REAL Exclusive Magazine

Things to Know About Your Insurance

By Lou Marinaccio

As most of us do automatically, we spend little time questioning our policy contents and more time worrying about our premiums. Hopefully I can assist you with some coverage tips that may alleviate some questions you might have and save you some money in the process.

Let’s look at our Homeowners Policy and/or our Condo Policy in this issue’s column:

A. Check the dates that your policy renews.  We all realize we cannot do anything about the first year of our policy.

Typically, when we purchase a property, at closing we are required to show a “paid up” policy which extends for one year.

What we can do in year two, or prior to renewal time, is to have the expiration of our policy not occur during the “hurricane season” which is usually considered to be June 1st through October 15th.  Our suggestion is to contact your insurance agent and request an update of coverage prior to your renewal.  Experience tells us that renewal coverages “out of season” tend to have a lower renewal premium than those renewed “in season”.

B. Question the values you are using. If market conditions have dropped more than 20% (a rule of thumb), then suggest to your agent that the insurance to value should accompany this change.

Remember you can always increase your value as you feel necessary.  While insurance is always based on probability of risk/loss, the premiums are based on the value of the property lost, at the time of that occurrence.  It appears our market conditions are going to prevail for some time to come, so let’s get our insurance house in order.

C. Assume more risk since insurance is all about probability.  Take a higher deductible and save premium dollars.  We are smarter consumers today and we should prepare ourselves for probable occurrences.

These tips are meant to make you aware there are choices you can make as a home owner and an insurance purchaser.

Feel free to e-mail me any questions to me at lmarinaccio@mga-insurance.com.

All the Best!

Lou Marinaccio is the CEO of MGA Insurance Group located in the MGA Commerce Plaza at 9024 Town Center Parkway, Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202. Lou may be reached at 941-907-3828 or via email at lmarinaccio@mga-insurance.com. For more information on MGA Insurance Group visit www.mga-insurance.com.