I'm a local broker and I love working with CSE. I wanted to respond to a below 1 star rating by a…read moreclient who expressed dissatisfaction with CSE. CSE is a top tier carrier, and insures regionally in California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, & Washington. They aren't as big and bloated as your national carriers and because of this they need to have tight underwriting and be selective with their clients. The review by Olivia suggests they "overinsured" for her contents, but I would like to mention that "contents" or "personal property" covers a lot more than furnishings. This includes appliances (which can be expensive) your fridge, washer/drier, HVAC unit, TV's, tools, equipment and of course clothing, jewelry and everything else a household accumulates to eat, sleep, and live comfortably. The coverage is set by a flat equation, and that is true that you can't change it. However, most carriers will insured for 50% to 70% of Personal Property based on the Coverage A amount/Building Coverage. CSE also requires every new policy to have an inspection, something I applaud as an insurance agent. Most of these inspections are just drive-bys and are never even noticed by the insured. We are only human, and if we make mistakes on an application, an inspection will correct the application so that the coverage is everything it needs to be for the insured. If Olivia was forced to have $300,000 in contents coverage, then she would have needed at least $600,000 on dwelling coverage. When the home is over half a million in coverage, it is even more important to do the inspection and to expand it to include the interior, since high value homes often have custom build-ups or specialty rooms, fixtures, flooring, etc.... The inspector will put some responsibility on the home owner will set up a time to do the inspection. They are only hired by the insurance company and provide recommendations, they cannot make actual changes to coverage, that is up to underwriting to look at the inspection report and make any changes necessary to the policy based on that report. Also Personal property coverage is just a few dollars, most of the premium of your policy is being billed based on reconstruction cost of the actual dwelling- the walls, roof, foundation, and so forth. Even if CSE had reduced her Personal Property, it would have probably saved her under $20 a year. Just guessing, based on experience.
Now, this is not any kind of comment against Olivia as a person. I just wanted to address common misconceptions about how Home policies work. Olivia thinks CSE is a rotten carrier for requiring an inspection and giving her more than adequate coverage. But that is what great carriers like CSE do. They don't experience extreme rate increases because they look at every risk with their eyes wide open, knowing exactly what they are getting into and providing enough coverage to really benefit a person in the case of a claim. No one has ever screamed at me on the phone about having too much coverage in the case of a claim, but people get really upset when they realize their policy is about to run out of money in a claim situation, or the coverage isn't there and it could have been if the agent had just gone over all the options. I know insurance is either boring or frustrating to most people, but insurance companies and your interests are aligned. Most Property/Casualty insurance companies work off a 1% - 7% profit margin on home policies, and on auto policies they often have 0 profit or are actively losing money. That means for every dollar they take in of yours, after they pay all their overhead, and pay their claims, they make just a few cents off of you. Their real profits come from investments, not your premiums. That's why it makes sense to shop every 2 to 3 years, because its such a competitive market and very few consumers are actually loyal to an insurance company. They will go wherever they can save money, and that's why although it feels like your home and auto rates are always going up, often times you save money by switching to another carrier because they want the new business and are willing to undercut their competitors.
Olivia, I wish an agent had talked you through why certain coverage's are needed, the true monetary cost of said coverage, and had been there for you to facilitate that refund. (sounds like a computer issue to me, and I won't lie that most insurance companies sure could use an upgrade in their technology) But we still live in a day and age where talking to a real person makes this whole experience better. My experiences with CSE as an insurance broker has been nothing but positive, and I hope this review helps others as they shop for Home and Auto insurance.
