Working with this agency
Renewals and remarketing
We look at your renewal a month before you get it, and we tell you when the answer is to stay put — which it often is. Shopping a policy every year is a habit rather than a strategy, and it has real costs.
Renewal is where most of the value of an agency actually sits. The sale takes an afternoon; the policy then runs for years while your circumstances change and the carrier's appetite changes with them. The commission is paid for the year rather than for the sale, and this is the part of the year it is for.
Our approach is to look at every renewal ahead of time and sort it into three: fine, worth questioning, or worth remarketing. Most land in the first category, and saying so is more useful than manufacturing activity.
What New York requires of the carrier
For personal lines, Insurance Law 3425 gives an insurer a sixty-day window at the start of a new policy to underwrite it and cancel for almost any reason. After that first sixty days you have real protection.
A nonrenewal, or a conditional renewal — one offered only on reduced cover, higher limits or a changed deductible — requires between forty-five and sixty days' written notice, and the notice must state the specific reason. A notice that arrives late, or that gives no reason, or that gives a reason the statute does not permit, is not effective.
That matters practically. A conditional renewal because of roof age or boiler age is far more negotiable than people assume — evidence of a recent replacement, a service record or a scheduled repair frequently reverses it. And because you have forty-five days, there is time to remarket properly rather than accepting whatever is in front of you. Send us any notice the day it arrives.
When remarketing is worth it
When your renewal has risen materially more than the market generally. When something has changed that a different carrier would price better — a claim ageing out, a violation dropping off, a young driver leaving the household, a roof replaced. When you have received a conditional renewal or a nonrenewal. When your household or business has outgrown the carrier's appetite.
And when there is a genuine structural gain to be had, such as consolidating policies scattered across three agencies so that the umbrella actually sits above the underlying limits and somebody can see the whole picture at once.
When it is not, which is more often
Moving a policy has costs that do not appear on a quote. You may restart a claims-free or tenure credit that took years to earn. You re-enter a new carrier's sixty-day underwriting window, during which they can cancel for almost anything. On claims-made policies you risk the retroactive date. And you lose the relationship history that sometimes matters when a marginal claim is being considered.
So a fifty-dollar saving is not a reason to move, and neither is habit. We remarket when there is a reason, and we tell you what the move costs as well as what it saves. That is also what Insurance Law 2123 is about — a comparison presented without the losing side of it is an incomplete comparison, and this is the form it usually takes.
What we do each year, without being asked
Read the renewal offer against last year's, and identify which component moved — base rate, a surcharge, a lost credit, a coverage change. A premium rising because a credit silently dropped off is a different problem from one rising because the carrier took a rate increase, and only one of them is fixed by shopping.
Re-check the things that lapse quietly: good student certificates, defensive driving courses coming up to their three-year expiry, multi-policy credits that stopped when one policy moved. Check whether your umbrella still sits above your underlying limits. And ask you the two or three questions most likely to have changed the answer since last year.
A nonrenewal needs 45 to 60 days and a specific reason. New York gives a personal-lines insurer a sixty-day window at the start of a new policy to underwrite it and cancel for almost any reason. After that, Insurance Law 3425 protects you: a nonrenewal, or a renewal conditioned on reduced cover or higher limits, needs between forty-five and sixty days' written notice and has to state the specific reason. A notice that arrives late, or that gives no reason, is not effective, and that is worth knowing before you accept one.
Included as standard
How we handle this line
Every renewal read a month ahead
Before it reaches you, so there is time to act rather than to react.
The increase decomposed
Which component actually moved — base rate, surcharge, a lapsed credit or a coverage change. Only some of those are fixed by shopping.
Conditional renewals challenged
Roof and boiler conditions are frequently reversible with evidence, and the statute gives you forty-five days to do it in.
Lapsed credits reinstated
Good student, defensive driving, multi-policy. They fall off silently and the premium creep is never explained.
The cost of moving stated
Lost tenure and claims-free credits, a fresh sixty-day underwriting window, retroactive dates. Named before you decide.
Stay-put said plainly
Most renewals are fine. Saying so is more useful than manufacturing activity, and it is what the commission is actually for.
When to ring us
Signs this is worth a conversation
- A nonrenewal or conditional renewal notice has arrived.
- Your premium rose and the reason was never explained.
- You have not been contacted before a renewal in years.
- A claim or violation has just aged past three years.
- You replaced the roof or the boiler and nobody told the carrier.
- Your policies sit with three different agencies and nobody sees all of them.
Renewals — what this costs you
- Every policy is reviewed ahead of renewal. Remarketing to other carriers happens when the increase justifies it, not annually out of habit.No charge
This one is our own charge, and it is nothing. We are paid a commission by the carrier whose policy you buy; we charge no broker fee and no policy fee, and we take no fee for claims work or for certificates — which is also what keeps this agency on the correct side of the New York public adjuster licensing line. Ask what we are paid on your policy and you will get the percentage and the carrier in writing.
Questions we are actually asked
Renewals — frequently asked
How much notice must my insurer give to non-renew me?
For personal lines in New York, between forty-five and sixty days' written notice, and the notice must state the specific reason. That applies after the first sixty days of a new policy, during which the carrier has a wider right to cancel while it underwrites. A late notice, or one with no reason, is not effective.
Should I shop my insurance every year?
No. Moving costs you tenure and claims-free credits, restarts a sixty-day underwriting window and can jeopardise a retroactive date on claims-made cover. We remarket when there is a reason — a material increase, a changed circumstance, a conditional renewal — and we tell you what the move costs as well as what it saves.
My renewal went up. What can be done?
First find out which part moved. A premium rising because a good student credit silently lapsed is fixed by reinstating the credit, not by changing carrier. A general rate increase might be worth remarketing. Send us the notice and we will decompose it before anybody starts shopping.
What is a conditional renewal?
A renewal offered only on changed terms — lower limits, a higher deductible, a coverage removed. In New York it requires the same forty-five to sixty days' notice with a specific reason as a nonrenewal, which gives you time to challenge it. Conditions about roof or boiler age are frequently reversed by evidence of recent work.
Related cover
Usually considered alongside this
Policy review
An hour with your actual declarations pages, looking for the three gaps that open quietly between renewals.
No charge
Claims support
Reporting it the same day, sending the carrier the history, and escalating — but never deciding, because deciding is not ours to do.
No charge
New to New York
Why your premium doubled when you crossed a state line, what has to happen in which order, and the thirty-day clock on your registration.
No charge
Homeowners insurance
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 – $2,900Bring 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.