From your declarations page to a bound policy
How we work
Six steps, and two of them are disclosures most agencies make only if you ask. The order matters: you should know who pays us before you decide whether to trust the recommendation.
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.
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.
The two rules we hold ourselves to
Like against like, or say so. Any comparison you are shown here has the same limits, the same deductibles and the same endorsements on both sides, or it is clearly labelled as something different. A cheaper premium attached to thinner cover is not a better price; it is another product. Presenting one as the other, in order to get somebody to drop a policy they already hold, is what New York Insurance Law 2123 prohibits, and it is the most common form of dishonesty in this trade.
Nothing is covered until it is bound. Cover starts when a carrier binds it, at a stated date and time, confirmed to you in writing the same day. Not when you asked, not when you paid, not when a form was submitted. We do not backdate, and if you are replacing an existing policy, it stays in force 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 to it.
And afterwards
The part the commission is actually for
Annual policy review
An hour with your actual declarations pages, free, clients or not.
ReadRenewals
Read a month ahead, with the increase decomposed rather than simply shopped.
ReadCertificates
Usually within the hour, and never describing an endorsement that does not exist.
ReadClaims support
Reported the same day, escalated when it stalls, and never decided by us.
ReadBring 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.