It seems as though when a losses occur they occur from all different types of things some we just never see coming. Before becoming an insurance agent several years ago I was a claims adjuster. If I showed up at your property it was never a good thing. Not only did I handle claims, I handled the really really bad one's. I was the one who showed up when there was no house or business after passing tornadoes, or I was the one who showed up when the fire took everything you worked so very hard for and you could not bear to even step foot inside. I took the place of the insureds.
I gave a speech last week about the agency and spoke really to my education and passion for this job. To this day I look at the Katrina season, and the seasons prior where five hurricanes hit the coast of Florida. It is about response in the insurance industry! One thing most people do not consider when they file a claim is that the insurance company adjusters have an obligation first to you as the insured to find coverage where coverage is applicable. I have heard so many stories of "that adjuster tried to rip me off", or my favorite " I have paid insurance on my house for 20 years and never filed a claim."
Okay, the real picture of the insurance industry is this!! Are you listening?
Insurance adjusters and agents alike are driven by pure passion for what they do and truly protecting the needs of the insureds that report losses. It is their jobs to do so, they are there to pay what is right and fair and just under the contract of insurance. If coverage applies we will pay what we owe, no more, no less. That is the creed of every insurance carrier!
Why what we owe - because anything less is a failure to the insured
Why no more - because overpaying claims leads to inflated premium payments for all
Why no less - because the intention of any insurance policy is to put you back where you were pre-loss condition
Like kind and quality replacement is what the policy offers, not upgrades, like to what you had at the time of loss. This is something to consider when obtaining estimates for damages.
The intention of your insurance policy is to protect those things you value most your homes, your businesses and in the case of life insurance the very people who live in them. Insurance within itself is a very unique and exciting product. It is the protection of everything you love! It becomes the financial means to replace that which can be lost by accident.
Let's say you own a home just bought it five years ago. The total value of your home is $225,000 and you pay insurance company Xtra-cool $725.00 per year to insure your home.
A horrible thunderstorm comes through one evening, you are home, you smell smoke, before you know it the township fire department is at your home trying to put a large fire out. You don't remember how you got out, when you noticed it was on fire you have no clue what has just happened to you.
This is when your $725 for insurance on your home starts paying you back...
The cost to rebuild your home is $225,000
Your other structure deck burned and part of the privacy fence $15,900
Your personal property loss is $162,750
You were out of your home for 11 months during re-construction costs $25,000
Your lawn was damaged $1,000
Your fire truck service charge paid $700
Debris removal charges $16,500
and the list goes on and on.... estimated total pay out on claim $446,850
Over the five years you have owned your home you have paid insurance company Xtra-cool
only $3,625 in premium to pay you back $446,850 worth of protection for your home. Hm mm, seems to me like that is one amazing contract. NO wonder mortgage companies require you carry this stuff. Crunching the numbers, this really is an amazing product.
Well, what if I never have such a loss? Well, my answer to that is but what if you do? As a matter of fact most Americans these days do not stay in their homes for 50+ years like we used to, but even if we did in your lifetime you will NEVER pay enough premium to equal the amount it takes to cover a catastrophic loss to your home or business. If this same person had lived in their home and paid premiums in for 50 years they would have only paid in $32,650 in premiums and the value of their home would have been increasing every year so the pay out on the claim would have been even larger.
This is an amazing product! This "insurance contract" really is the most important thing you carry. The people who work to service and supply these policies are passionate about what they do for a living because the rudimentary concept of insurance is doing the right thing to protect us all by paying in our fair share regardless of use because if we need it, it will be there to protect us ten fold what we have paid in. It is truly disaster or accident protection for those things we have worked each day of our lives to own for pennies on the dollar. It is valued, needed, even essential protection.
Does your current agency have this passion? Did they just sell you a contract and move on? Is that where you belong? Give our agency a call 317-534-5202 our knowledgeable agency staff is ready to work with you today. Take a look at us at www.brooksoninsurance.com
Thank you,
Heather Swank
Owner / Agent
No comments:
Post a Comment