Two Home Insurance Policy Options You Need to Know

What if your home insurance policy didn’t cover all the costs of rebuilding your house?

It’s a scary thought, but it could happen if you don’t have enough coverage. That’s why it’s important to read about two common situations that are often not covered by homeowners’ policies — and the affordable options that can help.

Extended Dwelling Coverage

Homeowners insurance may not be enough to cover the costs of rebuilding your home after a disaster. Extended dwelling coverage helps you stay within policy limits and still have some extra cash on hand for when construction goes up-in price or unforeseen circumstances arise during remediation work.

 As we know, disasters can strike at any time so make sure that if they ever occur then our team will help with all aspects including getting quick quotes as well making sure everything falls back into place quickly  leaving nothing but smile lines across faces.

For an example, consider this…..Your home is currently insured for 100% of its replacement cost, with the cost based on the value of your house when the policy was originally written. However, a wildfire sweeps through your area destroying your home along with hundreds of others nearby. Due to the high demand caused by the natural disaster, construction materials and labor costs increase 20% in your area. So your $200,000 home will now cost $240,000 to rebuild. If you had 20% extended dwelling coverage, you’d get the $240,000. Without it, you get $200,000 and will have to make up the difference out of pocket or settle for less house than you originally had.

Building Ordinance or Law Coverage

The cost of rebuilding your home after a covered loss can be much higher than you expect. But with our Building Ordinance Policy, or Law Coverage we will protect the property and keep it insured in case there are any damages caused by law enforcement activity which enable us to provide financial assistance for repairs without increasing premium rates on homeowners policies.

Again, let’s take the example from above and assume you have a $200,000 homeowners’ policy. With a 10% building ordinance policy, you would get an extra $20,000 to apply to the new building code requirements you must meet. Without this policy option, you’ll have to pay the difference to bring your house up to code.

Finding the Policy for You

 The Sanders Insurance dwelling and building policy can offer valuable protection from gaps in coverage to help you avoid a costly loss. With an affordable annual premium, it's easy for homeowners like yourself who need that extra security when faced with unforeseen covered events or unexpected repairs on their homes because they're protected by our professional agents.

Protect Your Possessions with a Home Inventory Catalog

Homes are often a target for disaster, so it is important to have an inventory catalog of your home.

You just got home after a relaxing vacation, only to find that your house has been burglarized. What do you do? If not for the sake of documenting everything and making sure nothing gets forgotten (especially valuable possessions), most people might never realize how much was taken from them.

What good are all those things you've worked so hard to gather if they're not in an inventory? It might seem tedious, but it's important for making sure that your homeowners insurance covers everything. The last thing anyone needs is a burglary and then having no way of proving their losses other than by guesswork or relying on word-of mouth tales from friends and family members.

Inventory Example (Make Your Own List!):

• 4 pairs of Levi Jeans

• 1 MacBook computer

• 1 PlayStation 5

• 1 Autographed Micky Mantle Baseball

• 2 pairs Nike Sneakers

• 1 Leather Jacket (mid-range)

• 1 Custom Calvin Klein 3-Piece Suit

A Home Inventory Catalog provides an easy solution for this problem by cataloging all missing items so they can be replaced with ease. If you’re searching for the right policy that fits you, reach out to one of our agents.

How Does Full Glass Coverage Work?

Full glass coverage is an additional physical damage insurance that can be purchased on a personal or business auto policy.

It often needs to go alongside comprehensive bodily harm coverages, but it's worth looking into if you have any questions about what your specific plan offers - watch "What is Full Glass Coverage?" for answers.

For additional questions, reach out to our team of agents to walk you through the right insurance policy for you.

Starting Your Small Business? Get Insured!

When you first start your small business, one of the most important things that can help is getting yourself insured. Whether or not this means understanding industry terms and concepts outside of what's familiar to someone in marketing & sales - it’s a necessary step for making sure everything goes smoothly!

Check out this Small Business Insurance Glossary to help you better understand policies.

SIGNING-UP

• Endorsement/Rider: Additional protection purchased in addition to your core business owners policy (BOP). You can use riders to add extra features to your policy.

• Insurance Agent: Someone who sells insurance policies from one or more insurance companies.

• Insured: The person or business, including employees and others, covered by an insurance policy.

• Policy: A written contract, between the insurer and policyholder, that lays out the conditions of your insurance.

• Premium: What you pay to your insurance company in exchange for coverage.

• Quote: An initial estimate of how much your insurance will cost. The actual premium could be different.

• Underwriting: A process where the insurance company reviews and evaluates your risks to decide whether you qualify for coverage, and at what premium.

USING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS INSURANCE

• Appraisal: A professional estimate of the value of your property.

• Certificate of Insurance: A document that shows you have insurance and lists the types of policies you hold. It will also list the dates noting how long your coverage is in force.

• Claim: When you notify your insurance company of a loss and request that they provide coverage that is covered by your policy.

• Deductible: If you have a loss, this is the amount you’ll be required to pay before your insurance will start paying to cover a loss. For example, if you have a $2,000 deductible, you need to pay the first $2,000 of any loss before your insurance will pay out on a claim.

• Lapse: When your insurance policy has a gap in coverage, typically caused by a policyholder failing to pay the premiums to maintain the policy.

• Loss: The financial cost of an incident, like damage to your car after an accident or a lawsuit from an upset client. Your insurance company may pay to cover the loss according to the conditions laid out in your policy.

WHAT’S COVERED?

• Actual Cash Value (ACV): The value of an asset after depreciation is factored in. Some insurance policies only cover the actual cash value of property after a loss.

• Depreciation: Wear and tear on property, like a car or equipment. Over time, these assets become less valuable because of the depreciation.

• Exclusion: A situation where your insurance policy will not cover damages.

• Named Peril Policy: An insurance policy that only covers the situations listed in the policy.

• Peril: Something that causes a loss. Fires, hurricanes and theft are examples of perils. It’s important to understand exactly which perils your coverage covers.

• Policy Limit: The maximum amount your insurance will pay for a loss. The insurance company will not pay beyond the policy limit, even if your loss total was more than that.

• Primary Policy: If you have multiple insurance policies covering the same situation, the company holding the primary policy will generally lead the claims handling process.

• Replacement Value: The cost to replace damaged property. If a piece of equipment breaks, you likely will need to buy a brand-new one. A policy that covers replacement value will pay for this full cost, even if the actual value of your property is lower because of depreciation.

TYPES OF SMALL BUSINESS INSURANCE

• Business Interruption Insurance: If you have to temporarily close your business due to a covered loss, business interruption insurance covers lost income and ongoing expenses.

• Business Owners Policy (BOP): This covers a broad range of property and liability risks. It can help protect your business in case of things like fire (property damage), suspended operations (business income) or lawsuits (liability) resulting from bodily injury, property damage, personal injury or advertising injury.

• Cyber Insurance: This can be essential in helping your company recover after a data breach. This includes costs such as the disruption of your business, revenue loss, equipment damages, legal fees, public relations expenses, forensic analysis and costs associated with legally mandated notifications.

• Liability Insurance: Liability insurance covers your legal defense costs and judgments if you are responsible for damages to someone else.

• Professional Liability Insurance: Insurance that covers damages that come because of mistakes in your work, such as if you mishandle tax planning for a client, or poorly design a product.

• Umbrella Insurance: Insurance that covers losses that are higher than the policy limits on your other insurance plans. Once your other policy has paid to its limit, the umbrella insurance could cover any remaining costs.

• Waiver of Subrogation: This prevents your business and your insurance company from seeking a share of any damages paid to a third party responsible for the loss for a paid claim.

• Workers Comp Insurance: Insurance that covers your employees if they get hurt on the job.

Now that you know the basic terminology for your new small business insurance, you can be confident that you are asking the right questions and getting the right coverage from your agent.

We provide you with valuable tips and advice that you can apply in your daily life. Visit our Industry Secrets Blog for tons of information on all kinds of insurance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Change the Future of Insurance

Consumer expectations are evolving, and new technologies are emerging. One of the most disruptive forces in the industry is Artificial intelligence (AI). AI offers insurers the ability to automate processes, improve customer engagement, and drive down costs.  

In the future, AI will become even more important to the insurance industry as insurers seek to gain a competitive edge. The most successful insurers will be those that embrace AI and use it to transformative effect.

How AI Relates to Insurance

With the new wave of deep learning techniques, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the potential to live up to its promise of mimicking the perception, reasoning, learning, and problem solving of the human mind.

As AI becomes more deeply integrated in the industry, carriers must position themselves to respond to the changing business landscape. The pace of change will also accelerate as brokers, consumers, financial intermediaries, insurers, and suppliers become more adept at using advanced technologies to enhance decision making and productivity, lower costs, and optimize the customer experience.

Four AI-Related Trends Shaping Insurance

The increased emphasis on digital technologies along with a greater willingness to embrace change will put organizations in a better position to incorporate AI into their operations. These four core technology trends will reshape the insurance industry over the next decade.

• Explosion of data - The future is here, and it's even more sensor-filled. From cars to our clothing items - we are surrounded by technology that knows exactly what you want. The coming years will see an increase in data created from these devices which carriers can use for a more personalized experience as well as real time service delivery--allowing customers even greater convenience than ever before

• Increased prevalence of physical robotics - The field of robotics has seen many exciting achievements recently, and this innovation will continue to change how humans interact with the world around them. By 2025, 3-D-printed buildings will be common, and carriers will need to assess how this development changes risk assessments.

• Open-source and data ecosystems - As data becomes ubiquitous, open-source protocols will emerge to ensure data can be shared and used across industries. Various public and private entities will come together to create ecosystems to share data for multiple use cases under a common regulatory and cybersecurity framework.

• Cognitive technologies - Convolutional neural networks and other deep learning technologies currently used primarily for image, voice, and unstructured text processing will evolve to be applied in a wide variety of applications.

The Next Wave of Data Coming

Experts estimate there will be up to one trillion connected devices by 2025. The resulting avalanche of new data created by these devices will allow carriers to understand their clients more deeply, resulting in new product categories, more personalized pricing, and increasingly real-time service delivery.

Humans have always had to deal with risks. But in recent years, we appear to be entering a particularly intense period of turbulence. The combination climate change and technological disruptions has led us into an era where disease are also becoming more prominent while aging populations only add onto this problem - creating what some might call "the perfect storm".

The Future of Insurance

The future of insurance is looking bright, with AI and its related technologies having a seismic impact on all aspects from distribution to underwriting. Advanced tools are already being used by companies in the industry for pricing their policies as well as purchasing them.

Insurance carriers that utilize cutting edge technologies and harness the power of artificial intelligence will be able to offer their customers a personalized experience unlike any other.

Upcoming Trends for Artificial Intelligence