Posts Tagged ‘Insurance Agent’

State Farm Home Owner Insurance Quote

May 16th, 2011

If you have a home business and need a home owner insurance quote, consider getting your home owner insurance quote from State Farm. As long as you purchase enough home owner insurance to adequately protect your home as well as your home business, you will be safe; however, making sure you have enough home owner insurance for both your home and your home business is just the start. You must take a few more steps throughout the duration of your home owner insurance policy to make sure your home business is thoroughly covered with your State Farm home owner insurance policy.

First, make sure you have taken proper inventory of your home business’ equipment. Include computers, printers, fax machines, copy machines, shredders, scanners, and any other expensive electronic equipment, as well as filing cabinets, desks, and chairs. These are the pieces of equipment you will need to list in the event your home business becomes damaged in some way, so it is extremely important not to forget anything. Also, keep your inventory up to date, and notify your State Farm home owner insurance agent so he or she can make the necessary changes to your State Farm home owner insurance policy.

Next, consider investing in protection devices such as lighting protection systems and electrical surge devices. You can contact a contractor for more information about these kinds of protection.

Finally, keep your State Farm home owner insurance quote low by taking your own precautions. Install a safety alarm system. Record the serial numbers of all business office equipment you purchase. Buy a large safe and store all smaller, expensive office equipment in it when you’re not in the office. If you are willing, consider bolting your larger office equipment to the floor, such as desks, safes, and copy machines.

Take these steps before you get your State Farm home owner insurance quote, and maintain them to keep that quote low.

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More Florida Home Insurance Cancellations on the Way

September 10th, 2010

Just when you thought that most of the Florida home insurance cancellations were a thing of that past, new threats to your homeowners insurance coverage are on the horizon. And these cancellations are occurring at a time when home insurance rates in Florida are rising despite the nationwide recession.

For starters Florida’s largest private home insurance company just reached agreement with the state this month to cancel 125,000 policies.

Newer Florida start-up insurance companies are moving forward with selective policy cancellations in South florida coastal counties in order to balance their exposure and to comply with the terms of their reinsurance coverage. Those cancellations have been particularly noticeable in Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Collier, and Sarasota counties.

Many insurance companies in Florida will be inspecting each and every home they currently cover. If those inspections find missing hurricane shutters, a roof in poor condition, or weak wall to roof connections your Florida home insurance policy could be cancelled.

Finally, Florida home insurance rates are starting to increase again. Many companies have already filed for and received permission to raise rates from 10% to 20% in the second half of 2009.

As Florida absorbs this next wave of cancellations and rising prices, here is what you should do if your florida home insurance policy has been cancelled in order to find new coverage for your home:

Do not panic. Florida State law requires insurance companies to give you six months notice before cancelling your policy. That should give you enough time to find a new policy before the Florida hurricane season begins in June of 2010.

Contact at least five different independent Florida homeowners insurance agents about your situation. That will ensure that you will be able to reach most of the home insurance companies still writing new business in your Florida County. While your present home insurance agent in Florida can give you some options, odds are that you will not be able to get a quote from them from all the companies who are open for business in your Florida County.

Look for Florida home insurance companies that have shown a willingness to cover older homes – those built before 1995. Some companies in Florida will cover a home over 40 years of age if the major systems in your home have been updated.

Ask each homeowners insurance agent to provide you with companies that are interested in covering homes in the South Florida coastal counties and those within 10 miles or less of the coast.

Get a quote from as many florida home insurance companies that are open for business in your county and make sure each quote has identical coverage.

Try to find a company that has been selling homeowners insurance in Florida since the early 1990′s. Those companies have the most experience handling claims because they met the challenges of the Florida hurricanes of 2004 and 2005.

Check out the customer service record and complaint history of each florida home insurance company. The best Florida based companies should have a favorable complaint history consistent with other companies that don’t do business in the state.

Ask your agent to show you how each company has diversified its risk across Florida and in other states as well. What you are looking for are companies that have spread their risk across a significant number of Florida counties and into other states. The Florida counties should include a reasonable balance of southern coastal and northern interior counties.

Check out the financial ratings assigned to each company and the amount of surplus each company has available to pay claims. Try to find a company a surplus significantly larger than the $5 million minimum required by the State of Florida. If you are considering two different companies that have the same financial rating, select the company that has a larger surplus and more risk diversification across Florida.

While it can be a shock to lose your florida home insurance policy be sure to ask for all the information described above. This will give you the best chance of finding a new florida home insurance company if your policy is cancelled.

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Home Insurance Claims – Tips For Filing And Winning

August 18th, 2010



The process of filing home insurance claims can mean only one thing, you have suffered a loss of some sort. Now the work begins. Acquiring home insurance is easy, with the help of your insurance agent or broker. Obtaining a quote and policy activation can happen very quickly. However, things do not go quite so smoothly when you try to file a claim on your home insurance. It can be in some cases, be shocking at how your once accommodating agent can all of a sudden seem a bit jumpy upon hearing the word “claim” mentioned.

A best case scenario is, the claim form is completed and the insurance adjuster has viewed the damage and assessed the claim as appropriate, then it is just a matter of waiting for the check to arrive from the insurance company, which is usually a reasonably smooth procedure.

However, winning a home insurance claim is not always so straightforward. The insurance company will be looking to find ways to throw out your claim in some cases. The main reasons they will use to reject your claim are that you are not adequately covered, your time period for filing has expired or that what you are asking for exceeds the claimable amount as detailed on your policy.

For these reasons, it is essential that you understand exactly what your policy states and covers. The policy itself is a binding agreement between you and your insurance company. You should read all the fine print and know exactly what you are covered for and what deductibles and exclusions exist. It is extremely important that anything you don’t understand and any questions you have to ask be brought up at the time of taking out your policy.

Here are some tips to help you win a home insurance claim. First of all, evaluate your claim situation. Is this claim your first within the initial two or three years of the policy? If the answer to this question is yes, then ask yourself about the harm done to your property. Is your home vastly damaged? If you do not consider the damage to be great, it may well be better not to make a small claim at all. Lets face it, you never know what’s around the corner and you may be wise to save your insurance claim in order to declare something bigger in the future. Insurers are less likely to grant many small claims for damages than one large one.

Following an incident where losses or damages have taken place, you should call your agent to make a report and ask him to forward a claim form to you. Absolutely be able to document all items and property damaged or lost. Make sure you know how long you have to make the claim and where it should be submitted to once it is completed. Even if you are confident about filling in the claim form, make any queries you have in writing and take instruction and guidance from your agent. Ensure you do it right and you will be safe in the knowledge that everything is documented as it should be.

You can expect a successful result if you submit your filing in a timely manner before expiration. Your knowledge of the terms and conditions of the coverage you have in your policy will play a huge part in you filing a accurate claim, this can not be over emphasized. If you are really not happy with the insurance claims adjusters assessment, you may want to consult/hire a independent private claims adjuster. You have that right. All in all as the homeowner, don’t give up if your if your claim is disputed, you have to stay on top of your policy terms and sometimes insurance companies as well to be win home insurance claims.

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Home Insurance – Actual Cash Value and Your Home

February 2nd, 2010



Your house is covered for Actual Cash Value (ACV) in case you do not have the replacement cost coverage on your policy.

Actual Cash Value is the replacement cost minus the depreciation, which is the percentage for every year for the age of your home.  For instance, if you bought a television for $1000, then the 5 years times the depreciation percentage of 7% a year, would mean that the television would be depreciated by $350. So the replacement cost of the television should be $1000, but since you do not have the replacement cost  in your policy, the Actual Cash Value would be $650, and that is the coverage you would get.

Now lets talk about the major coverages on a homeowners policy and we shall start with the dwelling amount. This is the coverage that you would need if you ever needed to rebuild your entire house. The prices nowadays are always rising, so you should always remember that the market value of your house is different from the replacement value, and you have to make sure that your policy guarantees you a replacement cost if ever needed.

You always have to be very careful so you do not end up under-insuring yourself. The replacement value is usually the 20 percent increase of the market value of your house. For instance, lets assume that the market value of your house when you bought it was $200,000, and the cost to rebuild it is $275,000. If your your house was burnt to the ashes, you will only be insured for $240,00 and what this means is that the extra $35,000 has to come out from your pocket. Now that is a lot of money to come up with when you file a claim.

You can avoid getting into such situations if you have a good idea about the replacement cost of your house. And that is not a difficult task at all! All you have to do is talk with your insurance agent and tell him to construct you a replacement cost value. You should keep in mind that the replacement cost only applies to what it would take to rebuild the home, it does not  include the cost of the land, and in the event of a claim ever needing to be filed or in the process of considering which plan can offer the best coverage for your home in particular be sure to check online for the latest information and offerings in your area in particular.

If you’re stuck and need some help finding good information online try using Ezquoteguide.com for finding the right local insurance information you need right away to help you fulfill your auto insurance needs.

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