Securing the Best Property Insurance to Prepare for Hurricane Season

To prepare for hurricane season, you have to know all the safety protocols as well as the best insurance for your property. Although the official Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, hurricanes and severe storms occur before or after those dates. This year National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts 14 to 20 named storms. These storms include three or four major hurricanes, which, like 2021, is above average for the Atlantic hurricane season.

Prepare for Hurricane Season

Major hurricanes arrive as Category 3, 4, or 5 with a minimum sustained winds of 111 mph or higher. They cause catastrophic damage and extensive power outages and destroy residential areas leaving them uninhabitable for weeks to months.

It’s Insurance Policy Review Time.

To prepare for hurricane season and protect your home and possessions, you should review your property insurance coverages for heavy storms and Cat 3 and above hurricanes.  Many comprehensive homeowners policies build a hurricane deducible into the contract. Likewise, some policies use up to 5% of the insured home’s value as the deductible. Use your review to ensure your property insurance policy will cover the total cost of rebuilding your home due to damage caused by a natural disaster.

Concerning homeowners insurance, it’s easy for people to overlook their home’s current market value, especially when they bought it years ago. However, it is dangerous for them not to realize their escalating property value requires adjusting policy limits to maintain adequate coverage in the current heated real estate market and soaring costs for labor and materials. Without a frequent and thorough review of coverages, policy limits can become outdated. Then it could cause it to drop well below the property value and the insured’s needs in today’s market.

Homeowners Insurance.

For homeowners, insuring their property with replacement cost insurance means the insurance carriers pay to replace it with a comparable quality property. An Actual Cash Value (ACV) policy insures your property for its actual cash value. With an ACV policy,  one could deduct the depreciation from your final payout, putting a homeowner in a financial bind.

Fortunately, most homeowners insurance companies sell replacement cost coverage so you can rebuild your home with funds from the payout. However, your personal property, like appliances, furniture, and fixtures, is typically insured and paid out for its actual cash value. But you can get replacement cost insurance for your property in most cases.

It’s a good thing to understand how your payout works with replacement cost insurance. What happens is the first payout is settled at the ACV of your property by most insurance companies. After the initial ACV settlement, they reimburse the additional amounts based on the costs of repairing damaged property.

Recommended Coverages for Your Property Insurance Portfolio.

Flood Insurance.

Damage due to floods is excluded from all homeowners policies. Hurricanes are usually also flood zones because they bring massive amounts of water into your property. Lenders do not always mandate flood coverage. Nevertheless, you should include it in your property insurance portfolio. Your flood insurance policy helps pay for losses caused by rising water.

Wind Insurance.

Hurricanes bring devastating high winds that can cause catastrophic damage to your home. For example, suppose your property insurance excludes wind coverage. In that case, you must purchase separate windstorm and hail policies to endorse your homeowners insurance or apply for wind coverage through your state’s Beach or FAIR insurance plan.

Personal Umbrella.

As a homeowner, you primarily have liability exposures that your property insurance will cover. But in our litigious society and with the dramatic rise in home values and your overall net worth. Thus, you likely need the additional liability protection with the extended liability limits of a Personal Umbrella policy.

As your assets grow, you need to protect them from loss. The Dickstein Associates Agency will address your unique needs with a plan to safeguard your property. Then, we will provide risk management solutions to meet your varied needs. In addition, we invite you to tap into the decades-long insurance expertise of our staff for a complimentary review of your current protection strategy.

About Dickstein Associates Agency

Dickstein Associates Agency has distinguished itself as a leading provider of personal and business insurance in the tri-state area since 1965. We pride ourselves on being advocates for our clients and providing them with quality and affordable coverages. As Trusted Choice™ independent insurance agency, we partner with various national and regional carriers, allowing for flexible coverage for each client’s unique circumstances. For more information on how you can leverage all your insurance to work best for you, and how we can secure the best insurance in the marketplace suited to your specific needs and business objectives, contact us today at (866) 236-8793 or www.dicksteininsurance.com.