Pinoy General Insurance Services

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Pinoy General Insurance Services We are an independent insurance agency serving people's insurance needs since 1993. We serve all types of insurance and represent plenty of companies.

Call us today to let us help you with your needs!

10/16/2026

Two numbers every California homeowner should know before hiring help.

$1,000. That's the handyman exemption threshold — the job size below which contractor licensing law doesn't apply. It was $500 for decades and changed to $1,000 on January 1, 2025 under AB 2622. If you last checked this in 2023, your number is stale.

But the threshold is only one of six conditions, and all of them must be true. Under $1,000 total including materials. Genuinely minor. No building permit required. The unlicensed person cannot employ anybody else on the job. Not a slice of a bigger project. Not holding themselves out as licensed.

52 hours. Under Labor Code 3352, a residential worker is excluded from workers' comp if, in the 90 calendar days before the injury, the work was under 52 hours or paid $100 or less. Meaning: you become a workers'-comp-liable employer when both are true — 52+ hours and more than $100.

And note what the exclusion does. It keeps the injury out of the workers' comp system. It doesn't make you not the employer. It moves the fight into ordinary liability, where there's no benefit schedule and no cap.

Ask for the license. Ask for the workers' comp certificate — and have the insurer send it, not the contractor.

10/15/2026

If anyone in your house drives for Uber or Lyft, here's a gap worth knowing about. The moment the driver app turns on, many personal auto policies start stepping back from coverage, even before a passenger gets in the car. The rideshare company's own coverage during that window is limited.

Some carriers offer a rideshare endorsement that may close that gap. Delivery driving is often treated differently, so ask about it separately. Quick to check, worth knowing before an accident forces the question.

👉 pinoygeneralinsurance.com
📞 (562) 402-1737
📍 Serving Cerritos, LA County & Orange County

10/12/2026

Pinoy General Insurance Services has been part of this community since 1993 — my father started the agency, and we've called Cerritos home since 1999. We're a founding member of the Artesia Chamber of Commerce, and honestly, that's the part of this job we care about most: a lot of our clients aren't just policyholders, they're people we've known for years, sometimes across two generations of the same family.

If you've been meaning to get a second opinion on your coverage but didn't want to deal with a call center, come talk to people who already know the neighborhood.

👉 pinoygeneralinsurance.com
📞 (562) 402-1737
📍 17304 Norwalk Blvd, Cerritos, CA

10/09/2026

Rainy season is close, and here's something that surprises almost everyone we tell: no standard homeowners policy in California covers flood. Not a basic one, not a premium one, and not the FAIR Plan either.

Flood coverage only exists as its own separate policy. If your street has ever pooled water during a heavy storm, or you're near a wash or drainage channel, it's worth a quick look at whether a flood policy makes sense for your home — it's usually a lot more affordable than people expect.

👉 Ask us about it: pinoygeneralinsurance.com
📞 (562) 402-1737
📍 Serving Cerritos, LA County & Orange County

10/06/2026

Quick question if you're on the California FAIR Plan: what happens if someone gets hurt on your property?

A lot of Cerritos homeowners moved to the FAIR Plan over the past year or two after a non-renewal notice — not because of a claim, just because of where the house sits. The FAIR Plan covers fire. It was never designed to cover liability, which means if a visitor slips, falls, or gets hurt on your property, there's no coverage there to help with their medical bills or a potential claim against you.

The fix is usually a small add-on policy, not a complicated one. We just think it's worth knowing about before you need it.

👉 Free 15-minute review: pinoygeneralinsurance.com
📞 (562) 402-1737
📍 Serving Cerritos, LA County & Orange County

09/24/2026

California makes dog owners strictly liable for bites. Your policy might have an opinion about your dog's breed. Those two facts together are worth reading about before you need to.

Civil Code 3342 is unusually clear. If your dog bites someone who was lawfully on your property or in a public place, you're liable. Nobody has to prove you were careless. It doesn't matter that the dog never bit anyone before.

Now the insurance side. Liability coverage on a homeowners or renters policy generally does respond to a dog bite — including one that happens away from home — and it covers your legal defense. That's the default, and it's real protection.

But some carriers attach exceptions:

A breed exclusion, naming specific breeds that get no liability coverage at all.
An exclusion for any dog with a prior bite, which turns one incident into a permanent gap.
An animal liability sublimit well below your actual liability limit.
A question at application that they'll rely on if a claim shows up.

Strict liability + an excluded breed + a serious injury isn't an insurance event. It's a personal financial event.

Three questions worth asking us: Is my dog's breed listed anywhere in my policy? Is there an animal liability sublimit? Is my liability limit high enough, or should there be an umbrella above it?

We'll read your form and tell you straight. (562) 402-1737

Pinoy General Insurance Services | 17304 Norwalk Blvd, Cerritos

09/22/2026

Go stand in your backyard for a minute. Everything you're looking at shares one limit — and it's smaller than you think.

Homeowners policies split your property into parts. Coverage A is the house. Coverage B is "other structures" — everything on the lot that isn't attached to it. Most policies set Coverage B automatically at 10% of the dwelling limit.

House insured for $650,000? That's $65,000 for every detached structure you own. Combined.

Now count what's actually back there in a typical Cerritos or Norwalk yard:

Block wall and wood fencing on three sides. A detached garage. A covered patio. A shed. Pool equipment and the pool fence. Landscape lighting. Irrigation. Maybe a casita or a converted garage, if the family built one.

A fire coming through the back of the property doesn't stop politely at the fence line. Replacing fencing alone across a standard lot at today's labor and materials prices is a serious number before you touch anything else.

Two things to ask for at renewal:

Raise the Coverage B percentage. Most carriers allow it — often to 20% or more — for a modest premium change.
Confirm how an ADU is scheduled. A permitted accessory dwelling unit usually needs to be listed specifically, not absorbed into "other structures."

Walk the yard this week and add it up. Then call us with the number. (562) 402-1737

Pinoy General Insurance Services | 17304 Norwalk Blvd, Cerritos

09/19/2026

The permit was basically free. The license is not. And most parents find that out in the wrong order.

Your teenager got a learner's permit and the premium barely moved. That's normal — most carriers cover a permitted driver under the household policy without rating them separately, because a licensed adult has to be in the car.

Then the license arrives. Now they're a rated driver, and the number changes in a way nobody was braced for.

Three things to do BEFORE that day:

Call us before the license, not after. An unlisted licensed driver in the household is exactly the kind of thing that surfaces during a claim, and that conversation goes badly. Adding them ahead of time is a rating change. Discovering them afterward is a coverage fight.

Ask about good student discounts, driver training credits, and telematics programs. On a teen-rated policy these aren't rounding errors — they're real money.

Look at your liability limits in the same conversation. Adding an inexperienced driver while carrying California's 30/60/15 minimums is the least protected your family will ever be. This is the moment an umbrella policy stops being something you'll get around to.

Got a student driving on a permit right now? Ten-minute call. (562) 402-1737

Pinoy General Insurance Services | 17304 Norwalk Blvd, Cerritos

09/18/2026

He fell off the second step of a ladder. Not the roof — the second step, in a driveway in Artesia, on a Thursday.

Broken wrist, surgery, plate and six screws, ten weeks before he could grip anything heavier than a coffee cup. Fifty-one years old, nineteen years running his own contracting business, never missed more than four days of work in his life.

On the drive home his wife asked what State Disability would pay.

Nothing. State Disability pays him nothing.

If you're 1099, a sole proprietor, an independent stylist, a rideshare driver, a realtor, or an owner who takes draws instead of wages — you are not in that system. No contribution is being withheld, and no benefit is accruing.

Your cousin the nurse is covered automatically. You are not covered at all. Most self-employed people learn the difference the week they need it.

(562) 402-1737 if you'd rather learn it now.

09/17/2026

If you have one employee in California, you are required to carry workers' compensation. One. Not five, not ten.

A lot of small business owners in our community are running on that assumption that it kicks in at some larger number. It doesn't. California Labor Code 3700 says one or more employees.

Here's what happens if you're caught without it:

Operating uninsured is a misdemeanor — a fine of at least $10,000, up to a year in county jail, or both (Labor Code 3700.5).
The state can assess civil penalties up to $100,000.
The Department of Industrial Relations can issue a stop-work order that shuts your business down until you're covered and can prove it.
Starting January 1, 2026, uninsured contractors face minimum penalties of $10,000 for sole owners and $20,000 for everyone else.

And then the part that actually ends businesses: if an employee is hurt and you have no policy, YOU pay the medical treatment, the disability benefits, and the death benefits. Personally. No cap. No insurance company standing between you and that claim.

Employers who get caught and then buy coverage pay a 10% surcharge on premium for three years.

Family business with one or two people on payroll? About to make your first hire? Make this call before the hire, not after. We write this coverage. (562) 402-1737

Pinoy General Insurance Services | 17304 Norwalk Blvd, Cerritos

Address

17304 Norwalk Boulevard
Cerritos, CA
90703

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 12pm

Telephone

+15624021737

Website

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