Richard Koman Farmers Agent

10/25/2016

http://www.countryliving.com/real-estate/a40069/tiny-house-village-trend/

A tribe of teeny houses may be headed to your neighborhood.

10/12/2016

Only 7 homes in this town had flood insurance

Donnie Leonard tied the last ring of rope around his fire chief’s chest, cinched it with a tug and watched the older man wade into the dark, rushing water.

10/06/2016

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law on Tuesday that would make granny units easier and less expensive to build throughout the state.

09/10/2016

Charitable Giving Through Life Insurance

The philosopher Peter Singer argues that there is a moral obligation to give away (to nonprofits that save lives) all of your income in excess of basic living standard. Oxford philosopher William MacAskill commits to giving away of his income in excess of 20,000 pounds. But isn't there a more cost-effective way to do good without going broke?

Consider life insurance. In the simplest case, you have been paying for a term policy for several years but the need for the policy has come to an end. (Your child is now working at a good-paying job and doesn't need your death benefit, for example.) Rather than just dropping the policy and simply wasting all those premiums, you could make the life-saving nonprofit the beneficiary (or even contingent beneficiary.)

Or -- take a new term policy out on your young (or young adult) child's life and make a nonprofit the beneficiary. For the nominal cost of a long-term policy on a young life, you can be assured of providing say $500,000 or $1 million for a a nonprofit that will save lives and improve the quality of living for thousands of people around the globe (or whatever cause is).

Of course that might not pay off for 50 or 60 years, so you want a charity that will be around that long.

There is much more to consider here, and tax professionals should be consulted. I will add some more detailed posts on this over the next few weeks. Of course first and foremost you must protect your family in the case of death or disability, so by all means contact me to discuss your life insurance and other needs.

If you're up for a heady conversation, including moral thought experiments and the like, check out this podcast by Sam Harris:

https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/being-good-and-doing-good

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Oxford philosopher William MacAskill about effective altruism, moral illusions, existential risk, and other topics.

09/02/2016

When there are taco trucks on every corner, Farmers will be there to provide food truck insurance :-) Check back after Trump wins ;-) Well, check back after the inauguration in any case ...

A Trump surrogate warned of "taco trucks on every corner" as immigration remains unchecked. But very few people on Twitter think that's a bad thing.

09/01/2016

Time to buy a new electric or hybrid car! Did you know many companies offer discounts for enviro-friendly vehicles? Let me know if you need insurance on your new e-car! ;-)

SACRAMENTO — The state will invest millions of dollars into a popular program that gives drivers rebates for buying clean energy cars in California under a $900 million deal approved by Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature on Wednesday. The last minute deal to spend previously unallocated cap-...

08/31/2016

Don't understand this by a long shot, but it's worth paying attention to your Dropbox account, especially if you store confidential information. Speaking of which, do you ID theft coverage on your home policy? It's included in Farmers coverage.

https://www.troyhunt.com/the-dropbox-hack-is-real/

Earlier today, Motherboard reported on what had been rumoured for some time, namely that Dropbox had been hacked. Not just a little bit hacked and not in that "someone has cobbled together a list of credentials that work on Dropbox" hacked either, but proper hacked to the tune of 68

08/27/2016

Business owner’s policy (BOP): A business owner policy packages all required coverage a business owner would need. Often, BOP’s will include business interruption insurance, property insurance, vehicle coverage, liability insurance, and crime insurance . Based on your company’s specific needs, you can alter what is included in a BOP. Typically, a business owner will save money by choosing a BOP because the bundle of services often costs less than the total cost of all the individual coverages.

1. General Liability Insurance: Every business, even if home-based, needs to have liability insurance. The policy provides both defense and damages if you, your employees or your products or services cause or are alleged to have caused Bodily Injury or Property Damage to a third party. 2. Property…

08/25/2016

A sober reminder that we live in earthquake country. Your regular homeowners policy does not cover earthquake damage.

08/25/2016

Wednesday night farmers market at the Petaluma Theatre District...

08/24/2016

Some modest protection for small business owners who suffer a judgment. via Cathy Moran

http://www.bankruptcysoapbox.com/small-businesses-p/

Small businesses could protect the means of staying in business if SB 308 passes the California Assembly. It adds a modest exemption for cash or inventory.

08/23/2016

(H/T: Gary Weiner) Some thoughts for writers, publishers and others who traffic in controversy. Gawker Media is out of business. This article, Gawker's last, which explains the whole sordid mess (if you don't contains this crucial paragraph from my perspective:

Lawsuits and settlements happen to everyone, and everyone carries insurance to handle them.

Some view Gawker as hopelessly irresponsible. But as Gawker sees it, the very definition of the First Amendment is the right to have bad judgment. Peter Thiel took that right away by underwriting Hulk Hogan's sextape lawsuit, resulting in a $140 million judgment that no insurance covered.

My point is just: You may not ever be in Gawker's shoes as a writer or publisher but if you got into even a 100th of their trouble, your life could be a disaster. But there is an answer. Umbrella insurance. More to come.

http://gawker.com/gawker-was-murdered-by-gaslight-1785456581

A lie with a billion dollars behind it is stronger than the truth. Peter Thiel has shut down Gawker.com.