The Difference Between Commercial Insurance Brokers And Agents

Do you know what commercial insurance brokers do? People often get the impression that a commercial insurance broker is the same as an insurance agent but they are not. While an insurance agent works from one company and tries to sell you everything from that company, a commercial insurance broker will sell you policies from different companies where she works from.

In addition, the main goal for a broker will be to work for you who is the client or the business owner. Therefore, if you go to commercial property insurance brokers, you will be given lots of offers with no restrictions just like a home insurance broker. Since they often deal with large sum of money from other insurance companies, they will be able to lay out different plans for your business. Hence, a broker creates you a policy and spreads it to various insurance companies to be approved.

For example you own a taxi company with a good number of units. Since none of these units are insured. You decide to go to a commercial auto insurance broker to assist you in looking for the best car insurance deals available in the market. In the process, you will need to provide your broker with all your information and the number of units you want insured. With all the data gathered and all your demands taken into consideration, your broker will then devise a policy and submit your information to different insurance companies.

One more example would be for large companies and corporations. If you are someone with a big business with a good number of employees and customers, then you should also have an insurance to cover for any problems. For instance you have 20 different companies in 20 different states. Some are factories and others are retail stores. With this as given, it will be very hard to manage if each has a lot of insurance policies. It would be a lot easier to make one payment to only one company. For that, you can seek the assistance of a general insurance broker. With a general insurance broker, you cam regulate the flow of your insurances into one payment. Furthermore, you can also save money from hiring a staff to deal with each of your businesses when finding insurance.

Types of Home Insurance

There are several types of home insurance you can buy.  Some are more common than others, but they are all important to know about.  They all have their place for your house.

Mortgage Insurance

This is probably the most common one to have, mostly because you have to have it in order to get a mortgage.  Mortgage insurance pays the lender a claim should you default on your mortgage.  It’s pretty standard for most homeowners.  It is usually required if you are putting less than 20% down payment.

Home Content Insurance

This is pretty much the same thing as renter’s insurance.  For home content insurance, the policy pays a claim should you lose or damage items inside your home that is covered under the policy.  It covers items that may have lost, stolen or damaged for whatever reason.

You want to generally insurance only the most valuable assets in your home.  Make sure to document the covered items so you have evidence of owning it and that it was undamaged at some point in your ownership.

Homeowners Insurance

Home contents insurance is a subset of the overall category of homeowners insurance.  These policies cover the property itself for liability, casualty, loss, damage, etc.  Each policy has it’s own set of things it covers.

Fire, Wind and Flood Insurance

There are additional coverages you might want to get.  Fire insurance covers fire losses and damage.  Wind covers damage from hurricanes or tornados.  Flood insurance covers flood damage.

You current homeowners insurance policy may not cover these specific type of damages so make sure you read the fine print.  The homeowners in New Orleans got screwed when they a regular homeowners insurance policy but the damage was classified as flood insurance, so the companies didn’t pay out.

Depending on where you live, you might be required to carry one of these special insurance policies.  Make sure you know what the requirements are.  Also, don’t try to get cheap insurance just because you are required to have it.  There is a reason that kind of insurance is required for your house.