Posted On: June 5, 2006, 3:09 pm CDT

Posted By: Irene

This worked for me and I hope some of my fellow independent agents can use this to their client's advantage. My client suffered Hurricane Wilma damage to their Florida condo. Wind was excluded, therefore the loss was denied. However, my client had two other homes insured in the mid-west. These policies include coverage for wind. I turned the loss in on the Illinois policy as a loss to personal property at another residence. HO3, HO4, HO6 & HO5 have a limitation I used as a source of coverage. The adjuster resisted at first citing "described & insured elsewhere". We all know this as the Inland Marine exclusion and it's use was not appropriate here. It took a while but I finally prevailed and delivered a $4500 check. All the direct writers I've checked have the same or similar wording. A company doesn't even have to be writing in Florida to be on the hook for the loss. I know this won't help everyone, but it helped me to look at the loss from a different angle. A limitation can be an opportunity if you look at it the right way. In this case, more coverge than I needed was available from an unexpected source. Be happy, serve your clients well and do good things.