Ask Tim

Ask Tim, Episode #35 - What is an Independent Contractor Outside Construction?

No, this is not a mirage -- it's a brand spankin' new episode of the Ask Tim podcast! It's been far too long. I hope you'll find this one worth the wait.

Last time, I discussed the criteria for determining whether a construction worker is an independent contractor. This time, we leave the construction site for the office, or the retail store, or any other non-construction work site. How can you tell whether someone is an independent contractor? As I explain in the video, I have some personal experience with this.

The New York State Workers' Compensation Board has a detailed list of criteria on its Web site, so be sure to bookmark it for future reference.

I hope it won't take as long to get you the next episode.

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Worth Listening To: NPR's 'Planet Money' Talks Insurance

I am a self-confessed podcast junkie. I have an iPod Touch, and by far I use it more for listening to podcasts than I do for listening to music. One of my all-time favorite podcasts is NPR's Planet Money. Every Tuesday and Friday, the Planet Money team releases a fairly short (20 minutes or so) show about a money-related topic. Somehow, they manage to find interesting stories that you may have wondered about at some moment or other and present them in easy-to-understand, entertaining ways. Some of the offbeat stories they've covered include:

• Why New York State built the Tappan Zee Bridge at the widest point of the Hudson River.
• Why we buy cars the way we do, when people almost universally hate buying them that way.
• Why Coca-Cola kept the price of a bottle of Coke at 5 cents...for 70 years.
• Why there's a difference between the sticker price of college and the price students actually pay.
• Why the U.S. has a dollar bill instead of a dollar coin like Canada has.

The list is a lot longer. I highly encourage you to give the show a listen. If you find it as interesting as I do, I encourage you to subscribe. Either way, the Planet Money episode of Feb. 8, 2013 is definitely worth your time. In 21 minutes, they cover four stories, the first two of which are insurance-related: Why the federal government is in the flood insurance business; and whether gun owners should have to buy liability insurance. I learned something new about the history of the National Flood Insurance Program. Enjoy!

Listen Now!

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Ask Tim, Episode #34: What is an Independent Contractor in Construction?

It's not unusual for me to get a phone call from an IIABNY member who has a client that is hiring people on a "1099" basis; that is, the client thinks the person hired is an independent contractor and not an employee. "1099" refers to the form on which the business reports the person's compensation to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. But does the mere use of a 1099 form make someone an independent contractor, rather than an employee?

This is the first of two episodes of the Ask Tim podcast in which I look at this question. This episode looks at the construction industy; the next one will discuss non-construction situations. Suffice to say, the answer is a bit more complicated than just an IRS form.

In this episode:

• The Trusted Choice® chopper exhibition at the New York State Fair
• The chopper's appearance on the TV show American Chopper
• My office improvement plans
• The New York Construction Industry Fair Play Act
• The Workers Compensation page in the IIABNY Research Library

Any thoughts, comments or questions about the episode? Feel free to leave them in the comments.

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Two Minutes With Tim: Coverage For Building's New Owner?

Tim looks at a situation where a mortgages holder foreclosed on a property and a third party has bought it without obtaining insurance.

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Ask Tim, Episode #33: The New York Health Insurance Exchange

We go really high-tech with episode 33 of Ask Tim. We installed this fancy software called Skype in order to do a remote interview with IIABNY legislative representative Michael Barrett, who was comfortably ensconced in his office near the State Capitol. Yup, we're trend-setters here at IIABNY HQ.

Our conversation centered on the health insurance exchange that the Cuomo Administration is creating in order to comply with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We talked about:

• The technological preparations that are under way
• The potential roles for agents and brokers in governing the exchange
• What may happen over the next few months.

I conclude with a reminder about how IIABNY members may be able to use the exchange and potential tax benefits that may be worth investigating. Also, stay tuned for our upcoming new video series on health care reform.

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Ask Tim, Episode #32: MVR's

Motor vehicle records (MVR's, for short) are an important part of the insurance business. Insurance agencies everywhere spend a lot of time on them -- ordering copies, reviewing them, flagging drivers with poor records. Much of the time, there are other people interested in sneaking a peek at the information in those records, and they want their insurance agents to share. These people tend to be the ones who write paychecks to the drivers described in the records. When this situation comes up (and that is almost daily), agents have two questions: Can they share the MVR's? Should they share them?

The new episode of the Ask Tim podcast seeks to answer those questions. Special guest co-host Dee Macheda joined me for this little eight-minute exploration of insurance geekiness. We examine in some detail:

• The prohibitions and allowances under the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act
• The limitations commonly found in contracts with vendors of MVR's
• Some provisions of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act that also apply.

More information is available on the MVR's page in the Research section of the IIABNY Web site.

Special thank you to my son Nathan Dodge for providing the prop that Dee used during the filming of this podcast, an act that was both generous and done completely without his knowledge.

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Ask Tim, Episode #31 -- Conditional Renewal Notices

In today's episode of the Ask Tim podcast, I take a look at the requirements in New York Insurance Law Section 3426 regarding when insurance carriers have to send conditional renewal notices on commercial lines policies. Also, a generous IIABNY colleague buys me lunch. Here are the highlights:

Carriers must send conditional renewal notices on some commercial lines policies to the first-named insured, at the address shown on the policy, and to the insured's authorized agent or broker. They must send a notice if they are conditioning renewal upon:

• Change of limits
• Change in type of coverage
• Reduction of coverage
• Increased deductible
• Addition of exclusion
• Some premium increases in excess of 10 percent

Future episodes will explore Section 3426 in more detail. 

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Ask Tim, Episode #30: Employees' Autos

It's St. Patrick's Day here at the Geek Cave, and I raise a mug of green tea (seriously, it was just tea, unfortunately) for episode #30 of Ask Tim. In this episode, I talk about when employees use their own cars on company business. Key points:

• The employee's personal auto policy provides primary liability coverage for both the employee and employer
• The employee's limits may not be adequate to cover the loss
• The employer's auto policy will provide excess coverage for the employer but not the employee
• To protect their employees, businesses should consider adding the Employees As Insureds endorsement to their auto policies.
• More information is in the IIABNY Research Library under Auto Insurance Issues.

Remember, if you go to a parade tomorrow, and you see St. Patrick, and he sees his shadow, it means we get six more weeks of winter. I think.

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Ask Tim, Episode #29 -- Watercraft Insurance

This episode of the Ask Tim podcast shows our insurance geek struggling to stay warm while he talks about something that's no laughing matter -- the capsizing of the cruise ship Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy earlier this month. While very few of us will handle the insurance program for a multi-million dollar ocean liner, some main street agents might be asked to place coverage for the types of commercial watercraft found in Long Island Sound, the Hudson River, or the Great Lakes. In this episode, I discuss exposures to:

• Bodily injury, property damage and pollution liability
• Physical damage to the craft itself

I then look at the types of insurance needed for watercraft, including:

• Protection and indemnity coverage, which, unlike other forms of liability insurance, might not obligate the insurance company to provide the insured with defense
• Hull insurance

Other items noted in this episode:

• Look for more information about watercraft coverage in the Technical Guidance and Research section of the IIABNY Web site soon
• It gets cold in the Geek Cave in January
• J.B. survived the trauma of episode #28 and an amicable legal settlement has been reached

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Ask Tim, Episode #28 -- The Fellow Servant Rule

In this episode of the Ask Tim podcast:

• Tim wishes J.B. a merry Christmas, leaving J.B. speechless
• Tim discusses the "fellow servant rule" and how it applied under common law before there was a Workers' Compensation system.
• New York workers who suffer injuries on the job can sue if they suffer "grave injuries," such as death, dismemberment, paralysis, amputation, etc.
• The Commercial General Liability policy covers the employer when one employee injures another, but it does not cover the employee who caused the injury.
• Businesses who want to protect certain employees against these types of lawsuits need a special endorsement on their CGL policies.

For more information, visit the Big "I" Virtual University page on Commercial General Liability.

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