Tips to keep in mind during the claim process

[Phil Workman]

Have you ever been truly educated on the claim process by your insurance agent??? If you answered yes, that is wonderful. However, if your answer is NO, that is where I can help. In my 7 years in the insurance/financial services industry, I find that more often than not the answer to that question is "No". 

This is concerning to me- in my opinion, during the insurance sales process, agents should ALWAYS go over tips/what to expect during the claim process. For those of you reading who may not have had an agent do this for you, please see some of my top tips when it comes to the claim process: 

• Before filing a claim- ALWAYS talk to your agent first. Why is this? One wants to speak with there agent to make sure the loss is A) a covered loss B) Exceeds your deductible. 
• The above may very well happen if you go ahead and file a claim prematurely. 

Now let's talk about some costly consequences of the above scenarios happening- If the claim is filed and an adjuster representing your insurance company comes to assess the damage and it is determined that the loss is A) NOT covered or B) Does NOT exceed your deductible- You most likely will LOSE a claim free discount of some kind, it will go on your claim record (depending on the insurance company they will look back at this for 3-5 years), AND your rates could be surcharged because of the claim. 

All of these negative consequences can be avoided all by the agent going the extra mile and educating the insured. 

Hopefully this was resourceful for some of you. Thank you!

[Phil Workman]

@Jason Bott great point. My objective here was to educate the smaller scale investor/Landlords who are typically carrying LLP vs Commercial packages. In those cases most insurers will look at frequency vs. Loss amount.