Time for your renewal

You may have opened up your renewal this year and nearly had your eyes pop out of your head when you saw a policy increase. Maybe you were one of the rare few that had a policy decrease. We wanted to shed some light on what is going on with the Florida and regional insurance market so you can best understand why your bills are the way they are.

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Auto Insurance: The global pandemic has affected your auto insurance in the following ways: Increased prices of parts, longer waits for parts to arrive, extra time allocated for rental cars.

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Although insurers have seen drivers drive fewer miles during the pandemic due to remote work, and less vacation traveling, the increased cost of parts has driven prices up for property damage, comprehensive, collision, and rental car coverage. Many carriers filed for rate increases in early 2022 from 2%-16.5% to keep up with the increased costs of fixing vehicles.

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Ways to lower your auto insurance:

• Telematics: Take advantage of your carrier's programs to monitor your driving habits and offer discounts​

• Paperless Billing: Some carriers offer a lower price to email you bills instead of sending them through the mail

• Verify your information: Have you changed careers, moved, gotten married or divorced, had a child move in or out of your home, paid off your car, received a company car, gotten a higher education degree, improved your credit score, taken a driver improvement course, or had another life change? Many of these things can offer discounts

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Home Insurance: The home insurance market across the country is suffering from a plague: bad faith lawsuits against insurance carriers in order to use high legal costs to pay for claims.

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There is a very long answer to the problem of drastically increasing prices to home insurance. For this page we will keep it short and sweet.

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An insurance contract is not a maintenance contract and your insurer is not responsible for replacing a roof that has worn down or plumbing that starts to leak because of age. The contract is designed to cover things that are SUDDEN OR ACCIDENTAL (to borrow a term from pollution coverage that also fits to a standard homeowners or dwelling contract).

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In 2020 there were 67,000+ lawsuits against insurance carriers. In 2021 there were 91,000+ lawsuits. Unscrupulous Lawyers, Public Adjusters, and Contractors are using the cost of defense litigation to force insurers to pay claims that would otherwise be denied. Items that have worn down with age like old plumbing, old roofs, old siding, old drywall, are being replaced because of the rampant fraud. These grifters may offer kickbacks or bribes like gift cards, or cash refunds for replacing worn items. The $100 steak house gift card your neighbor received for having someone who knocked on their door and asked to inspect their roof is now costing everyone with rampant price increases. The worst part is, most homeowners who take advantage of these deals do not realize they are participating in fraud.

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Ways to lower your home insurance:

• Fortify your home: Have you replaced your roof, added hurricane shutters, or added other hurricane protection? Let us know as it can significantly lower your rate. Do you live in an older house that was built before hurricane mitigation features were added? Consider installing hurricane clips, shutters, or more. (Recently we had a customer put hurricane clips on their home built in 1900 and for a one time $3000 cost of instillation it reduced their insurance by more than $1000 a year).

• Add water leak detection: Some carriers are offering discounts for water leak detection devices. For as little as $70 you can install an alarm that will buzz your phone if you have a pipe that starts to leak or burst.

• Consider shopping your other insurance policies: Most home carriers in Florida don't offer auto insurance. But, if we look at our insurance expenses as a total out the door, it is just as important to make sure we have the best value on all your policies. We offer a variety of carriers for auto insurance and are happy to look to see if we can save you some money on your other policies. Don't forget to tell us about your motorcycle, rv, trailer, atv, boat, umbrella, or other policies as we can cover nearly anything.​