Weight Loss Myths

How Stress Affects Students

Never Too Young to be Devoted

We’d like to introduce Colleen Rossano, a customer of ours who’s been with us for quite some time, but even more directly her daughter, Susan.

Susan was born at 31 weeks, roughly 7 months, due to stressful circumstances her mother Colleen had to endure during pregnancy. At three years of age, as she looked through pictures of herself in NICU(neonatal intensive care unit) she couldn’t help but wonder why, in the midst of Christmas, she lay in a empty room. “She wanted to know where her toys were,” says Colleen. Its common for a child to relate Christmas to presents. That’s how Susan saw it. In ’06 her sister Rylin was born. She too had to be place in NICU and this made Susan worry. Were these babies going to experience a giftless holiday like she did?

Susan’s mind was set. On her birthday, December 22^nd, she was bringing all the babies in NICU Christmas present. That’s how it been these past five years. With hands full of stuffed animals and a heart full of kindness she pays her yearly visit to the NICU at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines. All sponsored by her hard earned, well saved allowance money.

“This is a present from me to you

Seven years ago I was in NICU too

My mom said no one filled the room with joy

So here’s a special holiday toy”

– poem left with every toy by Susan

Susan was awarded the Guardian Angel award, the youngest recipient to date as well as having raised one thousand dollars for March of Dimes and recently collected diaper for Forever Family, an organization which supports relatives raising babies. It comes to no surprise that Susan wants to become a “baby doctor” when she grows up. “I want to be the first one to touch a baby.”

Stress: Don’t Let It Control You

You bite your nails. There are nicks and battle scars on your pencil or pen cap from constant attacks of your teeth. Your hair is holding on to dear life to your scalp as you threaten to pull it out. This…is your third cup of coffee…in the last hour. A millions problems are going through your head, not one solution. The monotone buzz of the office doesn’t help with printers, faxes, and phones ringing all day. Thursday can’t get any worse.

Stress can be found in many environments and is expressed hundreds of ways. Be it at work, home, school, or any other situation that may become stressful. A study by Northwestern National Life reports that 40% of workers feel their job is “very or extremely stressful”.  Not that big of a number? That’s more than 1 out of 3 people. 10 people in the office? Three stressed. A hundred? Thirty. A thousand? Get it now? Whether it be three or three hundred, 10% of workers have stated that the work atmosphere has been witness to physical violence and 42% report yelling or other verbal abuses are common. So a person that is “extremely” stressed and also violent, well, we can imagine the dark road that leads to. We’ve seen the news.

Don’t put it aside. Manage your stress before it becomes unmanageable.  Here’s a couple ways to cope with stress:

• Don’t expect perfection of yourself or others
• Set appropriate priorities
• Get regular exercise
• Take a walk and enjoy the scenery
• Make some quiet time regularly
• Allow for sufficient relaxation and sleep
• Talk to a friend/coworker about your worries
• If your workplace allows, play some easy listening music or any that will calm you and keep you leveled

Don’t allow stress to get the upper hand. CWI Underwriters wishes you to have a great day and enjoy the coming weekend!

High Gas Prices = Fewer Accidents

How many times has this happened to you? You have a bag full of your favorite candy. It’s set in a drawer next to you, or your kitchen, or by the computer. When the bag is full you splurge your candy. To you it’s full and it will stay full. Then one day, you pull open your drawer, pull it out and *gasp* it’s light. Too light. Now you start to spread it out as thin as you can. You don’t grab handfuls, but instead, grab a piece or two and put it away. You become very protective of it and even stop sharing with your co-workers (they’re animals). Interestingly enough, today’s economy is having that same effect on the way we use our cars.

FIVE DOLLARS! That’s the forecast for mid this year and if you’re like me, we’re dreading the pump so much that we’ll do anything so that the needle, that devilish thing that taunts us as it drops slowly but surely, stays up and takes its time on it descent. Yet, alas, there is a silver lining behind it all. What happened with your candy as its supply ran short? You were more careful with it, right? So too will you be with the way you drive and your gas consumption.

A study done by the Mississippi States Social Research Center compared gas prices with traffic stats from April 2004 to December 2008. The study showed how there was a short term effect on young drivers and an intermediate effect on older drivers. People react by making less unimportant trips or by simply doing everything they need on the way back home to reduce traveling. There was even an effect on drunk driving and if you think about it, it makes sense. What you would spend on booze is now filling up your car to get you back home or to work.

P.S. At CWI Underwriters you don’t have to drive to us to save on you policies. That would kinda be an oxymoron. We’ll take care of you over the phone or by email…telepathy available soon.

Is Your Home Under-Insured?

We have been disaster free here in Florida for a good number of years. Our homeowner policies have continued renewing and sometimes we pulled them only when the renewal premium goes up. Now do yourself a favor and take a second look at that policy.

It is common that after disaster strikes, people find out they’re under-insured.  MSB, an insurance-services firm, surveyed that nationwide 68% of homeowners are under-insured by an average of 18%. This practically means that on a house worth $300,000 the owner will find themselves $54,000 short in a disastrous situation.

Rather sooner than later a major hurricane will hit South Florida, this is the time for anyone that owns a property to pull their policy and call their agent and schedule an annual review and discuss the coverages, changes and other protections that are available.

Here at CWI Underwriters we’ll be happy to take a look at your current policy at no charge.

Recession Cause Spike in Insurance Fraud…and Policy Premiums

A recent study conducted by the National Insurance Crime Bureau has reported that from 2009 to 2010 there had been an increase of 17% in questionable auto claims, topping ’10 with 8,724. The total number increased topped to 41% in 2009 and decreased back to 35% in 2010.

Hillsborough, Broward, and Dade counties are the most affected areas in the state of Florida with fraud claims.

This could lead to higher premiums for honest policyholders.

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understanding permanent life insurance

Ever wonder if your life insurance policy is enough to cover your family and loved ones? Keep reading below to understand the difference between the different types of permanent life insurance.

There are three types of permanent life insurance policies:

• Whole Life: Whole life policies will accumulate cash value over time. These are traditional policies and most of them pay dividends to the policy holder.
• Universal Life: Universal policies have flexible options that other permanent polices don’t have. It allows the insured to change the amount of insurance and change the premium as the insured’s need’s change.
• Variable Life: Variable policies are the most risky. The policy value and death benefit are based upon the performance of an outside investment fund. The majority of the policies guarantee that the death payout won’t fall below a certain minimum; however, they do not guarantee the cash value of the policy.

If you have any of the above mentioned policies give us a call here at CWI Underwriters 888-636-6438, so we can review your life policies and make sure you are properly covered.

married for 85 years and counting!

First and foremost—-TGIF!

I came into work this morning and in my everyday process, I sat and opened my computer and MSN pops up with this story that is unreal… Celebrating an 85th wedding anniversary? That’s unheard of! It’s an inspiring story as to what true love really is. After all the cute thoughts that were racing thru my head slowed down… my insurance thoughts kicked in… Wondering if they had any life insurance and if so, what would their premiums be? If your NOT 104 yet you feel like you are paying a life insurance premium of a person that IS 104, give us a call! We have a vast variety of life insurance companies that can insure the well-being of you and your family. We are your friendly neighborhood insurance agency that is always willing to help you save money and offer you outstanding customer service. And on that note, we here at CWI Underwriters would like to wish Herbet and Zelmyra Fisher a wonderful and Happy 85th Anniversary!