Cheri Martinen

Cheri Martinen Helping Business Owners Protect What Matters | Licensed Insurance Pro | DM “coverage” for a free resource

Four generations of my family have sold insurance.I grew up in it. I bought the agency. I ran it, I grew it, and eventua...
09/09/2026

Four generations of my family have sold insurance.

I grew up in it. I bought the agency. I ran it, I grew it, and eventually I sold it to a company I still work for, out of the same office in La Pine, Oregon.

In all that time, one thing has never changed. People think a policy is a thing you buy once. It is not. It is a description of your life on a specific day, and the day it was written is already behind you.

Nobody explains that part. So I wrote it down.

COVERED comes out September 15.

09/08/2026

You're based in Oregon.

But you fought fires in Washington, Idaho, California, and New Mexico last season.

Your policy might not know that.

Comment COVERAGE and let's make sure your coverage goes where you go.

09/07/2026

You bought a new piece of equipment, loaded it on the trailer, and headed to the job.

Something happens on the highway and now you are staring at the ditch wondering if you are covered.

DM me "coverage" and I will make sure every piece of equipment you own is actually on your policy.

Your renewal is closer than you think, and the version of your business the underwriter is looking at is about eight mon...
09/04/2026

Your renewal is closer than you think, and the version of your business the underwriter is looking at is about eight months out of date.

Before that quote lands, walk your yard. Literally walk it.

Count the vehicles. All of them, including the one you bought in June that is somehow still titled to your cousin. Then look at what is bolted onto them now that was not there in March. Aftermarket boxes, water tanks, tool storage, upgraded pumps. If your agent has a standard F-350 on file and you have built an engine, those upgrades are not covered.

Pull your payroll and compare what your crew actually did this season against what their class codes say they did.

Then check your certificates. The ones you sent out and the ones you received.

That is an hour. It is the difference between a renewal and a surprise.

Comment COVERAGE and I will walk it with you.

Somebody asked me last week why a fourth generation insurance person would bother writing a book.This is the shortest an...
09/03/2026

Somebody asked me last week why a fourth generation insurance person would bother writing a book.

This is the shortest answer I have.

COVERED comes out September 15.

Comment COVERED and I will send you the details.

COVERED is not really a book about insurance. It is a book about the twenty minutes nobody ever spends with you.Here is ...
09/02/2026

COVERED is not really a book about insurance. It is a book about the twenty minutes nobody ever spends with you.

Here is what is actually in it. How to read a declarations page without wanting to lie down. What an exclusion is really doing, and why the ones that matter are never the ones in bold. The questions to ask before you sign a contract requiring coverage you might not have. What actually happens after you file a claim, start to finish, so the process stops being a black box.

It is written for the person who owns the business, not for somebody studying for a licensing exam. Plain words, real examples, about 50 pages, because you are busy.

Fourth generation in this business. This is the conversation I have had ten thousand times across a desk.

It comes out September 15. Comment COVERED and I will send you the link the day it goes live.

09/01/2026

Your auto premium went up again this year, and so did your fuel bill.

The piece of that you can actually control is smaller than you want it to be, but it is not nothing.

Comment COVERAGE and let's find it.

You can usually tell within about four seconds.I walk into a room full of fire contractors and there is a pause. Not hos...
08/31/2026

You can usually tell within about four seconds.

I walk into a room full of fire contractors and there is a pause. Not hostile. Just recalibrating. Fourth generation in this business and I still get handed somebody's coffee order once in a while.

Then we start talking about lay-up coverage on seasonal equipment, or why their workers comp audit came back eleven thousand dollars over what they budgeted, and the room resets. Turns out competence translates fine.

I stopped finding it annoying a long time ago. It is useful information. It tells me the bar is low, and it tells me how many contractors have never had anybody sit down and actually explain their own policy to them.

That is most of why I wrote COVERED. Not for the rooms I am already in. For everyone who never gets in one.

Comment COVERED and I will tell you what is in it.

Fire season does not end. It changes shape.The calls slow down in October and the work does not. Fuel mitigation crews a...
08/28/2026

Fire season does not end. It changes shape.

The calls slow down in October and the work does not. Fuel mitigation crews are out all winter, thinning, piling, burning slash on the days the weather cooperates. Same trucks. Same saws. Completely different job.

Your policy does not know that. It was written in March for a crew running engines and holding line. Now that crew is running chippers in the snow, and the class codes that made sense in July do not describe what anybody is actually doing in January.

This is where the audit bill comes from. Not fraud. Just a business that changed seasons and a policy that did not.

You do not need to rewrite everything. You need one conversation before the work shifts instead of after.

Comment COVERAGE and let's look at what winter actually does to your books.

There is a version of this conversation where your broker says "let me look into that" and then never calls back.Aviatio...
08/27/2026

There is a version of this conversation where your broker says "let me look into that" and then never calls back.

Aviation is its own world. Hull, liability, crew, and a drone program nobody wrote into the policy.

Comment COVERAGE and let's see what yours actually says.

Address

51473 Highway 97
La Pine, OR
97739

Telephone

+15418764007

Website

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