We, as an independent Agency have the ability to shop for all types of Coverages (i.e. Life, Personal Auto, Homeowners, Business, Commercial Property, etc.,) with many different companies to find you the best prices with the best coverages.

Property insurance helps cover stuff you own like your home or your car. Casualty insurance means that the policy includes liability coverage to help protect you if you’re found legally responsible for an accident that causes injuries to another person or damage to another person’s property.

A General Liability insurance policy or Business Liability protects you and your business from  claims involving bodily injury and property damage that could happen at your business.  Every business has a need for General Liability insurance.

Commercial Property insurance protects your company’s building and  personal property in the business from fire, explosions, burst pipes, storms, theft and vandalism. Earthquakes and floods typically aren’t covered by commercial property insurance policy but can be added with separate policies.

Flood insurance is the specific insurance coverage issued against Business or personal property loss from flooding. It covers direct physical losses from floods and losses resulting from flood related erosion caused by waves or currents of water . This coverage covers flooding from the ground up.  While there are designated hazardous flood zones, at least 25% of the floods occur in non-hazardous flood zones. 

Workers’ compensation is insurance that provides cash benefits and/or medical care for Business Owner’s workers who get injured or become ill as a direct result of their job. Employers pay for this insurance. Every business with one employee should have this coverage. Owners and/or Officers of the corporation have the option to be included or excluded on their Workers Compensation policy.  

 If there should be bodily injury or property damage a ‘claim’ will be filed.  For example; if you own a business and your business is broken into, items stolen and/or damaged a ‘claim’ would be filed.  All carriers have either a department within the carrier or a 3rd party that handles their claims.  Most, if not all claims are investigated to determine the merit of the claim.  Depending on the coverage and the merit of the claim the claim would be paid less the deductible on your policy.  For example, if the total damage or theft cost was $25,000 and you have an AOP (all other perils) deductible of $1000 your business would receive a claim check for $24,000. 

The answer is No.  Due to the massive amount of fraud in the insurance business every claim is based on it’s own merit.  While some claims may be similar in nature, no two claims are alike.  In addition, insurance carriers do not insure age.  For example if you own a commercial building and the roof on the building is 20 years old and one morning you arrive at your business to find after a night’s rain that there is water on the showroom floor a claim would be filed.  If the roof has not been properly maintained and/or has not been replaced over time the claim may not be paid or not paid in full due to the age of the roof.  Insurance carriers pay claims when ‘bad’ things happen (fire, theft, hurricanes, etc,.), not due to poorly maintained buildings/property.

Insurance agents have no decision making in how carriers determine the rates that they charge insureds (your business, you and/or I).  Numerous factors come into play when carriers determine rates.  Let’s take Commercial Auto insurance as an example:  Commercial Auto insurance rates are typically determined by:  the type of business, # of drivers, age of drivers (younger drivers – 21 and under and older drivers – 70 and over have higher rates assigned), drivers motor vehicle records (tickets, accidents, claims) all affect the premium, where the business is located (if in a higher crime part of a city or state the higher the rate), how long are the drives on the road, how far do drivers drive (typically the further the driver drives the higher the rate due to the increased risk).  Some carriers assign a different risk factor based on the aforementioned factors.  

There is nothing wrong with shopping for your insurance (sending to other carriers).  Black’s Insurance will do this for you as we have access to numerous different carriers.   From time to time carriers change their rates depending on market conditions, claims or losses, competition, etc,.   For example company XYZ may have very competitive rates for 2-3 years and then due to market conditions, claims, litigation and various other factors they may not be competitive the next few years.  After time XYZ may very well then offer competitive rates once again. 

There are a number of factors however the main factors are litigation, claims (both legitimate and fraudulent), construction costs, etc,.  At the moment there is no cap or limit on claim amounts.  Because insurance is essentially shared risk ALL homeowners pay for these claim amounts regardless of whether or not you’ve had a claim.  The state of Florida Department of Financial Services are actively working on legislation to limit attorney fees and claim limits as many of them are considered to be beyond excessive.  

Regarding the change or strict guidelines on Roofs; in the past a significant number of Roofing companies would go door to door informing homeowners that they have roof damage and that their Roofing company would handle the entire claims process including the roof repair and/or replacement.   The Roofing company then requires that the homeowner sign a contract referred to as an Assignment of Benefits which tells the homeowner that IF the insurance company does not cover the cost of the roof repair and/or replacement the homeowner would then be responsible for the repair and/or replacement.  Most of the homeowners that signed the agreement either a) did/do not read the agreement or b) did/do not understand the significance of what they signed.  This has resulted in litigation and carriers changing their requirements with many requiring roofs to be no more than 10 years old.