What Can I Do to Avoid Identity Theft

Minimize your risk of identity theft by:

• Ordering a free credit report every year at www.annualcreditreport.com, reviewing it carefully and notifying the credit bureau of any errors you find
• Buying, and using, a shredder for charge receipts, insurance forms, checks, bank statements and expired charge cards, etc.
• Putting passwords on your credit card, bank and phone accounts
• Using hard-to-guess passwords.  Make sure your passwords include at least 8 characters and mix it up with upper and lower case letters, numbers and special symbols
• Avoiding giving any personal information, including bank account info over the phone, through mail or the internet unless you initiate the contact
• Calling back customer service to confirm the legitimacy of any incoming calls
• Bringing outgoing mail to the post office rather than placing it in your home mailbox for pick-up
• Asking the post office to hold your mail while on vacation.

Life Insurance Reality Check

Do you have enough?  Most Americans don't.  More than a third don't have any life insurance at all, and those who do don't have enough.  Most experts believe that coverage equal to 10 times one's annual income is a reasonable rule of thumb.

There are many types of life insurance, but for all of them, the bottom line is the same:  they pay cash to your family after you die, allowing loved ones to remain financially secure.  Life insurance payments can be used to cover daily living expenses, mortgage payments, outstanding loans, college tuition and other essential expenses.

There are plenty of resources you can turn to for life insurance answers.  For a general sense of your life insurance needs, you can go to a Needs Calculator like the one at www.lifehappens.org/lifecalculator.  Call your insurance agent for professional advice.

Reminder: Oil heating leak coverage available in Massachusetts

Effective September 30, 2011, a law was enacted that required homeowners to bring their heating oil systems into compliance with leak prevention requirements.  As a part of this law, insurance companies providing Homeowners Insurance in the state of Massachusetts must offer coverage for leaks from heating systems that use oil. 

All companies handle this differently.  Some include it automatically in the homeowners premium.  Others charge between $50 and $90 for various levels of insurance. 

To add the coverage, the customer must provide a copy of the permit provided by the fire department or by a licensed oil burner technician that certifies that the oil heating system complies with the regulations.  The insurance company may also require that you sign a supplemental application.  Finally, the oil leak coverage can only be added at policy renewal.  Call us at 508-347-9343 if you would like more information about this important issue.