Home And Contents Ins
Home And Contents Ins
Facebook’s follies: A brief history
It’s been a long, strange trip for the social network, especially since many of its mistakes have been played out–and continue to do so–in the public eye.
How To Get The Best Home And Contents Insurance
Insuring your home is one of the most important decisions you will make. After all, your home is likely the largest investment you will ever make. It is very important to know how this insurance basically works. It is actually a combination of types of coverage that all goes together to make homeowner’s insurance.
Of course the first kind of insurance is which covers the structure itself.  There is more to consider than one may at first realize. For instance, what about insuring for replacement cost as opposed to actual cash value. Insuring for replacement cost is having enough insurance to replace your home if regardless of any depreciation. Sure, you expect your home’s value to appreciate, not depreciate. But what if there is damage to a part of it. Say a broken water pipe leads to damage that requires your cabinets to be replaced. This kind of insurance would pay to replace the cabinets and would not take into account any depreciation of value for the age of the cabinets. Â
If you are insured for actual cash value you will pay less on insurance premiums, but in the event of a loss or damage, you may not receive enough money for replacement. What you will receive is the cash value of the damaged property at the time of loss.
In order to determine what it would cost to replace your home today may require a professional appraisal. A general idea can be gained by learning what the current rate of new construction is in your area per square foot.  Say that figure is $150. Multiply that amount by number of square feet in your home and there you have it. Â
Another type of coverage that goes into the homeowner’s insurance package is contents or property insurance. This takes care of the property that you have in your home. This includes your clothes, furniture, appliances, and so on. Â
Be sure to know that everything in your home isn’t automatically covered by this kind of insurance. For instance, if you have jewelry, coins, silver, furs, or things of this nature, they may require a policy rider to be added in order to be covered. Â
The same concern for replacement vs. cash value exists for the contents of your home. The typical policy will pay for the current cash value of your home’s contents. Replacement value will have to be specified is desired. Â
When addressing the need for content or property insurance, making an inventory is a wise move. This can be a room by room list of items, listing the approximate value of each, or one may choose to photograph or video these items. A video could include a narrative of values or any necessary explanations.
Best Home Insurance
Best Home Insurance
How You Can Find the Best Home Insurance Company in Florida
After Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, many of the best Florida home insurance companies began to leave the state. Many more exited Florida after the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. Today the few name brand companies that remain for the most part don’t write any new business. What was once a prominent list of over 500 companies is now a short list of about 40 brand new start up companies that most people have never heard of.
With all of the chaos in the Florida home insurance market, what is the best way for you to find the best Florida home insurance companies?
For starters, it’s never been more important to have coverage with a private company – staying away from the bureaucracy of Citizens Property Insurance Company. While Florida’s state run insurance company of last resort, is charging below market rates and competing with the private market, there are plenty of storm clouds on the horizon.
Citizens has stated that it does not charge enough in its rates to cover the risks that it is taking. Consequently, the company must borrow even before hurricanes hit in order to have enough cash available to pay claims. It has enough cash to pay for smaller hurricanes but a major event would send Citizens into the bond markets looking to borrow to pay your claim. After major storms, if you are a Citizen policyholder you will be subject to special assessments that will be higher than those who have coverage in the private market. Last but not least, Citizens has not distinguished itself with fast and fair claim payments after major hurricanes.
Moving to the private market of Florida home insurance companies, you should look for companies that have most or all of the following:
Longevity – companies that have been around longer simply have more experience and better developed systems to write policies and process claims.
Financial Stability – high financial ratings, a large surplus to pay claims, and backup reinsurance from companies that also have high ratings.
Risk Diversification – a core base of policies that include an appropriate mix of newer, inland homes balanced out against older homes that are closer to the Florida coast. The company’s policy base should be geographically distributed across most of the counties in the state of Florida – not just concentrated in the South Florida coastal counties. Finally it is better to find a company that has expanded its policy base to other states in addition to Florida.
Customer Service – the company should have a reputation for excellent policyholder customer service along with a track record of fast and fair claims processing. In other words when you call them someone quickly answers the phone. If you have a billing question, they have the people skills and the systems to make things right. After a hurricane, it means that an adjuster will be scheduled quickly to come visit your home and assess the damages. And when he leaves, the company quickly values your damages and sends you a check.
Here’s what you can do to figure out if the Florida home insurance company you are considering can meet your expectations in these areas:
Check the websites maintained by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and find out when the company first started doing business in Florida. Try to find a company that started doing business before the 2004 hurricanes.
Get the company’s NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) code and use it to check its financial ratings with AM Best and Demotech. Find out how much surplus the company has to pay your claim. Don’t bother trying to assess the quality of the company’s reinsurance – the Best and Demotech ratings take that into consideration.
Ask your Florida insurance agent about each company’s policy diversification across Florida and into other states as well. Find out what you can about the type of risks the company is writing. As a general rule, home insurance companies in Florida that have taken out policies from Citizens have a higher risk policy base that must be offset against newer homes that are located in the interior counties of Florida. Finally, ask your agent about the company’s complaint history for the past couple of years. Rule out any company that has had a higher number of complaints filed against them relative to the amount of insurance premium they have written.
If you follow even half of these recommendations you’ll be doing a lot more than the average Florida insurance consumer to find the best home insurance company to meet your needs.
What’s the cheapest and best company for car insurance/home insurance/life?
We are moving out of our current state and need to switch companies. I was just wondering what the cheapest company (also with good service) for all types of insurance would be. Thanks!
the way I do it is I wait till I am due for renewal then I shop around and when I find the cheapest quote I ask my insurers if they can match it, if they cannot then I do not renew and go with the new guys.
If you check out a good comparison site you get to save much time as the site will provide quotes from all main insurers see this one
http://insurance.gsx1.com/
take care