the joy of insurance

I came home to find a dividend check from my insurance company. Yes, you read that correctly. This is the 86th straight year that New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company has paid dividends to its policyholders. I was a policyholder when I went out on my own in the 70's. Dealing with NJM was one of the few things I looked forward to when returning to this state.

They won't insure just anyone (your employer must be a member of the NJ Business and Industry Association), and they don't insure drivers with current violations at all.

hobbitt's Florida-based employer isn't a member of that organization, though as a prior customer, I had an in. But I did have two speeding tickets, which I richly deserved, from a few years before that when jetting cross-country to or from Mom's, one from Ohio and one from Indiana. For some reason they didn't show up on whatever reports are floating out there in the law-enforcement world. Yahoo! Coverage!

At the time we had my old Swede-mobile and hobbitt's 20-year-old Nissan. The rates in NJ are frighteningly higher than they were in Illinois, but no matter. There's usually a dividend credit, so all in all our actual payments were only slightly higher than with State Farm, even after upgrading to 2 newer automobiles and therefore higher coverages. For the house, with the options we chose, the premium was indeed a bit higher, even with the $1000 deductible (the smallest they'd actually offer us, since the facade of our home is more than 25% glass). This is a larger home; there are water features that are considered safety hazards; we live in the woods on the edge of the Pine Barrens and fire is a real danger from time to time, plus we opted for the full current-market replacement value feature. Again, the added cost is no biggie, because of the dividend reductions.

Its underwriters and reps are paid straight salary. The only way to get insured by them is to go straight to them. And it gets better, if you can actually accept the notion of "good" within the insurance industry:

"NJM operates in a mutual fashion, sharing the proceeds of our sound insurance practices with policyholders as dividends. Some other insurers, by comparison, are owned by stockholders and therefore must strive to achieve profits for them. At NJM, there is no need to meet sales targets, profit levels or any goal that would conflict with our mission to serve the interests of policyholders exclusively."

So today, to come home to a check for $100.43 - a special dividend on our auto policy - was rather a nice treat.

!?!?!

When did I turn into this freaking fuddy-duddy? Just when did my attention turn from crunchy-granola hippie-wannabedome to annuities and insurance policies? How did I miss the transition from house-poor working wife to comfortable middle class idler? Do I have to turn in my slacker card now?