Home Insurance Comparison
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A home insurance comparison goes beyond just comparing the costs of each quote you’re presented with by the insurance company.
You need to know what that policy covers and, most importantly, what it doesn’t. In this case,cheaper isn’t always better.
Why would you want to choose the least expensive home owner insurance coverage offer when it may not provide you with the insurance policy coverage and safety you need?
When you want to compare home and contents insurance you will soon learn that there are many different provisions each individual policy will cover, so it is most important to know exactly what is covered under the policy and for how much. For instance, jewelry loss or theft, drain backup water damage, liability insurance for personal injury, fire, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, boats, motorcycles, and much more.
It is also important to know if the policy is a "Replacement Cost" policy or a "Repair Cost" policy? This could make a huge difference in how your home is repaired/rebuilt, if ever necessary and what it may cost you in the long run. Replacement cost should cover the actual amount needed to replace, repair or rebuild your home using the same types of materials; Repair Cost may use other materials in addition to deducting their claim amount from your home’s depreciated value.
A great way to find real information about an insurance company is to discuss with your trusted family, friends and neighbors about their homeowner insurance policy provider and their experiences. Questions you may want to ask about their insurance and insurance company:
- Are you happy with your insurance company?
- What type of coverage do you keep?
- Have you had to make any insurance claims?
- How well did your insurance adjuster work with you?
- Did the insurance company pay the claim promptly? If not, why?
- Do these insurance companies actually deal with homes in your town? Not all insurance companies are licensed to do business where your home is located.
Start developing your list of insurance companies according the above answers. You can also find insurance companies in your local phone book or on the Internet. Just make sure that you properly research the company before purchasing a policy.
Next in your insurance company analysis, do some research on each insurance company you are interested in purchasing a homeowner’s policy. Areas you want to check into:
Check out the insurance company’s financial strength ratings. Rating agencies assess an insurance company's solvency and financial strength. A rating is not a guarantee of the financial stability of an insurance company, so be careful to conduct your own research.
There are several websites that you can go to in order to find the insurance company’s rating that you are interested in, but before you do that you should get some information about the rating agencies themselves. You need to know that many insurance companies financially support the rating agencies; Weiss Ratings, on the other hand, is well known in the industry to be financially independent from the insurance companies that it rates.
You should also read the GAO’s study of rating .
Weiss Ratings - For more information about the Weiss Financial Strength Ratings and their products, contact their Customer Hotline at
1-877-934-7778.
Below find links to other insurance company ratings service's websites.
- A.M. Best - Publishers of insurance information, including financial data, industry news, and insurer ratings.
Best’s Financial Strength Rating Guide
- Demotech - Demotech is a financial analysis firm located in Columbus, Ohio.
- Fitch Ratings - Provides ratings on over 800 insurance entities in close to 30 countries. Requires registration
- Moody's Investors Service - Moody's insurance ratings and research provide coverage of global life, property and casualty, mortgage and title insurers and reinsurers plus financial guarantors. Requires registration.
- Standard & Poor's - Insurance company ratings service.
- Weiss Ratings - Weiss Ratings issues financial safety ratings on over 1,500 U.S. life, health and annuity insurance companies each quarter.
Understanding Insurance Company Ratings
As you compare insurance company ratings in your home insurance comparison you may have questions about a rating service's interpretation of a rating. For instance, an A+ is the highest Weiss rating but only the fifth highest rating for Standard & Poors.
When Weiss rates an insurance companyan A+ it means, "The company offers excellent financial security." When Standard &Poors rates an insurance company an A+ it means, the company has "strong financial security characteristics but is some what more likely to be affected by adverse business conditions."
AM Best's Financial StrengthRatings
An AM Best's FSR can be assigned to an insurance company on an interactive or non-interactive basis. In both cases, the rating scale and descriptors are:
| Secure | Vulnerable |
| A++, A+ (Superior) | B, B- (Fair) |
| A, A- (Excellent) | C++, C+ (Marginal) |
| B++, B+ (Good) | C, C- (Weak) |
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| D (Poor) |
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| E (Under Regulatory Supervision) |
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| F (In Liquidation) |
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| S (Suspended) |
Standard and Poor’s Credit RatingsDefinitions
The general meaning of our credit rating opinionsis summarized below.
· ‘AAA’—Extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. HighestRating.
· ‘AA’—Very strong capacity to meet financialcommitments.
· ‘A’—Strong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhatsusceptible to adverse economic conditions and changes in circumstances.
· ‘BBB’—Adequate capacity to meet financial commitments, but moresubject to adverse economic conditions.
· ‘BBB-‘—Considered lowest investment grade by marketparticipants.
· ‘BB+’—Considered highest speculative grade by marketparticipants.
· ‘BB’—Less vulnerable in the near-term but faces major ongoinguncertainties to adverse business, financial and economic conditions.
· ‘B’—More vulnerable to adverse business, financial and economicconditions but currently has the capacity to meet financial commitments.
· ‘CCC’—Currently vulnerable and dependent on favorable business,financial and economic conditions to meet financial commitments.
· ‘CC’—Currently highlyvulnerable.
· ‘C’—Currently highly vulnerable obligations and other definedcircumstances.
· ‘D’—Payment default on financialcommitments.
Note: Ratings from ‘AA’ to ‘CCC’ may be modified by the addition of a plus (+) or minus (-) sign to show relative standing within the major rating categories.
Specific ratings are also available from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Desk by emailing ratings_request@standardandpoors.com.
Search NAIC Complaint and Financial Information Regarding Insurance Companies
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has the following information available by company for your insurance company analysis:
Complaints against a company in different report views
Key Annual Statement pages from the most recent Annual Statement
Financial graphs
States in which a company does business
The following is a guide to help you access this information:
Go to the NAIC website, https://eapps.naic.org/cis/
- Type in the name of the company for which you want information (Remember to be brief when typing in the name - if you want XYZ Insurance Company just type XYZ, it will not bring back the information unless you type it exactly as it is in the database - example if you type Insurance and they have it in the database as Ins it will not come back)
- Choose the State
- Choose the Company Type
- Click Find Company
- Find the Company that you want and Click Financial Information
- Click Get Financial Profile - to view some financial graphs Or Click Get Key Annual Statement - to view the key annual statement pages
- To view the Key Annual Statement, you will need to complete a short User Survey - Click Continue
- Also, at any time you can: Click Writing Insurance - to view the states the company is writing business in Or Click Complaints - to view different reports regarding complaints against the company.
Please note that these instructions are subject to change if the National Association of Insurance Commissioners makes changes to their current website.
Contact Your State Insurance Department
You should also contact your state’s insurance department (office of insurance) for more information, however, they will not tell you much regarding the financial condition of an insurance company they are regulating other than if the company is licensed and has no regulatory action taken against the company.
Where you can really find information about an insurance company is to call the consumer’s division at your state insurance department and ask about the consumer complaints against the insurance company. Insurance complaints arise because of the insurance company lack of paying their insurance policyholder’s claims or paying the claim timely.
Each state insurance department’s consumer division or department keeps track of the complaints received from consumers and each of the insurance departments and usually publish this list. You can find your state insurance department at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which has a map to all of the state insurance departments. Click NAIC State Insurance Departments Map
If you can’t find the consumer’s department or division on the state’s insurance website then just give them a call and remember all of the state insurance departments have a toll free number (1-800).
If you still can’t find your state’s complaint ratio, then use another state’s complaint ratio report and see ifthe company that you are evaluating is on that list. The Kansas Insurance Department’s complaint information is at http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/complaintinfo.htm
Make Thorough Inventory of YourProperty
After you have completed your review of the insurance company financial strength ratings and complaints ratings, make a thorough inventory of your property. Make sure you do this prior to contacting the homeowner insurance agency that sells for the insurance company that you are interested in. Whenever you request a home owner insurance quote, the company’s insurance agent will almost certainly need to know the amount coverage you would like, and they can assist you determine insurance coverage by taking a look at your current home’s contents and your significant belongings.
Based on your own home’s inventory along with other personal information that the company wants, you’ll be offered a home owner insurance quote. If the insurance company offers you an insurance quote without asking about your inventory, as well as, offering to help you figure out how much protection you need, move on to the next insurance company. A person can’t get a reasonable quotation without this information and facts.
Make Your Decision
Finally, gather and compare home insurance quotes you’ve obtained from the financially strong and best complaint handling insurance companies and make your evaluation.
Look at the financial ratings, complaints, insurance premium and coverage proposed by each and every insurance company that you are interested in.
Determine which insurance quote is best for you, based on your own protection wants as well as budget?
Also, make sure to look at terms and conditions of each and every policy, too, because they can easily set deal-beakers and further expenses that you might well be uninformed about./p>
See some great information at Homeowners Insurance Replacement vs Repair Cost Policies
There's is a great article Secrets to Lower Home Insurance Premiums that tells 8 secrets that can save you a lot of money.
Discover How To Make A Home Insurance Comparison
Find The Best Insurance Company For You That Is:
Highly Rated,
Pays Their Claims And
Has A Low Complaint Ratio!
Buildwisely's Home Planning Guide
Helps you get the right home insurance protection!
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