The Expert Podcast

So, what the heck is going on with your insurance rates if you are a consumer and have a car, a house, or any type of what's called personal lines insurance, not business insurance? You've probably seen your rates go up. Maybe your insurance agent or your carrier is asking you for more information. Maybe your deductible is going higher and your limits are going lower. What's going on? Especially in some states, there are mass defections of insurance companies not willing to write coverage in some states like Florida, California, and Texas, places that may have more hurricanes or fires. Even in states where there aren't these kinds of natural disasters, you're finding some insurers have a higher claims rate or projected claims rate, which is making them raise their rate.

So what do you do if you're insured? If you're a homeowner or a vehicle owner, you have to have insurance to keep your rates low. Well, first, don't just assume that your insurance agent or your agency, if you're dealing with them, is going to automatically look for other types of policies. They might, they might not. There's nothing wrong with them if they don't. Many carriers and insurers like to keep you with the same company over time because they figure you have a relationship with them. They know it's a quality company, they know they pay claims properly, they know what your limits and your coverages are, and they don't want to mess with all that. But if your rates are going up dramatically—let's say more than about 5%, 15, 20%—if they're going up more than that, it may be worth looking into other insurers that could write your policy. You might have to ask your agency to do that and go ahead and ask them to shop it around or to quote it elsewhere. It works for them, so they can't automatically do it for every single one of their customers. You would think that they could, but they don't have the capacity for it. So you can ask them to do it.

You also want to look at what your coverages are. And this is where you may want to get some consultation. If you have more questions or want a second opinion on your insurance, you can click the link below. You can schedule a live one-on-one video consultation with a licensed insurance agent. We're not going to try to sell you anything. We wouldn't sell you personal lines insurance, and we only do commercial lines. But we can give you some advice on what types of things to look for in coverage. For example, you may want to raise your deductible but also add an umbrella policy. You may want to look at adding some lines of addenda to your coverage, maybe endorsements, and that would cover up for the exclusions you have in your coverage. You may find that you have overlapping coverage that you can get rid of. In this day and age, there's also some very cheap addenda you can add to your homeowners, like utility line failure. You know if your water pipe that goes from the street to your house or your sewer line breaks, that can cost 10, 15, or $20,000, and your normal homeowners policy won't cover it. There's places you can get this coverage for $30 or $40 a year in some parts of the country. You may also want to look at the limits on older vehicles for comprehensiveness, but on newer vehicles, you might want to add more. One of the things that is coming up a lot for consumers is the fact that auto repairs are going up as much as they are, which is affecting them even if it's not your car. If you crash into somebody else, their car has higher repair rates, which means your insurance company has to cover it.
So there are a lot of factors you can look at. There's a good seven or eight things on a checklist we can go through with you to see if you can maybe offset some of the rate increase with some coverage changes that don't necessarily put you at more risk. It's just a trade-off. Instead of spending, you know, $4 or $500 more a year, maybe you save that money so you have a higher deductible, so after four or five years, you've saved up extra money that can cover the difference in deductible, right? Also, we talked about the umbrella policy. This is a good way to get more coverage for catastrophic events without having to break the bank. Homeowners, same thing. There may be some things you can do on your house—clean your gutters, check your roof, get some sign-offs on water intrusion—that can help lower your rates. Rates are going up; there's no doubt about it. Insurance companies are seeing more claims, and they're expecting more, whether it's because of climate change, regulations, the government, even social things like social inflation. People are suing more often now, suing for more money, and that can affect your insurance rates. That's what's going on with insurance. If you're a personal lines customer, a homeowner, or an auto renter and you're wondering what's going on with your rates, that's what's happening. For more information, you can read on our website or schedule a consultation if you see fit.