Insurance Hour
KCAA: Insurance Hour (Thu, 15 Aug, 2024)
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So the phones are open, 559-656-0317, or questions@insurancehour.com via email anytime. If you do need immediate insurance assistance, you can also use your cell phone dial-pound-250. Use the keyword "insurance," and that's a transfer to an agent right away. I've been getting on a lot of panels in the last few weeks with consumers asking questions about property insurance, homeowners insurance, fair plan, all sorts of things. And I realized, while I'm on these panels, that there's a lot of questions being asked that you would probably have as well. Let's face it, we're all asking similar questions. So what I did this time is I kept track of the questions that we're flowing in, that we were answering, and I made a list of them. So what I'm going to do this show is I'm going to go through some of those questions and provide you with answers to them. Some of these questions came to me, some came to other presenters. It just really depends. So I'm going to do this in real time, so bear with me. I'm going to read the question that came in, give you the answer if I have it, and then go on to the next one. If I happen to get a phone call that comes in while we're going through the show today, I'll definitely take a break from reading these questions and take somebody live. But I think we'll find a lot of these questions that are being asked or questions that you might have as well. The first question that came up is, we are designing a home for which we are building. How do we research what types of building material and methods are important for securing fire insurance at the lowest rates? Example, siding types, roofing material, deck construction, et cetera. It's a great question. So the first thing to be aware of is there's no guaranteed method to build a home that every insurance company is going to recognize and say, "Ah, this is perfect. This house will never burn down to the ground." However, there are guidelines that the Department of Insurance has been putting out that most insurance companies and more will over time are looking at as being sort of the gold standard. There's an organization that the Department of Insurance has put together called the Safer from Wildfire Group or organization. It's escaping me exactly what it's referred to. If you just do an online search for Safer from Wildfires, California, or you can go to the Department of Insurance website at insurance.ca.gov and look for Safer from Wildfire, you'll find it. It will give you exactly what you're asking for. It's going to talk about construction type, it's going to talk about roof type, it's going to talk about siding. All of those things are mentioned in there and those are great places to start for you to get an idea of what it is you can do to try and build a home that is going to be more fire safe. So great question to get things started. The next question is, what is the viability of the private home insurance model going forward? Well viability, I look at that as being financial, right? What is it possible that there's going to be home insurance policies available, that there's going to be competition in the marketplace, that we're going to actually see a vibrant environment for shopping around for insurance going forward? And the answer is yes, it is, and it's coming, and what's great is I can actually say that now, and it feels so good because for a lot of years, if you would ask that question, I would have had a different answer. I might have shrugged, I might have said, well, we need to do a lot of things first, blah, blah, blah. Fortunately, the Department of Insurance has something called the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, which is updated guidelines to the insurance regulations in California that are going to be put into place sooner than later, actually, before the end of the year, some even sooner. Those regulations are going to help bring competition back to California's insurance marketplace. Insurance carriers have been briefed on it. Consumer groups have been briefed on it, either have been open hearings from the Department of Insurance that you can attend, they're available online if you want to look for them as well. The guidelines are going to really change the landscape entirely. It's going to allow insurance carriers to be more granular with what they're doing, and more quickly pivot depending on the market conditions, they're going to be able to offer discounts to someone that does certain things to their home, even if their next door neighbor doesn't. It's going to be less based on the zip codes you live in, but what have you actually done to make your house less likely to burn, for example? If you want to learn about the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, you can, again, go online and do a search. I've also done one or two shows that you can look up, and I'll put links to those in the show notes of this show as well, so you can have a look, Sustainable Insurance Strategy in California. Next question says, "State Farm will non-renew my homeowners policy early next year. Is there any value in my looking into alternative options now, or since things are changing daily, should I wait until next year closer to my renewal?" That's an interesting question, and I can give you two answers to it. On the one hand, if you know your policy is being non-renewed, I would look for a new policy right now, but what you're not going to like is the second part. The second part is, if you find another policy right now, I would suggest you take it right now. The problem is, we don't know what the insurance landscape is going to be when your policy was stayed farmed on in renews. It hopefully will be better, but it's possible things might not have necessarily balanced out yet. Things might have not reached the level we want them to be, and it might be more difficult for you to get coverage in your particular area. So I would suggest you actually look potentially right now, find something, take it right now, and then you can cancel your stayed farmed policy early. I know you're going to end up paying more money for another policy where you could have gone, let's say however many months or left before your stayed farmed policy expires, but the problem is with the uncertainty out there right now, it's difficult for me to say, "Well, sure, just wait and see what's available then." You are correct, things change daily, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be something available at the day you happen to need a policy when your policy expires. Not the answer you probably want to hear, but that's my two cents. We've got a bunch of questions here about if the show will be replayed, not really significant for what we're talking about. Okay, the next one says, "What is fair rate for insurance in fire zones?" I think what they're asking is, "What's really a fair rate for someone that's living in a high fire zone area?" That's a loaded question because what's fair to me might not be fair to you, what's fair to your neighbor or fair to somebody else. What we need in every area, not just in the high fire areas, are multiple insurance companies competing based on different factors that they find to make your house a good risk. What I would say is a fair rate is what's fair to you and to get the best rate that you can, you want to follow all the guidelines that are going to be published to try and do things to do what's called home hardening and make your home less likely to burn. That's going to give you the overall best chance at getting the overall best rate. We're going to have more questions that I'm going to go over as soon as we come back from a quick break. Again, I am Carl Suspin. This is Insurance Hour. Feel free to call in with any questions at 559-656-0317 or send your questions into questions@insurancehour.com. We'll be back in a flash. 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 homeowner's 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's a great company here in California that will provide you with the 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. Hello, this is Carl Sussman. This is insurance hour. Thank you so much for being here with me. We are here answering your insurance questions today. If you missed any part of the show, just go ahead and search for insurance hour online. You can find it as a podcast. You can find it on YouTube. You'll find it all over the place. Make sure you find the show and you can find previous shows as well. We're going over questions that were asked at a recent panel and I'm giving them the best answers that I can right now. This was a panel in California from consumers asking questions of experts on what they can do given the current insurance marketplace. This question says, let's see, my insurance used to be 1,000 to 2,000, but a recent quote is 6,000 to 7,000. Is that considered good? Well, I think on its surface, that is not considered good because that's a lot more money than you are paying. The problem is right now, we're in an environment where we don't have a lot of options for what type of insurance and what companies we have to choose from for our insurance policies. And when you don't have a lot of options, the companies that are left offering coverage do what? They raise their rates. So if you imagine highly competitive markets as being very good for consumers and prices very low, we are existing right now in exactly the opposite of that. We're in a situation where there is basically no competition and the carriers that are writing are charging rates because they know there's no competition where you're going to go. So no, I would say that is not a good rate, but by the same token, I don't think I could pretend to tell you that that's shocking or that I've never heard anything like that before. I'm sorry. Okay, the next question says, hi, I've read the Fair Plan reserves are grossly underfunded if there was a disaster. Can we really rely on the Fair Plan? I assume in a loss, the state itself would have to step in. Is this true? That's a great question actually. And let me explain it as much as I can. The California Fair Plan is what's called an association. It is not an actual insurance company. And while right now it does not have anywhere near the amount of money in the bank to pay for a large wildfire, what it does have is a document that says that in the event it does not have enough money. All of the admitted insurance companies in California have to chip in literally pay, that means, for any claims that might happen in excess of the money they have in the bank. We say it again so you really understand. The Fair Plan has access to funds in some total of all of the admitted insurance companies in the state of California based on their market share. So if you're wondering does Fair Plan have enough money, Fair Plan itself per se in the bank, the answer is no. Do they have the ability to get the money that they need? The answer is more than likely yes, a resounding yes. Now it's not money coming from the state. It's not California's budget or California's coffers that's coughing up the money. It literally is money that is coming from the admitted insurance companies in California. Sometimes you'll hear about and about companies should be forced to offer insurance, things like that. Well, they actually are. And this is how it's through the Fair Plan because they have to contribute to the California Fair Plan. They have to back the California Fair Plan in the event that there are losses that exceed the amount of money that the Fair Plan has. Interesting side note, people are very frustrated rightfully so because the California Fair Plan premiums are going up and the rates are going up. Understand that the Fair Plan makes no money. There is no profit in the California Fair Plan at all. All of the money that goes in goes out in claims and if there's any left over, it's actually refunded. Have you gotten a refund lately? Probably not. Guess what that means? The money is going out in claims. So you're paying more in premium with the Fair Plan, you're not getting any money back. What that tells you is more expensive claims and more claims are happening. So again, as frustrating as it is, we're paying more money. We can also know, at least with the Fair Plan, that there is no big insurance company in the sky that's making a ton of money, making a profit on us because literally by charter, the California Fair Plan does not make profit. They're supposed to be what's called revenue neutral, meaning the amount of money that comes in is the amount of money that goes out. And like I said, moments ago, if they don't have enough money to go out, then they can what's called surcharge, the admitted carriers, the insurance companies that do business in California to be able to get money to pay the claims. Hopefully that answers your question. Next question says, what is cat model? I always have to do something sarcastic. I picked up the Madonna and the Vogue thing with a cat model, and it's not funny, but for me it is. Cat model, it's short for catastrophe modeling. And what catastrophe modeling is in its most basic form is its big data. It's all of the data that industries have accumulated, whether it be based on the weather patterns, based on claim factors, based on building patterns, you name it. All of this data put together and it's being utilized to forecast the likelihood of the frequency and the severity of claims that may be happening in the future. So why is that controversial? Well, first understand that this is used everywhere. It's unusual that a place like California, where the fifth largest economy, I think, on the planet is not using it for insurance purposes. For the most part, there are some exceptions, but we're not yet. And what we're doing is the insurance carriers need to look backwards 10 years. And what that means is if you're going to be purchasing a policy from an insurance company, the way they price it is by saying, well, what's happened in that area? What's happened in the last 10 years? Well, as you've probably noticed, unless you're living under a rock, things today look a little bit different than they did 10 years ago. And the likelihood is going forward, things will continue to look a lot different than they did 10 years ago. They're going to continue changing. So these cat models are going to allow insurance carriers the ability to forecast what is coming versus trying to pretend that what is coming is what happened 10 years ago, right? And we know intuitively that that's not the case. Now there's an advantage for consumers in this, a big one, actually. If you're living in a home and your insurance carrier says, wow, our models are showing that you are at risk for XYZ, whatever it might be, a fire event or a damage by water event, something like that. And they can provide you with that information, which side note, they have to, if you ask, then you can take the necessary measures to try and prevent having that loss, which talk about a win-win. You don't have a loss. The insurance company doesn't have to pay a claim. So your premium is not going to go up. Potentially your premium will go down if you continue not having claims. So cat modeling for all of its buzz of good and bad in the other, it has to do with how an insurance carrier forecasts something that might happen in the future based on all of this data versus looking 10 years back and saying, well, if it was like that 10 years ago, it's probably going to be like that right now. That's what cat modeling is, the short version of what cat modeling is. You're probably going to be hearing a lot more about it because it's very controversial because it's something new. Anytime something's new, it becomes controversial, right? So we will cover it again. We covered it on an earlier show as well if you're listening, you can go back and check in our library, you'll see there's some talk about cat modeling. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we will continue answering questions that were in this panel and I look forward to giving you those answers. I'm Carl Sussman, and this is Insurance Hour. 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 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 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 "disnautic" a section. Please visit windowtothemagic.com for more information or you can find us on Apple podcasts and in the iHeart Media app. Hello, hello, this is Carl Sussman, welcome back. This is Insurance Hour, thank you so much for being here. The phones are open, 559-656-0317, it also sends your questions in to questions@insurancehour.com. If you need immediate assistance with any insurance product, you can use your cell phone, now pound 250, use the keyword "insurance" and that will transfer you to an agent right away. If you have specific questions or need homeowners insurance, you can also use the same thing pound 250 instead use the keyword "homeowners insurance". Alright, before the break we were talking about questions about catastrophe insurance and cat modeling, we're going to move on to some more questions that I have been asked. This question is asking, where is it right here, "I live in a high fire area and my neighbor is with fish and game that service protection area but do little to maintain it. I have been canceled and now have the fair plan. Is the fish and game involved and are they responsible in case of fire?" I will admit I know nothing about the California Fish and Game Organization or how they function or what responsibilities they have. I would check directly with the California Fish and Game and try and find out if it's something that they are responsible for or not. Next question says, "Are there any companies out there that will cover a log home?" I'm assuming that they are asking about a log cabin or a home built of logs, things of that nature. Now, depending on where your home is, there is nothing specific about a log home that makes it uninsurable. Now the chances are a log home is probably built somewhere in the mountains, meaning it is probably going to be a high risk for fire in general regardless of what it was built with. So you might be looking at the California Fair Plan to obtain the fire insurance portion for a log cabin. Now, don't forget the Fair Plan is only covering fire insurance, so it's important to also purchase a DIC policy, which is that supplemental policy that's going to give you the rest of coverage types that you would expect to have like water damage, theft, liability, things of that nature. Okay? Next question. We were dropped by Allstate, got Sage Sure, and they dropped us, but another agent got us a different Sage Sure plan, but they also dropped us. I don't understand. I am not familiar with Sage Sure, however, if that's an insurance carrier versus a general agent, then I would say if you're getting written and canceled by the same carrier over and over, probably not the right carrier to go to. I know it's I'm not trying to be snarky, but if they rejected you once, the chances are they're going to reject you again, at least if they know what they're doing, they would. So it's probably time to search for a different insurance company. If it turns out that you are still having trouble, then maybe it's time to search for a better broker that might have options with other insurance companies other than this one that they seem to be continually trying to put you through. Okay? Okay. Next question. What happens if a surplus lines company becomes insolvent? Well, that's a great, that's a great question. Now a surplus lines company is a company that is not admitted in the state of California. Okay? Now, that doesn't mean they're a bad company. That just means that they are not currently admitted to do business in the state of California. I'll give you an example. Lloyd's of London. You probably heard of them. Plenty of money there, right? They are not admitted to do business in California. If a carrier that is not admitted to do business in California becomes insolvent, you will not have the ability to go to the California Department of Insurance to assist you with any potential refunds or claims. Now, you might say, well, I don't have any, I don't have any claims. Okay. That's good. Most of the time if a carrier becomes insolvent and goes out of business, it's after a large set of losses, claims, maybe a cat, cat, that, excuse me, catastrophic event, and people are looking to try and get money from them. But the simple answer is, if you're with a non-admitted carrier, which is also known as a surplus lines carrier, you are going to have to basically be on your own to try and recoup any funds or go after them in bankruptcy court potentially and see what you can do. In reality, if you're with a carrier that's not admitted in California and they don't have money, chances are it's going to be very difficult for you to recoup getting money from them, right? If they're going out of business, they become insolvent. What's the old saying about getting blood out of a rock? It's one of the advantages to having a carrier that is admitted in California. They are backed number one by SEGA, the California Insurance Guarantee Association, which basically helps to chip in and the event one carrier becomes insolvent, plus you can go to the California Department of Insurance for Assistance. And since they're admitted, we would like to think that the Department of Insurance is also keeping an eye on them to be sure that they do not become insolvent and this doesn't happen to you. Okay, next question says, where can one find a good insurance agent? Well, I'm sure a lot of people would have a lot of answers for this and I probably do as well. I think the easiest, cleanest answer for this is to start by looking locally. Look local because insurance agents tend to know the area that they're closest to the best and what they know the best, they usually do the best work in, especially in environments right now where you have such a hard market where there are so few policies available to be written, you might find one carrier that only writes with agents in one particular part of town and they only work with agents that are in one particular area. So I would say for the most part right now, the best thing for you to do is to look shop locals. Now, what they say, find a broker that's close by. You can check online some of the local social networking apps and check and see if anyone has had a good experience with an agent that's local or if you're really interested, you can go online and just search for insurance agent, put your zip code or insurance broker, put your zip code and see what comes up. But I think that's a fair place to say you should want to start is to try and find a place to go where you are in an area that people are familiar, right, and they know the market. Next question. Just raising issues to try and find a better option. I called every insurance company on the Department of Insurance list in February when we were searching, none more ensuring in our zip code in Oakland Hills. It's very interesting. The Department of Insurance does have a consumer tool that you can utilize that is there to help you find carriers that are writing insurance policies. As you can hear from this, it's an imperfect science because as we said earlier, the market change is constantly daily, literally. So if you are checking around and you're not finding coverage with any of the carriers that are on that list, keep checking or find another broker, find another broker, see who has a connection to a potential insurance carrier that can help you. And remember, at the end of the day, licensed brokers can work with the California Fair Plan and they can obtain fire insurance for you there. Also, remember, you can purchase California Fair Plan fire insurance without a broker. However, I don't recommend it. There is no additional cost at all to having a broker handle that for you. And it's a complicated process. I know plenty of brokers that have done this for 30 years and they still are confused with how to deal with the fair plan. So you don't want to do this on your own. Get a broker. If you need to go to the fair plan, don't try and deal with yourself. It literally does not cost you a penny more going through a broker. And not only that, there are laws that say that a broker cannot even pretend to charge you a broker fee. So fair plan, broker, if you have to go that route. Let's take another quick break when we come back. More questions. This is Carl Sussman and this is Insurance Hour. Do you need homeowners insurance? Has your previous insurance company left the state, non-renewed your policy, or maybe they just raise 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? Send 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. Master the California Insurance Marketplace with Sussman Insurance Agency. Two generations of insight make us your ideal ally. Call 877-411-5200 or visit sussmaninsurance.com for information on your insurance policies now. Hello, this is Carl Sussman and insurance hour. Thank you so much for being here. We are answering your insurance related questions today. If you missed any part of the show, we are doing Q&A so it's a great show. You want to go through the entire show. Go check us out. Go back online. For insurance hour, you'll find you can subscribe to the podcast and get a copy of this. You can also go on to YouTube. Find us there. You'll find us pretty much anywhere. You can always go to insurancehour.com. All of the links are there to all of our shows and you can get a wealth of information from them. If you have questions right now also, you can call 559-656-0317 or shoot an email anytime to questions@insurancehour.com. If you need help right now, you can use your cell phone dial #250. Use the keyword "insurance" and that will get you to an agent that can help you right away. We are buzzing through questions from a panel that I was on the other day and hopefully I'm going to hit on one that is of interest to you. This question is, "I have a question. Where can I order a clue report?" It's a good question. In case you're curious, what a clue report is, "clue" stands for the "claims loss underwriting exchange." I know. It's everything you always wanted to know. What does "clue" stand for? What "clue" is, just so we know what we're talking about, it's an organization that most insurance companies participate in and what they do is they act as a clearing house, sort of a repository, if you will, of claim information. If insurance company A is insuring you and you have a theft claim, they will make a notation to "clue" to that organization. They will say, "This location and this person had a theft claim." Now, you might leave company A, go to company B and buy a policy and, as you know, when you purchase a new insurance policy, they ask, "Have you had any claims?" Well, maybe you forgot that you had that theft claim, not to worry because insurance company B will ask, "Clue, they'll say, "Hey, guys, what do you got on this guy?" Looking for excitement, Shumba Casino is here. Play any time, play anywhere. Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in, so what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Shumba Casino is free to play. Experience social gameplay like never before. Go to Shumba Casino right now to play hundreds of games, including online slots. Bingo, slingo, and more. Live the Shumba Life at ShumbaCasino.com. B-T-W Group, no purchase necessary. We're prohibited by law. See terms and conditions, 18 plus. And they will include tell insurance company B and there was a theft claim that this person had at this other location at this time. So basically, and it's as bad as it sounds, your information is shared between insurance companies. There's no such thing as going to one insurance company and having a claim and not having other insurance carriers know. It's kind of an uncomfortable feeling, but at the same time, it also keeps everybody honest because if you're going to have to pay a higher premium for having claims, then it's only fair that you're dealing on a level playing field, right? All insurance carriers should know what it is they're getting and you should be paying the premium based on that. It works the same way. If you don't have claims and that is part of the rate that you're paying, you want to be sure that the insurance carrier can give you the absolute best rate for not having claims. And let's face it, people tend to forget. So if there wasn't an organization and there wasn't a way for insurance carriers to potentially verify your claim history, then not even chances. Then I can almost guarantee you they would not be able to offer you a lot of the discounts for being claim free that they do today. Back to the question, how do I get a copy of it? Because yeah, I'd like to know what's on my clue report as well. Now you can contact them directly and if you go online and search for a clue report request, you can do that. Or there's also our agency, actually we'll do that for you as well. You can go to sussmaninsurance.com. Go under quotes and then you'll find a spot there that says a clue report request. You do have to have a legitimate reason for requesting it. That could be you're buying a new house. That could be you just want to have a copy for yourself. You can't order it randomly on someone else. That's basically what that means. You have to have an actual reason for needing that data. Next question, please address mobile homes. Thanks. Mobile homes. They're homes. They can be moved. I've addressed them. Mobile homes. I assume the question is how is the homeowners insurance market affecting mobile homes? The answer is just like everything else, mobile homes are impacted just as much as homeowners insurance policies are, just as much as condominium owners policies are, just as much as renters insurance policies are. They burn. That's really what this comes down to. It's the fire damage. It's the fire risk. One could make the argument, and I probably would, that mobile homeowners haven't even tougher time in general obtaining fire insurance because they have fewer options. If you can imagine that, if you're a homeowner of an actual site built home and you're having trouble getting insurance, like the earlier question we had when they were saying, I've checked everyone on the list and no one will give me a quote in our zip code. And I'm telling you that a mobile homeowner would have a worse time, worse than zero. It's true. One is there are simply fewer companies that offer coverage for mobile homes than do for site built homes. So if you have a mobile home and you're looking to obtain coverage, all of the advice that I've been given about look early, keep trying, keep checking, get what you can, grab it, buy it right away, apply it to you, double fold. Okay. Now, California Fair Plan is a fallback. They do offer coverage for fire for mobile homes. And again, as I said earlier, you can purchase the Fair Plan directly from the California Fair Plan or you can also purchase them through a licensed agent or broker that's appointed with Fair Plan. No additional cost. You just get the expertise. So again, back to that, I don't mean a harp on that, but I've been getting a lot of questions about Fair Plan and a lot of them, I feel like, well, you don't need to worry about this, you're the consumer. You talk to your broker, you work it out with them and let them do the paperwork. So I have the feeling that maybe people don't realize that they're not paying more money to have a broker. They're getting the exact same premium from the Fair Plan, whether they do it themselves or they get it with a broker. Next question, let me see, okay, this says, I am able to find my DIC policy with AAA, but I've never been able to find my Fair Plan policy on the CFP website. Should it be on AAA and am I not looking in the right place? Now, the California Fair Plan has their own website and you can find your policy there. It is a new website, it is a new backend system, it is new, new, new. So I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it's a little tough right now. It's a little buggy right now. Yeah, I'll get away with that, a little buggy right now. You can call the California Fair Plan, get a person and ask for a copy of your policy. You can also go to their website and there's an email address and you can send an email and request a copy of your policy. I do not believe that AAA has up-to-date copies of your policy on their system, although I don't write with AAA so I can't tell you that with complete certainty, but it would be a little unusual for a private insurance company to take the time to go and grab a copy of your fair plan from the California Fair Plan, store it on their system just so you can access it. So I would say chances are pretty good if you're looking to get a copy of your California Fair Plan policy, the best place to go is to the California Fair Plan. If you are with AAA as this person appears to be, you could also call AAA and say, "Hey guys, do something for your money, go get me a copy of my fair plan policy," and they hopefully would make that phone call or make that connection for you and get a copy of your policy. Make sense? All right, we're going to tackle some more of these when we come back. Remember, if you have questions, the phone lines are open, 559-656-0317 or you can send your questions to questions@insuranceour.com. I am Carl Sussman, proud to be here. So glad you're here joining me and learning about insurance and I will be back in a flash. 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 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 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. Please visit windowtothemagic.com for more information or you can find us on Apple Podcasts and in the iHeart Media App. Hello, hello and welcome back. This is Carl Sussman. You are tuned in to insurance hour. We are talking insurance. I know you're an absolute favorite subject, especially these days. Today we're answering your questions, so hopefully we have answered some of your questions. If not, there are plenty more to come. You can contact me with your questions at questions@insuranceour.com by email or you can call in 559-656-0317. If you don't catch it right now, that's okay. You can do it anytime. Email comes all the time and if you call, there's a voicemail. You can leave your question there and I will gladly get back to you. Also, let me know if you would like to have me read your question online or if you have a voicemail that you're leaving. If you would like me to actually put your voice online, I'm happy to do that as well. All right, remember, you won't understand what to do if you don't ask the right questions. So I'm here to help you understand so you can ask the right questions and educate yourself on this. Let's jump right back into some of these questions that we've been given. Okay. This one says, "If choosing DIC insurance, will the insurance company assist in filing with the California Fair Plan or does that need to be done separately?" Okay, I assume this person is talking about obtaining coverage, not in a claim situation, which might be a little different. So the California Fair Plan is its own organization, it's its own entity, and they do not write DIC policies. So they will be written separately. Now, I always recommend strongly that wherever you purchase the California Fair Plan, whatever agent writes that for you, you should have that agent also be the one that writes the DIC policy. You want it to be under the same roof. There are a million reasons for doing that, but just imagine the complexity if one coverage is right. One coverage is wrong. Whose fault is that? Where do you go? What if you're missing something? What if a bill is due? It's just better to have all things in the same place. Get a good agent, get a good broker, someone that will watch over your stuff, and will have both of those policies together. Now, that might mean you have to shop around and find someone that offer you a DIC policy, and then you say, "All right, and then I want you to take care of the Fair Plan and then let that broker go ahead and apply for the Fair Plan." You don't want to have an agent apply for the Fair Plan, and then find out they have no options for a DIC policy, because now you're going to go to another agent to look for a DIC, and they're going to have to reapply to the California Fair Plan. Fair Plan doesn't like that. It slows everything down, having multiple quotes from multiple agents. You don't want to do that. So look for the DIC first. To answer your question, there are two entities. They are two policies they need to be applied for separately. My advice is to have a broker, one broker, do both. Are you with me? Let's move on. What is a DIC? Well, this one came in the proper order. A DIC stands for Difference in Conditions, and basically, a DIC policy can be a lot of different things, but in the context that we're talking about, a DIC policy is a homeowner's insurance policy with the peril of fire surgically removed from it. All right, you got that? Maybe too visual. It's all coverage that you would expect to have on a homeowner's insurance policy, except it doesn't cover the peril of fire. Fire would be covered, in this case, by the California Fair Plan. So you have the fire with the Fair Plan, the DIC policy, with everything else. You put them together. You get as close to a straight one policy homeowners as you can, even though they're two policies. Okay? And the reason I say that a DIC can be anything it wants is, in other forms, a DIC policy can be used in commercial business, and it could be referring to an entirely different type of policy. It could be describing a custom-made policy, something very specific. I believe that the example they always love to use is Barbara Streisand used to have her vocal cords insured, and it was on a DIC policy. And that's because it's basically a blank slate. You can do whatever you want and write whatever you want on it. There's no particular form that goes with it. Makes sense? Okay. Let's see. The next one is, someone is asking for an agent in El Dorado Hills. I would suggest, again, go online, look for a local broker, just literally go on to search and type insurance broker, El Dorado Hills, and try and find somebody that way, or ask your neighbors. Next question. I have talked with four agents, and it cannot find a single carrier who will write both a DIC and auto policy in order to get a multi-policy discount. The list of DIC carriers is rapidly shrinking as they get overloaded with so many fair plan insurance. For example, I've been told Mercury is no longer writing auto policies in my area, and Aegis is no longer writing DIC policies in my area. This stuff breaks my heart. To hear a consumer talking with this level of detail and this number of carriers, just it kills me because that's our job as brokers. We're supposed to be worrying about that. We're supposed to be the ones that are doing the hunting and shopping and figuring all that stuff out. So when I see the average consumer being aware of saying a DIC policy and an auto policy and a home and auto policy and Aegis and Mercury, it kills me because we are so far from where we used to be and where we should be, where brokers can do their job and have access to markets and they can go and do that shopping and they can do that pairing together and they can say, "Well, if we bundle your DIC and your auto with this carrier, here's the price." But this DIC is cheap enough that it's better to go here and have your auto somewhere else to be able to do those things. That's what we do. That's part of our job. It probably is our job, right? All right. So let me answer you the question. Again, ideally you would like to have the Fair Plan and the DIC policy with the same broker. Under that same thought, sure, it'd be great to have the auto with them as well because now you could be looking potentially at a home and auto discount. Yes, for most insurance carriers, a DIC does count as a home insurance policy. But talk about having the stars aligned. You have to have a broker that number one is familiar enough and can write the Fair Plan for you. There's access to a carrier that offers both a DIC and an auto policy. That's competitive and works for you. And that carrier also has to offer you a discount for having the DIC and the auto. Yeah, you can see how that might be really challenging. But wow, are you on the right track because that's what you want to do. You want to have it all together. You want to bundle these things together. So keep trying. And again, I am so sorry that you're in a situation where you have to do so much and you need to know so much and you're trying so hard. And I know how hard it is because it's what I do and you're doing it. It's a shame. I look forward to the days when people can actually just go to their broker and have the broker handle everything for them because that's what that's the independent agency force does is they shop around, they find the right market, they find the options they go over them with the clients, they find out what the clients want, they do the best they can to provide them with exactly what they're looking for and have these conversations. So hopefully with all of the regulatory changes that are coming down the line, we'll get back into that avenue sooner than later and you'll be able to be in a position where you can just jump online or pick up the phone or gasp, walk into an insurance office, tell them what you need and you'll actually be able to have them shop around and find some options for you. Every day when you log in to ChumbaCassino.com, the ultimate online social casino, you get a free daily bonus. Imagine if you got daily bonuses in other parts of your life. I updated my operating system without having to call tech support. Collect your free daily bonus at ChumbaCassino.com now. And live the Chumba Life! 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 leave, 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 for 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. Hello hello, this is Carl Sussman and you are tuned in and learning from Insurance Hour. Thank you so much for being here with me today. We are answering your questions, remember you can call in anytime, even if I'm not on the air at the time, at 559-656-0317 or you can send an email with your question to questions@insurancehour.com. If you need immediate help, you can use your mobile phone dial #250, use the keyword insurance, or specifically if you're having homeowners insurance issues, dial that pound again and use the keyword homeowners insurance. And yes, it's pound or hashtag, depending on your generation, is the thing that looks like you know, tic-tac-toe, maybe we should start just calling it the tic-tac-toe symbol, right? All right, we're answering your questions, let's get right back to it. Someone mentioned starting as soon as you can when you get a non-renewal notice. I called multiple brokers and none were interested in quoting more than 30 days out because the process is so painful to them. They literally told me to wait until 30 days prior to expiration and they have a bunch of question marks. You know, if you call 10 brokers these days, you'll probably get seven that just say I can't help you. One that says maybe I'll help you later. You know, one that just says they'll try and never calls you back and if you get really lucky, you'll end up with one that actually jumps through all the hoops. It is really, really difficult. Here's the problem. It used to be where when a broker would go to an insurance carrier and get proposals to show their client, those proposals would have an expiration date, right? They wouldn't be good forever and that expiration date used to be about a month, 30 days give or take. Sometimes longer, it just depends. The market is so tight right now. There is such a crisis of availability and capacity. Now we're not able to keep a quote and know that it will be good in 30 days. It will say I'm there and I'll tell you this is the best one I've seen so far. It says this quote is valid for 24 hours or market change conditions. What in the world does that mean? Basically, what they're saying is it's good till it's good. We might decide that it's not good tomorrow. We might decide sooner than tomorrow because somebody else might fill that capacity and buy a policy from us between the time I've sent you this quote and you get back to me. So if a broker is telling you that wait till 30 days, personally, I don't like that advice because that's giving you a very short window to try and find coverage, I would much rather see you have duplicate coverage or cancel your existing policy that you know is going to be expiring or is being non-renewed much earlier than waiting for that last 30 days to be running around like going crazy and trying to find replacement coverage. It is painful for us. They're not wrong. They're told them it's too painful for them to do it and they're not wrong because it's a lot used to take a broker 10 minutes, 15 minutes. All right. 20 minutes I'll give you for the people that are still hunting and pecking on their keyboards to do can now take days or even weeks and may not even end up with a proposal to give to a client. So yes, from the broker perspective, it is a painful environment. But as a consumer, you have to do what's best for you. So if you're calling around and you have a broker that says, "I won't help you until 30 days before your policy, non-renews," I would suggest you keep calling for a different broker because you need to protect yourself. That's the most important thing. Okay. Next question. It looks likely our insurance will lapse. How does this change things for us? Well, if your insurance policy lapses, of course, you have no coverage during that time, which is not good. And it is the infamous catch 22 because on insurance applications, they will ask, has there been a lapse of coverage? Not so good. Well, why? People might ask, "Why do they care if I've had a gap in coverage if I didn't have a loss?" Well, that's the problem, see. They don't know for sure that you haven't had a loss. All they know is you didn't have coverage. What if you did have a loss? You're waiting to find insurance and then you wait a little while and you'll file the claim for the loss you had during that period of time you didn't have coverage. I know. You would never do that. I would never do that. People do that. So lapse in coverage, it is the epitome of a catch 22. It will make it more difficult to obtain insurance and in certain cases, it might actually make the premium be even higher. So whatever you can do to not have a lapse in coverage, for the obvious reasons, don't go uninsured. But also because it will end up potentially being a problem for you later, try. I know it's not easy, but you got to keep trying. First question, we have had two claims in 10 years that we've owned the home. Our coverage is with state farm. Should we inquire with our agent if we are on the list for non-renewal or is there some risk in asking? It's a great question. There's no risk in asking. Any insurance company that's going to be non-renewing you is going to non-renew you, regardless of you asking or not. Now, that is not my saying that an insurance carrier is not going to have you maybe bubble up to the top of the non-renewal list if you start having claims now or if you start missing payments now. But the sheer act of asking your agent or broker, am I already on the list of being non-renewed? I don't see any jeopardy in that. I don't write for state farms, so I can't speak specifically for their guidelines. But it is my understanding that state farm agents already have a list of all of the insurance, I'm sorry, all of the clients that they are going to have that are getting non-renewed far in advance. They might not tell you right away, but you can certainly call your state farm agent and ask them. Do not wait. Definitely ask. Along that line, it made me think of something that I'll answer proactively. They're saying we've had two claims in the last 10 years and the first thing that goes through my mind is, well, when were those claims? Were they in the last two years or were they eight, nine years ago because it makes a difference? The way it works with insurance carriers in general, it's kind of a what have you done for me lately mentality. If you have not had claims for 20 years, but then the last two years you've had a claim every year, they're going to look at you and say, hmm, claims are starting to happen. We have a problem versus if you are going to a new insurance company and they look at your claim history and you had claims 10 years ago and nothing since they're going to say, okay, they've got their act cleaned up. So you have to keep in mind that what happens in recent time is more important than what happened in the past, right? What happened last year will matter more than what happened 10 years ago. So when I see I had two claims in the last 10 years, were those the last two years again or a long time ago? Okay. Next question. Do insurance companies make a distinction between cement, tile or comp shingle? The simple answer is it's up to the insurance company. Some insurance companies are very granular when it comes to that and some are not. Some will charge a different premium and some will not. That believe it or not is all the time we have for today. We got through a bunch of questions and I hope this was helpful for you. Let me know if this is useful. Give me some feedback. Shoot me an email to questions@insurancehour.com. Leave a comment, whatever you like. Let me know because I feel that the more information I can get out to you, the more you can learn and the more you can understand what's going on and make the right decisions, find the right brokers, try and find the right coverage and pun intended, whether this insurance storm, but the light is at the end of the tunnel. I can see the lighthouse at the tip of the boat. Is it the bow in the front? I never get it right. I'm an insurance broker, not a sale, a semen. All right. I am Carl Sussman. This is insurance hour. Thank you so much and we will talk again soon. I do want to 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 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@insurancehour.com or call and leave a voicemail at five. Five. Nine. Six. Five. Six. Zero. Three. One. Seven. Education and entertaining Californians. One. Insurance policy at a time. This is insurance hour. The show is dedicated to Shamrock Papa. E-digits. Lock 'em in for more information, recreation and guaranteed fun. KCAA 1050 AM. And now the voices of KCAA was an exciting announcement. Want to hear NBC News or KCAA anywhere you go? Well now there's a nap for that. KCAA is celebrating 25 years in our Silver Anniversary with a brand new app. The new KCAA app is now available on your smart device, cell phone, in your car or any place. Search KCAA on Google Play or in the Apple Store. One touch and you can listen on your car radio, Bluetooth device, Android Auto or Apple Car Play. Catch the KCAA buzz in your earbuds or on the streets, celebrating 25 years of top news and accidents with our new KCAA app. NBC News Radio, I'm Brian Shook. Donald Trump is laying out his plans for the economy if he's elected to the White House in November during a rally in Asheville, North Carolina. Trump said he'll make living more affordable. We will target everything from car affordability to housing affordability to insurance costs to supply chain issues with the worst supply chain we've ever had in the history of the country. The former president spent much of his speech focused on his political rival Kamala Harris accusing her of decimating the middle class with radical liberal policies. The Middle East could erupt with a potential Iranian attack against Israel. This comes as efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza are intensifying with formal negotiations set to take place tomorrow. The potential for an attack by Iran comes after the country vowed to retaliate against Israel following the deaths of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. A Defense Department employee is facing charges for allegedly taking top secret documents and attempting to leave the country. Gokan gun was arrested in Falls Church Virginia Friday and charged with mishandling classified material. Authorities say he was on his way to the airport for a trip to Port of Iyarda, Mexico and had documents in his possession marked top secret. There's no word yet on when astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams will return to Earth. However, during Wednesday's update on the Boeing crew flight test, NASA's Ken Bowersock said Butch and Sonny aren't complaining. Butch and Sonny are well engaged on board the International Space Station. I know if I was in their position I'd be really happy to be there and I'd be happy to have the extra time. The astronauts have been at the ISS since June after launching from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Starliner spacecraft on a test mission that was supposed to only last a week. 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 1932 TrainingCenter.org to enroll today. That's 1932 TrainingCenter.org. Paramount Global is closing one of its television studios and plans to cut nearly 2,000 jobs before the end of the year. Paramount Television Studios will close at the end of the week. The studio produces streaming shows for the likes of Amazon Prime Video, the Roku channel Netflix and Warner Brothers Discovery. CBS studios will be taking over responsibility of Paramount TV's collection of shows. Paramount Global is restructuring operations as it prepares to merge with Skydance Media. It says the studio closure is not because it was performing poorly. I'm Daniel Martindale. A new study shows that Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey leads the way when it comes to airport complaints. Newark Airport is number one in TSA complaints with passengers citing customer service, security screening and mishandled baggage. The travel company upgraded points looked at the 44 largest U.S. airports. Cleveland ranked second in complaints. Taylor Swift inspired Cornelius Street signs sold out fast. Jacqueline Karl has the story. The city's official gift shop. Swift used to live on Cornelia and the song Cornelia Street is featured on Swift's album Lover. 200 of the signs selling at $75 each were reported to have sold out in just hours. Jacqueline Karl reporting. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is trying to find out what is the coolest thing made in Minnesota. The organization is accepting nominations from businesses that have manufactured a product in Minnesota for at least two years. The nomination period ends tomorrow with online voting set to start on September 3rd. The winner will be announced on October 8th. 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