Insurance exposed!

Insurance – EXPOSED!

Do you know what an insurance policy really is?  It’s a bet.  You pay the premium because something might happen, and the insurance company honors the policy hedging that nothing will happen. 

Can you live without an insurance policy? Sure, unless you have a loan on something.  But if everything you have is paid for, you don’t have to have insurance.  Well, the state requires liability coverage on your cars, but even then you can pay the state $300,000 and self insure on that as well.

So why do we still pay premiums even if we don’t have loans?  Because most of us can’t afford to drop 10 grand for a new roof, or fix a damaged vehicle. 

It’s important to remember the purpose of your insurance policy, especially when the economy is tanking and the price of gas and everything else is going up.  Insurance is not a tangible object, so it seems like a black hole that you keep flushing money down.  Everybody wants to cut costs as much as possible, but looking to your insurance policies to save money is not the way to do it.  Cutting coverage might save a few hundred dollars, but if you have a claim you could be out that and a lot more.  If you have a claim with the right policy in place, that black hole will help maintain your financial status.

Companies are becoming more and more insistent on gaining your business.  You want to be really careful of those solicitations, especially when you didn’t ask for them.  Nobody out there knows exactly what coverages you have unless you tell them, and unless you tell them, your quote is not an apple-to-apple comparison.  You also want to be careful of the type of policy they’re offering.  There are several types out there that have cheaper premiums yet don’t offer the coverage you need.  The burden should be on the agent to write the type of policy you want and need, but you have to know the right questions to ask.

If your policy is through us, you can rest assured you have exactly what you need.  Not sure?  Give us a call and ask.  Did your premiums go up?  A 10-15% increase is usual on renewals as it covers the ever increasing costs of building materials and vehicle repairs.  But if the increase is considerably greater than that, give us a chance to remarket you.  Stick with the people you know and trust.  We will do everything we can to help, and if we can’t, we will advise you to someone who will take good care of you.  We also offer several different lines of coverage, so if you’re looking for, say, a renter’s policy to go with your auto policy, let us know.  We can cover pretty much anything you have, and several things we bet you didn’t even think about.