Ask any mom or dad, and the number one priority in life is to support your family and to be there for your children.  Protecting the ones that we love is not anything that has to be learned, we know it from the depths of our being. Most moms and dads would voluntarily lay down their own life to save the life of their child. But what if you can’t…what if you are not around to protect and provide for your children?

Our own demise is not something that most people want to think about. In fact, our brain tricks us into thinking that it will never happen. “I am too strong to die” is a thought that we may have had when we were younger. It will never happen to me. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. We all have an appointed day.

What would your family do if you or your spouse died prematurely? If you suddenly left the scene what would you leave behind for someone else to deal with? Could your family survive without your income? How would they pay your rent or your mortgage, your car payments, college tuition, or just the simple day to day living expenses?

Did you know that 1 out of 5 men and 1 out of 7 women will die before they reach retirement age?  What if you are one of those unlucky people? Are you gambling with your family’s well-being?

I’ve been asking a lot of questions, but these are important questions that everyone needs to think about. Thankfully, there are some answers that can help you to prepare in case you die prematurely.

Life Insurance can provide your family with Tax Free money to pay the rent or mortgage, to pay the car payments, the college tuition, your funeral expenses and the day to day living expenses. Did you also know that you are the only person that can take care of this?  Yes, it is your responsibility.

Nobody blinks an eye about insuring their house, their cars, their boats, their motorcycles, and all of their STUFF. Yet, many people see life insurance as a waste of money.  This is simply put, misplaced priorities.

Maybe life insurance is not properly named…perhaps we should call it “Family Income Insurance” because that is really what we are insuring, our family’s financial future.

Don’t wait until it’s too late, call Bragg insurance today for a free quote at 317-758-5828

As building supplies and labor costs increase so does the cost of repairing or rebuilding a home.  In turn, this is also causing homeowners premiums to increase.  With this in mind I thought we would list some ways you may be able to save on your homeowners insurance premium.  We have also included a short video.

1. Bundling your homeowners insurance along with your auto insurance and/or life insurance can save up to 30%.
2. Discounts are often given for being a member of an association.  Be sure to ask your agent if there is a discount available for any association that you are involved with.
3. Improving security in your home will give you peace of mind, and it may also get you a discount on your homeowners insurance.  Be sure to check with you agent to see if you can get a discount for any home security system that you may have.
4. Minimize your losses.  The biggest factor in your homeowners insurance rates is your loss history.  Some losses cannot be avoided but take a look around your home to see if there is anything that you can do to reduce the risk of a loss.
5. Raising your deductible can significantly decrease your premium.  Raising your deductible from $500 to $1,000 could save you as much as 25% on your premium.
6. Utilize an independent agent.  Have you local independent agent check the rates with other carriers ever 2 or 3 years.  This will help you to make sure that you are getting the best deal that you can on your home.

Nearly every week on the local news I see where a teenage driver is killed or seriously injured in an auto accident.  Often times these accidents are single vehicles accidents, which could indicate that the driver was distracted and not paying full attention.  As a father of teenagers my heart aches for the loss of life and the pain the families must be going through.

While parents can’t always be with their teens when they are driving, I believe that most teens want to honor their parents in spite of what our culture may be telling us.  A great and simple tool that a parent can use is a simple, but direct conversation.  Make it clear to the teen that their seat belts must be worn at all times.  Texting and driving is never allowed, nor is any other type of distracted driving.  Don’t forget you are the parent and you are still the primary authority figure in their life, and you have the power to suspend their driving privileges if they do not obey your rules for driving.

Here are some interesting facts about texting and driving.

• Texting and driving makes a driver 23 Times more likely to crash
• 11 Teens die everyday in the US as a result of texting and driving
• 13% of drivers age 18 to 20 involved in an accident admit to texting or talking on their phone at the time of the crash.

As I stated earlier, you are still the primary authority figure in your teens life and they instinctively mimic what you do.  This means that you must set a great example for all of your children when it comes to your driving habits.  Simple things like buckling up every time you drive, could mean the different between life and death if your teen is ever in a serious accident.  Turning off your phone and minimizing your distractions while driving will send a more powerful message to your children than anything that you can say.

For more information take a 3 minutes and check out the video below and share it with your teen drivers.

There are a number of scandalous types of news stories that have become so common place that we hardly notice them anymore. Government corruption, mass shootings, and data breaches are issues that should cause outrage, but instead we shrug our shoulders and move on: Until it impacts our life, that is.

According to Wikipedia, A data breach is the intentional or unintentional release of secure information to an untrusted environment. Other terms for this phenomenon include unintentional information disclosure, data leak and also data spill.

You may be surprised to learn that nearly every major corporation in the US has had some type of data breach at one time or another. Some of these companies include 7-Eleven, JC Penney, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Apple, AT&T, The Texas Attorney General’s Office, Sony, Blue Cross Blue Shield, US Military, AOL, US Dept. of Vet Affairs, TJ Maxx, Countrywide Financial Corp, Ameritrade, Monster.com, Gap, Starbucks, US Department of Defense, EBay, Facebook, and Domino’s Pizza to name a few. This list goes on and on.

In 2005 there were only 2 major data breaches in the US. These breaches involved AOL, and Citigroup, where AOL had 92 Million records that were compromised and Citigroup reported that over 3 Million of their records were breached. So far in 2014 the number of records that have been compromised is staggeringly in the billions and the year is only half over. The number of records stolen in just EBay, Target and Adobe combined comes to 367 Million records.

Data breaches are not just limited to large corporations or government entities, many small to mid-size companies are having data breaches. In West Haven Florida, Splash Car Wash lost credit card records for 30,000 of its customers. A data breach at a children’s hospital in San Diego exposed 14,000 patients’ names, and personal information to thieves. Right here in Indiana a major university exposed the name, address and social security numbers of their graduates from 2011 to 2014.

Data breach and identity theft are wide spread; it’s growing; and it’s close to home.

Once a criminal has your name and personal information he can wreak havoc on your life. They can sell your name for about $25 to another criminal, or they can attempt to open credit cards, buy cars, and get loans in your name. Strangely enough though the criminal is not around when the bill collector tracks you down for payment. They can also assume your identity, which can lead to a whole other host of issues and problems.

In today’s world your credit rating is very important. It’s a determining factor in the amount of interest that you pay; it affects your insurance rates; it can affect your employment, and your children’s future. Therefore it is vitally important that we do everything that we can to protect our good name.

What can we do? There are both preventative and reactionary measures that we can take to protect both our credit and our identity. In part 2 of this column we will take a look at some of different things that you can do to protect yourself and your family.