Americans Put Too Much Faith in Homeowners Insurance

August 18, 2016

  • August 18, 2016 at 12:50 pm
    Shephali says:
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    SO TRUE!!! DO NOT GO WITH HYUNDAI FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY FOR YOUR HOME INSURANCE! YOU WILL WAIT FOR MONTHS FOR UR $$$ & STILL NO ANSWER! AS IF 10 MONTHS OF BEING DISPLACED DUE TO FIRE WASN’T TRAUMATIC ENOUGH, NOW HAVE TO GO THROUGH CONSTANT FOLLOW UP WITH NO RESPONSE AND READY TO BE EVICTED FROM THE RENTAL PLACE BECAUSE LAST 7 MONTHS RENT HAS NOT BEEN PAID BY HYUNDAI FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY (USA)!!!

    • August 18, 2016 at 1:44 pm
      Wondering says:
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      Sounds awful, sorry for your troubles, Shephali. Did you by any chance sign up with a public adjuster – just curious…

      • August 18, 2016 at 1:51 pm
        Shephali says:
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        Yes and even our public adjuster can’t believe their behavior and how this company fails to fulfill their obligation towards the insured i.e. us. Its beyond ridiculous!

        • August 18, 2016 at 2:21 pm
          Just me says:
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          File a complaint with your state Department of Insurance. State regulations require timely handling of claims and acting in good faith.

          • August 20, 2016 at 3:12 pm
            Mr. Solvent says:
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            It’s hard to point to a carrier acting in bad faith when an unreasonable claim or estimate is presented to them. As soon as a PA is involved it brings animosity.

    • August 19, 2016 at 12:54 pm
      Wondering says:
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      Shephali it is possible that the public adjuster has way way over- inflated the amount of the claim so that he or she will get a bigger cut of the payout –and the carrier is not budging on what the claim is actually worth. I don’t think the carrier can speak to you directly if you’ve got a public adjuster. You are paying a public adjuster to settle your claim – what is that person telling you?

      • August 19, 2016 at 3:40 pm
        Mr. Solvent says:
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        You hit the nail on the head. Often times I see this and the carrier gets the blame. I’m not saying it’s the case here but when an adjuster sends in 3 losses with different loss dates on the same day with $100,000 in damage, the carrier is going to look into that…and it may take some time…LOTS of time.

  • August 18, 2016 at 3:54 pm
    Agent says:
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    Another article recently pointed out that 70% of Millenials who rent don’t bother to take Renters Insurance. They seem to think they are immune to loss from either Property or Liability claims. Personally, I think it is arrogance on their part.

    • August 18, 2016 at 4:45 pm
      cassie says:
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      I honestly just think its a lack of knowledge.

      • August 18, 2016 at 6:11 pm
        Agent says:
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        Really cassie? Didn’t you know that Millenials are the smartest people on this blog and they will tell you every time you post and call you an idiot or dolt if you have a different answer than they do. Lack of knowledge is not an excuse when they are supposed to be educated.

        • August 19, 2016 at 8:53 am
          Ron says:
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          That did not take long. Going off topic and insulting an entire generation.

          • August 19, 2016 at 9:26 am
            Agent says:
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            Ron, I guess you don’t take Property Casualty 360 and saw the story on how stupid Millenials are about about taking Renters Insurance when they rent. It is a fact and too bad it doesn’t fit with your agenda. I am only insulting 70% of them, not the 30% who actually take the coverage and act responsibly. That is on topic.

          • August 19, 2016 at 10:04 am
            Ron says:
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            Agent,

            Please quote me where I disagreed with you. All I said was that your post was off-topic from the article and you were insulting.

            I thought you only insulted people in response to being attacked. Exactly when did the Millennials all attack you on this blog?

      • August 19, 2016 at 10:33 am
        DeAnnR says:
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        I’m Boomer and lived most of my rental life without renters insurance, Only had it the last 2-3 years before I brought a house at age 35. Presently, I do not have flood insurance, but will be looking into it.

        • August 19, 2016 at 11:08 am
          Agent says:
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          DeAnn, how can you be a boomer at age 35? Sounds more like a Millenial to me. I suppose you must have been lucky not to have a serious loss in your rental years. I have seen a lot of losses over the years and people losing all their belongings due to a fire or storm. Most common in apartment losses when they have a big fire.

          Good for you to look into Flood Insurance. There are a lot of people in Louisiana who wish they had Flood Insurance right about now. By the way, where is our President right now? That’s right, he can’t tear himself away from his golf game.

          • August 19, 2016 at 2:39 pm
            htm says:
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            Agent, she’s saying she bought the house when she was 35, not that she is currently 35.

          • August 19, 2016 at 3:04 pm
            Agent says:
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            htm, so she is 37 now. What changed other than a few years? She is still not a boomer.

          • August 19, 2016 at 3:25 pm
            BS says:
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            I read it as she didn’t buy renters insurance until the last two or three years of renting. And then, bought a house when she was 35. That very easily could have been 20+ years ago.

          • August 22, 2016 at 10:44 am
            htm says:
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            BS, that’s how I read it too.

        • August 19, 2016 at 11:15 am
          Agent says:
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          Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

          • August 19, 2016 at 11:37 am
            Ron says:
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            Agent,

            Why are insulting me now? When did I insult you?

            Please cite the post under this article where anyone insulted you prior to your post.

            I am not parsing words, just holding you accountable based the post from Andrew with IJ.

          • August 21, 2016 at 11:12 am
            Jax Agent says:
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            Agent, you are paranoid and … A very bad combination. You must also be a millennial. You made some incredibly poor assumptions with DeAnn’s post and then you get all bent out of shape when other posters try to help you with basic math.
            Are you Ok ? Should someone be checking in on you from time to time ? Other than the people that are out to get you ?

    • August 19, 2016 at 10:07 am
      mkltmsck says:
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      I used to be one of those renters, and my mentality was that I basically had nothing of extreme value that I couldn’t replace if necessary (or go without for a while if too expensive to replace), so not getting renter’s insurance was worth the risk.

      For me (and I may be the exception rather than the rule), the cost in terms of premium and time to investigate wasn’t commensurate with the risk of loss. I was also an engineer then and I’m an actuary now, so while I have a much stronger understanding of both risk and insurance, looking back on it now, I still think the decision to let it ride was the prudent one.

      • August 19, 2016 at 11:06 am
        OlderActuary says:
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        Sorry, gotta disagree with mkltmsck on not getting renters insurance when you’re young and don’t own much stuff. When I was just starting out and owned practically nothing, and also learning about risk and insurance, I realized that renters insurance is valuable for the liability coverage alone.

        Slightly off topic, but along the same lines, not nearly enough people who own homes and autos buy umbrella, especially when they’re close to retirement. By this point in their lives, they have a lot to lose, and a half million in liability coverage in their basic policies won’t get them very far – big risk.

        • August 19, 2016 at 12:52 pm
          Agent says:
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          Good one Actuary. We make it a point to try to sell Umbrella with everyone we write the Auto & Home on. All it takes is one bad at fault Auto claim where the other party is killed or has serious injuries and there goes the Auto limit.

          • August 19, 2016 at 3:01 pm
            Rosenblatt says:
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            I sarcastically thank you for insulting me when I hadn’t even said a single word in these comments.

            Why do you keep attacking and insulting me out of the blue like this? Even when I say nothing, you still find a way to be mean and nasty to me and drag my name through the mud.

          • August 19, 2016 at 3:06 pm
            Agent says:
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            Sorry Rosenblatt, your history of parsing words follows you around and Ron will bring it out with me every time.

          • August 19, 2016 at 3:18 pm
            Rosenblatt says:
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            Does that mean you will try to avoid insulting me when I haven’t posted anything??

          • August 19, 2016 at 4:12 pm
            Agent says:
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            I’ll make a deal with you Rosenblatt. If you will tell Ron to not insult me when I haven’t posted anything on an article, I will leave you out when you haven’t posted anything. Do you think he will comply with your request?

          • August 19, 2016 at 4:29 pm
            Rosenblatt says:
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            Your opening offer is rejected, but with counter proposals.

            Counter offer 1: If you don’t insult me when I haven’t posted anything, I won’t insult you when you haven’t posted anything!

            Counter 2: If you tell Bob to stop swearing, I will tell Ron not to insult you when you haven’t posted anything.

            Offer 1 is fair and reasonable. You and I can only control how you and I post. Neither of us has any control over what others do on this site. That’s why they have monitors you can take your complaints to.

            I think offer 1 is the way to go – you and I will refrain from doing the things we don’t want others to do to us. What do you think? Are you comfortable making that deal?

          • August 19, 2016 at 6:04 pm
            Ron says:
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            Agent,

            I will comply with your request. Are you willing to reciprocate?

      • August 19, 2016 at 11:12 am
        Agent says:
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        Well, to each his own. I just wrote a Renters policy last week for a value of $40,000 on Personal Property, provided a good limit on Liability and the premium ran a grand total of $150 per year. That seems like a good value to me but who am I but just an agent trying to protect my insured’s and to make them whole if they have a loss?

        • August 19, 2016 at 5:21 pm
          Agent says:
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          Rosenblatt, wow four paragraphs again when you could have just said – sounds like a deal to me. Word parsing is not an attractive thing by the way. It seems to just be in your blood. By the way, when has Bob used swearing to you? He hasn’t even debated you and I think you know not to get him angry.

          The progress on eliminating nasty comments has been encouraging and I hope the worst offenders that were so bad went elsewhere.

          • August 22, 2016 at 8:09 am
            Rosenblatt says:
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            Clearly you didn’t read my counter proposals if you think my reply could’ve been summed up as “I agree to your offer.”

          • August 22, 2016 at 2:47 pm
            Agent says:
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            Clearly I couldn’t care less about your word parsing proposals. I told you to knock it off and you clearly did not get the message, as usual.

          • August 22, 2016 at 3:02 pm
            Ron says:
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            Agent’s version of negotiating:

            “Take my deal without a counter proposal or nothing”

            He has absolutely no interest in a civil debate.

        • August 22, 2016 at 4:42 pm
          Rosenblatt says:
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          Alright there buddy. Let’s keep trying to be civil, okay?

          If I agree that I won’t insult you when you haven’t posted anything, do you agree that you won’t insult me when I haven’t posted anything either?

          Yes? No? Or will you make a counter offer that does NOT involve me telling other people what and how to post?

          Insults need not to be posted in your reply.

          • August 22, 2016 at 5:21 pm
            Agent says:
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            Word parsing numerous multi paragraph nonsense is a very unattractive trait and when you don’t leave it alone, you quickly disappear from the replies. This is the last reply I make on this subject since you have worn out your welcome yet again.

          • August 23, 2016 at 7:50 am
            Ron says:
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            Rosenblatt,

            Looks like those Liberal bots are out to get us too.

          • August 23, 2016 at 8:23 am
            Rosenblatt says:
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            I’ve never seen an olive branch of piece be set on fire so quickly as you just did Agent. I don’t understand you at all. You want something to stop (people insulting you when you haven’t posted), but you’re unwilling to treat me the same way and have no problem insulting me when I haven’t posted a word.

          • August 23, 2016 at 8:28 am
            Rosenblatt says:
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            *olive branch of PEACE

      • August 19, 2016 at 1:36 pm
        knowall says:
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        The two items that sometimes will close a renter’s is you tell them 1) about the liability coverage (say you start a fire unintentionally, you can be held liable or your spouse bites someone etc…) and 2)also the additional living expense coverage if the residence is uninhabitable from a covered claim. These are true even if they don t care about their personal property, which may only be the clothes on their back and in their closet.

        As said on this blog it is pretty cheap by the month and it usually is easier to inspection due to lower risk than homes.

    • August 19, 2016 at 3:43 pm
      Mr. Solvent says:
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      The majority of renters don’t take renters insurance. This has been fact since I entered the business when the dinosaurs roamed. We used to sell it simply to give an additional discount on the auto. Even with the fact that the landlord doesn’t cover anything right in front of them many won’t carry it.

      This was simply a headline to gain clicks.

      • August 19, 2016 at 4:16 pm
        Agent says:
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        Mr. Solvent, I understand the majority don’t take it no matter how inexpensive it is. What I get sick of is hearing the stories of people who lost all their belongings in a fire and people set up a fund at the local bank to help them. These people seem to have the funds to buy beer and cigarettes, but can’t get a Renters policy for $150 per year which is less than $13 per month.

  • August 18, 2016 at 4:39 pm
    WyomingAgent says:
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    I would like to see a breakdown on who has an agent and who doesn’t as it relates to improper coverage. It has been my experience that a majority of people with an agent have a better understanding of what their policy covers and what their coverage’s are. Curious minds want to know!!

    • August 19, 2016 at 9:30 am
      Agent says:
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      Wyoming, my guess is that a much higher % of people who try to buy online have improper coverage because they have no clue what the coverages are what the gaps in coverage are etc.

      Back in the mold crisis we had several years ago, people actually thought their Homeowners was supposed to cover health issues if they had mold in their house. They also thought their HO would cover their vehicle if it was damaged in their garage due to a storm.

      • August 19, 2016 at 3:46 pm
        Mr. Solvent says:
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        Home insurance is incredibly intricate compared to auto insurance. I’ve met plenty of people who purchased auto online and had descent coverage. I’ve yet to find the home customer that bought a policy that’s even close to what they thought they had.

        Same problem occurs with the big “franchise” agents. Sometimes you get a good one, most of the time you end up with one getting a price only policy.

  • August 19, 2016 at 10:56 am
    Dick says:
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    Anyone with a mortgage is forced to get Flood Insurance by their bank. FEMA and NFIP are the governmental agencies that provide the coverage through independent agents. FEMA has recently re-drawn flood zones, so don’t be surprised if you hear from your mortgage company that you now have to have flood insurance. Flood Insurance is very expensive…you can pay $477 to over $4,000/year if you are in Zone A. You can buy private flood insurance for much less through an independent agent. First check with you mortgage company to see if they will accept private flood insurance. FEMA is losing money hand over fist, thus they are trying to spread the risk to properties that are not necessarily flood prone.

    • August 19, 2016 at 12:48 pm
      Agent says:
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      Good advice Dick. Yes, Flood Insurance can be expensive. A lot of Homeowners don’t realize that rising waters are not covered by HO policies even though the policies say they don’t. People don’t read their policies much and think about everything is covered. Not so much.

  • August 19, 2016 at 11:57 am
    Sick of negativity says:
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    Agent must have a quota to fulfill since every post he makes contains at least one insult. Can you reply once without insulting someone or a group of people? Is that even possible for you? Let me throw you an underhand slow pitch softball question to test my theory.

    Agent – please rank these in order of worst to best:

    charity, murder, theft of a candy bar

    • August 19, 2016 at 12:45 pm
      Agent says:
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      Do you think you are clever with that moniker change?

      • August 19, 2016 at 3:04 pm
        Rosenblatt says:
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        You still haven’t made a post sans insults, even going so far as to insult me for no reason when I hadn’t written anything here. Can you rank those 3 and post it without any insults as Sick asked of you?

        • August 19, 2016 at 4:21 pm
          Agent says:
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          I don’t have to respond to the false monikered Sick. Never been on this blog on any story. He/she should come out of hiding so I will know who He/she is. If it is who I think it is, no reponse is needed.

          • August 21, 2016 at 11:17 am
            Jax Agent says:
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            Dude, you are hilarious !! “He/she should come out of hiding so I will know who He/she is. If it is who I think it is, no reponse is needed.” For the record, you are right. ‘Sick’ is actually, Elvis, and yes, Elvis hates you. You have an uncanny ability to sniff out a conspiracy and if I had to guess, you aren’t an insurance agent at all……you’re a SECRET AGENT !!! There, your cover is blown and now everyone knows why you have to be so …. It’s all part of your cover, isn’t it ?

  • August 19, 2016 at 3:23 pm
    Sherinae says:
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    Frustrating. As an agent, I try to explain coverages and insurance needs to each and every customer. I tell them that homeowners does not cover flood and even print out what perils their policy covers and does not cover. I try to encourage more coverage on personal property. And even at the end of all of this, I hear those evil words that make me want to do something that would make my Momma cry in shame…”I just want the cheapest I can get by with today.”
    I understand the economy is bad and everyone is broke…I have a kid in college. But I am sick of hearing that the customer is not informed and doesn’t understand. I have spent so much time trying to educate people about their policies. THEY DON’T WANT TO KNOW. Insurance is boring. That is what the agent is for. And when disaster strikes….”I have paid my expensive premiums for (fill in the blank) years and now that I need it you are telling me it is not going to pay for….” People are willfully ignorant. I know that some agents don’t do their jobs, but I have to think that the majority does out of self preservation. Sorry. This is a sore subject with me.

    • August 19, 2016 at 3:53 pm
      Mr. Solvent says:
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      I have to encourage you to stop printing out what the policy doesn’t cover IMMEDIATELY. There’s no way you can possibly cover every scenario where coverage wouldn’t apply. As such you’re opening yourself to a HUGE E&O nightmare. Have these conversations, have a flood waiver, don’t give a list of things your policy doesn’t cover.

      I’ll give you a fun little story. An agent I know sold an HO8 policy to a customer and had him sign a form that said water damage was not included on the policy. It failed to include all of the other things that weren’t covered on the form. A tree limb fell on the customer’s roof causing $25,000 in damage. This was not a wind loss. Company denied the claim. What do you think the lawyer pointed to? E&O carrier settled out of court…it didn’t even see trial.

      • August 19, 2016 at 5:32 pm
        Agent says:
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        Mr Solvent, tree limbs can be tricky. The key is whether the limb/tree was green and growing. Problems result when the limb/tree was dead and nothing was done to saw it down and then the claim happened. These claims are an adjustors nightmare when the tree falls from the neighbors yard onto our house and they try to see where the fault lies.

        • August 23, 2016 at 11:42 am
          Mr. Solvent says:
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          On an HO8 policy form it doesn’t matter whether green and growing or not. Falling objects is not a covered peril.

          • August 23, 2016 at 4:24 pm
            Agent says:
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            Not a good policy form, is it? Most forms I have include coverage for falling objects.

      • August 19, 2016 at 5:58 pm
        Sherinae says:
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        I appreciate your advice and can relate to the story. What I was referring to was a form that is now required in Alabama that lists the perils covered and those that are not under the policy. There is literally a “YES” and a “NO” column with the perils listed down the side and check marks under the appropriate column. ALDOI thought this was a good idea. I am required to print this and I do take the time to go over it and ask if there are any questions. We do have flood waivers. However, I was informed that even if they have signed a flood waiver the customer can claim that they didn’t know what they were signing and even claim they thought they were signing up for flood coverage. This is what we deal with.

        • August 20, 2016 at 3:06 pm
          Mr. Solvent says:
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          Probably similar to the “checklist of coverage” sent with all Florida policies. If we were forced to have policyholders sign I’d be tearing what little hair I have left out.

    • August 19, 2016 at 4:23 pm
      Agent says:
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      Sherinae, It is frustrating for agents trying to get the attention of a prospect or customer. They typically are distracted, inattentive and are glancing at that cell every 15 seconds. If we send letters to them, they don’t open the mail. Guess who they hold responsible in the event of a claim? You got it.

      • August 19, 2016 at 4:34 pm
        Rosenblatt says:
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        Not opening mail is a problem for sure. That’s why we send important letters (e.g. reservation of rights, non-cooperation letters, etc.) via certified mail with a signature required and return receipt requested. Then if the person tries to argue in court they can’t be held liable for what we never told them, we have proof they never signed for the letter and we can’t be held responsible for their lack of action.



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