Your Insurance Coverage and Price
Hello everyone,
I hope you are surviving the cold weather! The good news is we are past the halfway mark and the days are getting longer again.
Just wanted to take a moment and discuss some of the information that you see about insurance on television, as two things have caught my attention over the past few weeks. First, you see many situations and stories where carriers claim to have covered these crazy events on their insurance policies. The fact is that all of our carriers cover those things as well. The gopher stealing the wedding ring, as an example, is covered if you have the wedding ring properly scheduled. The dog accidentally putting the vehicle in gear and driving? Yes, also covered. Some carriers will even make suggestions that your “cut-rate” insurance might not cover these things, but in the case of what they show as examples, the claims are covered.
That brings me to the second commercial that we see frequently: price. Obviously, the price is an important issue for everyone who purchases insurance. Our goal with all of our clients is to advise you to set up an insurance policy where you are purchasing appropriate coverage at the best pricing we can find, while also taking the quality of the insurance carriers into account.
In the day to day experience of insurance, there are a few things that we discuss frequently with clients that impact premium and can save money. First, if you have school age children on the policy, a few things can significantly impact your rates. Most carriers will offer a Good Student Discount to their student driver so it is important to make sure your son or daughter knows that a 3.0 GPA can save a significant amount of money. You’ll also have to provide documentation as proof of their good grades from their school. If you have college kids away at school without a vehicle, there are usually discounts available for that as well.
The second thing is deductibles. The deductible is the amount of money that you have to pay before your insurance begins. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium. If you have not checked these in a while, might be a good conversation to have. We recommend at least $500 or $1000 deductibles on property insurance and anywhere from $250 to $1000 for auto. If you start to accumulate multiple vehicles, boats, ATV’s, etc, it is a good time to see what the savings would be to raise all deductibles to the next level. For example, if you can save $200, $300 or $400 by increasing deductibles from $500 to $1,000, it’s probably a pretty good move. You would have to have a claim every year for the changes not to pay off.
Last thing to keep an eye on is older vehicles. As vehicles age and their values diminish, it can be beneficial to delete the comp and collision coverage on that car. This is especially true with young drivers. We see instances where people are paying $700 annually to insure a $2,000 vehicle. That math probably does not make sense.
If any of these might apply or you would just like to review, give your agent a call.
Thank you again for allowing us to protect your families.
Jon
