What a quote is, and what it is not
Get a quote
A quote is an estimate of a premium. It is not a promise of one, and it is emphatically not cover. Here is what we need from you, what happens next, and the moment at which you are actually insured.
Nothing is insured until it is bound, in writing. A quote is an estimate of a premium, not a promise of one and not cover. The number can move when the carrier pulls your motor vehicle record, your loss history or your insurance score, and it can move again at underwriting. Nothing is insured until a policy is bound and you have the effective date and time in writing. We do not backdate, and no cover on this site starts because you filled a form in.
Most people arrive with a policy already in force and a renewal that has gone up. If that is you, the fastest route is to send the declarations pages — the two-page summary at the front of each policy. Photographs on a phone are genuinely fine.
From there we can usually tell you within a day which carriers would be worth approaching and roughly where the number lands. What we cannot do is give you a final figure before a carrier has looked at the facts, and any agency that does is quoting something they may not be able to deliver.
What we need, by line
For a car: the driver licence numbers of everybody in the household, the vehicle identification numbers, the garaging address, and your current declarations page. Every licensed driver in the household, including the ones you were not going to mention — an undisclosed household driver is the most common reason a New York motor claim is fought.
For a house: the address, year built, square footage, construction, and the age of the roof, boiler and electrical service. Any losses in the last five years. Whether any part of it is let, and whether you live there.
For a business: what you actually do, in enough detail to classify it correctly; your gross receipts or payroll; the number of employees; and the insurance requirements in any lease or customer contract you have signed. That last one decides more than anything else and is the item most often missing.
Missing pieces are fine to start with. The quote simply moves when they arrive, and we would rather tell you that now than present a firm-looking number that changes later.
Why a quote can move
Because the carrier verifies. It pulls motor vehicle records for every listed driver, checks prior loss history, and for many personal lines carriers uses a credit-based insurance score, which is permitted in New York and surprises people. On property it may order an inspection, and an inspection that finds a roof in worse condition than described changes things.
None of that is a bait and switch when it is explained in advance. It becomes one when a producer presents a preliminary indication as though it were a final figure in order to win the conversation. So we label ours: indication, quote, or bound.
The moment you are actually insured
Cover starts when a carrier binds it, at a stated date and time, and you receive confirmation of that in writing the same day. Not when you asked. Not when you paid. Not when a form was submitted.
We do not backdate cover, and nobody honest does — insuring a loss that has already happened is fraud rather than a favour. Between the quote and the bind you are not insured, and if you are cancelling an existing policy, do not cancel it until the new one is bound. On a registered vehicle in New York, a gap of even a few days is a lapse the DMV will act on.
What happens after you ask
We tell you which capacity we are acting in — broker for you, or agent of a particular insurer — and that the carrier compensates us, before you apply. You get the carriers approached and what each returned, with limits and deductibles beside the premium so it is a like-for-like comparison. If something can only be placed excess line, that is said on the proposal along with what it means.
And if the honest conclusion is that your current policy is well built and fairly priced, you will get that in writing too, along with anything we did find. There is no fee for any of it, and no gift for taking a quote — that one is a statute rather than a preference.
In order
How this works in practice
Send the declarations pages
Photographs on a phone are fine. Those two pages are where most of the useful conversation lives.
We tell you our role and how we are paid
Before you apply, in writing. Regulation 194 requires part of this; the rest we do anyway.
The market is approached
The carriers whose appetite fits your facts, not all of them. You are told who declined and why.
You get a like-for-like comparison
Limits, deductibles, exclusions and premium side by side. Never one policy's price against another's cover.
Cover is bound in writing
With a date and time. Before that moment you are not insured, and we will not backdate.
Questions we are actually asked
Get a quote — frequently asked
How long does a quote take?
For a straightforward household with the declarations pages to hand, usually the same day or the next. Business quotes take longer because the market has to be approached individually and the lease or contract requirements have to be read first.
Is the quote the price I will pay?
It is an estimate based on what you told us. It can move when the carrier pulls motor vehicle records, loss history or an insurance score, or after a property inspection. We label ours as indication, quote or bound so you always know which one you are looking at.
Am I covered once I have a quote?
No. Cover starts only when a carrier binds it, at a stated date and time, confirmed to you in writing. Do not cancel an existing policy until the new one is bound — on a registered vehicle in New York a gap of even a few days is a lapse with a penalty attached.
Does it cost anything?
No. No fee for quoting, no broker fee, no policy fee. We are paid a commission by the carrier if you place cover with us and by nobody at all if you do not. And there is no gift for taking a quote, which is a statute rather than meanness.
Read next
Related reading
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.