Frequently asked questions

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

New York pays your own medical bills and part of your lost earnings through your own policy regardless of who caused the accident, up to $50,000 a person. The part people lose money on is the deadline: the written application for no-fault benefits generally has to reach the insurer within thirty days of the accident, and medical bills within forty-five days of treatment. Ring us the same day and we will start it; the form is short and the clock is not forgiving.

You need to look, because your homeowners policy excludes flood whether or not you are in a mapped zone, and parts of Queens are mapped. Sunnyside Yard, the creek end of Maspeth and a good deal of low-lying ground near the water carry real risk, and lenders require cover inside a Special Flood Hazard Area. The thing to know before you decide is the thirty-day NFIP waiting period: this is the one product you cannot buy when the forecast turns.

The building's policy covers the building, and where its responsibility stops is set out in your offering plan or bylaws rather than in any insurance document. In most Queens co-ops it stops at the bare walls, which leaves your floors, fittings, kitchen, contents, liability and the loss assessment the board can levy on you all on your side of the line. An HO-6 policy covers that side, and it typically costs between $300 and $850 a year.

It becomes a Department of Motor Vehicles problem as well as an insurance one, and the DMV problem is the expensive half. New York carriers report lapses electronically; a gap on a registered vehicle brings a civil penalty starting at $8 for each day of it and, past ninety days, suspension of your registration and your licence. The correct order is: keep the insurance until the plates are surrendered, not the other way round. Ring us before you cancel anything.

Usually, yes, and at a price that reflects it. The standard carriers price a record and decline a bad enough one; below that there are non-standard carriers who write exactly this, and above that the New York Automobile Insurance Plan exists so that everybody can be insured. New York does not use SR-22 filings, which surprises people arriving from other states. Expect to pay a great deal more for two or three years, and expect the number to come down each year the record stays clean.

Almost certainly. New York requires it from the first employee, part-time included, with very narrow exceptions — and the penalties for going without run per day and are assessed whether or not anybody was hurt. A one- or two-person corporation whose only workers are its owner-officers can sometimes be excluded, but that is a specific filing rather than an assumption. Tell us the structure and we will tell you which side of the line you are on.

Usually inside an hour during office hours, for any policy placed here. What takes longer is when the certificate has to show an additional insured or a waiver of subrogation that is not yet on the policy — that is a policy endorsement, it needs the carrier, and it sometimes carries a premium. We will not print a certificate describing cover that has not been endorsed, no matter who is waiting for it, because the certificate would be false and it would not protect you anyway.

We report them, we send the carrier your policy and endorsement history, we put our reading of the wording in writing, and we escalate above an adjuster who has stalled. We do not decide claims — the carrier's adjuster does that, and any agency that tells you on the telephone that you are covered is guessing. If your claim needs somebody to negotiate the settlement figure, that is a public adjuster licensed by the Department of Financial Services, and we will tell you when we think you have reached that point.

We are appointed with a range of admitted carriers across personal and commercial lines, and we have excess line access for risks the admitted market will not take. We will tell you the specific carriers being approached for your risk, on your proposal, with the premium beside each. What you will not find on this website is a wall of carrier logos: a company's mark is its own authority, not ours, and putting it in our window is borrowing something we have not earned.

No. Plenty of people here have their car with us and their house somewhere else, or bring only the business. Multi-policy credits are real and we will quantify them, but they are one factor among several and they are not always worth breaking a good policy for. If your existing arrangement is better, we will say so.

Not in New York. The state community-rates Medigap and requires guaranteed issue all year round: no health questions, no medical underwriting, no refusals 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. That is unusual — most states give you one six-month window and underwrite you afterwards. Anybody pressing you to decide today about a Medigap plan in New York is describing a deadline that does not exist. Medicare Advantage and Part D do have annual enrolment periods, which is a different thing and worth keeping straight.

Generally not, and this is the most common reason a New York policy gets cancelled after it is issued. The name on the registration and the name on the policy have to match, because New York files insurance electronically against the registration. If the car belongs to a relative, the answer is usually to be listed as a driver on their policy or to transfer the registration — not to buy a separate policy and hope. We will work out which one applies before anything is bound.

For a car: the licence numbers of every driver in the household, the vehicle identification numbers, the garaging address and your current declarations page. For a house: the address, the year built, square footage, the age of the roof, boiler and electrical service, and any losses in the last five years. For a business: what you actually do, your receipts or payroll, and the insurance requirements in any lease or contract you have signed. Missing pieces are fine to start with — the quote just moves when they arrive, and we would rather tell you that now.

Yes, and Tagalog, Nepali and Bengali. This is Woodside; a policy explained in a language you are translating in your head is a policy you have not really been shown. If the language you need is not on that list, tell us when you ring and we will arrange it rather than press on regardless.