination safely, and above all, know the coverages you need. For more information about auto insurance coverages in Colleyville, TX, feel free to talk to any Jason Ridley Agency insurance advisor, and you will get all the help you need.

Why Workers Compensation Is An Essential Part Of Commercial Insurance

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Jason Ridley Agency serves the Colleyville, TX community, as well as the surrounding areas. We strive to ensure that our clients have the coverage they need to protect their assets. We look forward to hopefully establishing a long-lasting partnership with you. We are proud to serve the community as an independent insurance agency.

Why Workers Compensation Is Essential

Operating a business is a significant investment. You have to put in a lot of work to make sure that your business is successful. Commercial insurance is an asset. The policy can help alleviate some stress associated with operating a business daily. Commercial insurance covers damage to your property and inventory. You are also covered if your inventory is stolen or damaged. Liability coverage protects you if you are involved in a dispute due to someone getting injured on your property. One of the most important parts of commercial insurance is workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation helps you protect your business while simultaneously taking care of your employees.

Important Benefits

Your employees are a valuable part of your Colleyville, TX business. By adding workers’ compensation to your policy, you are showing that you value your employee’s contributions to the business’s success. If one of your employees gets injured, workers’ compensation will cover their treatment and rehabilitation. The policy also covers your employees if they become disabled. In the unfortunate event that your employee suffers a serious injury and passes away, workers’ compensation can assist with the arrangements. Having a strong worker’s compensation policy can also give your business a competitive advantage when retaining and attracting talent.

Jason Ridley Agency Can Help You Take Care of Your Business

Visit our website to learn more information on commercial insurance.

What Possessions Will Home Insurance Not Cover?

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If you’re buying home insurance in Colleyville, TX, and wondering if any of your possessions aren’t covered, the fact is that just about anything you can own can be protected under an insurance policy.

The only real exceptions are expensive items that you don’t have listed on your inventory, of course, anything illegal, and perishables like groceries. And certain perishables can be protected under certain restaurant insurance policies but won’t be on a home insurance policy.

This being said, you’re typically going to be accepting a flat payment from your home insurance provider rather than going down an itemized list of every single item that was lost in a fire or burglary and collecting the appropriate value to the penny. So if you want to spend your insurance payment replacing groceries you lost in the incident, nothing’s stopping you. There’s just no reason to include every potato and soup can on your inventory or keep a photographic record of it.

The best way to ensure that your belongings are covered is to keep an updated inventory and to let your insurer know about any big purchases like new appliances, jewelry, and things of that nature. Record a video tour of your home once or twice a year so that you can get photographic evidence of all the little bits and pieces you might not have thought to put on a list.

If you have any questions or you’re looking to buy home insurance for your Colleyville, TX home, get in touch with the Jason Ridley Agency. The Jason Ridley Agency can get you the protection you need with a good deal on a great policy.