For over 30 years, PC&L Agency has been insuring the people of South Carolina. We’ve been adept at making changes when necessary to accommodate our client base. Recently while moving many homeowners who
were placed in the South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association pool by
their current carriers, we’ve made some surprising observations. To keep the additional cost of the SC Wind & Hail Association down, many policies we are coming across have been written with reduced limits or no limits of coverage for personal property or “Contents” on their SC Wind & Hail Association policies. This means that insured may not have as much coverage as they think they do in the case of a wind & hail claim. It is very important to review the coverage limits with your agent. If your Homeowners limits and your Wind & Hail policy limits are not the same, then you should ask why. There may be limitation reasons for this or the insured may have requested these differences in coverage, but we’re finding that many folks were un-aware of the discrepancy.
Recently we’ve also been moving many homeowners from a “State-Farm”, “Nationwide”, or “All State” policy with separate homeowners and SC Wind & Hail Association policies to a policy with one of our carriers which include Homeowners and Wind & Hail coverage. Most clients are pleasantly surprised by the lower premiums and deductibles. We have had a few clients reluctant to move coverage from one of the “Bigger Named Carriers” to a carrier that they do not know.
In our experience one of the most important questions for the insured to ask is not the name of the insurance company, but if the insurance carrier is “Admitted” or not. AM Best and Demotech ratings are useful and sometimes required by a lender to be a certain level or higher (We prefer to write with A rated or higher). An “Admitted”
carrier is one that is licensed by the SC Department of Insurance. The “Admitted” carriers are backed by the South Carolina Guaranty Fund. The South Carolina Guaranty Fund will kick in if that “Admitted” carrier is financially unable to pay its debts. We have had several insureds even purchase a slightly more expensive policy with an “Admitted” carrier to move their policy away from a “Non-Admitted” carrier.
A “Non-Admitted” carrier is one that is allowed to write business in the state of South Carolina, however if that carrier becomes financially unable to pay its debts, then the carrier nor the carrier’s insureds are eligible to receive assistance from the SC Guaranty Fund. There are cases when placing insurance with a “Non-Admitted” carrier may be necessary, or your best option. This should be discussed at
length with your agent to make sure you understand your particular situation.
Make sure price is not your only factor in moving coverage. In most cases we are able to keep the same coverage for you and still save you money, but our ultimate goal is to provide an excellent product when you need it most. Finding out that your limits are too low is not something you want to find out at the time you’re filing a claim.