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Tag: homeowners insurance

How Protection Class affects your Home Insurance Premium

If you look closely at your homeowners insurance policy you will see a summary of your risk. You will see what is covered like the structures on your property and the “limits” of that coverage broken down. Occasionally the summary will contain descriptions of your buildings like is your home “frame” or “masonry” construction. One item that may not make sense is “protection class”. What is that?

What is Protection Class

Protection class is a code or number that the insurance company uses to determine how well your home is protected by your municipal or rural fire department. It is derived by an audit of that fire department by a third party organization like ISO and Verisk. That in addition to your distance from that fire department are the major factors in your PPC Code or protection class code.

Generally you will see a PPC from 1-10. 1, 2 and 3 are likely a code you have if your home is located in a city with a full-time fire department staff who can respond to fire calls immediately. If you have 1-5 protection class your home is likely very close to a fire hydrant and your fire department has been a very responsive organization.

Why might I have a higher Protection Class like 9 or 10?

Some homes are over 5 or 6 miles from a fire department obviously some are way beyond that. If your home is that far from a part-time department and it starts on fire it is highly likely your home will be a total loss by the time the hoses are hooked up. In addition to the response time the fire department will likely have to find a water source that is far away from your home and thus must be transported in a tank truck so they will not be able to work as effectively as they would in a city with fire hydrants. For these reasons your Protection class and your home insurance premium will likely be higher in relation to a home in a large city or even a small town.

If I have a high protection class will every company charge me high premiums?

The answer to this question is complicated. With a certain company you will pay higher premiums than a home with a PC3 (insured at that same company). Some companies do specialize in rural homes and homes farther away from a fire department. Since insurance policies rate with many factors and home more than just fire damage coverage these companies see lower losses on rural and remote homes in areas like liability and theft. This means they can charge you less for those items and give you higher discounts for say, having a connected and central fire alarm installed for instance.

All things considered, if you have a high protection class you should have options. A good independent insurance agent will have markets for many risks including yours. Many direct marketing insurance companies target suburbs and thus will likely rate your home insurance higher since they do not target your risk directly. Find a good insurance agent who takes more into account than your address and you will be fine.

By Aaron Wallrichinsurance 101 No comments yet

Insurance Advice Lost to the Ages

These days most people get their insurance advice from TV or Radio Ads from direct insurance companies. These companies usually just tell you to shop for better rates because that’s the only thing they are paying ad money for so its self-serving at best. Does shopping for insurance hurt you? No, not unless you miss something important and open yourself up to unnecessary risk in the process. There are some time tested insurance tips that still apply in this modern world, I will spare you the obvious ones like: Don’t get violations or speed.

Be Selective with Claims

If you are concerned about artificially high rates, or high rates you can easily avoid its a good idea to not claim every incident. If you have a $500 deductible on a vehicle and you claim a fender bender that totals $600 will your automobile policy pay out? Yes, of course. Some people view this as their rightful money because they have paid their premiums faithfully for years, they aren’t wrong however this isn’t what any insurance policy was designed for. Many of the rate increases out there can be attributed to, at least in part, to many small losses. This is why insurance companies have increased their minimum deductibles. Its simply a numbers game. You will also lose a claim-free discount in the process. The old advice is still wise here, if you can afford to pay it out of pocket do so…if not put in your claim.

Plan to Add a Youthful Operator

Another pain point for clients is when their children come of age and get their drivers license. There can be sticker shock but you have to realize that adding an inexperienced driver to your policy multiplies your chances many fold. Forget about any old ideas like females are more expensive than males…its a numbers game pure and simple. Young inexperience operators will have accidents. In fact each year between their 16th and 25th birthday their added operating experience will show in their rates. Its a critical time. There are a few important things you can do to mitigate your premium increase however and they haven’t changed over time. If you just add a child and no additional vehicle your rates will be less. A household with 2 vehicles and 3 drivers pays less than a household with equal number of vehicles and drivers. Less total potential operating time.

This of course might not be a convenient option and in that case make sure the vehicle you get your young driver is a liability-only, older but safe vehicle. Many policies still allow us to rate a driver on a specific vehicle, are they rated on the others? Yes, however we can target them on the less expensive vehicle. Other great pieces of advice are make sure your youthful operator has good grades in order to obtain a discount, this is one even you cannot get so it makes sense to motivate your child.

The Best Place to Insure Toys

Lastly, on your homeowners policy. Many companies allow you to add all sorts of coverage to it. Boats, ATV’s Jewelry etc. These are risks that inherently have a greater chance of causing a claim. The very last place you will want a claim is on your homeowners insurance policy. It is a far better option to get a separate policy for those items and remove that risk on your home policy. Another benefit is these policies have additional coverage and lower deductibles.

So there you have it, even in modern times the old advice still holds up. Insurance is a very old industry with a simple premise – spread your personal risk to a larger pool. The more overall problems you cause that pool the higher your share will be. Please contact your agent or us if you have any questions about saving money on your insurance.

By Aaron Wallrichgeneral information, insurance 101, insurance coverages No comments yet

Time to think about Wind

One of the main perils in every homeowners or commercial property policy is damage from “Wind”. Straight-line wind damage can be devastating to your property whether it blows branches and limbs onto your roof or rips off your siding. One of our most memorable claims was a roof that was completely ripped off a home…not by a tornado but just due to very strong winds. There isnt much we can do about mother nature or wind however we can take steps to protect our property from falling prey to wind damage.

Taking a good look at the trees on your property is a good start. Over the winter the weight of ice and snow may have damaged large limbs and that could be enough to allow a gust to detach it. There are many tree or limb removal companies in the area who can assist you with cleaning up these dead limbs. One tip when dealing with Tree Removal operations is to verify they have active insurance. Do NOT take the piece of paper they show you as proof of “active coverage” call the agent listed and verify their policy is in-force.

take a quick look at your siding. Is any of it loose or pulling out from the rest? A gap could allow wind a chance to do further damage. Do you have any attachments to your home that are loose or free? Antennas are less common these days but some people still have them, of course satellite dishes may come loose as well.

One final item is one I did not think about when i bought a trampoline for my children. Your trampoline is effectively a “sail” sitting next to your home. Wind will move that object and it will do it quickly. Purchase sandbags or tie-downs from your local hardware store…do not tie the trampoline to a tree or our house. It is also a great idea to check with your agent to see if trampolines are even covered by your home insurance company. There are many companies that do not mind trampolines so long as safety measures are in place but you don’t want to be in a situation where an accident or damage occurs and the claim is denied.

Spring is here, wind will happen. But we can all do our best to maintain our property ahead of time.

By Aaron Wallrichinsurance 101, insurance coverages No comments yet

I have too much personal property coverage

Have you ever noticed that your insurance policy has an extremely high amount of “personal property coverage” listed on it?  Have you ever wondered where that amount even came from…it usually seems arbitraty and non even.  The answer to why it is not even is that it is often a percentage of your Home Coverage amount (sometimes listed as Coverage A).  The average unendorsed homeowners insurance policy will contain a personal property coverage that is 50% of your Home coverage amount….so if your home is insured for $300,000 your policy will include a personal property coverage of $150,000.  Most modern policies or endorsed policies will give you 75% or 80% personal property coverage.  Why so much? 

When we at the Wallrich Agency write a new homeowners insurance policy we do a replacement cost estimator to determine the “rebuilding” cost of your home. This allows us to give you accurate coverage in case your home has a large or total loss. Often times people never come up with an amount of coverage for their personal belongings. Have you ever tried to calculate how much stuff you own ? Its a lot of stuff… This is why we err on the side of caution and give you 50, 75 or 80% coverage. Will you receive a check for that entire amount? The answer is “no”.

When a home claim is initiated the building loss is calculated and then separately we begin the process of determining what belongings you lost as a result of the claim. Most insurance companies will issue you a payment and request your receipts to issue you more money…this process usually takes a long time as it also becomes hard to remember what you owned. For this reason we generally tell our clients to make a video of their home on their phone so they can look back later and remember items. The company will replace to the best of their ability what you lost but sometimes you may get different clothes or upgrade appliances and that is expected….you may have to pay the difference on those upgraded-items. Sometimes the insurance claim adjuster will simply give you the option to settle the total amount and you can do whatever you see fit. This is a conversation you may have after a loss.

I hope this cleared up some questions you may have on the topic of personal property coverage. Please call us with questions or concerns you may have on your own policy. there are some related issues you may want to explore further such as: How much personal property do I have away-from-my-residence? or, Do I have a large collection of something that i can itemize before a claim occurs? Lastly, items like firearms, collectibles, jewelry and cash or coins may be limited by your policy so you will want to ask your agent about that.

By Aaron Wallrichinsurance 101 No comments yet