State Farm Insurance

As the title says, I'm a licensed professional broker of insurance, and specifically work on "All Risk" Onshore Property. Recently I bought Renter's Insurance through State Farm.

Just to define a bit. A broker doesn't work for an insurance company or sell insurance; in my case, I market client risks to several insurers to get the best rate and coverage for my client--and my clients are typically big energy clients--so I'm used to grilling insurers every day over tiny nuances of detail that could mean thousands if not millions or billions of dollars of difference in a covered vs. uncovered loss. "All Risk" is a convenient way of saying, everything is covered except that which is specified as 'excluded.' If it's not excluded, it's included under "All Risk"; the other option being to list every possible thing that is covered--from your mailman slipping on your icy front steps to spacecraft slamming into your living room, and whatever was not specifically covered would not be covered at all. Most Property policies today are of the "All Risk" type.

You can buy insurance for literally any kind of risk, but the risk we're really talking about isn't so much Fire or Property Damage as it is the financial losses associated with returning your situation back to as good or better as it was before the occurrence, less your deductible which exists to both keep you from submitting a claim every time a light bulb goes out as well as reduce the cost of your coverage due to you accepting some measure of the primary risk. On the other hand, a covered loss isn't a license to remodel your home or hire an unreasonably expensive contractor--you're not supposed to gain anything from an insured loss.

So now you're well equipt with expertise to buy Renter's Insurance, right? Well, at some companies the agent you talk to likely doesn't know much about insurance beyond their own company underwriting guidelines. This minority of insurance companies are more into selling insurance than providing insurance, and unfortunately those are the ones we hear about the majority of the time.

My and your perspective as a potential insured should be, I'm not buying Company X Insurance, I'm giving Company X the opportunity to underwrite my risk--which I have made as attractive as possible to them by doing things like installing fire alarms and buying a few extinguishers or making my property less susceptible to theft or burglary.

I had a horrible time getting a quote out of one insurer because the agents were neither knowledgable nor helpful. They considered credit rating a measure of risk whereas State Farm does not (nor should they). And they included other risks which, as an expert on insurance I'm confident in telling you, were so unlikely as to be considered purely fictional. This other insurer screwed up on the quote so badly that I would have had to have been too naive to get a quote from another insurer for comparison or simply too trusting of 'professionals' as many people unfortunately are.

The State Farm folks are well trained by State Farm in insurance (not just their insurance), and apparrently know insurance quite well--at least in Astoria, Queens, NYC. I gave them several hypotheticals--which you really must--they were never flustered for an answer, and I would have known if any answer they gave me was incorrect. The rate they gave me was about half that quoted me by MetLife, and the coverage fits my needs perfectly while still having several options available to add or subtract for very little additional premium as I feel I need them.

Friends of mine who know nothing about insurance went to other State Farm agencies, and they seemed to have gotten similar results and were likewise satisfied.

Speaking only for the State Farm above, I'd have to rate them as highly trustworthy and knowledgable--even for those of you who really don't want to study up on insurance beforehand.

Thinking you can get your insurance even cheaper? Well, think about this. When a loss occurs, and it's not covered in full, are you really going to be glad you saved a few bucks on premium per month?

Posted 01/18/07 | Report Abuse

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