Horihan Insurance

All forms of insurance - Home - Health - Auto - Car - Life - Business - Farm

  • About Us
  • Our Team
  • Insurance Plans
  • Insurance Companies
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Lanesboro
    • Lewiston
    • Mabel
    • Rochester
    • Rushford
    • Winona

A Clean Slate in 2021

January 8, 2021 By Forrest Dailey

You know that feeling when you go to bed at night with so many things left undone that you have a hard time sleeping? Or when you wake up with a general sense of anxiety, but you can’t put your finger on why until you realize, oh yeah, I haven’t resolved this or that yet? 

Do you go through your year waiting for the right time to get bigger this-or-thats out of the way?

There are a lot of things like that in life. We know we have to do them, but we put them off. But as the list grows, it may instill an anxiety in us which could be alleviated by just getting them done and off our list.

Here is a list, just off the top of my head, of some of those things to help you get started off right. Your living arrangements may warrant a very different set of tasks, and any of us could probably make this list a hundred items long. But we’re not going to overwhelm you. We’re all still coming down from quite a year. These are just a dozen suggestions to get the ball rolling.

  • Put new batteries in, and test smoke detectors – This tops a lot of lists like this around this time of year, and for good reason. House fires in the winter are very common due to increased use of heating devices. It is comforting to know you are set with a freshly charged smoke detector.
  • Fix your hazy headlight – It is surprisingly easy to fix, provided that it isn’t the result of a crack in the light cover letting condensation inside. Sometimes the headlight gets foggy on the outside due to exposure to sunlight, and it doesn’t require the expertise of a professional to remedy. First determine of that is your issue, and it’s an easy fix. If not, and it requires a replacement part and the work of a professional, it is still a very good time to get it taken care of.
  • Re-stock the first aid and emergency kits in all of your vehicles – You could go years without restocking certain items in these kits. But if you use a band-aid here and there over time, eventually you may come to the bottom of the box without realizing it. Make sure everything you could need is there when you need it.
  • Replace worn or damaged extension cords – You need them to be working when you need them to be working. It’s as simple as that. Don’t get stuck resorting to your old backup if all of your good cords are in use when you really need one. Extension cords can get a bit expensive, but they are durable so if one is worn out, it is a sound investment.
  • Renew your prescriptions for another year – If you take prescription drugs you know how annoying it can be when your refills run out and now you’ve got to find time to go see your doctor just to get the prescription re-written. Take care of it now, and you’re golden for the rest of the year….
  • Yearly physical – … so the only reason you have to take time out of your day to go see a doctor is for when you really need one, or for something very productive like a yearly physical. Why wait till something seems wrong? Get that checkup now!

As a matter of fact, why not just renew your prescription refills while you are at your physician’s office having your physical?

Back to the list.

  • Check fire extinguishers – Fire extinguishers are something that sit for so long unused that you take them for granted. It is nice to know that when you need them, they will function properly.
  • General decluttering of closets, pantry, garage – Nothing says “fresh start” in a new year like throwing away, selling or donating a bunch of stuff that you don’t need, don’t use, don’t want or don’t even know why you have anymore. Seriously, it can give you access to parts of your house that you had forgotten you had.
  • Clean out your garbage disposal – We’ll leave it to you to look up the garbage disposal maintenance how-to. It is not terribly complicated and well worth is, as you’ll know if you’ve had that moment at 11:30pm on a Sunday when your disposal suddenly decides it has taken just about enough of your dinner plate leavings.
  • Clean out your dryer vent – This is a huge fire hazard. Just think about how much lint accumulates over the course of a couple of dry cycles. How much more will accumulate in your vent over time if left unchecked? Dryers are a heat source and without proper ventilation, one spark could be catastrophic.
  • Clean kitchen exhaust hood and air filter to remove buildup – You should do this more often than every year. But if you do it now, you may just get yourself in the habit of doing it, and other chores as often as you should be doing them.
  • Review your insurance policies with an agent – At Horihan Insurance, we believe strongly in reviewing policies yearly to make sure you have all of the necessary coverage relative to your current situation and that of the foreseeable future. If there have been changes in your life in the last year that are relevant to your insurance coverage, and if you have not done so, call your agent new. It’ll give you a fresh start and hopefully an improved policy better suited to your needs.

Why not wipe the entire slate clear for 2021 early on so you can enjoy the rest of the year?

Happy 2021, everybody.

Healthy, Wealthy, Warm and Wise

December 10, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

“Keeping your distance” has kind of been the mantra for the year 2020. Back in the summer we noted on a Facebook post that another type of “distancing” guideline applied for outdoor grilling.

That is what we will call the “Rule of Three Feet.”

Well it’s colder now, and if you haven’t already, you’ll be looking for ways to keep your home warm and cozy soon. That’s why this season happens to be the most dangerous when it comes to home fires. So, before we go anywhere, we’ll reiterate and expand on that theme we presented during the summer:

When it comes to heating your home for the winter, always keep children and pets as well as any loose, flammable materials at least three feet away from all sources of heat, especially those where flames are present.

Beyond that, there are a few rules of thumb which apply universally to all sources of indoor heat. Do these things, and you’ll promote safety, save on heating bills, and maximize that efficiency of heating your home:

  • Follow local codes first and foremost. Check with your local fire department.
  • Read all manufacturer’s instructions and warning labels before use of any device to heat your home.
  • Never leave the heat source unattended.
  • Never leave it switched on or burning when you go to bed for the night.

Having said that, we want to point out a few guidelines to follow, specific to different types of heating devices.

Portable Space Heaters

  • Get a heater with an automatic shut-off so if it tips over, it turns off.
  • Space heaters should never be used to dry anything, or to heat anything other than the air in the room.
  • Be aware of the surface beneath the heater and its proximity to the heater itself. Never place the heater directly on the carpet, upholstered furniture or on an unsteady table.
  • Do not plug it into an extension cord whenever possible. Plugging the heater directly into the outlet reduces risk of over-heating, short-circuiting, etc.
  • Always unplug it after use.

Fireplaces

  • Have your chimney cleaned or at least checked annually by a professional.
  • Regularly check your chimney for bird or animal nests which could block the smoke, or even ignite.
  • Use wood that’s been dried for a year to minimize smoke.
  • Do not leave lighters, matches or other igniting materials in easily accessible places if you have children in the house.
  • When cleaning out the ashes from your fireplace, place them in a metal container and take them outside. Preferably in the snow.

Wood Stoves

  • Observe the minimum required clearance between the front, back, bottom, top and sides of your stove and anything combustible. Or install a heat shield on all nearby combustible surfaces.
  • Keep the ventilation system which leads to your chimney well maintained. Ninety percent of stove fires originate in the ventilation system.
  • Like with the fireplace, place ashes in a metal container and take them outside.
  • Do not start the fire in a wood stove with flammable liquids.

Gas Stoves

  • While all kitchens should contain a fire extinguisher, it is an unspeakably good idea when using a gas stove.
  • Have a carbon monoxide detector, as gas stoves emit carbon monoxide more than other cooking/heating methods. Remember you can’t smell or see carbon monoxide so without a carbon monoxide detector the only way you’d be aware of it is if you begin noticing the symptoms (dizziness, headaches, nausea, etc.) Please catch it before that happens.
  • You can smell gas though, and if you do while using your gas stove, turn it off immediately and do not use it again until you’ve confirmed the leak is fixed.
  • Always fill the tank outdoors.
  • Do not over-fill the tank.
  • Do not use fuel that is not approved for the type of stove that you have. (Again, see manufacturer’s instructions)

Candles

  • The wick should never be more than ¼ of an inch long, to minimize the flame.
  • Place and stabilize the candles where you want them before lighting them.
  • Place them far away from Christmas decorations, tinsel, ribbon, wrapping paper, etc.
  • Place candles on metal holders to catch dripping wax.
  • NEVER use a candle to light your way when checking on or fueling gas appliances.

Electric Ovens

  • Never use your oven to heat the house. While tempting to save on heating bills, leaving your oven on with its door open for long periods of time leaves you susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning.
  • AND you risk falling asleep with it on, furthering your risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, but also starting a fire.
  • It is a highly inefficient method of heating your living space because it does not circulate the heated air.
  • With the increased frequency of use of your oven for cooking in the winter, however, a warm kitchen tends to be a biproduct. And of course there are many other benefits to increasing the frequency of home-cooked meals, nutritionally and financially speaking. You might say this is the key to staying healthy, wealthy, warm, and wise over the winter.

The cold is here, whether we like it or not. We can’t fight that, but we can safely provide ourselves and our families with a warm place to hunker down in.  Take care. Enjoy the changing of the season, and have a wonderful holiday, too.

Have a Spooksafe Halloween

October 8, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

Insurance can be a fascinating business. In many ways it is a strong indicator of human nature. Your agent can go over the major risk factors and the likelihood of them becoming applicable to you, but what an individual chooses to insure themselves for depends on what they feel puts them at risk – what keeps them up at night, what they fear.

Going into the Halloween season, we thought we’d take a look at a specialized insurance policy that speaks to that.

In 2002 the Royal Falcon Hotel in Suffolk, UK purchased insurance against injuries to patrons caused by a particularly surly resident ghost – that of a monk who was known to violently throw beer mugs in the hotel bar. This coverage came to be known as “Spooksafe” insurance.  

Spooksafe insurance, along with being a sort of liability coverage for business owners, protects the victim of ghost, poltergeist, werewolf and vampire attacks in the event of damage to personal property, injury or death. And in case you were wondering, in the case of the werewolf coverage, it not only covers you in the event of injury but for all of the misfortune that may result from being turned into a werewolf.

Because being a werewolf is a deal breaker in so many ways now.

The policy may also cover encounters with Bigfoot (his name is Darryl) or alien abductions. There is even a luxury cruise line in Scotland which is insured for about $1.5 Million US in the eventuality of a collision with the Loch Ness Monster. Not traditional Halloween players, these ones, but certainly worthy of mention.  

The policy averages about an $800 annual premium. Not bad, for what you get.

At last count, 60,000 people worldwide have purchased Vampire or Werewolf insurance and 40,000 carry a ghost insurance policy from Lloyd’s of London.

(Actually, that’s a misnomer. In the mainstream insurance world, “Ghost Insurance” is something else altogether, and something to read up on if you are planning to hire a contractor in the near future.)

Though Spooksafe insurance is terribly specialized, up to $1,000,000 may be paid out if it is proven the damage, injury, or death resulted from a supernatural attack. The famously haunted sea vessel, the Queen Mary, is insured for that amount, in case a guest is attacked by one of its many dearly-departed residents.

As for those who are out on the front line of the fight against ghosts, ghouls and goblins, Paranormal Investigator Liability insurance is widely available in the UK, Australia and other places, but it has not caught on in the USA. Why not is anybody’s guess. But if you do happen to be an aspiring Ghostbuster in one of the communities we serve, rest assured that your equipment (EVPs, ghost boxes, proton packs, ectoplasm detectors and even the Ectomobile) would likely be covered just like the trappings of any other business by a standard commercial insurance policy.

We’d like to be your commercial insurance agent. Give us a call today.   

Happy Halloween!

For the Price of a Cup of Coffee…

September 15, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

Insurance agents are forever trying to impress upon people that future security is much more important than instant gratification in the present. It’s one of those things that a person has to realize for themselves though. It is a matter of priorities. You’ve probably already seen insurance agencies with blog posts about the various “necessities” in life which cost you more than life insurance would each month. This post will feature the usuals but it is a little different, because 2020 has been more than a little different.

Some of these “necessities” have been a consistent drain on our wallets since time out of mind:

  • A daily cup of coffee – As a popular meme says, a lot of us “can’t even” until we’ve had our first cup of coffee in the morning. But if you invest in a coffeemaker, along with a tub of grounds and some coffee creamers every once in a while, you’ll be set. It may not be the same as picking one up at your favorite coffee house and you have to do it yourself every morning, but there is a sense of accomplishment in that. And you’ll be freeing up several dollars a day that can go toward a longer-lasting investment.
  • Lottery tickets – Yes, if you hit the big jackpot, you and your loved ones could be set for life. But that “could be” is a huge one. Purchasing a life insurance policy removes all uncertainty right there and then.
  • The newest version of pretty much anything electronic – Seriously, just how much greater is version 17 of your phone than version 16 was? Those numbers are just random, but they point to how long many of us have been on the hamster wheel of buying the newest version of our electronics, simply because they are available. This isn’t monthly obviously but for the year they are released, you could free up some cash for your life insurance by holding on to your old but not obsolete phone for another trip around the sun.

And some of these things, we’ve probably been spending much more money on this year because we’ve spent much more time at home. But when we bring this area of our household budget back into line with where it had been pre-COVID, the best place to re-allocate those funds is in a life insurance policy:

  • Video games – Like other technology, often it is just a given that when version 34 (more exaggeration) of our favorite video game drops, we’re going to buy it.
  • Cable TV or movie streaming – These services were becoming huge before the quarantine but they became a constant in our lives this spring.
  • Food delivery – Take out and especially delivery saw an increase in a lot of households this spring.

But it is plain to see that many of these things, with the weirdness of 2020, we have NOT been spending money on monthly.

  • Dining out at restaurants and bars – Kind of the counterpart of the last entry, “Food delivery”. Maybe you spent the quarantine time learning how to cook or exploring new recipes to expand your culinary repertoire. Good! Though we encourage investing in our local businesses, it is also true that cooking at home more will give you more money to put toward a life insurance policy.
  • Movie theater – Summer is usually blockbuster movie time. We missed out, but if you are usually a big movie-goer, going forward if you can cut out one theater visit per month, along with the expense of the concessions, you’ll more than gain back the amount you’d need to put into your life insurance.
  • Gym Membership – While a gym membership is a great thing to have and use, the joke about people getting a gym membership in January and abandoning it by…I don’t know…February is almost cliché by now. We’re not saying that is you. If you were taking full advantage of your membership before COVID-19 hit and fully intend to resume or have resumed, great! But this is a good time to evaluate if you are in fact a “gym membership” kind of person. We all want to support local business but if it isn’t happening, why pay the monthly membership? Maybe during the quarantine, you found some innovative ways to work out at home. You’ll be healthier for not letting your workouts lapse. But if you have a family or plan to, you still need a life insurance policy.
  • Haircut/tanning/nails – You may have let your hair grow a little longer this year or let the grays creep in as they will. Maybe you’ve had to cut out other cosmetic non-essentials. Maybe you’ve decided you like it that way or that you can do with less of it. Again, supporting our local tradespeople is very important now. But this is also an opportunity to find a better balance in your spending, to make room for providing the security that is essential to the ones you love.

What better time to transition the income you previously spent on the above to a life insurance policy? Call your local Horihan Insurance office and we’ll get you started toward a huge “thank you” from your future self.

Next Page »

Get a Quote

Fill out the form below to initiate a quote from Horihan Insurance. One of our expert agents will contact you to get details and give you a complete quote.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Contact Us

Rochester, MN

(507) 289-0435
(888) 600-9002

DIRECTIONS & HOURS

Winona, MN

(507) 454-2585
(888) 600-9002

DIRECTIONS & HOURS

Rushford, MN

(507) 864-4400
(888) 600-9002

DIRECTIONS & HOURS

Lewiston, MN

507-523-2169
(888) 600-9002

DIRECTIONS & HOURS

Lanesboro, MN

(507) 467-2300
(888) 600-9002

DIRECTIONS & HOURS

Mabel, MN

(507) 493-5885
(888) 600-9002

DIRECTIONS & HOURS

Horihan Insurance is licensed to do business in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Iowa

Ask us about our other business: Lyle’s Flooring America

© 2021 Horihan Insurance. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy • Website by HBS