The Expert Podcast

How bad is the insurance market? Well, if you're a homeowner or you have automobile insurance, you're finding that your insurance might be cancelled, your rates are going up, or you're non-renewed. It doesn't matter what state you're in; it used to be just Florida, maybe California. Now all 50 states are seeing these huge increases, even if you're not in a catastrophic state with hurricanes, earthquakes, or wildfires.

Because what's happening is behind the scenes, the insurers and reinsurers are finding that their coverages are drying up. They're not able to reinsure their risk, and a lot of the carriers are now going to what's called ENS, or excess and surplus lines. Your main carriers, like Allstate, State Farm, and Geico, are having a tough time covering their rates and covering their losses with their filed policies, so they're exiting some states.

And when the standard written carriers, admitted carriers, aren't able to write coverage, the agents now have to go to ENS and surplus lines, which may not be the worst thing in the world. ENS coverage may actually have some advantages. Make sure you work with your carrier and your agent to find out what's the best coverage for you.

And there are some tips you can use if your rates go up. Some people are seeing 50% increases in their homeowners or their auto insurance. There are some things you can do. You can check out our website, riskcoverage.com, to see what you can do to maybe lower your premiums with the same amount of upside coverage and the same amount of liability coverage.

In fact, you might be able to add an umbrella policy to get more coverage by hiring or raising your deductible to make sure that you're still covered for a catastrophe but that your rate isn't through the roof on your annual premiums.