John is a licensed 2-20 Insurance Agent and is available for a complimentary review of your current coverage.

Contact John so he can provide you the personal attention and service you deserve: john@veroinsurance.com or call our office at 772-231-2022.

Cost
Consumers often find there’s a cost benefit in consolidating their coverage with a single carrier. While the exact number will vary from company to company, it’s very possible to save 15% or more.

Specialist companies still exist, but many generalist insurers have diversified their product lines to include an array of business and personal insurance and financial products. Since an insurance carrier is gaining customer loyalty and reducing their marketing costs when an existing customer purchases additional products, they’re usually willing to pass a portion of their savings on to their consumers.

Gaps
Depending on the types of coverage you’ve purchased and your unique situation, certain coverage gaps could be reduced when you consolidate your insurance portfolio. Take purchasing General and Professional Liability through the same carrier as an example. An accountant, for example, would have little risk of their professional services leading to property damage or bodily injury, but a travel agent, for example, routinely makes professional recommendations that could have physical consequences for their clients. The travel agent might be unaware that a lodging they recommend to a client is undergoing renovations. The client slips and falls due to unsafe conditions and sues the travel agent for not knowing the condition of the lodging before recommending it. If the travel agent has General and Professional Liability through two different carriers, then he/she may find the two carriers pointing the finger in opposite directions and disclaiming coverage. Whereas, if the travel agent has both coverages under the same carrier, then the disclaiming concern is moot since there isn’t another company to point the finger at.

Tailoring
Many carriers have learned to anticipate the common problems associated with coverage gaps, such as in the example discussed above. These carriers have created tailored packaged policies or programs with multiple different coverage options. These options interlock, but don’t unnecessarily duplicate coverage or dangerously leave gaps between coverages. Umbrella policies perform best when written by the carrier of your primary coverage(s).

Cons
As with most everything in life, there are cons to consolidation. It’s important that you look at the financial strength of the insurance carrier. If an insurance carrier is poorly rated by any of the rating services that monitor insurers, then the increased risk of going with an insurer that has questionable financial strength may outweigh any of the cost, gap, and tailoring pros.

Another con is that the insurer may quickly change their hunger for a certain product and leave you having to find replacements for multiple policies. Research the company’s track record – have they typically stuck it out during bad and good times or have they timed the market to make a quick dollar and exit?

While most generalist insurers have diversified their offerings, it’s possible to miss out on some coverage benefits still only being offered by specialists.

In closing
consider the above points and how each could or wouldn’t meet your needs. In most cases, you’ll find that coverage consolidation and the right carrier creates a winning scenario for all parties involved.

Vero Insurance has been building relationships and trust since 1960.  Vero Insurance is a full service insurance agency that is locally owned and actively involved in our community.

• Services include Personal Lines, Private Client Services, Marine & Luxury Yacht Division, Commercial Risk, Management & Insurance, Employee Benefits, and Advanced Life Insurance Planning 

• All client service is provided locally by a dedicated team of over 20 highly trained insurance professionals that live and work in our community. Our clients deserve the best professional advice and experience possible, and therefore, we will never utilize distant service centers to boost the bottom line.

• Our agency is built upon a tradition of integrity, community involvement, industry leadership and excellence that has resulted in sustained customer and employee satisfaction.

For a complimentary review of your existing policies, contact our office at 772-231-2022.

Brad Emmons, CEO
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Florida lawmakers are trying to address the cost of sinkhole claims, which state officials and insurers say are driving up property insurance rates and could threaten the solvency of some domestic insurers if not brought under control.

The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee issued a report recently that reiterated the findings of the Office of Insurance Regulation and Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty that found that sinkhole claims have nearly quadrupled between 2006 and 2010 statewide—including in counties that have not in the past been know for having many.

The report recommends a statute of limitations on the filing of property claims, improvements in the state’s building code, a better definition of structural damage for a claim, limiting the scope of sinkhole coverage or making it optional, and putting some restrictions on the advertising and fees of public adjusters.

The report also recommends that the state consider creating a facility to help handle sinkhole claims and repairs.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, held hearings this week on possible legislation.

The insurance industry is encouraged by lawmakers’ attention to the issue.

“The Senate report provides independent support for the alarm which has been raised by Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty before the Cabinet two months ago and by the insurance community over the last year. It is alarm about a crisis in which rates are going up, some insurers are going bankrupt and an already fragile market is facing erosion from claims which do not involve real sinkholes, but produce comparable large insurance settlements, sometimes policy limits,” said Sam Miller, executive director of the insurers’ Florida Insurance Council.

Some of the recommendations to address sinkhole claims were contained in broad property insurance legislation that passed the House and Senate last year but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.

But insurers believe that lawmakers are ready to try again to pass property insurance reforms under new Gov. Rick Scott.

A committee vote on some of statutory recommendations issues regarding sinkholes could come as early as Jan. 24, according to Sam Miller, executive director of the insurers’ Florida Insurance Council.

Miller said insurers thinks lawmakers will “guarantee quick help for a homeowner whose house is swallowed up by a sinkhole, but no longer allow public adjusters, attorneys specializing in sinkholes and uninformed or unscrupulous homeowners to get a windfall of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over minor cracks in their driveway or a corner of their garage.”

However, it could take longer for another Senate report recommendation—to create a state facility to handle sinkhole claims and repairs— to be considered.

Insurers generally support the legal changes but some have qualms about the state facility idea.

Private insurers told OIR that the sinkhole claims increased from 2,360 in 2006 to 6,694 in 2010, totaling 24,671 claims throughout that period. Total sinkhole claim costs for these insurers amounted to approximately $1.4 billion for the same period.

Of the total sinkhole claims reported to the OIR, 66 percent of the claims were concentrated in the three sinkhole-alley counties, Hernando, Pasco, and Hillsborough. However, the OIR study found that sinkhole claims have also increased in areas generally not subject to sinkhole activity, like Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The state-backed property insurer, Citizens Property Insurance, has also been hit hard. The sinkhole claims frequency ratio at Citizens more than doubled between 2006 and 2009. In 2009, Citizens reported incurring over $84 million in sinkhole losses and expenses, yet obtained only $19.6 million in earned premium to cover those costs. The losses represent almost four times the amount of premiums collected from the insurers’ policyholders for sinkhole coverage, yet the company’s rates are capped, and cannot be increased by more than approximately 10 percent per year for any policyholder.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has called sinkhole claims a major cost driver of insurance rates and, the Senate report notes, has expressed concern that such claims could threaten the solvency of domestic insurers and have a significant destabilizing effect on an already fragile market. McCarty has said he suspects that many sinkhole claims are questionable and that public adjusters and others are gaming the system.

In Florida, every insurer must make sinkhole coverage available, for an additional premium. The report found that the statewide average sinkhole premium charged by Citizens in 2009 was $73 but that figure varies a lot by location. For example, in 2009, the average sinkhole premium in Pasco County was $944; Hernando County, $775; Hillsborough County, $98. The average sinkhole premium for the remainder of the state (excluding Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough) was only $22.

However, the Senate report notes, that actual premium that Citizens charges is only a “small part “of Citizens’ actual sinkhole costs because Florida law prohibits Citizens from increasing the rate of any policyholder by more than approximately 10 percent, even as losses continue to rise at a much faster pace.

The source of this article is the Insurance Journal. http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/01/14/180214.htm

Contractual business agreements typically contain insurance requirements.  A comprehensive review of your contracts, including leases, sub-contractors, Association declarations should be done on a regular basis to be sure you are compliant with the insurance requirements of the agreement.  Without proper transfer of risk agreements in place your policy will act as the primary policy, leaving it up to your carrier to subrogate against the true at fault party. 

All agreements whether between landlord and tenant, contractor and subcontractor, owner and vendor should have requirements that the 3^rd party (tenant, sub) include the primary party (landlord, owner, contractor) as additional insured and the 3^rd party should carry limits that are equal to, or exceed the limits of liability carried by the primary party.   Further, a hold harmless and indemnification agreement should be in place with wording that requires the 3^rd party’s policy be primary and non-contributory.

 It’s about making your business more attractive to the insurance market place, and protecting your insurability.   More carriers are willing to offer competitive quotations knowing strong risk management practices are in place, including proper transfer of risk to 3^rd parties.   Your professional insurance agent should have in place a plan of risk reduction strategies that include frequent reviews of lease agreements, contracts and declarations.   A certificate management program should include updates of certificates monthly.  Limits of liability should be confirmed to be equal to or in excess of your liability limits, a hold harmless and indemnification agreement should be required of all 3^rd parties that includes primary and non-contributory language.

For a no obligation of your insurance and risk management portfolio contact the experts at Vero Insurance today.

Brad Emmons, CEO
Jonathan Schwiering, President

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Despite calm season, insurance still going up