Consider this approach: Gather your insurance policy documents in one place. You’ll need the declaration pages that show the insurance carrier, the effective dates, automobiles and coverages. You should also gather similar documents for your home, condo, renters or boat policies. Having more policies with one company affords bigger discounts.

Now that you have all the documents you need, call or visit someone that you can trust — your local independent insurance agent. Send your documents to him, and he will provide a competitive proposal that compares your current policy to the proposal. You decide if making a change is worth the little effort required to switch. Tim or Peter will make the transition as smooth as possible, by making sure you don’t pay for coverage you don’t need and dropping the old policy in the most effective way. The team of agents at most independent firms are trained and put their reputation on the line in the communities where they live and work. Haas Insurance Agency offices are located in Newtown, CT and Glastonbury, CT. Don’t hesitate to jump out of the online quoting maze to find out what value a professional can bring, especially when you’ll save as much or more than you could quoting everything alone without any help from someone that shares a mutual interest in your insurance protection at a great rate.

For example,  your home insurance carrier purchases an insurance contract that protects them if the losses from a catastrophe exceed $20 million.  In this case the insurance company that insures your house would pay the first $20 million in claims  and another insurer would reimburse the carrier for any amount above that amount.

The companies that provide reinsurance charge a premium to the primary carriers for the cost of the protection. Recently, the State of Connecticut Insurance Department has allowed  insurance companies to pass along their cost of reinsurance to consumers.

Why is this important to you? Well, if the carrier that insures  your home or business does not have reinsurance they may not have enough capital to pay all the claims as a result of a serious catastrophe. The question is not if a serious storm should occur it is when a serious storm occurs will your carrier have the capacity to pay the claims.

Two questions should be asked of your agent?

1. Does the carrier the agent is placing the business with have reinsurance to cover claims if there is a catastrophe?
2. Will that carrier be passing on the additional cost of the reinsurance premium to the policyholder?

Paul, Peter and Tim Haas