Value of an Independent Agent
You need to buy insurance for your car or home. What’s the best way to tackle this? Have you considered an Independent Insurance Agent?
Consumers have a lot of choice when it comes it comes to purchasing insurance. Admittedly not one of the purchasing processes that most consumers look forward to, often the final choice is made with a very heavy weighting toward cost and convenience, often with little real thought about what that final choice really means in terms of the protection provided by the insurance purchased.
Nobody ever wants an inconvenient buying experience, and insurance is no different. But, can you really make an informed decision about protecting yourself and your family from financial harm in 15 minutes, as one large direct-to-consumer insurer promises? Would you spend less time than it takes to drink your morning coffee to make a $10,000 investment decision? Probably not. And we’re not talking $10,000, we’re talking perhaps a $30,000 car or $200,000 house or your life’s savings if you are sued.
Spending a little quality time on your decision means you can avoid some of these common mistakes that you might make when going the fast and cheap way:
You won’t be surprised by the fact that the policy you just bought is for only 6 months, not the 12 months that your current policy is for. And that your premium likely will rise every 6 months thereafter.
You won’t save $50 on your car insurance and shortly thereafter learn that you’ve lost the $200 “bundling” credit on your home policy for having had both your car and home insurance with the same insurer.
You won’t learn after a claim that you have deductibles and limitations in areas you didn’t on your prior policy, in areas, in fact, that you didn’t even know existed.
You won’t learn that the website or 1-800 number you accessed to purchase your policy doesn’t offer much in the way of personal assistance – let alone advocacy – after a car accident, house fire or theft.
You won’t find out that purchasing the “most popular” coverage package isn’t the right coverage package for you and your family’s circumstances.
You won’t find out that a single insurer’s coverage offering actually doesn’t fit all needs, that it often takes the choice from multiple insurers, which only an independent insurance agent can provide, to find the right match for you.
The good news is that consumers don’t have to go it alone in this purchase process. There is a proven, centuries-old process that affords them:
The education they need to make the right choices
The choice they need to have the best options available
The after-purchase advocacy to help make claims go smoothly and fairly
An Independent Insurance Agent, representing multiple insurers and trained to professionally assess the modern risks faced by individuals and families and offer thoughtful solutions to those risks, is an option consumers should consider.
The purchase of insurance doesn’t need to be inconvenient or expensive, but it needn’t be done blindly either. If your financial well-being is important to you, choosing to have a conversation with an independent insurance agent may be the smartest choice you make. For information about insurance agents in the Southcoast region, please check out the Southcoast Insurance Agents Association website at www.southcoast-insurance.com.