Twenty Five Words That Do All the Work
Monday, October 26
Most of what makes an insurance policy hard to read isn't complexity or some legal trickery hiding in there. It's genuinely just vocabulary. Twenty five specific terms carry almost the entire weight of these contracts, and once you actually know them, the whole thing stops feeling opaque.I've gro...
The Seven Endorsements Worth Knowing By Name
Monday, October 19
The base policy form is standardized. It reads exactly the same for everybody holding it, which is honestly what makes it a form in the first place. Endorsements are how that standard contract actually gets bent to fit your specific property, your specific state, or a particular carrier's appetit...
Read Your Policy Backward
Monday, October 12
Most owners read a policy from the front. Coverage limits first, then the perils, then they just stop reading. The exclusions look like fine print stuck at the end, and everybody treats them accordingly, which is exactly the wrong instinct.Try reading it the other direction instead. The insuring...
How to Read Your Declarations Page, Line by Line
Monday, October 05
Your policy shows up as forty or sixty pages of contract language that reads exactly the same no matter who's holding that form. One or two pages right at the front are actually different. Those pages name your specific property, your limits, your deductibles, and the specific forms that apply t...
The One Definition That Decides If Your Homeowners Policy Actually Pay
Monday, September 28
Most owners size up a homeowners policy by looking at the numbers on it. Dwelling limit, liability limit, deductible. Those are the visible parts, and they're the parts everyone talks about at the kitchen table.The part that actually decides whether the policy responds at all is a definition sit...
Named Perils Versus Open Perils, and Why It Decides Your Claim
Monday, September 21
Almost every property insurance policy comes down to one of two sentence structures. It's a short sentence, it sits right at the top of the coverage section, and I'd bet almost nobody reading this has actually read it on their own policy.Named perils reads something like this. We insure for dire...