Here at Advocate Brokerage on Veterans Day we’d like to honor, thank, and applaud the men and women who courageously and selflessly serve our country. Thank you for protecting us, inspiring us, and making us proud to be Americans! (more…)

Dear friends and future friends of Advocate Brokerage: Welcome to our new blog. We hope in the coming months and years you’ll visit frequently to catch up on some local news, learn things about your insurance coverage and policies, get some pointers on securing your home and family against disasters, and find help for your insurance needs. For more than...

Quiet Hurricane Season a “Head Scratcher” for Embarrassed Forecasters We’re so happy the forecasters were wrong! Anything that keeps us warm and dry is a-ok :) . Click the link above to read more about how this hurricane season fell short of expectations, and feel free to peruse earlier posts in our blog to make sure you know how to...

Angie Reyes is VIP Account Manager at Advocate Brokerage, which means that her entire job is handling the unusual. Most of Angie’s clients own vacation homes, so she is used to dealing with $6 million properties in Colorado and California, and handling houses in the Hamptons is a daily occurrence for her. Angie is also expert at insuring massive home...

If recent storms, like Irene and Sandy, have taught us anything, it is that your home does not have to be a coastal property to be vulnerable to flooding. In fact, one out of every three flood claims occur in a FEMA designated “preferred flood zone.” For most of us, protecting your home from flooding is as easy as purchasing...

New York and New Jersey residents, just coming to grips with the enormous costs of repairing homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, will soon face another financial blow: soaring flood insurance rates and heightened standards for rebuilding that threaten to make seaside living, once and for all, a luxury only the wealthy can afford. Homeowners in storm-damaged coastal areas...

More than three decades before Superstorm Sandy, a state law and a series of legislative reports began warning New York politicians to prepare for a storm of historic proportions, spelling out scenarios eerily similar to what actually happened: a towering storm surge. Overwhelming flooding. Swamped subway lines. Widespread power outages. The Rockaways peninsula was deemed among the "most at risk."...

LANCE ARMSTRONG has apparently managed to put legal structures in place over the years that will help insulate his fortune, as I wrote last week. But what about other people who may be less prominent but concerned about lawsuits? Can they also protect themselves? The short answer is that someone’s money can never be completely protected from creditors, but there...

This article was contributed by Roz Binday, President of Advocate Brokerage in Scardale: We all know how badly Sandy battered the Scarsdale area, but there is a bright side. It was mostly a wind event…not a flood event. Even worse, it could have been both. Windstorms, hurricanes and Nor’Easters all have the potential to cause different kinds of damage over...

As Hurricane Sandy makes its approach towards the East Coast of the United States, Advocate Brokerage Corp. wants to remind you how important it is to take preventive measures to protect your family, home and possessions. Hurricane preparedness checklist Preparing for hurricanes can be the difference between minor damage and catastrophic loss. The following information is intended to guide you...