How much is enough?  State Farm Insurance's CEO, Ed Rust just got a $5.26 million raise.  He made $5.5 million in 2004, $6.4 million in 2005, and $11.66 million in 2006.  Read the rest of this article and maybe you will see how he earned this "bonus".

Meanwhile....
State Farm Insurance Companies recently admitted to making a "mistake" by having over 45K salvage cars in 48 states to be re-sold at auctions without telling or notifying the buyers and also that they changed the legal certificates of title.

and...
After hurricane Katrina, State Farm coerced adjusters into denying wind damage claims.  According to the lawsuit, State Farm adjusters were coerced into making the same conclusions as the engineering report. Those who rejected these findings were fired, transferred, or reassigned, according to the claim.

Allegedly, many insurance claims adjusters determined that wind damage preceded damage by floodwater in hundreds of cases. Those conclusions and other engineering reports that did not support the HAAG’s conclusions were allegedly destroyed to cover up any evidence that would force State Farm to pay out claims.

and...
State Farm claims adjusters had sued for unpaid overtime payments . Plaintiff lawyers said many insurance adjusters should be receiving the back payments over $55K.

The weather has been very cold lately.  Water damage caused by freezing of pipes is covered on many homeowners policies but there are a few things to keep in mind.  If you home is unoccupied for 60 or more days, coverage may be voided if you don't take steps to avoid damage.  This could mean, maintaining heat in the home or draining the pipes and using anti-freeze.  If you do have damage, your policy requires you to report it as soon as possible and to take steps to prevent further damage.  That would include calling a professional cleaning service as the sooner they start, the less water damage will occur.  Call us if you have any questions.

Wisconsin ranks 49th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for combined cost of home and auto insurance.  Only Idaho has lower rates.  In fact our rates are 29 percent lower than the national average.  This according to a study by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.  The average cost to insure both your home an auto in Wisconsin is $1,054.  Statistics are from 2003, the latest available.

In Today's homes there are more synthetic materials like nylon and polyester that tend to smolder for a long time and then burn faster than natural materials like cotton and wood.  The most common smoke alarms use an ionization method which is best for detecting fast buring flaming fires but may be slow to detect smoldering.  Smoldering fires like mentioned above are picked up better by photoelectric alarms.  It may be advisable to have one of each type on each floor or a combination unit which is also available.

Almost half the home fire deaths still occur in the small percentage of homes without any smoke alarms.  Athur Cote, chief engineer for the NFPA (www.nfpa.org) said "Almost all the time you find a "failure", the detector has been disabled.  They recommend replacing alarms after ten years.

Door County Memorial has announced a 24/7 free nurse help line you can call if you have non-emergency health questions.  For example, you child has a bad fever, it's 2 in the morning and your not sure what to do.  Potentially this could save an expensive and time consuming trip to the emergency room for less than emergency situations.  The number is 877-746-0003.

Drivers using phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to be injured.  That acording to a recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  The increase risk was consistant across all types of drivers.  The study also showed that "hands free" type cell phones were no safer.  If you want to save your self the hastle of an accident and possibly serious injury, don't use your cell phone while driving.  Pull safely off the road to take or make calls or let someone else in the car take the call.