Hey, everybody. I'm Robert Y, and I'm an
insurance professional, and admittedly
kind of an insurance nerd.
My friends and family tell me that nobody
is gonna wanna listen to a podcast about
insurance. So instead, on this show, I'm hoping
to share a story or have a conversation
with a guest about some relatable experience, and
then show you how insurance impacts that story
or topic.
My hope is
You'll enjoy a few laughs with me and
maybe learn at least 1 interesting thing about
insurance along the way.
Here we go.
Alright. Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening in the
podcast. This is Robert
and I'm coming at you today from
Mansfield,
Ohio.
I've been I've been spending the last several
days here
family
vacation.
I brought
my son Damon,
my girlfriend
Out here, and we met.
We met my parents.
And
my older son's, Jake and brandon,
and then my sisters. I have twin sisters.
They brought their families out. So was a
huge, huge group.
I think 18 or 19 people. Yeah. I
don't work together. Forget the little man.
Grandson here. My grandson was here. That voice
you just heard. That's Jake. He's he's gonna
be my guest on the podcast today. It's
good to be here. Yeah. It is good
to be here. This is
last day of the family trip. And people
have been filtering out,
and were some of the last ones standing.
Best to the best. Yeah.
So we've been doing stuff like,
well, we we we got this enormous home,
so there's, like a pool and hot to...
What's been your favorite part.
Lounge at the pool, it's hard to beat.
Yeah. Yeah.
And it was hot. These few days. It
was... Well the first couple of days were
probably the best weather could have asked for.
Because it just... It gets just cool enough
for the hot tub in the evening, and
it's warm enough for the pool early in
the afternoon.
There's enough people to play all the little
games. You guys wanted to play.
Yeah. Yeah. Good times. Good times and we're
all talking Like. We wanna do that again.
Also,
Ohio,
everybody's been asked me like?
Who's from Ohio? Is that where you're from?
What... How'd did you get Ohio? And it...
All it is is just it's a convenient
meeting place where we found a house big
enough for everybody. Yeah.
Now I had to fly.
Your brother brandon had to fly. Yep
everybody else drove.
Well, so I was thinking,
I rented a car. Mh. And
brandon rented at a car when we pick,
you know, when we got in at the
airport. And somebody... I don't remember who but
somebody asked me
Did you get the insurance?
And I I said, no, I did not
get the insurance.
But there was
sort of a, a
conversation at the rental car desk with the
gal who is checking me, like, out? Yeah.
We always bring it up.
They usually bring it up. Some people are
better at bringing it up than others.
Now I feel like you used to rent
cars because you didn't have a car when
you lived in the city. Every week. Yeah.
Is I was traveling for work. That's Killing
zoo?
Yeah. Yeah.
So you heard the pitch every week. Every
time. Yeah. Well, I so I went to
the same enterprise
every week for 2 years. So I think
they they recognize recognized me. They got to
know me and eventually, they're like, okay, this
guy.
Declined it. Yeah. 40 times in a row.
Yeah. So I think they... I think eventually
they stopped asking.
Well, the cool thing about going to the
same place every week also is, like, they
probably threw you upgrading Oh, yeah. Driving cool
cars. Okay. Qualify yeah. What's the coolest car
you remember were getting? What we were talking
and So
we're all here in Mansfield. We did this,
like, evening round table of questions. Yeah. And
1 of the questions was, like,
cars are really into. And it was that
cadillac that I brought up last night. Oh,
yeah. That was 1 of 1 of my
favorites that they upgraded me too.
Nice. And, hopefully,
no upper management or listeners of this podcast
because they couldn't give me some of the
cars they gave me because That I was
under 25.
Oh, but they did anyone did.
They did.
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe those people are long gone
from the enterprise. So it might be the
clear.
Well, I I thought the whole thing with
enterprise was like, they got college grads
to be, like, managers.
So that they could just kinda...
They're probably cool guys. They're like, they were.
They were. And like you said, they recognize
recognized me So
everyone once in a while. If they had
something. It was a small enterprise, like, neighborhood
City enterprise. So they didn't always have something.
It runs well. Yeah. They give me, like,
a say convertible or cadillac,
bmw.
And those, like I was saying, I can
book those.
Because I was under 25. Yeah. Yeah.
So
good stuff.
Okay. I remember we went to North Carolina
was just you and I. It was like,
to scout out colleges when you were Yeah
16 or 17. Yeah. And do you remember,
they they gave us AAA challenger. Yeah. That's
cool. Yeah. That was very cool. And
it's too bad because I remember being very
rainy.
Couldn't really just, like, open it up, because
I I wasn't familiar at the car. I
didn't know how it was gonna handle and
didn't... I I didn't know the tires.
So I was very careful with it, but
it was a cool car. It was cool.
I I don't know if you let me
drive, but you did take a picture.
In fancy. Yes. I did not let you
drive.
Probably the right call there.
Yeah. Well, so this gal
where I picked up the car this time.
She...
And I guess, I won't say the name
of the the agency because that doesn't really
matter It's not really important to the story.
But she
asked me sort of towards the end of
the transaction.
So how will you be ensuring... No. No
Excuse me. That's not How she did it.
She said, would you like our,
like, superior coverage or, you know, whatever like,
the the medium coverage was? Mh.
And I said,
actually, I... I'm just gonna decline all the
coverage is? And her comeback was, how are
you going to ensure this vehicle? Yeah.
I said, well, I'm gonna rely on my
primary
auto insurance policy.
Alright? My personal auto policy.
And
second,
I have coverage on this credit card that
was, like in the little machine processing in
that moment. Yeah. And she goes, oh, well,
just so you know,
Michigan is a no fault insurance state, and
you're going to be responsible for any damage
to this vehicle.
And and and I... We... I rented it
in Michigan. Just by the way. Okay. So
we're in Ohio now, but I rented it
Detroit Airport. Yeah.
So
her inserting this idea that
Michigan is a no fault insurance state, which
it is if you're buying your own per
auto policy. Yeah. That's a thing.
But that would be true
regardless.
Any damage to that rental car is my
responsibility.
In in any state that I'm in. So
she's she was just kinda throwing in, like,
this
insurance term that I felt like was designed
to make me question my choice. Yeah. I
get you anxious. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You think
that's in the script or... Yeah. I think
that she's coached to do that. Yeah. And
then I wanted to respond with?
Oh, are you a licensed insurance agent?
Really? Like, qualified to talk to me and
counsel me Yeah. On how I'm going to
ensure this vehicle. Yeah. Because my guess is
she's not licensed. I I don't know for
sure. Yeah. I don't know for sure.
But I'm betting she's not.
And
or or some states have, like a, like,
a limited lines
kind of license where they they know their
very narrow
type of, you know, coverage.
And they don't necessarily know like, broader insurance
concepts and they in my
experience, they just start talking
about you know, whatever they've been coached by
their manager to talk about.
And if you ask them a tough question,
you know, they get rattled and they back
off. Okay.
Anyway,
it did get me to thinking, and I
didn't get the insurance as I said, it
it got me to thinking about it.
Really wherever I go
within the United States,
I am totally comfortable
that my personal auto policy is going to
protect me and that vehicle that I'm in.
And I also have used the credit card
as as coverage. I've rented a lot of
cars and I've been in accidents and I've...
I've had to use that too. And that
worked out fine. So you specifically called out
in the Us.
And I am taking Damon to Germany at
year, I've thought about in in the car.
So you're thinking it's... It would be worth
it
outside of the outside the states.
Okay. So,
I don't know. Mh. If my personal auto
policy is gonna cover me
internationally.
I'd have to ask my insurance agent.
I would be inclined to think it doesn't.
But but I haven't read the policy for
that particular
provision.
I do know that
my credit card coverage
offers
some coverage
internationally,
but
there are some stipulation there. And again, because
I've not rented a car internationally. I haven't
paid much attention to it. And if you're
going to do that, you'll wanna pay attention
to it. Mh.
Of course, if you don't have coverage on
a credit card or a personal auto policy,
then, yeah. You can just buy the coverage.
Yeah. That's available there. But that would be
fascinating to me to know what kind of
coverage they offer. I'm sure I'm sure what?
Because it's it's not it's not gonna be
the same as here. I'll, I'll send it
over to you. Yeah. So there's probably, like,
websites that have advice
I don't know if it's good advice, but
they're... There's probably websites out there that'll talk
about,
international coverage for the vehicle.
But, yeah, definitely wanna plan in advance for
that. Who knows what, like, you know, the
the liability issues are,
you know, in Germany,
Well, and you know, we talked about rental
car policies before. And he told me about
all these
exclusions where, you know, you take it on,
like, a gravel road and all of a
sudden you're not covered. So Germany, right? They
got the Auto. I wonder and in that
policy. They're like, is you turn on that
auto bond. As soon as you get on
that, You're not covered. Yeah. Wonder. Yeah. I
mean, there there could be all sorts of
little exclusions that... I mean, I
I can't even think of. I can't even
dream up at this point. Yeah. Well, there
you go. That's... I feel like that's our
1 interesting thing about insurance. We don't know
the answer.
Yeah. We don't know the answer. And not
yet.
We'll have to have a follow up after
after your you're trip to Germany. Yeah. I
just kinda dissect the the rental car coverage.
Worry though. I'm not taking damon I'm the
auto dime.
Oh, well, why wouldn't you? I mean, don't
let him drive it, but
But isn't that a thing that you'd maybe
wanna see Germany? Actually, I don't even really
know where in Germany that is.
I I don't know enough about it to
speak intelligently at all.
Yeah.
Shit. That might be cool. If there's so
many sites already on the list though.
Well, if you have... If you're going from
city to City, and, I don't know. They're
connected by that highway. Yeah. That might be
something. Yeah.
I wonder... I mean... I I imagine they
have lyft and Uber there. Yeah. If you
were to just get in an Uber,
be, like, he's just taking me on all
of Just get We're gonna take the auto
bond of Munich or or whatever.
And
I wouldn't be comfortable asking him to just
open it off be like, let's go 1
70.
But
I don't know. Just being on the road
might be interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's true.
So I work a lot in mind Hannah
and, like, way back in the day. They
didn't have speed limits. Mh. Or not not
a numbered speed limit. It was just reasonable
and prudent. Yeah.
And
even though that's decades ago, people still ask
me or or do they'll say, oh, they
don't have speed limit there. Right?
And, of course, they do. They do know.
For as long as I've been working there,
they they have had speed limits.
At the same time,
I have had my camaro going pretty fast
on the open interstate there where it's just,
you know, just
straight for as far as you can see
and it's a Sunny day. Yeah.
Okay. We'll well back to the Us. Let's...
Right. Well, I'm gonna go back to something
else that
was from a trip that you and I
took. We were in Minneapolis
few months ago? Yep. Where... We... You and
I met up in Minneapolis for the big
10 basketball tournament.
I think I've mentioned that on a podcast
episode before, and you drove to that also.
Yeah. Not my camry. Yeah. And I flew.
And I remember telling you, like... So me
and my dad wanted to go to the
gym? Can we borrow your car? Mh. And
you gave me a somewhat complicated
answer. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was like, well,
if I take this vehicle, then
Yeah. You can take the car. Right. If
I take the other vehicle, then I'll drive
you.
And,
you know, this was all in a text.
So I just said,
Cool.
And but but I I sort of inferred
that maybe you had
like, questions about
insurance coverage for you review. That wasn't it.
No This is not at a, like, other,
like, sun situation. Okay. This was purely
like so the camry is older,
and the the Subaru
that I drove here, it's it's brent like,
almost brand new. So
and that's my wife's main car. So it
wasn't really mined to give away...
Oh, yeah. Offer up. Okay. Yeah. And also
that one's brand new. So a little more
nerves about
about me driving it to the gym los
she you drive that camaro.
You're gonna open out my subaru
in Minneapolis.
There's was gonna be, like, 2 miles doing
La fitness or something.
You you're like, I'll drive you.
Well, Yeah. Nothing nothing insurance related. No. Okay.
Alright.
Well, of course,
I I do have,
insurance if I were to drive your car,
Sometimes the question comes up, like, oh, what...
If somebody driving my car gets into an
accident, Mh, you know, what happens then.
Well,
so
I I I've heard
many times, I've heard insurance
agents try and explain it to their customers.
And and I feel like I don't explain
it the same way, but I'm I'm not
an auto insurance agent.
Okay? So I would say it this way.
There's
2 types of coverage under that personal auto
policy. There's there's coverage for the property, the
vehicle and there's coverage for liability for the
drivers. Mh.
And so if it's my policy,
me and all of the drivers in my
household
are insurers on that policy. And we have
liability coverage. Mh. For whatever car I drive.
Yours, your wife's. Yeah. Yeah. At our rental
car.
K. I have liability coverage. So if I'm
at fault in an accident in your car
and I damage your property,
my policy.
Well pay that. Okay. Okay.
Now,
you might rightly question
how much liability
insurance does this person
borrowing my car have. I thought that would
have been a good follow question for you.
You ask me. I mean, I wouldn't have
been offended. I mean it's reasonable.
How about this? I mean, you might know
people that
they they like to maybe skim
on things. Mh. Like, maybe they just have
the state minimum liability limits.
You know, which I don't know what they
are in Illinois, mh
where you live, but, they're probably not very
high.
They could be
15 25000
dollars. Mh.
And
your Subaru is probably worth more than that.
Yeah. Yeah. Being brand new. Yeah.
So,
yeah. Some people might be offended or
they probably... A lot of people wouldn't even
to know the answer you know, how much
liability coverage do you have, if you were
to ask them.
But you might consider that, you know, somebody
that's,
let's say,
22 years old doesn't have a very, you
know, valuable vehicle of their own.
It doesn't have a lot of discretionary money.
Maybe hasn't really thought about what's gonna happen
if I get an accident and I only
have 25000 dollars worth of coverage. Mh.
Yeah. They might not have a lot of
liability insurance.
So when I lend my car to somebody,
which
almost never happened.
But if I was to do that, Yeah.
I would be thinking,
does this person have enough liability insurance. Yeah
send me your policy, and I'll I'll make
the call. Yeah. Just, yeah. Screenshot of the
deck page. That's all I need.
And then I can give you the key.
Now not everybody's like me. I get that,
but that's something that I think about.
Yeah. Like, let's say we met up at,
it's a family reunion, big house and it's
some that's close enough for me to drive.
I don't. There's prob... There there could be
a family member that shows up where I'm
like, yeah.
I don't know, man. No I don't think
so. Heart heart no. Sorry bella.
Well, okay, Bell as a teenager. She's on
her parents policy. I would bet that her
parents have
good liability coverage.
I would I would think so. I guess,
I don't know for sure.
But I wouldn't lend Bella on my car
because I don't trust her with the camaro.
Yeah. That's more of the issue. It's not
an insurance issue. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. But now I wanna, like, swing back
to the rental car things you're right. If
you read
the rental car agreement. There's all these little
things that will trigger
cancellation of the rental agreement. Which then cancels
any insurance
protection that you might have purchased time. It's
so I thought it was, like, it's it
just like, cuts out when you're on that
gravel road. You're saying it just outright cancels
it for the entire
correct rental
Yes.
As... No, they they all... They could be
written differently
different rental agreements, but the ones that
I have seen and use in a an
insurance class that I teach. Mh. It reads
that the rental agreement
terminate
when any of these certain things
are done,
like
driving on unpaid roads
like, driving without your seat belt.
So are there the those... Especially the seat
belt 1 I can see is maybe a
little reasonable, but are there like, restrictions
on what they can put in there, because
it's kinda, like terms and conditions, A lot
of people probably aren't even read in those
exclusions or those cancellation
conditions. So of course. Then It's, like, no.
They can't just put, like, if you sneeze
in the car, we're canceling the policy. There's
gotta be some
Well, that's a better question for an attorney,
you know, that specializes in, you know,
contracts of adhesion like that, then, of course,
people are not reading that they just have
to sep in whole or not at all.
I can't say what where the line might
be in what they could put in there.
But I think
many of the things that they put in
there are unreasonable.
The... The unpaid pro thing is kind of
unreasonable. Like, driveway
Times... Well, no. That's not a road. That
would be my argument as an attorney. Okay.
That's not a road,
But there are many unpaid roads
in towns like this, vacation towns. Yeah. Or
or all over Montana we're at work.
Yeah.
And the way it reads, if you take
that rental car on an unpaid road that
terminate the rental agreement. Well, you know and
you know
because most most time you rent a car.
It's it's newer models, and all those said
Gps. Mh. So I've
even if it didn't they could pop an
air like an air tag. Mh. From there.
And they'll know exactly where you drove. Yeah.
And that's the first thing they're checking and
you make a claim.
Yeah. They they could. Yeah.
Yeah. There's things like, no, Wish I had
the list in front of me, but it's
it's stuff like, if you
overload the vehicle,
Like, should you ever have more people in
a car than you had seat belts. Mh.
Yeah. I have 2.
In rental cars.
I saw 1 where it was, like, if
you use
a
device capable of
cellular technology
in...
Or if you used it when it wasn't
in hands free mode,
that terminate your rental agreement cancels any insurance
production might have bought with them.
Okay? Well,
I mean, I use it for
navigation. If I'm in a strange place on
a unfamiliar place. I use it for navigation.
Yeah.
What if the the little voice that tells
you, hey, turned left at, you know, Strat
and Boulevard.
What if that gets turned off? And then
now I have to have it in my
hands so that I can look at it.
Does that mean it's not enhanced free mode?
Sounds like it. Yeah.
I feel like those,
rental agreements are just, pepper with things like
that designed to have their attorneys be able
to say, no. Gotcha.
This is terminated. We're not paying that claim.
Yeah.
I'm probably
gonna pull you off topic here, but I
found when I did my wedding insurance policy.
I found that stuff. Like, all those exclusions.
Interesting. It's like,
a nuclear war,
you know.
Civil war. It's like, yeah, that happens.
We're not covering it.
Well,
Yeah. But if if those are things that
don't happen. Yeah. Those were III don't remember
anything in there that were unreasonable. I think
though
like,
if you're left the alter,
I think that 1 that 1 is in
there.
Yes. That stuff happens.
Well, I haven't read it recently, but I
read that policy
with you, and I do remember that
there. Yeah.
I don't remember anything I like ridiculous stuff,
Like, if
the cater doesn't show up or something. I
don't think I me that there.
Right.
Things... Well, you know, this would be a
fun little game. What what would be things
that do go wrong at weddings that they
could possibly put in there just to cancel
your coverage. The first 1 that comes to
My is the Brat group not showing up.
Yeah. What about, like, you know, a vendor,
like a flo
you know,
not coming through with their contractual obligations and
there's no flowers. Yeah. Like, you can't cancel
a wedding because of that. I don't know
if you ever... If... Ashley, my wife ever
told you this, but
her hair and makeup person
got Covid.
The
evening before, she she posts on Instagram. Doesn't
tell actually. Post on Instagram.
I've got Covid.
I'm not going to any of my appointments.
That was a big... That was like the
big
wedding
scare mess up.
Thing that went wrong for ours. I don't
know if that would have been covered... I
mean, because Covid was still pretty new
when all that when all that stuff went
down.
We had to move... I mean, we had
to move ours. Yeah. And when you did,
you got you got paid the Yeah. The.
Got a small clean page is my venue
cost it went up. Good thing. Yeah.
I think prior to Covid,
A lot of people have just poo poo
those sorts of policies like that. That's a
waste of money. Weddings are already so expensive.
Type of the insurance.
And so many people,
you know, got paid on claims, you know,
that same summer that you did. Yeah. The
payment wasn't too bad.
And it it was it was on top
of that, like,
lot of party liability
that I had to get. Mh.
You got an open bar and a wedding.
All, these menus are yeah you're get need.
You're gonna eat some coverage. Yeah.
Yeah. The insurance is always worth that when
you get your claim paid.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Alright. So I think we're about out of
time right there. But Jake,
appreciate you joining me here in Mansfield field,
Ohio. Thanks for having me.
Hopefully, there was at least 1 interesting thing
in about insurance in there, and maybe we'll
have a follow up after your Germany trip.
Yeah. A little bit about international car rental
coverage. Yeah. Have a good forward to it.
Alright. Cool. Thanks everybody. If you are a
licensed insurance agent and you need insurance continuing
education,
check out our live webinars at BMFCE
dot com. If you just love the show,
maybe forward an episode to
1 of your loved ones,
and
leave us a rating,
leave us
leave us a review or you just say
a you quit nice words and maybe subscribe
and check back in a couple weeks We'll
have another episode soon. Thanks.
What's going on up there?
Ice.
The hot 1 in Mansfield.
On the mic, it sounds like somebody was,
like, falling down a
like several flight of stairs.
What we talking?