Tag: Tower Hill Insurance

Shopping for Homeowners Insurance Video from Tower Hill® Insurance

For most people, their biggest purchase is their home. Following the four must-dos for shopping for homeowners insurance can help you find the best value and the best protection for your home:

  • Get advice from a professional agent who will take the time to guide you through the selection process
  • Shorten your list to the best companies, those with a great reputation for financial strength, claims handling, and customer service.
  • Compare multiple quotes for similar coverages, and ask your agent to explain any differences in coverages.
  • Tailor your policy to your wants and needs, as well as your tolerance for risk. Make sure price is not the primary factor.

The video below does a great job discussing these items in further detail.

https://youtu.be/us4P2QNnI70

If you would like to learn more about this coverage please contact us.

All About Sinkhole Coverage

One of our Insurance Carriers, Tower Hill Insurance Group has created a great video explaining how Catastrophic Ground Cover Collapse (CGCC) is covered by your homeowners insurance policy.If you’d like to learn more about this coverage in regards to your policy please contact us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Uv_cwZ4GQ

Below please find the transcript from the video featured in this article.

Hi, this is Joel Curran coming to from the Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC offices in Gainesville, Florida, where we have been serving the insurance needs of Floridians for 40 years.

Florida has changed a lot over those 40 years. We’ve had some of the worst hurricanes on record, like Andrew in 1992 and the 2004 – 2005 season when Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC paid out more than $2 billion to repair homes in Florida. We have also seen huge changes in the way we communicate and do business.Most recently, Florida’s sinkholes have been getting a lot of attention on TV and radio, on the Internet in general, and on social networking sites especially.

One question we see are seeing more and more frequently on Facebook and Twitter is, “I see I have a 10% sinkhole deductible, can you tell me how that works?” Well I can do that. But let me first give some background information and explain a little bit about sinkhole loss coverage.

Across the country homeowners and dwelling fire policies are rather standard in most coverages. Earth movement is excluded in these policies. While most people think this applies to earthquakes, it also means sinkholes in Florida would not be covered. However, policies are modified in Florida to cover damage from sinkholes.

There are two types of coverage for earth movement in Florida: Catastrophic Ground Cover Collapse, known as CGCC, and Sinkhole Loss Coverage. CGCC covers you in cases you often hear about in the news, where a sinkhole opens up under or near a house and there is considerable damage.

All homeowners’ insurance companies provide it. The normal policy deductible applies, so the same deductible you would have for a theft or a fire loss applies to CGCC. To qualify as a CGCC there needs to be 4 components

  • An abrupt collapse of the ground.
  • A visible depression in the ground.
  • Structural damage to the building.
  • The insured structure being condemned and ordered to be vacated.

Sinkhole Loss Coverage is different. Because there are 2011 Statute changes impacting this coverage, my comments will address policies written new in 2012. First of all, sinkhole loss coverage is optional. You do not have to buy it. Sinkhole loss coverage is also different in that not all the 4 components need to be present.

However, there must be actual structural damage to the house and/or foundation, not just cracks to things like exterior walls, driveways, or interior walls around doors or windows. Of course, the damage must also be shown to have been caused by sinkhole activity. If the damage is eligible for coverage, then your policy will require you to pay the sinkhole loss deductible, then the insurer will pay the remaining costs of repair.

The sinkhole loss deductible applies to sinkhole loss coverage only, and at Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC it is 10% of your Coverage A amount. Coverage A applies to the house itself, as opposed to other structures, or your possessions in the house. Let’s say you insure your home for $200,000. The sinkhole deductible is 10% or $20,000. In the event of a Sinkhole Loss Coverage claim, you would need to pay the first $20,000 in repairs, and as repairs are completed, Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC would pay the remaining amount to repair your house.

Let me give you an example for a policy that would be written today. OK, the home is valued at $200,000 and the deductible is $20,000. The initial testing is paid for by the insurance company. Further testing may include a contribution from the insured, but if there is structural damage and sinkhole activity is present, then the company pays for all the testing. Then we get a contractor estimate and bids. Let’s say the cost to repair the foundation is $45000, and the cost to repair the home is $10,000. Once you contract to repair the home you will pay the contractor the first $20,000. As work continues we will pay the balance of the foundation repairs which are $25,000. We will also pay the $10,000 to repair the home.

Well that’s a quick recap of sinkhole coverages and how the deductible works. We at Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC certainly hope that you do not experience damage to your home, but if you do, we pride ourselves on handling your claim promptly and fairly. After all, we have been doing it for 40 years.

Thanks for watching and thanks for using our social media sites.

Why Insurance Rates Increase?

Rate increases are necessary to maintain a company’s ability to pay out claims during the worst catastrophes. One of our Insurance Carriers, Tower Hill Insurance Group has created a great video explaining how and why insurance rates change. If you have any questions about your rates please contact us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLV2RnToLME

Below please find the transcript from the video featured in this article.

Hi, this is Joel Curran coming from the Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC offices in Gainesville, Florida, where we have been serving the insurance needs of Floridians for 40 years. Our customers are loyal – every year, more than 95% accept our renewal offer. More than 100,000 have been with us for 5 years or more.

Unfortunately, everyone has to endure rate increases. But you still think: “why did you increase my premiums? I live in the same house and the market value has declined, there were no hurricanes, and I haven’t had any claims.”

The simple answer is that we need more premiums to cover our costs. But before I give more detail, let me tell you about Good Faith and Spread of Risk. Insurance is a Good Faith contract which means in part that you pay us, and we promise to pay you for damage or injuries covered by the contract. We take that promise seriously. We need to be financially strong enough to pay claims especially if there is a catastrophe. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

The second principle is Spread of Risk. Two hundred years ago when Ben Franklin started the first mutual fire insurance company, insurance meant that a small group chipped in equally, and if one house burned down there was money for rebuilding it. But if only ten people paid in and there were two house fires in a year, there would not be enough money to rebuild both homes. But the bigger the group, the broader the spread of risk, and pretty soon you get to a large enough number that the risk is low compared to the number of insurance buyers. That makes the overall risk more predictable. The more predictable – the lower everyone’s contributions will be.

Florida homeowners have a higher-than normal risk. Our 1,300-mile coastline is longer than any state except Alaska. The narrow shape of Florida means even non-coastal areas are very exposed. Our love of being near the water comes with a cost. To spread the risk and keep insurance accessible to everyone, we have to spread the cost as well.

So, what are those costs? Your premium goes towards three main cost areas: First, we make sure we can pay claims. We set aside surplus funds, as well as claims reserves, and we make conservative investments to fund them. We never take a risk with your premiums by putting them into risky investments.

Second, we cover the cost of operating the company, which provides jobs for more than 350 people in Florida. Through sales commissions we also support local independent insurance agencies in every Florida county. In addition, we have to make sure that if there is a hurricane, our facilities can keep running at full capacity so we can be there when you need us most.

Third – and this may surprise you – the biggest cost is reinsurance. Reinsurance is exactly what it sounds like – insurance for insurers, to make sure we can cover catastrophic losses. Reinsurance spreads risk globally, meaning that homeowners around the world are actually helping fund claim payments if a hurricane makes landfall in Florida – which happened in 2004 and 2005– when we paid out more than $2 billion to repair homes in Florida due to 8 hurricanes.

By the same token, Florida’s contributions help fund recoveries in other states and countries. When you watch the weather channel and see tornados in Kansas, or monsoons in China, know that premiums paid by insurance buyers all over the world, including us in Florida, will help repair the damages.

Reinsurers need to be prepared for the worst, and Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC buys only from the best, most stable reinsurers who have demonstrated year over year that they can fund the losses they insure. The bottom line on reinsurance is that, no matter how well we run our company and manage our investments, if Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC were on our own to fund years like 2004 and 2005 we would have to charge premiums that are a multiple of what we charge now.

So back to your question, “why is my premium increasing THIS year”? Well, in determining rate changes every year, Florida insurers have to balance the need for keeping insurance rates competitive with the need for keeping their businesses stable and for buying reinsurance.

Recently, two things have contributed. In 2011, even though Florida had a mild year, the world had its worst year on record for weather catastrophes. Because their risk is spread globally, reinsurers are increasing their rates to recover. That rate increase is hitting Florida just like everywhere else. In addition, while the value of homes everywhere has drastically dropped, the cost of repairing and rebuilding has not dropped. When we pay property damage claims we expect to pay contractors a fair price for their work, so we need to collect premium accordingly.

We don’t take rate increases lightly, and we know you don’t either. We go through extensive analysis to determine the fairest rates, and we file our rate changes with the Office of Insurance Regulation who is charged with making sure rates are adequate, not excessive, and do not unfairly discriminate.

Hopefully what I have said makes sense to you. I want you to know that everything we do at Tower Hill Insurance Group, LLC is done to ensure peace of mind for our individual and commercial policy holders. Forty years of experience means we know how to make the right decisions to protect your interests, so stick with us and we’ll ride out any future catastrophes together.