Insurance Guides for Chicago and the North Shore
Plain explanations of how coverage actually works, written for homeowners, drivers, condo owners, landlords, and business owners across Wilmette, Evanston, Elmhurst, Chicago, and the surrounding suburbs. Most of these came out of questions clients asked us first.
Browse by topic: home insurance, condo, flood and water damage, umbrella, auto and teen drivers, landlord, life, and business insurance.
Home Insurance When You Leave the North Shore for Winter
Occupancy conditions, the freezing exclusion, water precautions and property checks to handle before closing up a North Shore house for the winter.
Do 1099 Independent Contractors Need Workers’ Compensation in Illinois?
Illinois does not require you to buy workers compensation for a genuine 1099 independent contractor. But the state decides who is genuinely independent, your carrier decides at audit, and if a contractor cannot produce their own coverage, they usually get added to your payroll and you pay the premium anyway. That gap between the paperwork…
Workers’ Comp for Business Owners in Illinois: Sole Proprietors, LLC Members, Officers and Ghost Policies
Short answer: in Illinois, a sole proprietor, partner or LLC member with no employees can usually leave themselves off workers’ comp, and a corporation’s top officers can opt out in writing. The moment anyone else works for the business, coverage is required for them. A “ghost policy” is a minimum-premium policy with the owner excluded…
Workers’ Comp Audits in Illinois: What Counts as Payroll and How to Avoid a Surprise Bill
Short answer: the premium on a workers’ comp policy is an estimate. After the policy year ends, the insurance company audits the payroll you paid in each class code and bills or refunds the difference. Surprise audit bills almost always come from one of three things: payroll grew and nobody updated the policy, an employee’s…
Experience Modification Rate (EMR) Explained: How Illinois Mods Are Calculated and What One Claim Costs
Short answer: your experience modification rate, or “mod,” is a multiplier NCCI calculates by comparing your actual workers’ comp losses over three past policy years with the losses expected for a business with your payroll in your class codes. A 1.00 mod is average. A 0.85 mod takes 15% off your premium, and a 1.25…
How Much Is Workers’ Comp in Illinois? How Premium Is Calculated, Plus an Estimator
Short answer: Illinois workers’ comp premium is your payroll divided by 100, times the rate for each class code, times your experience mod if you have one, before credits, discounts and a small state surcharge. Across Illinois, the payroll-weighted average rate for 2023 policies was $1.21 per $100 of payroll in the regular market and…
When Storm Damage Becomes Debt: The Coverage Gaps Illinois Homeowners Miss
Storm damage turns into debt when the repair bill lands in a part of the loss the policy was not set up to pay: a wind and hail deductible written as a percentage, a roof settled at its depreciated value, water that came up through a floor drain, or a tree that fell without hitting…
Condo Loss Assessment Coverage for Illinois HO-6 Owners
Loss assessment coverage pays your share when a condo association bills every unit owner for a shortfall its master policy did not cover. Most HO-6 policies include a token amount by default. In a mid-sized Illinois building, the realistic exposure is often many times that. It is often underfunded on Chicago and North Shore condo…
Is Erie Insurance a Good Fit for Your Wilmette Household?
How an independent agency decides whether Erie is the right carrier for a Wilmette household, what gets compared, and when another carrier fits better.
Replacement Cost vs. Actual Cash Value in Home Insurance
See how depreciation changes a claim payment and why replacement cost still has limits. Compare roof, building, and belongings coverage before choosing a deductible.