Tag Archives: premium

Saving On Homeowners Insurance

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Insurance Policy

Trulia quoted me in 5 Ways To Save On Homeowners Insurance. It opens,

Some basic decisions in life shouldn’t demand much debate in your mind. Behind car and life insurance, homeowners insurance is one of the biggest no-brainers. When golf ball–sized hail rips your Boca Raton, FL, roof to shreds, your dog bites a clueless runner, or someone breaks in and steals your vintage Larry Bird jersey and Grandmother’s pearl earrings, a basic homeowners insurance policy should have you covered. But as with any other form of shopping, it’s always best to look around, sniff out a good deal, and compare home insurance options. Luckily, deep discounts can be found. Here are five ways to save on your policy.

1. Shop around, then enlist help

Finding the biggest discount isn’t just for cars and airline tickets. In fact, a few phone calls and internet searches can land you some serious deals on homeowners insurance. “Start by looking to see if there are any companies that offer discounts,” says Cory Gagnon, associate financial adviser, The Beacon Group at Assante Wealth Management Ltd. in Calgary, Canada. “An insurance broker or financial planner can be very helpful in these situations as they have access to databases that allow them to source a wide variety of companies.”Then think about memberships you have — are you a veteran or AARP member? If you’ve used membership discounts for say, buying a car or booking a vacation, see if the association has discounts for homeowners insurance. Think hard about groups you’re part of: Check if your college alumni association offers discounts, or even the wholesale club you belong to (like Costco, BJ’s, or Sam’s Club).

2. Improve your home

Sometimes, Gagnon adds, little changes and improvements to your home can lead to lower premiums. “Some insurance companies offer lower rates for a variety of factors having to do with the structure and build of your home, including the type of wiring, plumbing, and structure material,” he says. “If you are in an older home, making an investment in upgrades to some of these core elements will make your home safer — for example, less threat of pipe bursts, electrical fires — and thus lower your insurance premiums with certain companies, saving you money in the long run.”

3. Know the difference between replacement cost and actual cash value

Homeowners insurance comes with options, and the best way to navigate those options is to know what they are. “One of the most important things that a homeowner should know about when shopping for [a] new or existing homeowners policy is the difference between replacement cost versus actual cash value [ACV],” explains Craig Ciotti, an insurance agent/broker with Fidishun Insurance & Financial Inc. in Yardley, PA. “Replacement cost will insure you for the cost that it would take to replace your home and all of the other personal property in it,” he says. “The other option is actual cash value. ACV is the actual value of your home and does not take into consideration zoning permits or removal of damaged property. ACV is more often used by investors and not homeowners.” If, for instance, a laptop you bought for $1,000 is stolen, with replacement cost insurance, you will get $1,000 for a new laptop. With ACV, you’ll get the current market value for the laptop — which will most likely be far less, since it has probably depreciated over time. ACV premiums generally cost less, but you’ll likely pay more out of pocket after a loss.

4. Agree to a higher deductible

As with other forms of insurance (ahem, car), you can save big on your policy if you simply increase your deductible. “This can shave a significant amount off of your annual premium, which is the good thing,” says David Reiss, professor of law and research director at the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship at Brooklyn Law School. “The bad thing about it is, if you have a casualty, you will be responsible for it until it reaches the higher deductible limit. Thus, you should be able to handle that additional amount before agreeing to the higher deductible. Given that your premium typically goes up when you make a claim, a silver lining of the higher deductible is that you will file fewer claims.”
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Saving on Home Insurance (en Español y Ingles)

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Woman with alarm system

Univision quoted me in 5 Ways to Save on Your Home Insurance (the article is in Spanish). It opens,

The cost of homeowners insurance can vary by hundreds of dollars depending on various factors. If you are looking to obtain a discount keep in mind these five tips when you purchase a policy.

1. Increase your deductible. Even though it is common for homeowners to have a deductible of $500 in their insurance policy, raising it to $1,000 could represent a significant reduction in the premium, says David Reiss, Professor of Law at the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship at Brooklyn Law School.

Extra tip:  You should have an emergency fund to cover any additional expenses which may be incurred. Use this fund instead of putting in a claim to your insurance, since this can increase your rate.

En-Titled Insurance

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Benjamin M. Lawsky, the New York State Superintendent of Financial Services, has promulgated a proposed regulation regarding title insurance that is sure to shake up the title industry and, more importantly, reduce closing costs for NY homeowners.

The proposed regulation opens with a statement of its scope and purpose:

(a) The purpose of this Part is to promote the public welfare by proscribing practices that are not in accordance with Insurance Law section 2303, which provides that insurance rates shall not be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory. This Part also interprets and implements Insurance Law section 6409(d), which prohibits giving any consideration or valuable thing as an inducement for title insurance business, as well as Insurance Law section 6409(e), which states that title insurance premiums shall reflect the anti-inducement prohibition of Insurance Law section 6409(d).

(b) This Part further protects consumers, pursuant to the authority of Insurance Law sections 2110 and 2119 and Article 24 and Financial Services Law sections 301 and 302, by ensuring that the title insurance industry provides valuable products and services to consumers at reasonable rates and fees and does not overcharge consumers or charge improper and excessive fees that constitute engaging in untrustworthy behavior and unfair and deceptive acts and practices. (Section 227.0 )

New York has long had some of the most expensive title insurance premiums in the country, so homeowners and other owners of real estate should welcome this development. Title insurance agents are not allowed to compete on price in NY, so they compete for business from real estate lawyers (who typically select the title insurance agent for any given transaction) by offering them all sorts of perks such as hard-to-get tickets to events and fancy meals. The proposed regulation attempts to rein in this behavior.

The NYS Department of Financial Services will be accepting comments for 45 days after the proposed regulation is published in the State Register, so get crackin’.

Insuring Mortgages Through the Business Cycle

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Mark Zandi and Cristian deRitis of Moody’s, along with Jim Parrott of the Urban Institute, have posted Putting Mortgage Insurers on Solid Ground. They wrote this in response to the Private Mortgage Insurance Eligibility Requirements set forth by the FHFA. While generally approving of the requirements, they argue that

Several features of the rules as currently written, however, would likely
unnecessarily increase costs and cyclicality in the mortgage and housing markets.
With a few modest changes, these flaws can be remedied without sacrificing the
considerable benefits of the new standards. (1)

I would first start by reviewing their disclosure:  “Mark Zandi is a director of one mortgage insurance company, and Jim Parrott is an advisor to another. The authors do not believe that their analysis has been impacted by these relationships, however. Their work reflects the authors’ independent beliefs regarding the appropriate financial requirements for the industry.” While, I understand that the authors believe that their views are not impacted by their financial relationships with private mortgage insurers, readers will certainly want to take them into account when evaluating those views.

The authors argue that FHFA’s requirements are procyclical, that is they become more burdensome just as mortgage insurers are facing a distressed environment. This could contribute to a vicious cycle where mortgage credit tightens because of regulatory causes just when we might want credit to loosen up. This is certainly something we should look out for.

They also argue that the FHFA’s requirements will increase mortgage insurance premiums unnecessarily because they increase capital reserves too much. I find this argument less compelling. The Private Mortgage Insurance industry has typically done terribly in distressed environments from the Great Depression through the 2000s. Not only have there been failures but they have also reduced their underwriting of new insurance just when the market was most fragile.

But there are certain shaky assumptions built into this analysis. For instance, they argue that Private Mortgage Insurance companies will need to maintain their historical after-tax return on capital of 15%. But if the business model is shored up with higher capital reserves, investors should be satisfied with a lower return on capital because the companies are less likely to go bust. That is, instead of increasing premiums for homeowners, it is possible that higher capital requirements might just reduce profits.

The authors write that while “the increase in capital requirements is clearly warranted, there are certain features of the requirements as currently drafted that will increase mortgage insurance premiums unnecessarily, running counter to the aim of policymakers, including the FHFA, to encourage greater use of private capital in housing finance.” (2-4) Policymakers have lots of goals for private mortgage insurance, including having it not implode during down markets. An unthinking reliance on private capital is not what we should be after. Rather, we should seek to promote a thoughtful reliance on private capital, taking into account how we it can best help us maintain a healthy mortgage market throughout the business cycle.