Podcast 108: Help Protect YOUR Wealth & Cover YOUR Essentials with guest Wes Blanchard

In this episode of “Ask Gregory” host Gregory Ricks and guest Wes Blanchard, Estate Planning Attorney, dive deep into the evolving landscape of auto insurance and essential coverage strategies. They discuss rising premiums, the importance of uninsured and underinsured motorist protection, and ways to safeguard your assets. Together, they tackle common misconceptions about insurance claims, explore the value of umbrella coverage, and offer practical tips for balancing protection with affordability. This episode provides valuable insights for everyone aiming to make smarter financial decisions about their insurance needs.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Auto Insurance, Rising Costs, Technology Impact, Uninsured Motorist, Underinsured Coverage, Collision Coverage, Bodily Injury, Rental Coverage, Umbrella Insurance, Liability Protection, Financial Exposure, Insurance Policies, Risk Adjustments, Coverage Limits, Insurance Claims

SPEAKERS

Gregory Ricks, Wes Blanchard

Gregory Ricks  00:00

Hey, welcome. I’m your host. Gregory Ricks, a financial advisor here to answer your questions and help you win with your money. I tell you what it is me. It just stuff costs more. It’s, it’s, it’s shocking, whether you’re in restaurants, at the grocery store, hardware store, and another discussion came up in the green room yesterday over at W, l, o, X was auto insurance going up, and talking about even more increases are coming.

Wes Blanchard  00:42

We’re the highest in the nation, in Louisiana. So,

Gregory Ricks  00:47

yeah, you might not like this, but I blame that on attorneys.

Wes Blanchard  00:51

I think that’s part of it. I think that the the new technology in cars is a large part of it as well. The cost of goods is going up. And so when you get in an automobile accident, and next thing you know, you’ve got seven different pieces of technology that are broken. It costs a lot more to repair these kinds of cars.

Gregory Ricks  01:12

Yeah, and I’ll add to that, because you are spot on on that with the technology. But it also were back in the day, cars with certain type of damage would get fixed and put back on the road. Now they’re being totaled. That’s right, because best is up so many systems, and they can’t put it back together, right? It’s kind of sensitive. Had an alarm go off on the front of my car, and I don’t know, it might have been a leaf or something stuck right on one of the sensors. It’s like, oh my, it won’t quit beeping. There’s nothing in front of me, and I’m pretty sure maybe as a bug that got hit or something. Then finally, it quit doing that. And then you’ve got electric cars that, and the batteries in the frame. I don’t think those do well in Rex, either they don’t, or even on minor ones, they

Wes Blanchard  02:07

so they provide a lot of stability that keeps them from rolling over. So the safety of the car is a lot better. But you know, if the battery is damaged, you’re looking at $10,000 that’s that’s one component. And so if you have a vehicle that’s a little bit aged, some of the older Teslas now that are getting an accident, you got a 2016 2017 Tesla that gets hit. There’s no guarantee you don’t have a total if your battery’s damaged. So you know it’s, it’s a different world out there. And auto insurers, just like home insurers, are trying to figure out the new risk adjustments that they need to make. It’s, it’s, it’s a tough spot, I think, a little bit for everybody, but you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna catch me being sympathetic for a an insurance company, they made a ton of money over the years, and, you know, I think that they have forgotten that this is a risk business, and they’re upset that they’re not making as much money. And I like I liken it to someone that walks into the casino wanting to make money every time they go. That’s not how it works. You might have a few free drinks, a little bit of food, but you’re not guaranteed to walk out of there a winner every time, and it’s cyclical, and you know, again, you’re not going to catch any sympathy from me on that point.

Gregory Ricks  03:27

So what, being you see that side of what’s going on from a legal standpoint, what? And you seem to be acutely aware of what’s happening, cost wise, and also, what are some things, understanding the structure of auto insurance policies, and we’ve got to have coverage, and most people are probably under insured, with how much exposure can be covered. Because Be careful. I saw a truck hit a Bentley the other day on veterans Boulevard, and I think it must have crossed over. And this was a large truck must have finished a delivery somewhere and crossed over, and that Bentley was seriously messed up. And, you know, this wasn’t a high speed thing or something, just what a big truck can can do to a sedan. And, gosh, you know, that’s expensive, and hopefully they had high end coverage. That car is probably worth quarter million dollars, yeah. And then, then on top of that, somebody could have been injured or likely to have been injured from that standpoint. So back to the question, What about coverages? Yeah,

Wes Blanchard  04:50

I think something that gets, I guess, underreported understated, is the uninsured or underinsured motorist. Coverage that you can get. It’s optional on your auto policy. When you first sign up for your policy, they have to offer it to you, and there’s an acceptance or a rejection, and there’s a form and all that stuff. And I won’t get into those details, but in Louisiana in particular, and I haven’t looked this up in quite some time, but I recall seeing a statistic that said somewhere along the lines of 30% of drivers, if not more, have bare minimum coverage, which is $15,000 worth of coverage. So you know, if you have an expensive vehicle, in most vehicles these days are more than that, obviously and maybe they have 20,020 $5,000 worth of collision coverage. So if you have more than $25,000 worth of damage that Bentley Sure did, we can guarantee that. Oh, yeah. So we know all of a sudden that the person who hit them, if they only have $25,000 in collision coverage, well, you better hope, Mr. Bentley owner, that you have enough coverage to make up the difference so you get that uninsured, underinsured coverage placed on it, and what it does, it’s a backup plan, which is it falls in line with our Estate Planning, objective and total but you want that backup plan so the person who hits you, there’s a 35% chance that they have the minimum coverage. I think there’s also a 30% chance that they have zero coverage in the state of Louisiana, we have a lot of uninsured drivers, completely uninsured. So what you want is to make sure that you have the requisite amount of coverage, not only to cover your vehicle, but you know, you brought up the injury issue. If you’re an older person that has a maybe a pre existing injury, maybe you have an old football injury. You got a bad knee, right? Maybe a bad shoulder. You get in a car accident and that that seat belt tightens up on you, or you bang that knee against the door. Okay, you know you’re 5565 years old. You might have to have a surgery all of a sudden, and again, if the guy has $15,000 in coverage, has no coverage? Well, you better hope you have that uninsured or underinsured coverage so that you can go get that that surgery, to get your shoulder, to get your knee repaired. The add on to put that u m is what it’s called. You get that u m coverage. It’s like another $30 a month to get that backup plan. So if you’re pinpointing what we can do from a coverage perspective, I think that’s something that helps a ton.

Gregory Ricks  07:28

Maybe I misunderstood how that works. I thought even without that and somebody hits you with inadequate or don’t have coverage, your policies picking up anyhow,

Wes Blanchard  07:41

it will pick up on the collision coverage, because your, your policy, is going to have that car repair, but not for injury, right? And that’s, that’s the point I was making about having that injury issue. Well,

Gregory Ricks  07:54

I’ve got health insurance, yes, yes, I’m not wanting to get it. Now, I thought it also had to do with even having an argument with your insurance company, or litigating your own insurance company for coverage. That’s what one of the things I thought that had to do with, yeah,

Wes Blanchard  08:14

so you’ll, you’ll have to first have the this coverage in place to even approach an argument with your insurance coverage, and you brought up the health insurance issue, and that’s a great point, but what we’re seeing oftentimes is okay if you have to have an operation, what you don’t want is to have an argument with your health insurance about whether or not it’s going to be covered, or whether they think it’s a requisite procedure, right? You just want to know, hey, I’ve got this pot of money. I don’t need to talk to my health insurance. I’ll talk to them, but if they give me any pushback, I’ve got the money anyway. I’m gonna go get myself right. And that’s what that extra coverage does for you, is it takes away the discussion. You just go about getting your health back to where it needs to

Gregory Ricks  08:58

Yeah, and I can see I completely get that now. So this afternoon, I’ve got to go review my coverage. As far what two parts uninsured motorists, yeah, and bodily injury, yeah. How much should we carry? You know,

Wes Blanchard  09:15

look, I think it’s, it’s going to depend on, really, what you you know what your household income looks like,

Gregory Ricks  09:23

or is this kind of a fixed thing that they do? Or is there a variable? So Well, I’d like a little more of that so

Wes Blanchard  09:30

you can have a coverage for uninsured motorists that it can’t be any any higher than what you carry for your your typical if you were at fault. So if you have $50,000 in coverage, your uninsured motorist can’t be, you know, any any higher than that, or, I’m sorry, it has to match it at a minimum, right? Or you better

Gregory Ricks  09:52

carry more than 50,000 Yeah, we certainly do, right? We have, I mean, in general, probably not you personally. I. And

Wes Blanchard  10:00

I think what it boils down to is picture yourself, if you got in a serious accident, you ought to work for a prolonged period of time. Do you have enough money on your automobile insurance to compensate you for that? You know, let’s say you’re out for three months. You can’t work. Do you have enough coverage to cover you for three months so you can get back on your feet and get back to your job? You know, if you’re a high income earner, you got to start thinking about how much coverage you have. And so, you know, we’ll, we’ll talk about it. But look a lot of attorneys and doctors. I recommend high end coverage with an umbrella over it, you know. And so you’re looking at a million, a million, 2,000,003

Gregory Ricks  10:36

on the umbrella.

Wes Blanchard  10:36

Oh yeah, adding the umbrella, yeah.

Gregory Ricks  10:38

What’s the what do you mean? Oh, high end coverage, 300,000 300,000

Wes Blanchard  10:42

Yeah, they write, you know, 250 300 sometimes, you know, they’ll write 500 I think if you’re in that 250 to 300 range, and you add that umbrella for a million, you know the umbrella is going to cover your automobile and your house, right? And so, you know you now you’re sitting there with 250 to start. And then if you have to make another claim over that 250 you add, yeah, the umbrella for a million

Gregory Ricks  11:05

great stuff already, topic we’ve never really talked about, and that’s kind of its idea. Just it just see we’re free flowing. Stuff comes up. This is really good stuff, talking about insurance coverage. Hey, I’m glad I’m adjusting my thinking on it a little bit as well. I think I’m on the high end as far as having coverage and and then extra liability coverage to cover based upon that. But the uninsured motorist was a thing, and on the break. Well, she were talking about where people say, Well, I don’t want to sue my own insurance company. Well, that’s kind of how I think about it, but I do believe, and I brought up before the break, of wanting to like, well, I don’t want to tell my insurance company somebody else hit me. I don’t want it to go against me. I just want to go through them, but I do. It’s a question, because I used to think that way, but I do want you to address it. But my deal is, let’s get my stuff fixed, and they’ll go get their money from the other people and and so forth. Address that, if you would.

Wes Blanchard  12:20

Yeah, and I think what we were talking about on the break is we have some clients that come in and they’re in this predicament that we we touched on in the last segment. The person who’s who’s run into you doesn’t have any coverage, and you’ve got a shoulder problem, okay? And luckily, they have uninsured motors coverage on their policy. They’ve already gotten that taken care of, and we have the discussion about tapping that portion of your policy saying, Okay, you need to go get your shoulder fixed. And the response sometimes is, well, Wes, I don’t want to sue my own insurance company, or I don’t want to make a claim against my own insurance company. And my response is, I understand that, Greg, but then why’d you buy the coverage? Because that’s what it’s there for. And the second part of our discussion on the break was that’s, that’s the mental box that insurance can put you in is, wait, wait, hold, it hurt me. Well, no, it’s not going to hurt you, right? Because it’s a no fault claim. Someone else caused the damage, and you bought this coverage for this exact situation. If you’re not going to use the coverage, don’t pay for it. Don’t buy it. You know, I likened it to to walk and barefoot. If you you have shoes, you bought shoes. But if you want to walk barefoot, go for it. But why’d you buy the shoes? It’s up to you whether you want to put them on or not, but if you’re not going to use them, bring them back to the store, get your money back, right? That that is what you kind of have to understand. You’re protecting yourself. So put that protective blanket on for a minute and get yourself back to health, right? That’s what we’re trying to do from from that perspective. But you know, you talk about the umbrella, and we kind of talked about that. Now, this is, this is kind of, for your higher end earner, right? That you have some, some real liability. But, you know, let’s say, and your, your example, where you saw the accident with the truck in the ventil, right? Let’s say you were driving the truck, okay, well, you’ve got some exposure, all of a sudden, you know, you caused a serious accident, you hurt someone, or you damaged a piece of property that cost, you know, a quarter of a million dollars. Incredible, that that’s on the road in the first place, but, and you know, that’s neither here nor there. So you have some, you have some exposure, and this, this umbrella coverage, provides an additional layer of insurance for you to help keep you out of trouble, and it covers not only your house, but it covers your home as well. You know, we have one, you know, candidly, I have a couple of rental properties. Okay, we have an umbrella that covers our home and the two rental properties. So if we have an accident. And one of our rental properties, guess what? I got that covered too. And you know, you’re looking at probably 600 bucks a year, a year to get that peace of mind that that is money well spent. You know, sometimes we don’t spend money in places we want to. I will pay that on January 1 every year and be happy about it. But these are things, look, you know, that you’re right. We we’ve been on the radio for, you know, many, many years at this point, this is something that I think is fresh. We’ve never really gotten on to this topic. But it’s part of my business. It’s part of what we see. This is part of of planning. This is part of protecting yourself. You know, it’s a smart financial decision. It’s a smart estate decision. You’re protecting your family. You’re protecting what you’ve built, right, and making sure it can continue to grow. Someone’s not going to come in there and parse it out of you. So

Gregory Ricks  15:52

There’s two ends. If you’ve got money, wealth, property, I’ve got a couple rental properties, you might say, because you just said it, you probably need more umbrella coverage because you want to protect what you have, because you are vulnerable, because you have more. On the other end, somebody could say, well, heck, I don’t have anything. I don’t own a house. I’m just an employee. I don’t have much money in the bank. Owe more on credit cards, so I I’m just going to carry minimal coverage. What’s the problem for them

Wes Blanchard  16:30

thinking you’re Superman and you’re that you’re never going to get in an accident and be at fault? We’ve seen that, that scenario where we have someone that has a minimal coverage and they, they, they get in an accident, and they hurt someone really bad. Maybe they, they killed somebody, and the next thing you know, it’s, well, hold on, you only have $15,000 I’m sorry, but you know, my husband’s gone, and he was the breadwinner. We need a lot more than that. How much is your house worth? It’s a tough subject, but I’ve seen it happen, and it breaks apart to families at that point. Does. It’s awful. And so nobody wins. But you know, you have a little more insurance coverage, and maybe they decide, okay, well, look, if all I can get, you know, $250,000 is not going to bring my spouse back, not going to bring my my child’s father back, but I guess we can get back on the road to recovery with it. You’re

Gregory Ricks  17:27

carrying lower coverage amounts. Does umbrella help you there? Too?

Wes Blanchard  17:32

It does. But so the umbrella is going to, first of all, you have to carry a certain threshold. They’re not going to allow it. You’re right, they’re not gonna lie. They ask, yeah, exactly want

Gregory Ricks  17:42

you to carry enough. They’re gonna probably ask, are you carrying three or 100 or 500,000

Wes Blanchard  17:46

they’re happy to be second in line, but not if you only have 15,000 in front of them, right? Because then they know, hey, we might have it first in line. Yeah, right. But yeah, they want, they want enough cushion in front of them to know that, hey, it’s still unlikely that we get tapped on the shoulder to actually come play, you know, so that they gonna want I remember seeing

Gregory Ricks  18:09

that when I renewed my umbrella coverage this year, that they were looking at us like, oh my gosh, I gotta revisit what’s on my auto insurance. A different question here, somebody you know, that’s kind of nickel and diamond, okay, I’m not going to carry the uninsured. I don’t want to sue my company, but it saved me $30 there. What about the rental coverage? You might not need that if you have a few cars. But if, let’s say you and your wife each have a car and one of them is gone, are you going to be able to go to go to work, get the kids to school? Y’all going to share one car? Might want to have that rental coverage. Rental

Wes Blanchard  18:48

coverage is something that that pops up. And you know, if, if, especially if you’re at fault in that accident, you want that rental coverage now, if the other person causes the accident, they have an obligation to put you in a rental

Gregory Ricks  19:01

All right, even if they don’t carry rental cover, right? Because

Wes Blanchard  19:06

that’s not up to them, right? The other person caused your inconvenience, caused your damage, and so, so this is kind of the accidents on you, exactly, if it’s on you, but if you don’t have rental coverage, guess what? You’re out of luck. So you add that rental coverage and you know, you go get your rental, and you continue to go to work. And you know, you got a problem from a financial perspective, but it’s not twice as bad because you can’t get to work now, right? You have a rental, and you can get there. Not going to be the exact type of car that that you probably had, but it’ll get you to and from point A to point B. And you know, you’ll, you’ll continue on with life until your car’s fixed.

Gregory Ricks  19:40

Any other tips on that that we haven’t covered? No,

Wes Blanchard  19:44

I think it was kind of a comprehensive I mean, look, we can talk all day about it, and I enjoy it. But this is, you know, circling back to why we got on the topic again. This is why it’s tough for me to feel bad when the insurance companies complain about, hey, you know, we’re we’re not. Making enough money here, or you’re taking money out of our pockets, we

Gregory Ricks  20:02

were going down the track of, how can we save money? But we have to balance that with what exposure we’re having. You could drop down your coverages, not carry the uninsured, the rental car and stuff, but now you’ve created exposure to that, and may cost you much more money in the long run. Yeah, you got to do what’s appropriate for you, is what I’ll suggest. And as you make more and have more, you do need to step up your game on on coverage, and that’s even on your home and personal property we were dealing or dealing with on our property, we had a surge from a lightning strike, and it’s cost us a lot of electronics and such, so. And then I’m just like, I’m not going to argue with the insurance company as my thinking. And Stacey, she might want to argue a little bit on the payment of that. But like you said, the coverage is the coverage is the coverage. So,

Wes Blanchard  21:08

yeah, and look, you know, for folks wondering, Wait, are we on a finance show? Hey, this is, this is money, exactly, and, and this is part of our, you know, what we’re supposed to do is help you from, you know, a holistic perspective.

Gregory Ricks  21:25

What’s the steps to go forward? If somebody’s like, Okay, y’all got my attention, I need to get started. Yeah.

Wes Blanchard  21:30

Look, we try to give you a plethora of options, right? You can always call Greg’s office 504 a three, 290, 200 that’s inclined in my mind. But you can call my office directly to 504-500-8473, visit either one of our websites, and that’ll get you linked up with with our our intake folks, and get you on the calendar and things like that. So, you know, we we again, we try to make ourselves accessible. We’re not one of these firms where you’re going to call in and you know, you never get to meet with me. Now you’re going to meet with me. We’re going to talk you and I, and we’ll get your problems sorted

Gregory Ricks  22:08

out. Awesome. Thank you for being here today. This was a really great show. Thank God that might be our auto insurance podcast. Thanks so much for listening to ask Gregory where we answer your financial questions. You can find us anywhere. A podcast can be found and on YouTube and Facebook Live every Saturday from 10 to one. If you love this podcast, tune in next time. I work in the world of helping people with their money, helping them with their investments. We use institutional guidance and we invest 5050, philosophy. But it’s not just about managing the money. I think part of what’s important that we are. Are a sounding board where people feel comfortable reaching out saying, Hey, I’ve got this. I was thinking about doing this. What do you think? Gregory, that’s what we are for our clients, and our clients see us that way. For their friends, family, colleagues, they know place where you can like I need some help on this. I’ve got questions about this. I need to talk about this. 504832, 9200, there’s only one number to call, no matter where you want to be, 504832, 9200, or go to Gregory ricks.com and that’s

Disclosure  23:31

when advisory products and services are made available through AE Wealth Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Insurance products are offered through the insurance business Gregory Ricks and Associates, Inc, a wealth management does not offer insurance products. The insurance products offered by Gregory Ricks and Associates, Inc, are not subject to investment advisor requirements. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal, any references to protection, safety or lifetime income generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strengths and claims of the paying ability of the issuing Carrier. This podcast is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as a sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual situation. Gregory Erickson Associates is not permitted to offer and no statement made during the show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with nor endorsed by the US government or any other governmental agency. The Information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained by sources believed to be reliable, but the accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Gregory Ricks and Associates. Please remember that converting an employer plan account to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increase in taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences, including, but not limited to a need for additional tax withholdings or estimated tax payments the loss of certain tax deductions and credits and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums, be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions with your IRA, neither a wealth management or advisors providing investor. Investment advisory services through AE Wealth Management recommend or facilitate the buying or selling of cryptocurrencies. Third parties and guests of the show are not affiliated with nor do their opinions reflect those of Gregory Ricks and associates or AE wealth management. Ae Wealth Management provides services without regard to political affiliation, and the views of individual advisors do not necessarily reflect the views of AE wealth management. We are ask Gregory