Written answers about what belongs in your file, what to keep once a policy is issued, and how a renewal gets reviewed.
A reference number, your contact details, the policy line you named, and whatever you typed into the notes field. We add a short summary of what was reviewed and a list of the documents that are still outstanding, so the next conversation starts from the same page you do.
The declarations page, the policy schedule, every endorsement issued later, and each renewal notice you receive. A single folder, on paper or scanned, holds all of it. When a claim is disputed months later, the declarations page and the endorsement that changed the limit usually settle the argument faster than a memory does.
Most renewal work begins six to eight weeks before the effective date, because that is when carriers begin quoting. We reopen the original file, list what changed in the year since the declaration, and mark where the new figures differ from the old ones. You receive that review as a written summary before anyone asks for a decision.
A quote is only comparable when the limits, deductibles, and coverage forms line up. Without the current declarations, a lower premium may simply reflect a smaller limit rather than a better price. Sending the existing policy lets the comparison be like for like.
A summary cannot carry exclusions, conditions, definitions, and the wording of endorsements. It is a map, not the territory. We mark the summary clearly as a map, and we tell you which sections of the policy itself carry the answer when the two ever appear to disagree.
No. Reviewing documents and introducing you to a producer is not charged to the consumer. An insurer may pay a referral fee after a policy is written, and that fee is paid from the insurer budget, so it does not appear in your premium.
Ask for the individual name, the licence number, the state that issued it, and the effective date. Then open the licensee search published by the insurance regulator in the state where you live and look the name up yourself. Our licensing page walks through the same search step by step.
The declaration is not identical in each file. One quote may be priced on a higher rebuild cost, a different deductible, or a narrower set of perils, and any of those will move the premium. Put the two declarations side by side before treating either number as the better deal.
Limits are the first thing exhausted in a serious liability claim. When the retained limit on an auto or home policy sits below the amount a single claim can cost, an umbrella layer is often the cheapest fix available. We mark the retained limit on your declarations so the gap is visible rather than theoretical.
An endorsement amends the policy: it may raise a limit, add a peril, remove an exclusion, or change a deductible. Each one is issued as a separate document and carries its own premium. Ask for the endorsement in writing and add it to the same folder as the declarations page, because it is the document that governs.
Keep the claim number, the adjuster correspondence, the estimate or invoice, your photographs, and the declarations page that was in force on the date of the loss. That set is what an internal appeal or a regulator complaint expects to see, and it is far easier to assemble while the documents are still recent.
Yes. Give us the reference number and we will resend the summary. Requests are retained for the period set out in the privacy policy, and after that period we can only confirm that a record existed.
Auto, homeowners, renters, property and landlord, business, travel, pet, and umbrella liability. Those eight lines appear in the selector on our homepage, in the request form, on the about page, and in the directory at the foot of every page, so the wording stays identical throughout the site.
Tell us and the request is marked closed. The file stops being used for comparisons, and it is deleted or anonymised when the retention period in the privacy policy ends. We do not keep a closed file for future marketing.
The desk is staffed Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Pacific, and those are Pacific Time hours read from a single setting in our site configuration. That is why the hours on the phone bar, the request form, and the legal notices always read identically and cannot drift apart.
Some questions only make sense against a specific document. Send the page you are stuck on and we will answer against it.
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