Everything you wanted to know about insurance, but we're afraid to ask!

Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode 106 of your favorite motorcycle safety podcast, Arrive Alive. My name is Len Bolello, and this is going to be a fun and informative show. But first, I want to take a second or two to thank everybody at the Heyman Law Firm, including John, the CEO and founder, and Harley Rider.
And Amanda, who texted me a photo of her riding just last week, they have signed on to sponsor and support the show for another year, along with our two-wheel Tuesday night. So if you're in the New York area, there'll be a link on the show notes for the Facebook group, and it'll show you where we meet every Tuesday. I've used the Heyman Law Firm in the past. When I got hit, I have two friends that have used the Heyman Law Firm. And what sets them apart is all their attorneys.
are riders just like you and me, and they're probably slower than me. But hey, that's the brakes, as they say. But if you're in the New England, New York, New Jersey area, they can absolutely help you, and they can also help you no matter where you are in the country because they have a network of super cool and super experienced partners that they work with. So hopefully you'll never need the number, but jot it down, 1-800-H-A-Y-M-O-N-D.
Because if you go down, they'll help you back up in more ways than one. Now, you know, when you work out or when you diet or even when you're working on your motorcycle and tuning it up and it takes a lot of time and you have to get a lot of knowledge and it may not be the funnest thing in the world to do these things, but the results pay off in dividends with a nice, clean, shiny bike that runs well. You're a healthy, fit body of mind. So these things that you do that might not be wonderful.
actually turned out to be wonderful in the end. And this is how it is with insurance. Now, you know, I was telling our guests that when you talk to people that I ride with and at our Two Wheel Tuesday meetups, they know everything about their motorcycle, why they bought the tires, why they bought their helmets, why they bought their boots and jacket. But oftentimes they have no clue why they bought their insurance or what company they have, or even they know the company, why they chose that company. So this show is everything you wanted to know.
about motorcycle insurance but we're afraid to ask and our guest today is michael silverman who's got an office right here in manhattan and he's the owner and founder of the silver lining insurance agency and he's got himself and a whole staff of people that help people like me and you out now he just doesn't do motorcycle insurance he does all types including small businesses which i know we have a lot of small business owners that listen to us whether they are
repair facilities, motorcycle dealerships, that type of thing. So get your pen and paper out. Actually, we're going to have, if you go to the show notes at Arrive Alive Podcast, there's going to be a nice outline that you can download as a PDF, and it's going to be like an insurance checklist, right? And then there'll also be how to contact Michael, and he does, I believe he does insurance all over the country. So very personal guy. So he doesn't ride a motorcycle, but he protects.
Those of us who do. And that's very important. Michael Silverman, welcome to the Arrival Live podcast. Great to have you here. Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to it. You are most welcome. That's the great answer. So, you know, it's March 13th. Spring supposedly is, what, seven days away. Everybody, you know, I run what's called a Facebook group that has 8,000 members and a meetup, which is kind of dovetails into that, that has 3,400 members. And they're all in the New York tri-state area.
Facebook, we get a lot of bots and things like that, but I don't know if you've ever dealt with meetup.com, but they have what's called double verify. So in order to join, you have to write. So those people, meetup gives me a CSV or an Excel file, and I see the borough, the first and last name, and I don't get email address because that's how they keep you on the platform. But anyway, so we have people on the Facebook group and sharing things about rides, what they ride, why they ride. Everybody knows.
When you talk to motorcyclists, everybody knows everything about their motorcycle, why they chose the tires, what kind of gas they put in, do they have a windshield, what kind of helmet, how much their helmet costs. But when you ask them, hey, what kind of insurance do you have? I swear to you, 80% of the time, and these are people 25 to 65 years old, they're going to say, I don't know, I think Geico? Or if they know, they'll tell you the name and say, oh, I got Allstate. Oh, why'd you get it?
it was the cheapest or um it came like i bundled it with homeowners do you know how much you're covered for nobody knows so let's talk about a lot of people are buying bikes a lot of people are selling bikes and even now because of the internet it's been around for a while but even like these buying sites people are not only buying locally but they're buying regionally and sometimes even overseas i have a guy friend of mine who bought a motorcycle from australia because he loved it so much so let's just talk about the top the first three things the basics of
insuring a motorcycle, whether it's with doing it yourself online or doing it with an agency like yours? It doesn't matter whether you're doing it online or you're doing it on your own. The bottom line is the three most important things to look at. Liability, un- and underinsured motorist coverage, and then physical damage, collision and comprehensive. Those are the three first categories you must look at.
And really, let's be realistic. What's going to happen? There's going to be an accident. Whether it's motorcycle insurance or automobile insurance, cars and bikes get fixed or get replaced. People frequently don't get fixed and cannot be replaced. So that's liability. That's the issue that we want to work on first. That's if someone gets hurt. You're driving along, you have an accident, and the other person gets hurt.
You caused injury to somebody else. Happens all the time. Now, every state of the union that requires motor vehicle insurance, whether auto, motorcycle, et cetera, will have minimum. And every state is different. Insurance is state regulated. Got it. And some states don't have insurance, right? New Hampshire still doesn't require? That's correct. Why is that, do you think? I mean, I know they're the show me state and they're, I don't know if they're there, but it says.
Live or die or live free or die is their kind of motto on their plate. Well, maybe they don't like motorcycles because of that. So I don't know. But yeah, the bottom line is don't buy the minimum. Right. No, people spend so much money purchasing a bike, so much money purchasing the right helmet, the right accessory, the wants, not the needs. I got to have this.
I got to have a certain feel in my helmet. I got to have the right microphone. I got to don't look at price of the insurance first. Okay. So let me just interrupt you briefly. So most people, I think, get insurance online. They're doing a keyword search, low cost motorcycle insurance. And do you think it's, I don't want to say the fault, but I think companies like Geico and Allstate and State Farm, they want to get somebody in the door.
Quickly and they probably don't make a ton on motorcycle insurance, but maybe they're looking to get upgrade these
people. I don't think, you know, the last time I did my insurance, I've been with the same company for years, Markel Insurance. I don't know if you know who they are, right? Yeah. And I forgot why I picked them, but I've been with them for 10 years now. And do you think when you go through the process of doing it online, I don't think they really steer you to something that is a little bit more expensive, more comprehensive. Do you get that feeling? I know that factor. Okay. They do not. Because they are...
I'm not saying anything negative about these insurance. Right. Because you work with them. Well, the bottom line is when you call 1-800. Right. That person is employed by that insurance. That person does not give a hoot about you, your family, your expert. They just want to sell you a policy. Hi, Michael Silman just got a new bike. I need insurance. What can you give me? What's cheap? I don't want to spend a lot of money.
No one wants to overspend on their insurance. Nobody. And I say that to people all the time. I have insurance too. I have to pay my premiums. I get it. But that person on the other side of the number does not have a vested interest in you and your well-being. When you go to an agency, whether it's me or anybody else, they want to know you. Yes, they would like to sell you other things. There's no question.
that agency's name is on the ID card. Their reputation is there. They care about what happens to you, your bike, more importantly, your family and everything else down the line. So it's all about personal relationships. I hear you. And, you know, Michael and I were talking earlier before we started recording and my father was a small business owner. He's still alive and well, thank God. But he had a small business and he gave me his 1972 Cadillac in 1986 where I started driving.
But he said he always told me to get the most insurance that you can afford. As a small business owner, you have a lot of headaches. And my dad always said to me, if you could just pay a little bit extra for less headaches and more peace of mind, that's the good thing. And if you ever get a motorcycle, Michael, and you join our Facebook group, there's a lot of different posts, and we were talking about that. Unfortunately, some of the most popular posts, now that you have ring cameras all over the place, is, hi, my name is...
uh edward and here's a video of my motorcycle getting stolen last night from a ring camera and then here's what happens next everybody floods the comments were you insured blah blah blah no i only had the l word liability but and here's the thing though some of these people if they live on in the bronx or certain parts of brooklyn you know the i guess this where you live is
I had this one guy, Lester, he rides a Ducati, which is an Italian motorcycle. I'm not sure if you know. But, you know, he looked at liability. It was like $800 a month. It was like $800 a month just for liability. The bike was only worth, you know, $11,000. So he had to pay $8,000 a month? I mean, I'm sorry, a year for an $11,000 motorcycle? And is that something maybe going to an agency might have helped him with? Well, you'd have conversation on it. It might have, but I will tell you.
Like the real estate industry. Right. Location, location. Right. Okay. In New York, of the five boroughs, Brooklyn is the most expensive of the five boroughs, pretty much to insure anything. Really? But specifically motivated. And I'll ask this, and we might edit this out, and I'm not asking you, but there are people that I know.
that if they live in Brooklyn, but they have a friend or a family member or relative in Nassau County, Suffolk, maybe even parts of Jersey, and Jersey does not require inspections, as you probably know. I don't want to say smart, but I'm sure you know it happens. Can you comment on people that do that and can it come back to bite them? It can absolutely come back to bite. And how would that be? Let's say you get into an accident. Does the insurance company say, hey, man, I noticed you're getting a lot of your mail in Bushwick.
But you say the bike was in, you know, Comac in Suffolk County. And like now that there's cameras all over the place, maybe they, I don't know, like how does that work? It comes back specifically when there's a major. If it's just an accident, you hit something on a property, it's rarely in it. Okay. When there's injuries, they go in depth. They start doing some homework. Now, if I have a client that has a brownstone in Brooklyn.
and a house in the hamper. Right. That's not as tough a call to do. Okay. But if I live in Brooklyn, and as you said, you live in Comac, and I use your address, that's not a problem. Now, that's not kosher, and it's not a great idea. Do people do it, as you said? Unfortunately, they do. Yeah. I will say to people this. Do not ever play that game crossing state lines. Okay.
because insurance is state regulated. So if I'm going to tell you that my motorcycle is garaged in New Jersey and it needs to be registered in New Jersey, how am I going to register it in New Jersey if I don't have a legit address? Got it. It's a game that only comes back to bite somebody when there's a problem and it doesn't save enough money to make it work. I want to talk to you about uninsured motorists and also...
health insurance in a second, but I want to ask you this first. When people go to an agency like yours, here's basically where our listenership comes from. About 40% New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Texas is big. California is big. Florida is big. And even Seattle, Washington is getting big now, too. And we had like, what, 36,000, 37,000 listeners in the last year. We did a lot of shows last year.
So if I call an agency like yours, give you all the information, do you kind of know off the top of your head, oh, I'm going to go with this company based on what he says or she says? Or do you say, hey, this is great. Give me a day. I'm going to do some research and then come back with a few different options. How does that work? If I have the day, if I'm given the day, I can get many more options. If we need to do it now because we're buying it as we speak, which, by the way, happens.
quite often. Right. Then we're going to be in two or three insurance companies depending upon where you are and what kind of bike it is. Sure. And what is your experience as a rider? Right. And all the discounts, whether it's age or education. Let me ask you this. Let's say today's Friday. Somebody just bought a bike and you said, you know what? You want to pick up the bike tomorrow. It's going to cost you a thousand bucks a year. I'm making that number up. And let's say a week from now, you may, or maybe your assistant or somebody at your office says, you know what? I found something for 600 bucks.
Is that prorated? Can they cancel one policy and then go to another one? Absolutely, yes. Got it. Okay. And then when you go to Chipotle, you pay a little bit less because you're serving yourself, you're going in line. But when you go to a nice Mexican restaurant, you're paying a little bit more because it's personalized service. And a lot of people don't mind paying more for getting better stuff, right? And I know it's going to be tough, but would you say that going to an agency, I know you can't speak for every agency,
but I'm sure you know a lot of people in the business. Is there a premium that most people will pay or actually are they going to pay the same?
or less because they are relying on the expertise of somebody like you or other people that have expertise. There is not a significant difference between going direct online and having an agency. Got it. Not significant. It was. Okay. Got it. And what would you, you know, you write up a lot of policies a year. Would you say the motorcycle policies, are they usually single policy where you're just riding a motorcycle?
Or is it somebody that has a house or a car and they say, you know what, Michael, I just bought a Harley. Can we add that on? How does that look like usually? It really comes both ways. It is frequent that I get the referral to the new motorcycle driver, getting a motorcycle, and we write that policy. Then we go back and have the whole conversation around their entire portfolio. How can we dovetail them together to save some money on everything? Got it. Okay.
Three or four years ago, we had a friend, David, who worked for the mayor back then, de Blasio, whatever. I won't even mention anything about it. But he worked for de Blasio, and he's a lawyer. And unfortunately, he lived in Scarsdale. And unfortunately, he went to the opening day of the New York Mets, which was, I think, I remember it was Good Friday. This is, what, 2026? I think it was 2025. Unfortunately, somebody kind of clipped him on the hutch.
And he passed away. And this guy, he was like maybe 41 years old, maybe. And he, unfortunately, his wife was pregnant. He had a four-year-old daughter. This is the type of guy, if he sat on the motorcycle to take a photo, he wore full gear, okay? He believed in safety. Now, he had a fast bike, I will say that. He had like a Kawasaki Z1000. And I'm not saying he was...
you know, a nun riding the bike, but he was very skilled too. And sometimes that's a problem, but from, from there was limited cameras on the hutch, but what, from what they were able to see, they couldn't see the car that caught him. So now, unfortunately he passed away. I don't even know why, but I guess my question is, all right, you have liability and then you have, you know, fixing the bike and repairing the bike. But what if something, if he would have lived, or let's say I have an accident and my health insurance,
only goes up to a certain amount. So let's say somebody gets a crash and it's going to cost me $2 million, even a million dollars in rehab. I have to go for rehab and therapy and all that stuff. How does that work? Can you build that into the policy or is that a separate thing that you have to work on with your health insurer, which may come from your place of employment? How does that work? So on an underinsured motor. Well, let's just talk about a single vehicle. All right. So let's, they couldn't get that person.
And Michael doesn't ride a motorcycle yet, but no. But because you don't ride a motorcycle, and I've done a lot of research, an overwhelmingly, a large percentage of motorcycle accidents are single vehicle. They do it themselves. So in that case, let's just pretend that they didn't get the person. So how does it work where, you know, I slipped, I went down by myself, nobody else was at fault, but I need $300,000 worth of healthcare after that. How does that work? No, it depends. Okay. One.
What's stating it? What are the rules for the insurance? What was chosen? Is your medical insurance primary, secondary to the motorcycle, or vice versa? Those are the things we look at. Can you get increased? Let's just pretend New York for now. So I say, listen, Michael, I got my employer health here. I think it covers up to 50 or whatever. I don't want to be paying double coverage, right? That's not for me.
That's not a big premium bar portion, but you can get a $500,000 of coverage on that. Oh yeah. So if I go down myself and I can get, yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I know I tell you, I mean, I had a friend, I won't say her name, but she had over, I think $800,000 might've been $500,000. And she had one of these negotiators came down to like $14,000 after these negotiations. It's, we don't even want to talk about it. Have you, you know what? The funny thing is,
is that we have a lot of women. So in 1993, only 11% of all motorcycles were registered to women. In 2022, the last date that we have figures, it was almost 40%. So a lot more women. And the funny thing is, I get emails from women all the time, not the ones that I like, like, hey, are you single? But a lot of them say that they're more afraid of going into a motorcycle dealership.
than they are about riding on the hutch during high traffic. Because they think that they're going to be maybe prejudged because they're a woman. And a lot of them, I think, I haven't bought a new bike in a while because is insurance something that a lot of dealers will offer? And if they do, they probably know zero about it. They know nothing about it. They do offer it. They offer it direct online, frequently with Rider or any of the other direct rating companies. Got it.
So would you recommend, if you are buying a bike, don't get insurance from the dealer? I would recommend you not. I would recommend you get it from an insurance person. I'm not going to sell you a bike, because that's not what I do. And that's not what they do, right? That's not what they specialize in. All right, now let's get on to, I have another friend, unfortunately, who was injured on a motorcycle by an elderly person. But, you know, elderly, but like, you know, fine physically and mentally, it appeared.
This person, now this happened in the state of Georgia, and she was connected to an injury firm because she's like a teacher, doesn't know anything how to navigate this. She has neck pain. She's got some soreness in her hand and just like general pain. And the guy who hit her, I think maxed out, like you said, minimum, has the minimum.
$50,000 or $100,000, and the law firm said to her, well, you won't have to pay for any of the tests that you've had, but after all that's done and we take our cut, you might not even get a couple of thousand bucks, if that. Now, let's talk about, and I don't think she had under, so in this case, this person was insured, so uninsured would not be appropriate here, but is there an underinsured, and how does that work, and how much do you recommend, and I know it's going to vary by state,
But let's say I want to be covered for a lot more if somebody's underinsured. What's your general recommendation? $500,000. Okay. And how much more? Is that another 10% more, 30% more? Not even. Not even. Liability insurance across the board, all types of liability, in general, is not the expensive part. What is then? The car, the bike itself, the property. Liability, they know they're having claims.
But when one purchases an umbrella liability policy, which could go over your home, your cars, your bikes, your boats, everything, that is the least expensive product on the planet to buy. You hear these things with slip and falls. People get sued for millions of dollars. I would think that insurance companies would say, hey, we don't want to get sued now for millions of dollars. I would think that would cost a little bit more money than limited. But it doesn't. All right, so now the door's out of the barn. Is that what they say? Or the cow's out of the barn, whatever?
So, unfortunately, she didn't have that. Now, this person was driving a very nice car, and they probably are a homeowner. They're retired. They probably have a nice nest egg. And maybe this is a question for a lawyer than you, but she's kind of at her wit's end because...
At $50,000, most of that is already gone from all the medical tests and the lawyer's cut. Does she have the option? Should she lean on her lawyers? What happens there? Do you have to sue them personally? Okay. And if they find that they're at fault from an insurance purpose, which she was, I would think that's an easier path. Do they have trials for this, or is it more of a negotiation? There's always a trial at the end. Do you get there? We don't know. Okay.
There has to be assets to get. You know, you're going to hire an attorney. They're going to do some investigation. It's not an inexpensive proposition. But do those attorneys always work on a commission like the other ones? Many will do it on a contingent. Okay, right. You know, but it really depends upon what happened, how it happened, and just how bad is it. Got it. Okay. And do you deal with a lot of injury attorneys or not so much?
Okay. We see the ones advertised all over the place. The Heyman Law Firm is a sponsor of our show, but the reason they're a sponsor is because, hey, in 2009, on July 4th weekend, I was hit by this 18-year-old kid in his dad's 7 Series BMW right in front of New York Presbyterian. And I was very upset, but I was mostly okay. And I later found out a few minutes later, his dad, he was just moving his dad's car because his twin brother.
had stomach cancer, was at Sloan Kettering. So it was tough to feel bad for that. But that's when the Heyman Law Firm represented me, and all their attorneys are motorcyclists themselves. But if you were to give, I guess, when it comes to somebody having an accident, should they immediately call 1-800-Seleno and Barnes or Heyman, or should they first get in touch with their insurance company and you guys handle that? I would tell them, first call their insurance agent, have a conversation, and then before you call 1-800, get some recommendations.
Got it. Whether it be from us or from anybody else. You know, don't go to a law firm blind. Got it. Everybody knows a lawyer. Right. So if nothing else, you're getting in the door. Now, do you know a lawyer that does this? Now, you don't want to go to a wills and estates trust attorney for this. You want a personal injury who specializes in motor vehicles, not just cars, motorcycles, boats, et cetera. And there are more claims, believe it or not.
physical damage claims on boats than there are on motor centers. Interesting. I think, yeah, I think a lot of people, you know, it's funny. We had a woman on the show a few years ago and she's, she's from Taiwan. And when she first came to the country, she would not ride after like 10 o'clock on Fridays and Saturdays. That's when everybody would drink. But now she's like, it's really tough now because people have stopped drinking with Uber and Lyft and people, they think, but she says the problem is everybody's texting and there's no safe time to be on the road. Now I forgot why I brought that up.
I'm getting old. I forgot why I brought that up, but I'll get it. Oh, accessories. So like we said earlier, people knowing everything in the world about their bike. And I'll tell you a story. I have a BMW, and it has the luggage. I had an aftermarket windshield. I had an aftermarket pipe. And Markel, I will say Markel was very good. And they used to sponsor the show, but no more. But we're still friends. And they just changed their strategy. But for whatever reason,
I checked the box accessory coverage for up to $2,000, and I think it cost me another $30 a year. And the one time, I'll tell you, about three years ago, a guy in his mid-60s ran over my bike while it was parked, and nobody was there, and he called the cops on himself. And he filled out the paperwork, and the cops knocked on my door. So anyway, and I was ready to have a, not a fight, but I was ready to argue with the insurance company because I knew they were going to lowball me on the bike, on what the bike was worth.
Not only did they not lowball me, okay, they actually paid me more than I expected because what I didn't realize, when you buy something, a car, a motorcycle, a boat, it depreciates. But unless I'm wrong, accessories don't depreciate. Like they said, show us the receipts. I had $700 worth of luggage. You know what they paid me for? $700. I thought that was funny. So I guess you would recommend, I'm sure that's one of the questions you ask, is every accessory insurable and like that? And is there a limit of accessory insurance?
Every company is different. Two, three, five, the most you'll see is 10. Occasionally, you'll see a 25. Because some of these Harley guys, forget about it. The bike's worth 15, and the accessories are worth 15, quite frankly. And Harley has their own insurance, and they provide the most when it comes to accessory options. With all the motorcycle policies that you write in a year or less, two years, is there like one or two companies that you think,
do a better job than most when it comes to motorcycle policies? Yes. Yes. Are you allowed to say what they are? You want to know those names. Yeah. Well, but no, but I mean, they can still go to you because you want personalized service. They could do better, but you don't know how to get better, I would think. Right. So for example, progressive does it very well. Okay. But you got to have the right. Right. You know, again, forgetting premium. You go online.
Great. Okay. I can get 15, 30 coverage, 15, you know, 25, 50. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about having quality coverage, the proper coverages. Progressive does it well. Safeco does it well. Markel does it well. They are. Harley has their own insurance. They do it. What? They own an insurance company? No. They write insurance. Yes. Do they really? Okay. But it's got to be. All right. Let's talk about some specialized stuff.
Sure. I had a friend, Alisa, who wrote a couple of books about women and motorcycle riding, and she mentioned that there are these services that if you, let's say, you need medevac. You're in Spain. I had a friend, she was in Spain, and she had a helicopter that had to take her to the hospital, right? What part of the policy is that under, or do I have to go and get that separate from the stuff that you provide? Okay, so first of all, you went out of the United States. Or maybe I'm in Colorado.
There is a tremendous difference. If you are going to ride a bike outside the 48 contiguous states. Right. So please, I want to make sure everybody realizes that Alaska and Hawaii are not part of the 48 contiguous states. Okay. Okay? And by the way, Canada is not part of our country either. Okay? Got it.
Okay. If you ride outside the 48th, you must or the capital must call the insurance company and confirm that there is coverage for anything. Got it. The odds are there's no. Okay. Now we're in Colorado. As far as I know, that is still a state in the union. Yes. Okay, good. Okay. So Medivac, that is a separate item that is not included in most motorcycle policy.
If I say, listen, I'm doing like adventure riding is huge these days, right? These people go into like the crevices of Tennessee. And so I guess, so if I need like an ambulance, well, if I need a helicopter, is that going to be part of the healthcare coverage in the United States? I guess that would be part of like, if I get that $500,000 extra of healthcare, that would fall. Okay. Let me ask you this, you know, with the, with the, I'm sure you're familiar with Turo. Okay. So there's a company called Rider Share.
And we actually had the CEO on, wonderful guy, he lives in Austin, Texas.
And I haven't, he said, hey, Len, whatever you want, you know, you can rent a bike and I'll give you a discount or whatever. My problem is when I ride somebody else's bike or rent a bike, I feel like I'm cheating on my bike. I know it's crazy, right? But no, but I will do it one day. So I have a beautiful policy with Markel, full coverage. And I know with like, when you go to rent cars, they say your regular insurance for cars should carry over.
Does that carry over when I go do a ride or share? Oh, you're holding your hands up. Here it comes. State to state. Ah. Every state is different. So if you have a New York automobile insurance policy. Right. You have a New York driver's license, a New York registration. Yes. Almost all insurance companies for automobile insurance. You go rent, you're great. So I shouldn't get that extra insurance on a car. Correct. Okay. Now on a motorcycle. In New Jersey, you got to buy it. Got it. Because many carriers don't provide.
So you just have to know. And every state is different, whether you're renting, you're doing the Toro, you do it. It's Airbnb for motorcycles. That's basically what it is. Right. So because a lot of times they, you know, that's often the biggest expense for his company is the insurance. So he won't. Yeah. Sometimes it's as much as it costs to do the bike. All right. That's good to know. But I tell people. Yeah. If you're renting for a couple of days, buy the insurance. Yeah.
Yes, it's a couple of more bucks. And I always tease, it's the same thing with a car. Okay? If it's a couple days, and yes, it's more money, but it's peace of mind. At the end of your vacation or your end of your trip, you go back to the Hertz counter. Here are the keys. There's a dent in the back. Bye-bye. Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode. Do you remember? When Jerry says, wait a second, you're saying I can ram this through. And I don't owe you nothing. And then he said, well, I'll take the key.
I don't know if it was so many years ago. A lot of these younger people, they just know it from the clips and not even the show. You have a few more minutes. I'm with you. I'm here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, all right. So let's talk about, well, let's see. We want to get into AI, but let's talk about small businesses because we have a number of people. I've had a lot of mechanics on the show that either have their own small business, whether it's one or two bays or some of these guys get, you know,
You know, they have like 12 people working for that. And I'm sure small business, you know, in the motorcycle industry, and even we have a lot of detailers, you know, and they are mobile. They have these big, you know, these trucks and all that stuff. But a lot of these guys also have insurance, have motorcycles because they're in it. Do you find it's easier to bundle these together? Should people, I'm sure you're asking questions like what kind of business that they have. But if somebody says, hey, I have a small business that deals with motorcycles. I have a food truck.
I can't tell you how many food truck guys we got. Everybody's got a food truck these days. Since they're going, one-stop shopping is probably easier for them, even though you're probably going to put them with two different companies, probably two different policies. How does that work? There's not a lot of bundling, if you will. Okay. When it comes to more time. Okay. And commercial. Except for home, but homeowners there is. Right. I was going to say, as long as it stays on the personal side. Right. Then there are opportunities.
Commercial, small business, et cetera, and motorcycles, no. Now, if I have a body shop and I'm working on motorcycles and things like that, then we're looking at a garage keeper's policy. Then it's different. Got it. Then my motorcycle can be included in that, yes. Got it. Okay. Oh, somebody, I was looking at some past emails that we have. There's this woman on our group that she puts together track days, upstate New York. Sometimes you could use their motorcycles.
You're giving me a look over here. Sometimes you can use their motorcycles or sometimes you can use yours. I would prefer, I haven't done one yet, but I'd like to. Let's say I want to use mine on a track. That's safe. And oftentimes riding on a track is a lot safer. But is my bike covered if I take it on a racetrack, but not racing, like just going around by myself? That's the gray area. And every carrier has a different answer to that. So that's a question that you will ask when getting that personal service.
Where I'm sure on Geico, they're probably not saying, hey, you're going to take this to a track next month. Right. And I will tell you that if you have a Geico policy, we're just using Geico as an example. If you have a Geico policy and you have the right coverage and everything's great, and you call Geico to say, hey, I'm taking it on a track. I'm not racing. Do I have coverage? Right. Yes, you do. Hang up the phone. Call back. Get another person. You may get the difference. You're kidding. But shouldn't it be in the policy?
that doesn't mean they're calling you the correct thing. And that leads us into AI, because I'm doing some consulting on the side, and even if it's like a friend of a friend, I trust them completely. Well, not completely. What's that old Pawn Stars line? Trust, but Rick would always say, it's not that I don't trust you, I don't trust anybody, right? So they sent me a contract, and in the old days, I would have had to bother my friend, who's a lawyer, have him look at it, and he would gladly do it. But I ran it through AI, and it just noted some things that I might want to redline and things like that.
So if I get a policy from Geico or Progressive, if I run that through AI, it should be able to tell me like if track days are covered or accessories or maybe even point out, like you'll say, here's my policy. What am I missing? Maybe AI might tell me that, even a policy that you give. Okay. There are programs that actually will do that. Interesting. Okay. And now it's very rare where a motorcycle will cause damage. Usually we're getting damage caused by them.
But I tell you, where's your office again? Madison and what? 49th, right near Manhattan. Okay, so I have a friend that works on 46th and Madison. I live on 37th. And I also have one of those e-scooters where you stand up. It's called the Unagi. And people do everything except look where they're going when they cross the street. And they are FaceTiming.
They're doing their makeup. And they cross against the light. And I can't tell you. And I have like a bike that has a pulsating headlight, which is legal. And also have these two kind of fog lights that are always on. And they still don't see me. And I get a little sarcastic with people when they cross against the light. And I'll say to them, hey, I wonder what that red light with the big red hand means. Like they shouldn't, but they don't do it.
And sometimes I'll get a remark and sometimes they'll be like, oh, I'm so sorry, but it doesn't matter. But if, and I know you're not a lawyer or a cop, but if I or a motorcyclist hits somebody that, and we have cameras all over the place now, right? So if it's clearly proven that a motorcycle or even a car has the right of way and somebody is clearly in a, you know, doing something else.
Am I still liable for hitting them? Why is that? You're shaking your head. That should not be correct. It's like if somebody points a gun at me and I shoot them, you know, maybe that's a little extreme, but where's the sense of personal responsibility? There is no personal responsibility in insurance. All right, so if somebody's doing something that's clearly wrong, walking against the light and not looking where they're going, and they get hit, shouldn't it be like, oh, you went into a pool with a weight tied around your leg? Sorry.
The phrase we like to use, it's not politically correct. Stupidity is not an exclusion. Why is that? Because I'm in a vehicle and they're not?
And, you know, which also brings me up to the fact, I'm sure you're familiar with this case like last year on the Metabrook, I think it was, where people try to purposely get hit from behind. And now with all the dash cameras, when they figured out, now I'm not saying the pedestrians are doing that because they're probably not even smart enough. So I guess, all right, knowing that that's a possibility and it varies by state, I guess motorcyclists, since we may be hitting these people, we need to make sure we have maybe, well, let's say I do have the minimum and we were talking about this earlier.
Are they going to go after my personal assets once they cross the minimum? Should I hit a pedestrian? They have the right to. Right. They have the right to. Absolutely. The courts are there for just that purpose. Will they win? It depends. And that was my next question. All right, let's say we've exhausted the minimum. Oh, and then I also want to talk about, well, all right, so they have the right to, whether they will or not, is something else. I'm spacing a little bit. We'll come back to that.
Anyway, so, and we'll wrap it up a little bit, but basically calling an agency, and you deal with all states or just the New York area, your agency? Yeah, we are licensed in all 50 states. So if they live in Texas, they can give you a call and that type of thing. And do you, is most of your work done on the phone or via video chat with you clients? I love the video chat because I think it's my personal. Right. Some people don't want that. We'll do it on the phone. That's great. Right. And do people also come into your office or not so much? Absolutely.
By the way, generally the people from Texas do not come in the office. But, yes, we have meetings in the office all the time, even post-COVID. We have people coming in the office. Pre-COVID, it was all the time. Got it. And do you have, I know, you know, our country, I would say probably a third of our, well, maybe not, almost a third of our writers, at least in the New York area, are bilingual. Do you offer any services for Spanish or even Asian people? Good. Awesome.
Yeah, because that definitely helps. We have such a diverse, you know, if you're ever around on a Tuesday, you should come to our motorcycle meetups, right? You'll see 400 people. You will see every race, nationality, color, and creed. And we all get along. And we used to have this one woman from Morocco who was a New York, she was a camera person for New York One. And very petite and had a very, very thick accent, you know. And I said to her once, I said, you know what? New York One should come down here and film us.
All Jews, Catholics, everybody, leftists, rightists, progressive, Republicans, we all get along. And she said, no, they would never do that. We would have to be killing each other for you. And it's such a shame that that's not news, you know? It's such a shame. But yeah, she definitely, or even have your, is that your daughter, Samantha, that I spoke to? Or your wife? Okay, great. Is there anything that I may have left out on the motorcycle front? Because we talked about rentals. We talked about traveling within states.
We talked about uninsured and underinsured. Oh, with the people with the policies, and here's the crazy thing. I don't know if you saw this a few months ago. Are you familiar with companies like Klarna and these things that let you pay over time? Okay, it's really not for us, but Klarna or a Shure or a firm that you can pay, like if you go to Amazon, if you buy something, or Ikea lets you spread the payments out into three months or six months with no financing, right? But there was a headline a few months ago.
You can now buy a cheeseburger and pay over time, which is ridiculous. But also it says something about the price of cheeseburgers. Let's say somebody wants to get the most insurance they can afford. Typically, obviously, I'm sure they can pay over time, correct? Nobody does anything for free. So let's say you have a $2,000 policy and you're paying over time. Are you paying interest on that? How does that work? Again, it depends upon the insurance company. Okay.
Um, if the insurance company offers monthly payments, for example, they may charge $2 a payment. That's not bad. Okay. Some, if you pay by credit card, they may charge you 3% on top, you know, that kind of stuff. It's not prohibitive. It's annoying. Right. But if you need to get the right insurance, yeah, it might end. Okay. And okay. So that's good to know because a lot of people want to get the most insurance, but listen, I don't got 1400 bucks right now.
Or $3,000 or whatever. I don't need the $14,000 and $3,000 up front. We need a small payment. Traditionally, let's assume it's a 12-month policy, the largest payment is the first payment. Sure. And then they break up the rest. And they do it automatically, take it from your account or something like that. They prefer that. Yeah. They charge you less to do that than to bill you. Right, because I don't even think most of the people I ride with even know have even touched a physical check.
in their life. A what? Yeah. You ever see the comedian Sebastian Maniscalco? Absolutely. Yeah, he's got this like funny bit where he's in the grocery store and somebody pulls out a checkbook and people are like, you know, amazed and that type of thing. Okay, so, and again, you know, I believe in personal service. There's some people that, you know, like to do things all themselves, but we will leave a link to your...
Are you on Instagram or just Facebook or the website? We are on Instagram. We're on Facebook. We are on LinkedIn. Okay, great. So we'll leave all that there in the show notes where there'll be a transcript. You can get in touch with him, obviously. So you seem like a low pressure guy. You're not going to like force anybody and chain them to the desk until they sign a policy, correct? I'm not big on chains. Okay.
Yeah, so consultations are free. What is a typical, if somebody, let's say, is a fairly simple case, you know, they're 34 years old, they got a bike that's worth about 14 grand, let's say, and they don't have a home, I mean, they don't have a home, they don't have homeowners because in New York City, most people are renting. What would a conversation with you or one of your associates, how long would that usually take? And should they schedule it or should they just call up? I always first schedule because then you know we're going to be out. Okay. But if you're on the fly, I think we can do it.
Obviously, we're doing it. By the way, just to catch one thing, renters need renter's insurance, and that can be bundled with a motorcycle. Got it. Yeah, there's that company, Lemonade. Are you familiar with them? I am. Oh, now I remember what I meant to ask you. Okay, what's your opinion of Lemonade, which is, I guess, like the Geico for renter's insurance, but they always advertise like five bucks a month or something. What do you get covered for five bucks a month, like a dozen of eggs? Maybe. Right.
The issue with that is, yes, it's very inexpensive. It's very easy to do. It's online. You can do it right on your phone. Here's the problem. When you need them, what do you have? $5 a month using your number is great. What happens when you need something? The most frequent reason young people go to Lemonade is because they're renting an apartment on the Upper East Side, wherever it is, and they must have liability insurance for $5 a month's time.
Am I more than $5 a month? Always. Is it going to get done the same way? Yes. God forbid there's a problem or a claim, we're there. Eight years ago, this family in our building went to the Hamptons for the weekend, and their cleaning lady thought she was being helpful, and she lit an aroma candle. It was by the window, and it caught fire. They came back from Hamptons, and their apartment had caught fire. Now, since the cleaning lady,
lit the candle and she admitted to it. Now, I have a cleaning person and they're fully insured and bonded. So I'm not sure what happened with them if it was just a random person that was cleaning. But in that case, if the cleaning lady was just not insured, that's when you need renter's insurance and good renter's insurance, right?
Okay. And by the way, if you're in apartment 17A. Right. And the doorbell rings or the knock on your door from the people in 16A saying it's raining in their apartment. Right. That's on you. That's liability coverage. Yeah, I'll tell you this. I'll tell you a story offline, but I was on the people's court because of that. I'll talk about it. The last question that we'll let you go. No, it was Judy Milan.
Yeah, and it filmed right, remember Ricky Lake, the Ricky Lake show? It was right in the same studio. I guess I'll tell this story now. So this woman below me sued me because water was coming into an apartment. But what she didn't know is water was coming into all the D apartments. And there was a lot of rain. And I had a digital camera. It was like 2004, but I still had a digital camera. I took photos. I documented everything. My case on the People's Court was the first and at that time the only case to ever be decided before the commercial break.
And it was decided in my favor. And because she accused me of overfilling my bathtub and I was able to prove that it was because of the rain, because 80 and the other thing is so, and then the funny story is, um, in the green room when you're waiting, you know, they do a bunch of cases the same day. So there was these two girls from, uh, from Queens Boulevard and they worked at an adult, uh, uh, dancing club and they were being sued. So you get to chatting. So what are you being sued for?
And they're like, well, this one guy, you know, he was my boyfriend for a while, but then I told him he couldn't be my boyfriend anymore, and he's suing me for all the times he bought me clothes and took me out for dinners and drinks and all that stuff. And I said, oh, boy. There used to be – so Geico, I think, does this, and now there's one motorcycle insurance company based in Israel called Vroom. Vroom or Vroom. And they actually used to sponsor me. But anyway, their business model is –
They charge you like five or eight bucks a month flat, but take a photo of your odometer every month and they charge you based on how many miles you ride. Usage. Only one company I think is doing that now or other companies starting to do that. What is your feeling? Now, since you deal with a plethora of agencies, do you ever recommend it? And if you do, when do you recommend it? I don't because it gives me the willies. Why? And why is that? You don't know.
what your usage is going to be. You don't know what their rates will be when you get audited. Well, they tell you the rates up front. It's going to change. And we've seen this because California has that for automobile industry. Okay. It's very inexpensive until there's a problem. Because they seem to be getting a lot of traction, especially in motorcycles where you're not putting... Motorcycles are different than cars. Yeah. Motorcycles, they're used differently. Yeah. So I have not written it in the New York metropolitan area. Right.
I have written one in Texas. So it is an interesting concept that hasn't taken off in the industry. And then my next question is, now they rely on a photo, and I said to them, hey, they can tell when it's Photoshopped and blah, blah, blah. Now, with AI, it might be tougher to do. And maybe this is more of the fact with automobiles. When does it stop? When do they say,
Oh, you know what? We noticed that you were breaking hard last week. We're going to jack your prices up. Or we noticed that even though you were going mostly around the speed limit, you took off pretty quick at a lot of lights, right? Or we noticed that sometimes you were swerving. Were you drinking or texting? And maybe you were, and maybe you weren't. Like, where does that end, do you think? I mean, in five years, are they going to require, like, devices in every vehicle just to monitor how safe or not safe you are?
promoting it as a way to increase, or for safe riders or drivers to pay less, and I get that, but do you think it'll ever be mandated in vehicle? Some companies are requiring another automobile insurance. Requiring it. Requiring it. They will not insure you unless you have it. Well, telemedics. Interesting. Crazy. Some people, and many states today, New York does not allow it at all yet. Oh, at all. Okay. Many states, it is an option.
The insurance company will give you the option of having it. You'll get a premium reduction up front, and then they'll monitor you. It can stay the same. It can go up. It can go down. Since you live in New Jersey, would you ever choose that for yourself? I do not. Okay. Because I have a bit of a heavy foot. You got to know yourself. That's true. That's true. No, I hear you. Well, this has been great.
I'll let you go in a minute. So we'll have your link to all your, your social media profiles. We'll have your phone number and a way to get in touch with you. So can they book an appointment online or do they? Absolutely. Okay. So you see it on the website. It's a beautiful website. You'll see it. We'll leave a link and Michael Silverman of silver lining insurance and agency. Happy to have you on the show. And thanks again. Thank you for having me. It was fabulous. Well, what an interesting and informative show and a big thanks to Michael.
for being here his fantastic daughter samantha who uh set everything up and it was fun coordinating with her and also thanks to everybody that makes this show possible that is you our listener uh we've had the best january february and now march in the six-year history of this podcast
And it's not because of my big advertising budget. It's because everybody is sharing the show with their friends and family who ride. Another big thanks to Rob McLaughlin of the West Coast Hearts. He's got his own podcast. And if you search Spotify or Apple Music, and I believe Amazon Music, search West Coast Hearts. You'll love his music. And I'll put a link to his podcast on the show notes. Also on the show notes will be your...
insurance cheat sheet that you can download or put on your Motorola StarTech phone from 2002. Just kidding. Put it on your iPhone, your Android, whatever you want. And if you have any questions, we'll have links to Michael's insurance agency and his LinkedIn profile. And if you want to be on the show or just tell me how handsome I am, you can email me at arrivealivepodcast at
gmail.com we uh we love getting emails and as you know every few months we'll do like a viewer mailbag or a listener mailbag so next week we have a show with an aussie from down under who has quite the story to tell so make sure you subscribe have your notifications on my name is len bolello thank you for listening keep it safe