Investor · Reston, VA · Member since 2011 · 683 posts · 191 votes
I need some advice on insurance. I have been using Allstate for years and have a couple of issues/questions. A new limit has been placed by Allstate and they won't write more than 4 LL policies per insured. I am grandfathered as I have many more than that.
For my last purchase they put it thru some state plan and the coverage is worthless and has a higher premium. They did not disclose to me that the coverage was vastly different and that the change was an "Allstate thing".
Questions: who do you use? Have you shopped your policies?
It seems I am paying a fortune. I have used Allstate for over 25yrs and have a 5mil umbrella attached to all my properties (cars,boats, etc.). I have made a "package" (copies of all my declaration pages) and want to shop it.
Interesting - I have Allstate and had both good and bad experiences with them. They do tend to come up with new policy limits after I've filed a claim.
The comment about them being the BOA of insurance made me laugh- BOA is the worst bank on planet earth in my opinion.
Check State Farm. Maybe its because I have several other personal policies with them but my LL insurance is more than reasonable. I haven't had a claim so I can't comment on that process but everything else went/is going well.
I have been really getting hit hard with replacement costs. I just bought a property for $30,000. In the past my agent would write up the replacement cost for say $75,000 or something. Now the insurance company comes out and looks at the property and gives you a replacement cost and wont go any lower. Guess what the cost is on this house? $209,000!! premium more than doubled. My agent said just be happy they arent going back to your other properties.
The problem I have is trying to shop around. Nobody just wants a property or two. They want everything. Places like statefarm and allstate will only quote with your autos or home and it gets complicated. ANyone know of anyboby insuring just your rental?
Safeco. I haven't had any claims yet but their rates are reasonable and they receive good ratings.
I've received quotes from a broker for Safeco, Travelers, or Donegal. I've never heard of the last one but also didn't know anyone using Safeco until your reply. Anyone heard of Donegal? Internet search results can only tell you so much. I'd put more weight on reviews from fellow BPers. At this point, I'm leaning towards Travelers.
I just bought a property for $30,000. In the past my agent would write up the replacement cost for say $75,000 or something. Now the insurance company comes out and looks at the property and gives you a replacement cost and wont go any lower. Guess what the cost is on this house? $209,000!!
I have been having the same problem. It is very frustrating. It seems like they have tightened things up a lot lately.
Follow-up. I just wrote three properties through Jason's company and the service was great! The quotes were fair and the liability (one million) was much higher than I expected. Allstate had told me that "the limitation on number of properties issue" had been resolved - not! Last week I received a policy renewal from the state "pool" insurer instead of Allstate. A worthless policy and no heads-up from my Allstate agent about the change.
Allstate just informed me last year that my 3 landlord policies with them will not be renewed as I do not have car insurance through them. Luckily, USAA changed their policies and can take all 5 of my rentals, but this is a great topic as I need to know what to do now that I've reached my USAA limit.
And I actually have earthquake insurance on my east coast properties, believe it or not. It's only like $20 more. The recent earthquake in Virginia didn't do any damage to mine, but I felt better knowing I had it then.
I had State Farm for a 5-unit building, very reasonable however they did not have sewer/water backup protection, so I just switched to Main Street America Group with their Main Line Business Owner's Policy. Costs approx $1k per more per year than my old coverage but water is a huge fear of mine.
I tried to up my umbrella with Allstate from 5mil to 10mil. No go. 5 is the max. I also tried to add my newest properties (insured thru American Modern) to my Allstate umbrella - another "no". They won't write my new properties and then won't add them to the umbrella because they didn't "write" them.
I'm seeing an Estate planning attorney next week. Part of his service is asset protection.
Bryan, my husband was in a bad car wreck last week. He's fine but he could have been killed. The lady who ran into him was seriously injured. Anyway, it got me thinking about asset protection. If he had been at fault and someone had been killed or paralyzed, it's hard to say what a jury would award. We have assets well in excess of our umbrella. So I thought I would up it to ten million. I'm looking forward to meeting with the asset protection attorney and getting his advice. It's a weird coincidence that we were mid-application for a large life ins. policy when the crash occured. You never know...
Sorry to hear that Cheryl. Are you sure that the insurance policy would cover the scenario you mentioned? My understanding is that these policies are for outside liability and not inside liability.
We used to have a FLP that was in theory better for inside liability, but I didn't really understand all of the legal reasons why. We switched to a LLC later on because of the scrutiny the FLPs were getting by the IRS. You may check into that too.
I'm interested to hear what the attorney tells you. That will be money well spent!
Sorry Bryan, I shouldn't have throw the life insurance into the mix. Apples and oranges. I am worried about whether our umbrella is adequate. I'm looking forward to talking to the Attorney. The accident just made me think about the dollar value of a possible claim/suit. If my negligence causes the death of a high-earner, I doubt 5Mil would cover it.