Protecting Your Home from Loss Due to Theft

Your home is filled with memories, personal mementos, and most importantly, your family; the risk of losing your valued possessions to theft is a situation you never want to encounter. Ensuring that damages and loss due to theft are covered by your home insurance is important. Here are the questions you should ask yourself and your insurance agent about protecting your home in case of a break-in, and things you can do to protect your home and reduce your insurance rates.

 

Look Over Your Existing Policy

 

The first step in protecting your home is to see if your existing policy covers both your property and the contents of your property in case of a break-in. Most basic homeowner’s policies do not cover these, and so you’ll want to get a clear picture of what you need before proceeding.

 

Asking Your Agent

 

There may be a number of things you can do to reduce the amount you will pay for theft protection, including combining existing policies and making changes to your home’s security. If you already have homeowner’s insurance, adding theft protection may be cheaper than buying a separate policy, especially if you were to go with a different company or broker. Installing an alarm system, adding locks to windows, and other types of home security protection may qualify you for a discounted rate on your insurance.

 

Creating Peace Of Mind

 

Regardless of the insurance issues, protecting your home and family in case of a break-in is important to your peace of mind. Things such as simply hanging a security sign in your window, leaving lights on when you are not home at night, and changing your routine can deter theft. They may not qualify you for a reduced insurance rate, but may protect your home nonetheless.

 

Free to Our Customers

We highly recommend that you take a look at the Digital Locker and use it to its fullest advantage. It is a way that you can keep a personal inventory of everything you own.

The Digital Locker is free and you can use it online or you can download the app and use it on your phone (both iPhone and Android). This first link will take you to an Allstate web page where you can learn a bit more about it and the second link will take you right to the Digital Locker website.

 

http://www.allstate.com/digital-locker.aspx?cid=OTC-SOC-T-131201:Innovation

 

https://www.digitallocker.com/Home/Dashboard/View

Buying a House for the First Time?

Home isn’t just where your heart is. It is also where most of your net worth is! For most of us, the investment in a home purchase is one of the largest and most important we’ll make. Any wise investor would want to ensure that such a significant investment was adequately protected.

Making sure you have a policy that meets your specific needs, and at the same time fitting your budget, is a vital part of protecting the investment you’ve made in your first home. Assessing your needs is the first step in evaluating your policy and knowing how much insurance you need. How much would it cost to replace your home and your personal belongings? Do you have expensive jewelry or other particularly valuable possessions? Are there other permanent structures on your property?

The second step is making sure you know what is included in your policy, and just as importantly, what is not. Standard policies typically provide coverage in four essential areas: the structure of your home, personal possessions, your liability to others, and living expenses should you be unable to live in your home temporarily as the result of a disaster your policy covers. It is crucial that you know which disasters-or “named perils” in the language of insurance-are covered by your policy and whether you need additional coverage for any excluded peril.

An insurance professional can guide you through these steps and provide you with other tips for making sure your policy is just right for you. Please give us a call at 401-433-1111 to schedule a time to meet for a free review of your homeowners insurance needs. We can help you make a determination of how much insurance coverage you need and what, if any, additional options you should consider.

How Homeowner’s Insurance Values Your Property

The first time you see the value your homeowner’s insurance has placed on your home, it might shock you a little. That’s because the number is probably nowhere near what you paid for your home, or what it is worth on the market. There is a very good reason for this, and it can be a little confusing at first. Before you panic, take a look at how an insurance company values your home.

 

Reconstruction Cost Only

 

Your homeowner’s insurance covers the actual physical building that is your home, along with everything that is in it. The purpose of homeowner’s insurance is to make sure that if the worst were to happen, your home would be restored to the same level as before the incident. So, if your home were to burn to the ground, homeowner’s insurance would pay to completely rebuild the structure and replace everything inside it.

 

The value that is placed on your home is based on a complicated system of calculations used to determine what it would cost to rebuild your home from the ground up. Things like the price of building materials and cost of labor are all taken into consideration. What isn’t included in this amount is the value of your land.

 

Why Isn’t Land Included?

 

Even if your house were to burn completely to the ground, you would still have your land. You don’t lose that, nor do you lose the value of the land. In many cases, the land on which the home sits is more valuable than the structure itself, especially in high in-demand areas. When calculating the value of your home, you insurance company does not add in the cost of purchasing the land, because you don’t need to pay for that again.

 

What About Market Value?

 

Homeowner’s insurance isn’t really concerned with market value, because so much of it is wrapped up in things like the land, the location, and the state of the real estate market. All your insurance company is worried about is what it would cost to recreate your home exactly as it was in that same spot. So, market value and reconstruction cost really have very little bearing on each other, except for the connection between pricey areas and the cost of building materials which can be correlated.

 

The bottom line is, as long as your insurance agent has the most accurate information about your home-square footage, building materials used, and all the important features-they can calculate an accurate amount of insurance coverage for you.

Flood Insurance

If you’re not in a high-risk area, you probably don’t spend a lot of time worrying about water damage to your home or property. But the fact is, approximately one quarter of all flood loss occurs in areas considered at a low to moderate risk for flooding.

No matter how safe you think you are, houses in every type of location suffer flood damage. And recent changes in weather patterns have triggered numerous highly publicized cases of rivers and lakes overflowing and leaving supposedly “safe” zones deep underwater.

In fact, did you know that floods are the most costly natural disaster in the U.S. every year? Flood losses total more than a billion dollars annually. Thousands of families have not only lost their home but suffered utter financial ruin due to flooding. Many mistakenly believed their homeowners policy would protect them, only to find out the hard way that the typical homeowners policy doesn’t cover flood damage at all.

We specialize in providing homeowners and renters with high quality, affordable flood insurance. You can learn more about us by visiting our Web site at http://agents.allstate.com/harold-daigneau-riverside-ri.html. We’ve seen the damage floodwater can cause, and we don’t want this to happen to you.

Don’t let a flood drown your finances. Give us a call today at 401-433-1111 or 877-221-3775, or contact me at hdaigneau@allstate.com, and let’s get you covered right away!

Do You Need An Insurance Agent?

It seems that many insurance companies today no longer sell their policies through agents anymore, they sell insurance directly thru the company either online or over the phone.  It might seem that having an agent to help you purchase auto insurance is a thing of the past, but don’t discount the insurance agent just yet.  There are some very good reasons to consider using an insurance agent to buy care, home, renter’s, condo and motorcycle insurance.

 

Agents Know Their Products

 

Many of the customer service representatives who handle the phones at large insurance company call centers know the basics of the insurance policies, enough to help you select and purchase one.  But insurance agents, especially those who have been around for a while, understand a lot more about coverage and policy limits.  They can share with you a wealth of knowledge that will ensure you not only get the right policy, but the best rate and a good understanding of what you are paying for.  An agent will help you select the best possible coverage limits to fit your needs and what you need to protect.

 

Agents Are On Your Side

 

If the day comes when you need to file a claim, it’s always good to have someone who is truly on your side.  Especially in a complicated claim, your agent can walk you through the process and be there to answer all your questions.  An agent is also there to step in when there are disagreements with the adjuster or other involved parties at the insurance company.  Because your agent knows all about the policy and how the claims process works – and knows you, they will be able to go over any claims issues with you and your adjuster.

 

At this day and age I am sure almost everyone has had a bad experience with an automated phone system.  When you are calling to report an insurance claim one of the last things you want to deal with is getting lost in an automated phone system.  When you have an agent you can call your agent directly to report the claim and the agent can handle things for you from there.  You will talk to someone who you’re familiar with to report the claim and you won’t have to press a bunch of numbers on your phone before you can speak to an actual person.  

 

Agents Keep Your Policy Accurate

 

A good agent will take the time to review your policy with you and make sure that everything is accurate and you are still carrying the coverage you need.  An agent knows when changes in your life might affect your insurance coverage needs, such as a marriage, change in job or a child getting their driver’s license.  Large insurance company call centers can’t always provide that level of personal attention and if you have to call back there is a good chance you will end up talking with someone else and have to go over everything all over again.

 

Are Agents More Expensive?

 

There is a general view that an insurance policy purchased through an agent will cost more than one purchased directly.  That isn’t necessarily true.  The best rate for you may well be one from an agency, so don’t discount quotes from agents when you are shopping for car insurance.  You might get the best rate along with the service only an agent can provide.  And for some people paying a little more to receive personal service is more than worth having to pay a little extra, especially when there is a claim that needs to be filed or when you have important changes to make to your coverage. 

 

 

You might not feel that you need an agent for your insurance, but there are certainly some very good reasons to take the time to meet with a one and see if it turns out to be right for you. 

 

Here at the Daigneau Insurance Agency we are always willing to make time for our customers and potential customers whether it’s to make a payment over the phone, add a car to their policy, file a claim, change an address or they just have some questions (even the “what if”) questions.