Woodside, Queens · since 2004
Insurance in Woodside, NY
An independent agency on 61st Street placing car, home, renters, co-op, landlord, flood, business, workers compensation, life and Medicare cover across western Queens. We charge no broker fee, we publish what the carrier pays us, and we will not tell you we can beat a filed rate — because nobody can.
- 2004
- On the same block ever since
- 37
- Lines of business placed here
- $0
- Broker fees, review fees and claims fees
- 0
- Awards, badges or star ratings claimed
Nobody in New York can sell you the same policy cheaper than anybody else. A carrier files its rates with the Department of Financial Services and the producer’s commission is already inside the filed rate — handing part of it back to lower your premium is a rebate under Insurance Law 2324(a). So an agency promising to beat your rate is describing a different carrier, thinner cover, or nothing at all. How premiums are actually set explains the mechanism and what genuinely does move your number.
The two questions nobody in this trade answers first
The awkward things, on the front page
“Whose side are you on?” New York licenses insurance agents and brokers separately: an agent represents the insurance company, a broker acts on behalf of you. Most independent agencies hold both licences and almost none of them mention which one is operating on your placement, even though it decides whose interests come first. We tell you before you apply, every time.
“What are you making on this?” A commission from the carrier, out of the premium you were going to pay anyway — roughly eight to fifteen per cent on personal lines and ten to twenty on commercial. Ask about your policy and you get the percentage and the carrier in writing before you sign. Regulation 194 requires us to answer that question; it does not require us to volunteer it, and that is the whole reason so few producers do.
Six of 37
What people come to us for most
The full list runs to 37 lines across 5 areas, and every one publishes the typical premium range this area actually pays — which is not a quote, and not ours to set.
Car insurance in Woodside, NY
The whole New York motor policy explained by its seven parts — and what each one actually pays for when somebody hits you on Roosevelt Avenue.
$2,400 – $6,200
Homeowners insurance in Woodside, NY
Rebuilding cost rather than market value, the four exclusions that matter in Queens, and why your mortgage company's number is not the right one.
$1,300 – $2,900
Business insurance in Woodside, NY
The businessowners policy that covers most small Queens businesses properly, and the four risks it is famous for leaving out.
$800 – $2,800
Renters insurance
The cheapest genuinely useful policy sold in New York, and the one whose liability half almost nobody realises they are buying.
$180 – $420
Workers compensation insurance
Compulsory in New York from the first employee, with almost no exceptions and a penalty regime that does not care whether you knew.
$0.30 – $18
Medicare Supplement and Advantage
New York community-rates Medigap and lets you in all year with no health questions — which removes every deadline anybody will try to sell you on.
$220 – $420Medicare, and a New York rule worth knowing
There is no deadline to frighten you with here
New York community-rates Medicare Supplement and requires guaranteed issue all year round: no health questions, no medical underwriting, no refusal for pre-existing conditions, and the same premium for a sixty-five-year-old and an eighty-two-year-old on the same plan from the same carrier. Almost everywhere else you get one six-month window and are underwritten afterwards.
Which means the entire urgency industry around Medigap — the letters, the deadlines, the decide-today telephone calls — is describing a rule that does not apply in this state. Medicare Advantage and Part D do have genuine annual enrolment periods, and there are real late-enrolment penalties on Part B and Part D. We will chase you about those, and about nothing else.
Twelve arguments
Things this trade does not usually say out loud
Each has a page that makes the case properly, a sentence in the footer of every page on this site, and a check in the build that fails if the site ever contradicts itself.
Nobody can beat a filed rate
Commission is inside the rate the carrier filed with the state. The same policy costs the same through anybody, and cutting it is a rebate.
Read itWhat we are paid, published
Eight to twenty per cent from the carrier, contingent commission explained, and the three places our interests diverge from yours.
Read itAgent or broker, said first
Two New York licences with two different loyalties. Most agencies hold both and never mention which one you are dealing with.
Read itWe do not decide your claim
The carrier’s adjuster does. We report, document and escalate for nothing — and that fee of nothing is what keeps us on the right side of a licensing line.
Read itA certificate is not cover
It confers no rights and amends nothing. We will not describe an endorsement that is not on the policy, whatever Friday afternoon it is.
Read itNo gift for a quote
Insurance Law 2324 caps anything not specified in the policy at $25. The gift card is the violation rather than the bargain, and you pay for it either way.
Read itAnd six more, starting with why “full coverage” is a phrase rather than a product
How a placement runs
From your declarations page to a bound policy
We start with what you already have
Bring or email the declarations pages — the summary sheets, not the whole booklet. Most of the useful conversation is in those two pages, and reading them is how we find out whether you should be moving at all. If the honest answer is that your current policy is good and priced fairly, that is the answer you get, and it is a fairly common one.
We tell you what we are, and how we are paid
Before you apply, in writing: whether we are acting as a broker on your behalf or as an agent of the insurer on this placement, that the carrier pays us a commission out of your premium, and roughly what that is. New York requires the first part of that disclosure. We do the rest of it because waiting to be asked is not the same as telling you.
We market it to the carriers that will actually write it
Not all of them, and not every year. We place with the companies whose appetite matches your risk, and we say which ones declined and why. If a risk can only be placed in the excess line market you will be told that on the proposal, along with the fact that the state security fund does not stand behind an excess line insurer.
You get the comparison as numbers
Limits, deductibles, exclusions and premium, side by side, for each option. Not adjectives, not "better cover", and never a comparison that shows the price of one policy against the cover of another. New York has a name for that last one and it is a prohibited practice.
We bind, and you get the effective time in writing
Cover starts when a carrier binds it, at a stated date and time, and you receive that in writing the same day. Not when you asked, not when you paid, and never backdated. Between the quote and the bind you are not insured, and we would rather labour that point than have you assume otherwise.
We keep it, which is most of the job
Certificates when you need them, endorsements when things change, a review before each renewal, and the claim reported the day it happens. The commission is paid for the year, not the sale, and this is the part of the year it is actually for.
Published
What we charge
Almost nothing, and structurally rather than as a posture: we are paid a commission out of a premium the carrier has already filed, and a fee on top of that raises a problem under the Insurance Law rather than merely being unpopular.
6 people, one office
Nobody here is on a sales target
This matters more than it sounds. A producer working to a monthly production number has a reason to recommend a move you do not need, a permanent life policy where term would do, and a limit chosen for the commission rather than for the exposure. Removing the target removes the reason, and it is the single most useful thing you can know about how an agency is run.
Six people, one storefront on 61st Street, no call centre behind it. The person who places your policy is the person who reads your renewal a year later — which is the part of this job the commission is actually for.
Western and central Queens
Where we work
Based on 61st Street and covering 12 neighbourhoods around it. Each has a recognisable housing stock, and each therefore has a recognisable set of things its policies get wrong.
- Woodside
- Sunnyside
- Astoria
- Jackson Heights
- Elmhurst
- Maspeth
- Long Island City
- Rego Park
- Corona
- Middle Village
- Ridgewood
- Forest Hills
Asked most often
Questions people telephone about
How much is car insurance in Woodside, NY?
For a single vehicle garaged in 11377 the typical annual premium runs from about $2,400 to $6,200, and the range is that wide because it is driven by things that have nothing to do with which agency you use: the garaging address to the block, the driving records of everybody in the household, the vehicle, the limits you choose and your continuous insurance history. Queens is one of the most expensive places in New York State to insure a car. We can tell you where in that range you are likely to land within about ten minutes on the telephone, and we would rather do that than have you fill in a form to find out.
Can you beat the rate I have now?
Sometimes, and never in the way the question assumes. The premium for a given policy from a given carrier is a filed rate approved by the Department of Financial Services, and our commission is already inside it — a producer who gave up commission to lower your premium would be making an unlawful rebate under Insurance Law 2324. So the same policy costs the same through anybody. What can genuinely change the number is a different carrier, a different set of limits or deductibles, credits you are entitled to and are not getting, or a correction to something the current carrier has wrong. Those are real and we look for them. "We will beat any price" is not.
Are you an insurance agent or a broker?
Both, depending on the placement, and we tell you which before you apply. New York treats them as two different licences: an agent represents the insurance company, a broker acts on behalf of you. Most independent agencies hold both and very few mention which one is in force on a given transaction, even though it decides whose interests are legally first.
How are you paid, and do you charge a fee?
The insurance company pays us a commission out of the premium you were going to pay anyway — broadly eight to fifteen per cent on personal lines and ten to twenty on commercial, varying by carrier and line. We charge no broker fee, no policy fee and no fee for claims work or certificates. If you ask what we are being paid on your policy, you will get the percentage and the carrier in writing. New York Regulation 194 requires us to answer that question; it does not require us to volunteer it, which is why so few do.
What is the minimum car insurance required in New York?
Liability of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for injury, $10,000 for property damage — written 25/50/10 — plus $50,000 per person of no-fault personal injury protection and uninsured motorist cover at 25/50, which you cannot waive. Those are the legal minimums and they are not a recommendation. A single serious injury claim passes $25,000 in a hospital afternoon, and anything above the limit is yours personally.
What does "full coverage" actually mean?
Nothing precise. It is a phrase the trade uses for liability plus comprehensive plus collision, and it describes which coverages are present while saying nothing about the limits on them. A policy at 25/50/10 with comprehensive and collision is "full coverage" and is thin protection for anybody who owns anything. Ask about limits instead; they are the number that decides what happens to you.
Bring the declarations page and we will read it with you
Ask us what it would cost
Send or bring the summary pages of what you already have — those two sheets are where most of the useful conversation is. We will tell you what we would place it with and what that would cost, what we are paid for doing it, and whether you should move at all. Quite often the answer is that your current policy is priced fairly and you should keep it, and that is an answer we give in writing like any other.