Homeowner's Insurance

the four standard policy types are;

• fire/homeowners (this is standard coverage that most people have/should have on their home. These policies can be written to include or exclude any number of things, but will cover your home at the very least in case of a fire)
• wind (almost always included in fire coverage, except in costal states like Florida and Texas. These states have separate entities such as Texas Windstorm that provide the coverage)
• flood (only required for your home if it is located in a special flood hazard area, or SFHA. This is determined by FEMA, but you can find out for free here; https://msc.fema.gov/ on the left side of the page, search for your property by either address of map panel id, if by some chance you know it. if you are in a zone that starts with either A or V, then flood insurance is required as long as you have a mortgage.)
• earthquake (not very common, can be included in the fire/homeowners policy, but not common. Probably not necessary in most place, but obviously if you live somewhere near a fault line, you might want to check into it.)

additionally, if your home is a condo, you will have a different fire/flood coverage, this is due to the close nature of the properties, so the policies are written a little differently.

There are also policies if you are renting, known simply as "renters policies". These cover damages to the property and your own personal articles, in case of theft, or damage that is not covered by the landlords policy.

Conversely, there is a landlords policy which would cover things like damage to the property.

also, if you own a condo or a PUD (planned unit development), then you can get a contents policy, or unitowners policy. these policies cover your personal belongings which aren't covered by your associations master policy.

hope this helps!

Generally a homeowners policy is set up on a direct bill arrangement where the company sends the bills to the policyholders and then the company pays a commission directly to the agent. The independent agency is not allowed to charge any additional fees or commissions to the policyholders. The independent agency will perform all service to the clients such as writing new policies, making changes, answering questions, etc.

In Texas you have many choices of professionals for your Insurance needs. You can use the services of a Standard Insurance Agent, an Independent Insurance Agent, an Insurance Broker or even a Risk Manager as well as that of an Independent Insurance Claims Adjuster. You may decline to pay Agent, Broker or Adjuster Fees, However, these professionals may also decline to accept you as a client or may decline to offer you representation or service.

Best practices for Independent Agents is to maintain a single master one page "Fees Disclosure Schedule" indicating what services and any assigned fees disclosed with all originating service offerings. This practice provides for an informed insured customer and promotes fair and consistent application within the agency. Any custom risks subject to hourly rates should be included in a signed addendum to the agents fees schedule and should be reviewed and provided with applications and service offerings.

Whether or not you incur an agency fee can depend on many things. 1.Who handles the billing and payments for your insurance policy. 2. Who is responsible for the production, printing and mailing of your insurance policy. 3. Is the carrier local, foreign or an alien (international) insurer. 4. The complexity of your risk or the time consumed in finding an appropriate market. 5. The type of insurance policy you purchased. 6, Insurance regulations in your state and the established agency fees schedule of your producing agents.

Agency fees are typically not allowed on policies placed through government sponsored assigned risk programs such as the Texas Windstorm Association and the National Flood Insurance Program. Due to low commissions some agents simply can not afford to participate and do not offer these government insured programs. Some standard line direct bill offerings the company underwriting rules may not allow an agency fee. So some policy offerings and services may have agent fees while others may not. Your agent should be able to provide you with a Fees schedule.

Most Standard lines Insurance agents represent only 1 primary carrier, Some may have 1, 2 or 3 backup markets in place. So most policies are direct bill and issued by the insurer and usually require no agent fees as all servicing costs are built into the premium.

Independent Agents typically have a dozen or 2 dozen markets, both standard and Non Standard, Admitted and Non-Admitted carriers, some larger independents will have over a 100 markets or insurance brokerages to offer and each insurer has it's own underwriting and production guidelines. Some will offer direct bill programs and many may require the Agency have billing, underwriting and production capabilities.

Most states, including Texas Insurance regulations, do allow regulated agency fees. Regulations depending on your state may limit the amount and types of fees but all require fees disclosure in various ways.

With an independent insurance agent, it is true that you have access to many more potential insuring markets, but it is not unusual to incur fees for the extra services and market access available.

Example 1. We recently found replacement coverage for a residential property risk (Homeowners Policy), Previous annual premium was $4,600 on a direct bill program, new company came in at $2,100 for matching coverage with a $100 Agent Placement fee. total savings to the insured was $2,400 per year, same coverage, different brokering market with an agency billing and production requirement.

Example 2. You pay your insurance renewal bill of $1500 through your independent agent with your Credit Card, Visa International will likely charge the agent 40 to 80 dollars to process the charge from your card. If the agent does not collect an agents processing fee, that agent will not have the entire 1500 to transmit to the insurer as it will have been intercepted by the credit card processor. This is why as mentioned above. If you are placed with a direct bill program carrier you would likely not encounter an agency fee, but you still might encounter a payment fee depending on the company and your method of payment.

Example 3. You have an efficient affordable policy placed with a London Insurance Exchange, These international markets have little or no direct bill capabilities so standard annual agency servicing fees are in the 100 dollar range due to the overhead cost of Policy Production, Premium Collection and Transmittal.

The best place to learn about agency fees pertinent to your policy is with your Insurance Agent.

Information about regulation of insurance agents and agency fees can be found with your State Insurance Commissioner or Administrator.

You will need to call your insurance agent or read your insurance policy to see if you scheduled your earring or not.

A bit more:

With many personal items, such as jewelry and guns, you usually have to purchase a separate policy to have full coverage on them, especially if you have an extensive collection. Many companies will only cover up to a specific (small) amount for these items on a homeowner's policy, depending on the type of policy you have.