2011 - Bad Year For US Property & Casualty Insurance Companies

According to a report by ratings agency A.M. Best, 2011 was a bad year for US P&C Insurers. In 2011, US Insurers lost more money than they have since 2006 and the losses were near all time lows.

What does this mean to the average American? Well, higher rates probably. It's not inevitable, but typically when insurers suffer loses it's due to not collecting enough premium from their customers to cover what they had to pay out. So that usually translates to an increase in premiums the following year. The good news is that the losses sustained were not huge, so if you do see a rate increase, it should be moderate - somewhere around 5-10%.

Claims Time Is Crucial

Many of us base our purchasing habits on price. It is the single most influential catalyst of our purchasing decisions, whether it be regarding groceries, clothing or something much larger, like a home. We want a good value for what we pay for. While not spending too much is very important, is buying the cheapest product available the best value? Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not.

One very important part of deciding what car insurance to go with should be how well the company handles their claims. It's not often that we have to go through this process, but when we do, we want it to be seamless and stress free. So the next time you are shopping for car insurance, make sure you find out how good the company you're looking at is with their claims. It might cost a little more to go with a company with a better claims history, but when it comes to saving time, money and stress, it will be well worth it.

Business Insurance Renewal Time

The majority of businesses in Utah have policies that renew in December or January. It's a very busy time of year to deal with renewals given the holiday season. If you're a business owner, whether your policy renews in December or January or not, you should make sure that your business' insurance policy covers you properly. A good agent will go over many different coverage options with you that will offer a large variety of coverages that you may need. The worst thing that could happen for a business owner or an insurance agent or company is to have a person pay for an insurance policy that doesn't cover them when an incident happens and they need to submit a claim. The purpose of any insurance is to decrease one's risk of peril by restoring them to their original state after a claim. If you haven't had your business policy, or your personal one, checked in the past two years, I highly recommend doing so. I have a checklist of over 50 different coverages to tailor coverage to each business. With how fast things change in our society, you don't want to be caught in a loophole because you didn't keep your policy coverages current.