Insurance Hour
KCAA: Insurance Hour (Thu, 4 Jul, 2024)
At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulley? Well, if you're installing a new conveyor belt system, dealing with the different components can sound like you're speaking a foreign language. Luckily, you've got a team ready to help. Granger's technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance, repair, and operations. So whenever you wanna talk shop, just reach out. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. [MUSIC PLAYING] NBC News on KCAA Loma Linda, sponsored by Teamsters Local 1932. Protecting the future of working families, Teamsters1932.org. [MUSIC PLAYING] Buckle up, everyone. You are strapped in and ready for the insurance hour. With me, your host, Carl Sussman. Informing, educating, and entertaining Californians one policy at a time, this is insurance hour. Hello, hello. How are you? This is insurance hour. I am your host, Carl Sussman. Thank you so much for being here today. The phones are open. Give us a call, 559-650317. Send your questions in to questions@insurancehour.com. If you do need help immediately, you can also dial pound 250 on your cell phone, use the keyword insurance, get you connected with an agent right away. We are going to be going over call in and voicemail and email questions today, as we were doing not too long ago. There are so many of them. I want to try and get through as many as I can. So I'm going to jump right in. But remember, if you do have a question and you want to have me talk about it, anything insurance related, these are some extremely challenging times. So don't hesitate to reach out. I am here to try and help. Diving in to the questions. I'm just going to read them to you as they appear in email. First one we're going to go over. It says, has USAA been dropping insurance in California? That is a great question. And while I don't have the specifics about USAA, I can tell you that I don't believe there is a carrier that is not either restricting the business that they are writing or non-renewing some level of policies and/or being very, very particular about conditions. Meaning they're going to be looking at your home. They're going to be looking at potential exposures that are around your home. They're going to be-- there's no sugar coating it. They're taking a little bit of advantage of the fact that the market is extremely tight. And they are doing some book cleaning. So maybe a risk that an insurance carrier might not have really wanted to have initially. Well, that's going to be one of the first ones you're going to be getting off of. But fortunately, as we've talked about again, we are at the end of this. We are at the tail end of this. We should be seeing the new regulations coming out literally any day. And we should start to see some changes after that. Moving to the next question, who is challenging the insurance fire maps to ensure that they make sense and pricing is rational based on them? It's a great question. Fire maps are a little bit misunderstood because there is no specific fire map, per se, that everyone from the Department of Insurance and each and every individual insurance company goes based on. One fire map could be created by one insurance company, another by another, another by the Department of Insurance. There's even another map that's being created specifically for the sustainable insurance strategy that talks about areas that are distressed areas that are either not getting enough competition in the insurance industry. Oh, which I know is a joke because nobody is right now. But those are areas that have been identified as they're being high for the exposure of fire or the ratio of premium to average income is off. Those distressed areas are going to be areas that insurance carriers must write more business in. And again, another map. So there is not any specific one map that I can actually point to and say, well, this is the map. And this is the rationale based on that map because there is no one map for anything. Hopefully that'll help your question. Next question says, what is ordinance and law coverage regarding dwelling replacement cost value? Okay, let's try and imagine in general insurance policies. And what an insurance policy does is it's supposed to rebuild it for talking about property insurance, your house from what happened to pre-loss, right? Now, rebuilding your house that might have been built 40, 50 years ago or even longer might not have the building codes that are necessary for today's laws. Well, we just got through saying that the insurance policy is designed to put back what was there. Well, you can't put back what was there because what was there is no longer up to code. So ordinance or law coverage tends to be a coverage that you can purchase. It might actually be included as part of your coverage. If you take a look, you should find it. There's usually a dollar amount or a specific percentage that's listed. And that's going to cover that additional cost to go between what it would have cost to put the house back into the condition it was before and what condition it must be because of the new codes that exist. Does that make sense? So you're not just getting something new for old. You might actually be getting upgrades to certain things because you have to follow the code when you're rebuilding a home. Hopefully that answers your question. Next question says, how are fire-wise communities created or implemented? We could do an entire show or two or 10 on fire-wise communities and fire-safe communities. I would say the best thing for you to do is go online and research fire-wise. And you will get all of the specifics about what needs to be done for your home and your community in order to qualify as a fire-wise or fire-safe community. Next question also about fire-wise. It says, how can you create a fire-wise community if there is no one-- I'm trying to read this. I'm not quite sure what they're asking. They're asking, how do you create a fire-wise community if there is no one where you live? So you are basically your own community, I think, is what they're saying. In that case, again, you would do the same thing. You would follow the guidelines to become a fire-wise community. And if you're the only person in that community, well, you're probably going to have an easier time getting it done. You're not going to have to convince neighbors to do certain things or spend money to become a fire-wise or fire-safe community. So that does not preclude you as far as I know from getting that designation. Next question, what is the status of the CFP discount application? I applied in December 2023, and my application is still under review. OK, CFP, of course, standing for California Fair Plan. California Fair Plan did get approval for discounts that will take your premium down up to 14 and 1/2%, depending on certain things that you must do to your home. Now, it's a new discount, and as you can imagine, everybody with the California Fair Plan wants to apply and wants to do what they can to make their home less likely to burn. That's in the ideal world. But everyone's applying for the discount. Now, because it's a significant discount, 14 and 1/2%, the California Fair Plan is inspecting 100% of the homes that are applying for this discount. That is going to take some time. Having said that, if you sent your application in December, I'm going to say it's probably been long enough. You might want to think about contacting your agent or broker and see about either resubmitting it or getting a status on it. You might actually reach out to the California Fair Plan directly as well and say, hey, guys, been a while. It's been a minute. What is the status of this form that I sent in? Because remember, you have to send a specific form in that's signed that says you've done certain things. There's actually a checkbox list on the form that says what you've done to qualify for that discount. We're going to talk some more about the Fair Plan. It looks like, well, I see other questions that have come in that talk about it. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about those questions. We'll talk about the California Fair Plan. We'll talk about the discount that people are applying for to save that big 14 and 1/2% off of an ever-growing California Fair Plan premium. This is Insurance Hour, and I am your host, Carl Sussman. We will be back in a flash. [MUSIC PLAYING] Let's talk about earthquakes for a minute. Look, we know we live in earthquake country here in California. Powerful, devastating earthquakes have happened here before. And science says that they will happen again. They can't tell us exactly when. They can just tell us that it is going to happen. Count on it. Prepare for it. Did you know that earthquakes are not covered by your homeowners insurance policy? You need a separate policy to give you the peace of mind that you will be able to recover without getting financially wiped out the next time we get hit with a big one. There is a great company here in California that will provide you with earthquake coverage you need at a price you can afford. That company is Giovera. I have a policy through Giovera. I really like how easy it is to choose from all of their great coverage options backed by the financial strength that lets me know that they will be here for me when I need them the most. Go to getquake.com/insurancehour to learn more. That's getquake.com/insurancehour. Make sure you're ready for the day when the ground shakes again. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, hello, welcome back. This is insurance hour. I am your host, Carl Sussman. Thank you so much for spending some time with me here today. Phones are open 559-656-0317. Always looking for your questions, as you can tell. We are going through a lot of those questions today. So send them in at questions@insurancehour.com. If you need to help right away, you can dial pound 250 on your cell phone. You can also use the keyword insurance to get an agent right away, or if it's specific to homeowners insurance, you can use the keyword homeowners insurance. So again, on your cell phone, you just dial pound or #250, and when it asks for the keyword, say insurance, or homeowners insurance, if that's what you need. Before I jump back into the questions, I do want to make sure that I'm clear. The sponsor is Gio Vera. You heard their commercial just now, and I honestly do have and have had for a very long time my personal home insured for earthquake insurance with them. You can imagine, I can pretty much get earthquake insurance wherever I want, depending on which carrier I want to go to, and I do personally choose Gio Vera. For what that's worth, and it should be worth a lot. Jumping back in. We were talking about the California Fair Plan and some of the discounts that are available. The next question says, where can we get information on what the Fair Plan considers a hardened home and defensible space? It's a great question, and the answer is with the form. The form for discounts literally lists on it specifically what it is that you need to do in order to get the discounts. There are a group of things you need to do that will give you a discount for doing things around your home, and there's another set of things that you can do that will give you a discount for things you do to the home. I will provide a copy of that if you don't have it handy, or you're having trouble finding it online. Just shoot me an email, questions@insuranceour.com. I'll just fire back a copy of the PDF. It's a one-page, simple PDF from the California Fair Plan that lists those discounts and what it is you need to do to get them. Next question also about the Fair Plan. On Fair Plan discounts, what certifications are required for a hardening home and defensible space discounts, and must it be full compliant or portions achieved for some discount? OK, I think what they're asking is, when you're getting these discounts that we've talked about now, do you have to do everything to get the discount, or can you just do some of the things? And unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, I guess, you need to do everything to qualify for each of those two discounts. So for example, if you do everything for the home hardening discount, meaning you do everything to your actual house, you will get one discount, done. But you have to do all of the things for the home. If you don't do anything for the discount around the home, that's OK. That's a separate discount. You could also do things just around the home and not to your home. It's up to you. But at the end of the day, in order to qualify for one or both of those discounts, you have to do everything that is required for that particular section. Does that make sense? You either do everything for the house, you do everything for around the house, or you do both. But you can't do half of each, for example, and get a discount. Keep in mind, anything you do that makes your house less likely to burn is a good thing, whether you get a discount or not. Keep in mind, the goal is not to have a claim, right? The goal is not to have a loss, not to have your house burn down. So sometimes, I think we forget that the goal is no loss, and we're very focused on how much can we save, how much can we save, how can we lower the premium, where sometimes it makes sense to do things not just because we're saving money, but because it'll protect our house, right? That's, at the end of the day, what we really want to have happen. Next question, are there insurance companies that are still ensuring over 3 million homes? It would be helpful to avoid calling those that are not covering high-value homes. OK, when someone says $3 million homes, I have to quantify that because are we talking about the value of the home, right? What would be bought or sold for? Or are we talking about $3 million and what the actual replacement cost of the structure of the home is? There are two different things, as you can imagine. You might have a very, very small home, but it's in a very affluent area, a very sought after area. So it might sell for $3 million. Is it going to cost $3 million to buy? It could be tiny. It might only cost a million dollars to buy. So it makes a difference if we're talking about the replacement cost of a home or what the actual value of the home is. To answer your question, $3 million for replacement cost on the structure tends to be a higher value home. And you are going to have less options right now, if that's even possible, than the average person that might be looking to get coverage for $2 million, or even $1 million. So again, if you're looking to get your home insured and you are looking at a home that has a higher replacement cost value in this example, $3 million or more, it's going to be more of a challenge and expecting to pay a lot more than you probably were before or definitely more than you want to. Next question, will the forthcoming California Department of Insurance safer from wildfire initiative include multifamily residential buildings and their HOA's common area, which are separate commercial insurance policies? That's a great question. Three or four different things in here. Safer from wildfires is initiative that everybody can participate in because it's going to protect the property from wildfire. If you're looking for the specific discounts, I can't tell you for sure if that's something that's available for homeowners associations or not, but I definitely want to check into that and find out. Now, you also made a comment about commercial insurance policies, and you also talked about multifamily policies versus HOA's. Very different. For example, a single family home, a duplex, a triplex, and a foreplex are considered residential properties, whereas an HOA, a homeowners association, is truly a commercial exposure. So you're going to be looking at a completely different environment for obtaining insurance, you're going to be looking at a completely different environment for the cost and availability and everything else surrounding it. At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub bully? Well, if you're installing a new conveyor belt system, dealing with the different components can sound like you're speaking a foreign language. Luckily, you've got a team ready to help. Granger's technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance, repair, and operations. So whenever you want to talk shop, just reach out. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. And yes, the single family duplex, triplex, and foreplex is considered personal insurance, even though it might be all rented out. For the sake of discussion, that's going to fall in the category when you're hearing about rules and regulations of a personal residential policy. Next one, we have a lot of fair plan questions. My fair plan premium would be $4,500 if a public fire hydrant within 1,000 feet, but the hydrant is 1,500 feet away. And the resulting premium is $7,500. They treat it as if there were no hydrant near the house at all, no incremental consideration is given to the hydrants, even though it's still nearby, and we've installed private water, et cetera, et cetera. OK, I'm not minimizing it by et cetera, et cetera. I'm trying to save a little bit of time. Here's the situation in general, and this is not the California Fair Plan. You have to draw a line somewhere. Insurance companies and the California Fair Plan have to have guidelines. They can't make everything exactly the way that it makes sense. They have to go along some line of guidelines. And I understand if they're giving you 1,500 feet versus 1,000 feet, and you're like, hey, I'm close. Come on, work with me here. They can't, at least not today. They have to go based on the specific guidelines as they're filed with the Department of Insurance. Now, having said that, there's nothing that says that that insurance carrier, or in this case, the Fair Plan, can update their guidelines with some of the new regulations coming out, so they can actually give you a different price, depending on how many feet you are to the fire hydrant versus being a block this close or a block that close, something along those lines. Another quick break, and we will be back. I am Carl Sussman, and this is Insurance Hour, back in a flash. [MUSIC PLAYING] Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in just a few moments, the window to the magic podcast show will begin. My name is Patrick. My name is Calvin. I'm Mouse Couture-Greg. My name is Paul, and I will be your guide through the wonderful world of Disney sound experiences. This show is a weekly trip into the world of the Disney theme parks and resorts, and this is the place where you get to use your ears to surround yourself with the magic. For your safety, please remain seated while listening to the window to the magic.com podcast. Maybe there's a name for this, something like "Diznautic" concession. [CHEERING] Please visit windowtothemagic.com for more information, or you can find us on Apple Podcasts, and in the iHeart Media app. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, hello. Welcome back. This is Insurance Hour. I am Carl Sussman, your host. Thank you so much for being here today. Phones are open, 559-6560317. If you can't get through because it's busy or you're getting voicemail, leave your question on the voicemail, because I will get to it. I will either play it on the air if you want, let me know, or I will at least answer your question. I do not ignore anybody. I promise, that is why I am here. I want to help. I want to try and get information out, accurate information out, that can help you. You can also email your questions into questions@insurancehour.com. If you need help right now, you can also dial #250 on your cell phone. Use the keyword "insurance," and the system will transfer you to an agent that can hopefully help you right away. Having said that, I want to take one step back before I jump right back into our questions that we're going through today. These are questions that have been emailed in. And you might see a pattern that a lot of people are talking about the California Fair Plan, and/or they're frustrated. They're very frustrated. Premiums are high, flexibility is low. It's not what they want. And I don't want to minimize that, because it is a very, very frustrating circumstance. We're used to dealing with private insurance companies. And private insurance companies usually have some type of a representative. There's some element of sales and service that go with it. When you have the choice between one insurance company or another insurance company, they have to compete. And one of the ways they compete is based on service. When you're in a situation that we are right now, where there are no private carriers, for the most part, that are offering new policies, what you're stuck with is a situation where the carriers that are offering something, or they're renewing you, or in this case, the California Fair Plan is offering coverage. There's no incentive. There's no real reason why anybody has to bend over backwards. Because what are you going to do? And I know that sounds horrible. And it sounds like they've got us by the, you know what? But that's the situation we're in right now. Unfortunately, we are in a situation where competition is basically nonexistent. And because the competition is nonexistent, we're not able to have options to go to other carriers. And so the carriers that we're with are basically having their way. And unfortunately, like I tell our clients sometimes, then when the premium running increases come in and when things are happening and they're asking us to do things to make their homes less likely to burn, we want to do it. Because our alternative is almost always worse. All right, I had to get that off my chest because I know it's extremely frustrating. I know it is for me. I deal with this every day with tons and tons of people. And I know you're dealing with it as well if you're listening to this. So we will do everything we can, hopefully as an industry, to try and get to a better place. The new regulations that are coming out with the Sustainable Insurance Strategy are designed to do just that. And I have every confidence that they actually will in time. Next question says we cut down every tree within 100 feet of our house and built a house that is as fireproof as possible. Concrete fiber siding, metal roof surrounding by stone and gravel. We should have saved all the money doing that because it was only our address that mattered, not how the house was built or what ground, the ground around it looked like. A dozen agents gave us a no based on our address. On top of that California Fair Plan had us cut down trees that were 150 feet from our house to get the discount they offer. Actual fire risk has not much to do with who is getting the insurance. I feel the frustration in this. Now, the California Fair Plan is a heavily regulated organization. And the discounts that they offer and what they are able to do for giving it to provide those discounts are their law. They can't randomly change them. Now, I don't know how long ago you were going about getting these proposals, but with the new Fair Plan discounts, you might be able to do better than you were doing or it sounds like you were doing. And as far as the frustration that all of this work you've done and nobody cares, it's just your address, that's the case right now. But right now is not normal. This is not the way the insurance industry normally works. And I can tell you having done this for three decades, that this is not how things typically work. Carriers do care and it does make a difference because let's face it. An insurance company would be a lot more likely to take on a risk like yours because you've done all of those things upfront to prevent loss than they would be someone who's your next door neighbor, let's say, and they have not done any of those things. The problem is right now because there are no new policies being written by the vast majority of the market, what you're left trying to get quotes from or from carriers that are not experienced or simply are looking for the cream of the crop. They don't need to look at your situation and actually underwrite it and say, hmm, this doesn't look too bad. They've done a lot of work to prevent fire because they have hundreds of other people that are in simply less likely to burn areas and they will simply go for the low hanging fruit. So I apologize on behalf of the whole industry and what it is that you're dealing with, but the good news again is that we are close. We are at the tail end of this nightmare of availability for insurance. I would like to say in the next couple of months, you will start to see some changes coming down the line. It's not going to mean you're going to see your premium drop tomorrow, but it does mean that the options you have will be changing fast. Next question, are insurance companies declining to ensure once they inspect what types of actions or mediations are they required of homeowners? Assuming the homeowner has already done the fire plant debris clearance. Okay, let me address this. For since just the beginning of time, sounds funny, insurance carriers inspect properties. This is what we used to do. This is what I used to have to do. We would go out to the house and take a picture of the house, take a picture of all sides of the house. Even before my time, there was a little tool that had wheels on it, and you would drag it around the perimeter of the house, and it would count as it's spinning, and that was how you would actually determine the size of the house by walking around it with this little tool that rolls around the house to calculate the size of the house. My point is that the concept of inspecting a house has been around forever. It's always been the case. The only reason we're noticing it right now is because people are coming out after the policy is written, they're doing their inspections, and because the market is so tight, if there is anything that they see that can be done to make the house more fire-retardant, they are going to require you doing that. And typically, again, in a normal market environment, you could do it or not do it, and if you don't do it, you could go to another carrier that might not require you take those actions. Unfortunately, in the current environment that we're in, we just don't have those options. We still just don't have the ability to turn around and say, "Okay, I don't want to do those things. "I don't want to spend that money. "I'm willing to go to another carrier "that might cost a little bit more, "but it'll be less than doing all of the work "that you're asking me to do." We just don't have those options. We don't have that flexibility. So, unfortunately, you're in a position where you more than likely are going to have to do the work they want you to do. Keep in mind, they're not asking you to do anything that's bad for you. They're asking you to do things that are going to prevent your home from catching on fire. And I think we forget that sometimes as well, because, right, for at least so, we're so frustrated and we're so angry. We forget these are things that really benefit us because keeping our house from burning, well, after all, that's what we want. We will be back in a flash. This is Insurance Hour. I am your host, Carl Sussman. Reach out anytime, 559-650-317, and we will be back in a flash. - Do you need homeowners insurance? Has your previous insurance company left the state? Non-renewed your policy? Or maybe they just raised your premium to an amount that you simply can't afford? Whatever the situation, we can help. Just dial #250 on your cell phone and say keyword insurance quote, and we will connect you with an agent who can assist you right away. Or if you prefer, you can visit us online at insurancehour.com/quotes. Whether you're looking for homeowners insurance or auto insurance, we'll send the best options straight to you. So, what are you waiting for? Simply dial #250 and say keyword insurance quote, and we will connect you with a live agent to help provide competitive quotes for your homeowners insurance or auto insurance. Don't get caught unprepared. Ensure what matters. With an insurance company you can trust and with a premium that you can afford. Don't put off until tomorrow what you should have done yesterday. Simply dial #250 on your cell phone and say keyword insurance quote. (upbeat music) Hello, hello, this is Insurance Hour. I am your host, Carl Sussman. Thank you so much for being here with me today. Phone lines are open, 559-656-0317. You can also send your questions into me anytime at questions@insurancehour.com. We've had a really jam-packed show, lots of questions, lots of answers. If you've missed any part of it, be sure that you go online and find where you can get a copy of it. Where everywhere you can find us on all of the podcast platforms, you can find us on YouTube. Just search for insurance hour and you'll find where you can get copies of the recordings. You can also go to insurancehour.com, of course, we'll have links there for pretty much everything. We are going through questions that have been submitted and the latest question is as follows. It says, "I lost a second home to a wildfire in California. The claim is large and still open. Coverage on my primary home in California was dropped. Seems no admitted carrier will cover my primary home due to the risk, but is it possible that insurance view me not my primary home as a risk? If so, is this even legal?" Wow, that's an amazing question. So first, I want to tell you I am so sorry that you actually still have a fire claim open from one of those, I'm assuming it's one of the wildfires. That's awful. It should not be open this long. I don't know why that's happening. It might be time to try and check on that. I assume by now you're deep in it so you're well versed on what your options are and what your rights are. I don't think there's any reasonable reason at this point that you should still have a fire claim open, and I'm saying that with zero information, but I think I might be pretty close to being spot on. As far as you being the risk versus the actual location you're ensuring, let me explain how it works. When you are purchasing property insurance, there are two factors that the insurance industry looks at when you're looking at a home. So let's just say you're buying a new home, you're looking to get insurance on it. They're going to look at that property and they're going to look at characteristics of that property. They're going to look at prior claims on that property. They're going to look at where it's located, year bill, square footage, type of roof, all that good stuff. In addition, they're going to look at you. Have you had claims in the past? What types of claims? Do you tend to have lots of claims? There are these two elements that go into the formula when an insurance carrier is looking to underwrite a risk. And I'll explain why and why it's not necessarily, well, some of it makes sense to some of it doesn't. For example, there's been a situation where someone might be on the east coast and they have a claim because their pipes froze. They're moving to Palm Springs. Probably not likely that they're going to have a lot of frozen pipes in Palm Springs. However, that still shows up as this person had a claim for frozen pipes. How should that impact their premium? Well, it depends on the carrier. Some of them might look at that and say, yeah, yeah, okay, that's not going to happen. Some of them might look at that and say, yeah, yeah, that wasn't a different house altogether. I don't care what the claim was. Some of them might simply look at it and say, yeah, this guy doesn't maintain his house and he had a claim. - At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulling? Well, if you're installing a new conveyor belt system, dealing with the different components and sound like you're speaking a foreign language, luckily you've got a team ready to help. Granger's technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance, repair, and operations. So whenever you want to talk shop, just reach out. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. - Three different ways to look at it. Three different insurance companies, three different outlooks. That is going to impact the price that you're paying. That is going to impact the availability you have to be able to ensure this other property that you're looking to ensure. Now, as I keep saying over and over, and I feel bad saying it, but I want to make sure everyone understands, because we don't have competition in California right now, because we simply do not have carriers offering coverage, you don't have the ability to, in essence, go to those three carriers and get three options based on three different ways of looking at your claims history. So if you are finding, if you're having problems right now, getting your property insured, and you're saying, "Is it me?" Yeah, it could be partially you, not you personally, but you because you've had a fire claim. Now, again, normally one fire loss, not wonderful, but most insurance carriers, and again, I'm speaking over years of experience, would look at you having one fire loss on a prior house, and that prior house was the prior house, especially if it was due to a catastrophe event. If a wildfire comes in and takes down your house, most carriers will look at that and not count that against you at all, because it's not even a kitchen fire. It's not a fire that happened because of some type of negligence or lack of you maintaining your property. It was a wildfire. It was something completely outside of your control. In the industry, they're called cat losses, short for catastrophe losses. And insurance carriers tend to try and separate those out from their general underwriting because they recognize that this is not something that's within the control of the consumer. Therefore, it's probably not indicative of future claims as well. Unfortunately, again, because we don't have a lot of carriers right now offering coverage, it's possible that the carriers you're looking at are, like I had said earlier today, they're simply going for the low hanging fruit. They're saying, "Why should we ensure someone "that's had any kind of a claim at all "when we've got thousands of people pounding on our door "looking to get coverage because they can't "get coverage anywhere else?" It's pretty cold, but that is the reality that we're dealing with right now. Next question, we originally had farmers and then had to get the fair plan with farmers for a wraparound. The last year, farmers made the wraparound so, so expensive that our longtime agent had to find another insurer. They found Aegis. Now, it sounds like Aegis is a surplus line and we might not be covered if they declared bankruptcy. Is that correct? Okay, a few things that want to unpack here. First, understand that when you're saying wrap around, that's an actual insurance term. Most carriers do not offer wraparound policies. They offer what's called a DIC policy. There is a difference between a DIC policy and a wraparound policy, and it's a big difference. Wraparound policies will actually pay excess fire insurance if the fair plan policy that it's going with runs out of coverage. Huge difference, because a DIC policy excludes any form of fire coverage. So, my first point would be pay attention and find out for sure is it a wraparound you're talking about or is it a DIC policy that you're talking about? I'm not personally familiar with the DIC policy that Aegis is offering, but if they are a non-admitted carrier, you would know right away because there are special forms that you have to fill out, special forms that you have to sign, and you have to be aware that the carrier is not licensed to do business in California. It doesn't mean they're a bad carrier, it just means they're not licensed to do business in California. The first thing I would also do is check at the California Department of Insurance website. There is a list of non-admitted carriers that the Department of Insurance has at least vetted and feels comfortable saying that they're safe, relatively speaking. Be sure that that carrier is listed on that list. I would be very concerned if they are not. And to answer your question, if they declared bankruptcy, you wouldn't be covered, there is no protection for California consumers for an insurance company that is not admitted in California, that is correct. So, again, you need to make the decision, does it make more sense to have coverage with an admitted carrier that's more money or a non-admitted carrier that's not as expensive, but are they going to be there if you need them? And again, non-admitted carriers are not a bad thing, but they do lack certain consumer protections that admitted carriers want to have. Let's take another quick break. When we come back, we will hit some more questions. There are a bunch of them. Thank you so much for being here. Send your questions in as well. This is Insurance Hour, and I am your host, Carl Susswood, and we will be back in a flash. (upbeat music) Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in just a few moments, the window to the magic podcast show will begin. (upbeat music) - My name is Patrick, my name is Calvin. - I'm Mouse Catier Gray, my name is Paul, and I will be your guide through the wonderful world of Disney sound experiences. This show is a weekly trip into the world of the Disney theme parks and resorts. And this is the place where you get to use your ears and your edges around yourself with the magic. For your safety, please remain seated while listening to the window to the magic.com podcast. - Maybe there's a name for this, something like "Diznautic" Concession. ♪ Surround me so we look happy ♪ Please visit windowtothemagic.com for more information or you can find us on Apple podcasts and in the iHeart Media app. You need homeowner's insurance? Has your policy been canceled? We can help. Dial pound 250 and say keyword insurance quote. Again, to get a homeowner's insurance quote, dial pound 250 and use keyword insurance quote. (upbeat music) - Hello, hello, this is insurance hour. I am Carl Sussman. Thank you so much for being here with me today. If you have questions, please give us a call 559-656-0317. Send your questions in to questions@insuranceour.com or of course, you could always dial pound on your cell phone 250, use the keyword insurance, get transferred to someone that could help you right away. I'm sort of laughing as I'm just thinking, I'm giving you a 559 telephone number and I remember when that would be a long distance call and I'd be thinking, do I want to call that number? It's a long distance call. Now, not only do we not even pay attention to where, if it would be, a long distance call or not because there's no usual change in the cost to make that call, but we don't even know where these areas are. We could have someone that lives next door and they could have a phone number that starts with an area code that might be in a state that's across the country. It's just interesting how we've adjusted to the concept that it doesn't really make a difference to us where the phone number is or what the phone number represents the city, state, whatever it is, we just call it. Maybe someday we'll get to a place where we don't actually have phone numbers, we just have names, something on those lines. Why do we need a number since let's face it, most of us don't remember the phone number anyway. It's just in our cell phone. Okay, question time. Next question up is, how is your risk determined if you live in a community of standalone homes, town homes, apartments and community areas? I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, how your risk is determined. They're going to be looking at the location of your property, right? They're going to see where it is, how close is it to a fire hydrant to a fire station? What is the likelihood of there being a fire? Is the road getting to that area relatively wide, easily accessible, can a fire truck get up there, turn around or is it up a tiny, narrow snake type of road that a fire truck could never get up to? All sorts of things go into what insurance carriers will look at to try and decide on what the rates look like. And they're going to look at that regardless of if it's a single family home, a town home, an apartment or anything else. Hopefully that enters your question. Next question, my state farm agent said they were not calling their new policies that they would be able to write a DIC but rather a regular policy with a fire exclusion. Is there a reason that they're not willing to call it a DIC and is there actually a difference as far as the risk goes? I have not heard this before but I'm very curious to find out what that means. You have to call it something. Every policy has a name, right? You're saying that they're calling it a regular home policy excluding fire. That's not really a product name, that sounds more of a, I don't know, sales-y kind of thing to say. But what I do not know because I do not represent state farmers, I'm not sure if they do offer a DIC policy or as I mentioned earlier today, a wraparound. My inclination is they would be offering a DIC policy since I'm not even aware of a carrier that's actually offering a wraparound policy. I'm not sure why they would not want to call it a DIC. I'd love to know more about this. I'd love to hear more about it. I'm going to do a little bit of research from this. I thank you for bringing it to my attention because the little insurance nerd in me likes this stuff. I want to figure out what the deal is here. Next question, how do insurance agencies create their fire maps? I have a home in Carmel Valley. It is becoming uninsurable. My home's cost went from 6,000 to 12,000 in two years. The cost bloat is blamed on being in a fire zone. My primary home is also in a fire zone in the Bay Area but the insurance costs are a third as much. Friends have a home in the Bay Area but the insurance costs a third as much. My friends have a home in Sonoma. The 2017 fire got within a mile of their house but the insurance maps say they aren't in a fire zone so their homeowners are reasonable. Who challenges the fire maps to ensure that they make sense and pricing is rational based on them? Lots of stuff there. I mean, I'm frustrated for you because I understand where you're coming from. First, you're seeing high premium changes and then you're seeing what seems like unreasonable pricing between different areas. As I mentioned earlier, there are no specific fire maps that are generic to every particular carrier in California. So to have one carrier decide that an area is in a fire area and another that would look in that same area and decide it's not, happens all the time. The fact that you have friends that have homes that are costing more or less, there are so many different issues that could potentially go into the pricing of a home from the size of the home to the number of claims to what the exact address is. Is it at the top of the street? Is it at the bottom of the street? Is it backing up to a hill? And of course, what insurance company is it with? Because that makes a difference. You might have one policy with one company. Your next door neighbor literally might have, let's call it a track home. You guys have the same home. They might be exactly next door to you and be paying a different premium because they're with a different insurance company, which by the way is good. That's what we want. It's called competition, right? Then they fight over who's going to get the better deal, who's going to have a better policy and the carriers will have to keep punching at each other and getting those rates down to be able to get your business. So anyway, what we don't have right now is that because your neighbor might be with an insurance company that's not offering new policies right now. So you don't have the ability to go to them and say, hey, I want that policy because it's a third cost of what I'm spending. Fire maps, per se, are not what are creating that problem because, again, there is no generic map that everybody follows and every carrier looks at and says, hmm, this is fire, this is not, this is a high risk zone, this is not. Do they look at areas in a lot of them? They feel the same way, absolutely. Some areas that are in the middle of the hills or in the deep canyons, you or I would look at as well. We would look at it on Google Maps and we would say, yeah, that's a pretty high risk for fire. And most carriers would as well. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the maps that are drawn by each carrier would have the same characteristics on that. They might both decide that it's a high risk, but what does high risk mean, right? We're using terminology that's not insurance related, it's just vocabulary. And insurance carriers are all about actual numbers, right? What is the actual factor that we have? Now, before I go to the next question, we've got a caller that's come in, so let's bring her on. Welcome, thanks for being here. I'm Carl Sussman and this is Insurance Hour. How can I help you? - Hey, Carl. So someone suggested something to me that seems too good to be true. So my-- - It is. Next question, just kidding. - My 16-year-old son just got his driver's license. And rather than adding him as a driver on my policy, somebody said just leave it and then let him use the car when he uses it. And if God forbid anything happens, it's no different than if he had just, or anybody had just followed my car for the day. Is that a good idea? - Wow. You know what? I want to address this in more detail than we have before our next break. So I'm going to ask you to think about one thing while we take a quick break and then we'll come back and we'll address it. I ask you and I can tell by your voice, you don't think that that's terribly, a terribly good idea to do. And I think that that's significant. So let's take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to tackle this one because it's not something that you are unique to. I've been asked this question before. I've certainly seen it happen before. Let's tackle this when we come back from a quick break. I'm Carl Sussman and this is Insurance Hour. (upbeat music) - Are you feeling lost in the search for the right insurance? Making call after call. Only to find no one willing to go that extra mile for you at Sussman Insurance Agency, we understand that frustration and we're here to change your experience. Where other sea obstacles, we see opportunities while many might shy away from jumping through hoops. At Sussman Insurance Agency, we are prepared to leap, looking under every rock, exploring every avenue. That's not just what we do. It's who we are. Our dedicated team doesn't just offer policies. We provide solutions. Solutions born from persistence, expertise and a genuine commitment to finding you the best coverage possible. We don't just meet expectations. We surpass them. If you're tired of hearing no or it's not possible, it's time to turn to a team that believes in yes and let's make it happen. Don't settle for less. Reach out to Sussman Insurance Agency at 877-411-5200. Visit us online at sussmaninsurance.com or email sales@sussmaninsurance.com. Let's uncover the insurance solutions you deserve. Sussman Insurance Agency. Going the extra mile every time. (upbeat music) - Hello, hello, welcome back. This is Insurance Hour. I am your host, Carl Sussman. Phone lines are open 559-656-0317. And of course, your questions can be sent anytime to questions@insurancehour.com. For the break, we have a caller with us. Thank you for waiting and being so patient. And she asked me a question that I'm going to now address. The issue has to do with a driver being added to the policy or not being added to the policy. We're talking about an automobile insurance policy. And the first thing I want to do is point out that the caller sounded very concerned about this advice that she was given by her friends to basically not add her son as a driver. And if there's an accident, he's covered anyway. The first thing I like to say is I have an old saying that you never want to give an insurance company a great excuse to deny a claim. And if you think that something is not right, you're probably on the right track. The way most insurance policies work, you need to be added to the policy or excluded from the policy. Now, having said that, when there's something called permissive use that is also included on most automobile insurance policies, you want to check your policy to be sure the language is there. And what that says is you and I are friends and maybe one time we're out, we're having dinner, we have some drinks and you're like, you know what? You don't feel great. Can I drive your, why don't you drive home? Okay. And I'll drive the car. Am I listed on your policy? No. Am I excluded from your policy? No. Am I covered under your policy? Yes. You've just given me permission to drive your car. And again, policies are all unique, but for the most part we're talking in generalities, you've given me permission to drive your car. And with that permission, I am driving it so I should be covered under that policy. Now, the situation that the caller was describing was for her son. So this is someone that because they're a member of the household and/or a family member would typically need to be added or excluded. It's going to be on the actual insurance application. There's actually an insurance carrier that I know of, I won't call them out, that I know of that when you're doing an automobile insurance application, they ask for all household members. And they recently added young kids. Like they want to know the three-year-old that lives there, the four-year-old. And it's like, well, why in the world do they want that? Well, because first they want to keep track of them as they get closer to age 16 to then find out did they get their license? Are they driving? But they also want to know because they want to know that in the event there's an emergency, obviously not the infants, but once they're teenagers, if maybe they do get behind the wheel and they're driving the car, then they want to know who's there. Now, they're not charging for them, they just want to know. So to answer the question, the long and short answer is no, that is not good advice to take. If your son is going to be driving your car with any regularity, and that's really sort of the key there, any regularity that you need to add them or exclude them because what you're doing otherwise is you're setting yourself up to be in a position where the insurance carrier is going to say, okay, wait, this is your son. So you know, you know, hey, situations, there's not a one off, right? Number one, number two, you know that you're on your policy and if he's driving the car frequently, why wouldn't you add him to your policy? I mean, that's a common sense, right? I have an auto policy and I list the drivers, the application asks. And when the policy renews, it'll ask sometimes, are there any new drivers in the household? So you're getting that update from the insurance carrier with some level of frequency and you're not taking them up on it, right? And finally, and this is probably the most important thing, you realize that you intuitively feel, I could hear it in your voice, that something was wrong with this idea, right? That not disclosing a driver is exactly that, not disclosing a driver. And the industry in general, as you can imagine, frowns on surprises, they don't like surprises. Now, is it possible that adding your son might have been really expensive? It's possible, you might have to make that decision, but do not add him to the policy and go under the assumption that by doing that, there's just magical coverage that will be there because the chances are it will not. Another interesting point to keep in mind, this is a little bit of an offshoot of this same situation. In most states, the insurance that's on the registered owner's vehicle is going to be primary. So even if your son had insurance somewhere else, but you did not add him on your policy and he goes and has an accident, keep in mind that the first carrier that would be responsible for paying for that claim is your carrier, your carrier. Now, if your carrier's declining coverage because you hid the driver, you could have a problem. So sort of a wide, you know, angle view of this, insurance, auto insurance policies list drivers and they list cars. Do they have provisions for allowing, you know, a random person now or then to drive your car with your permission? Most of them do, but that doesn't mean that someone that drives your car with frequency or someone that is living in the household, even if they don't drive the car with any frequency, if they're living in a household, you really got to be sure that your carrier knows because even if they drive that car one time, again, you're just begging for them to come back and say, whoa, who's this? They live there, what are you talking about? And you don't want to be in that situation. It's frustrating, right? Because these are the types of claims that will happen and people get very, very upset. What in the world are you talking about? Why is this not covered? It's my son. Again, there's no pretty way to say it. There's no sugar coating it. This happens and sometimes we're our own worst enemy because we're trying to save money. We think it's an okay thing to do, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is or that it's going to provide coverage. When in doubt, literally, talk to your insurance agent, talk to your insurance broker, call the insurance company. You don't have to necessarily tell them exactly what it is that's on your mind, but you can say in general, say, hey, I'm just curious and you can ask them. You can give them your specific situation and ask them, say, do I need to list him? Do I need to exclude him? Do I need to add him? Most carriers, and this is honest to good as the truth, they will work with you if you are honest with them. What carriers do not like, as I said, is to be surprised. And we don't like to be surprised as consumers with having a claim denied. And this is basically a formula for both of those things happening. For us being surprised and not having a claim covered, and the carrier being surprised by having a driver that they didn't know about and should have known about, get involved in an accident. I hope that answers your question. It was a good one. Now, I appreciate everyone that takes the time to send their questions in and to call and leave voicemails in questions, because the chances are if you're asking the question, other people have that same question as well. So, I invite you to continue to do that. Be sure that you always call, and you always leave those voicemails with those questions. You always send those emails in. I will do the best that I can always to answer those questions to the best of my ability. If you find that I've provided an answer that you think is incorrect, by all means, I want you to reach out to me and tell me. I wanna know, because my goal is to give you accurate information. And if you think I've given you something inaccurate, I'll go double check and triple check and quadruple check. Certainly, if you have documentation, you have some reference point that you wanna bring to my attention. Again, by all means, my goal is to provide you with correct and information that you can utilize to help make your insurance policy more understandable and more useful for you. And on that, I will beat you at you. I appreciate again, all of you, spending a little bit of time with me here. I hope this was useful for you. Remember, you can call in with your questions any time at 559-656-0317, or email the questions in to questions@insuranceour.com. This is Insuranceour, once again, and I am your host, Carl Sussman. Take care. (upbeat music) - I do wanna thank all of you for taking the time to listen today. I know insurance is not necessarily the most sexy concept. It's not the most exciting thing in the world. It is important that you understand what it is you're getting, what you should be looking for, red flags, you name it, you just need to know more than you're used to. Things are more complicated than they used to be. If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly. You can email your questions to questions@insuranceour.com, or call and leave a voicemail at 559-656-0317. Educating and entertaining California's one insurance policy at a time, this is Insuranceour. The show is dedicated to Shamrock-Papa. (upbeat music) E-digits, lock 'em in for more information, recreation, and guaranteed fun. KCAA 1050 AM. - For over 75 years, the Marine Toys for Tots program has provided toys and emotional support to economically disadvantaged children, primarily during the holidays. But needs are not just seasonal. And now, neither is Toys for Tots. They've expanded their outreach to support families in need all year long, with their new programs, including the Foster Care Initiative, the Native American program, and the Youth Ambassador program. To learn how you can help, visit toysfortots.org. - Listen to KCAA Loma Linda for less confrontation and more information. (upbeat music) - NBC News on KCAA Loma Linda sponsored by Teamsters Local 1932, protecting the future of working families, Teamsters 1932.org. (upbeat music) - NBC News Radio, I'm Brian Schook. President Biden and the White House are insisting he plans to remain in the 2024 race. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took many questions from reporters today over the president's mental fitness following his poor debate performance, where he appeared to lose his train of thought at times. She stressed that Biden suffered from jet lag and a cold during the debate. Heat watches and warnings are in effect for 110 million people throughout 21 states for the holiday weekend. Lisa Taylor has more. - Some western states could deal with historic extreme heat over the next few days, with temperatures possible of 115 degrees in some areas, excessive heat warnings are in place for parts of Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Southern Nevada, and much of California. Excessive humidity and heat will be felt from Nashville to New Orleans through Thursday, but the region will cool off by Friday. I'm Lisa Taylor. - Israel and Hamas are reportedly close to a framework agreement for a ceasefire deal. That's according to CNN, which cited an Israeli source, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would still need to give the go-ahead for the next phase of negotiations to start. A fast-moving wildfire in Northern California has caused thousands of residents to evacuate fire departments from the entire Bay Area have been mobilized to assist. - The fuels are very dense, the brush is dry, and as you can see, any wind will move a fire out very quickly. We have resources coming in from out of Butte County, including 34 strike teams of engines. - That's Chief Garrett Solon with the Butte County Fire Department's Cal Fire Unit. Fire departments from across the Bay Area are united on the fire lines battling the Thompson Fire near Orville. President Biden is posthumously awarding the Medal of Honor to two civil war soldiers. You're listening to the latest from NBC News Radio. - Located in the heart of San Bernardino, California, the Teamsters Local 1932 Training Center is designed to train workers for high demand, good paying jobs, and various industries throughout the Inland Empire. If you want a pathway to a high paying job and the respect that comes with a union contract, visit 1932trainingcenter.org to enroll today. That's 1932trainingcenter.org. - A federal appeals court is giving more money to eight people who sued white nationalist groups over a violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Richard Stelling has more. - Dozens of white nationalist groups and leaders were sued for emotional and physical damages after the 2017 Unite the Right rally. The jury in the case originally awarded $24 million in damages, but that was significantly reduced on appeal. The fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled unanimously this week that each of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit should receive $350,000 in punitive damages, helping the amount awarded by $2 million. I'm Richard Stelling. - More than 100 people are dead after a crowd crush at a religious event in Northern India Tuesday. Police say more than 250,000 people were at the meeting, which broke into chaos as people rushed toward the stage to touch the feet of the organizer and guru. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is defending himself against allegations of sexual assault by a former babysitter Michael Kastner has more. - The allegations being reported in a new Vanity Fair article claimed the independent presidential candidate assaulted a babysitter at his home in 1998. Kennedy responded in a podcast Tuesday that it was garbage and accused Vanity Fair of recycling 30 year old stories. He added that he's not a church boy and claimed I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for King of the World. Some members of Kennedy's family cooperated with Vanity Fair in the article. - New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is unveiling a new AI tool for state employees. It's called NJAI Assistant and is said to offer a sandbox environment for state department and agency staffers to use AI responsibly. They'll also be offered a training course to help ensure that any use of AI is safe, secure and respects residents' privacy rights. I'm Brian Schook. - Happy Fourth of July on KCAA 1050 AM. We hope you enjoy your Fourth of July. Stay safe and remember why we celebrate the holiday. - At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub bully? Well, if you're installing a new conveyor belt system, dealing with the different components can sound like you're speaking a foreign language. Luckily, you've got a team ready to help. Granger's technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance, repair and operations. So whenever you want to talk shop, just reach out. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. (dramatic music)