Sometimes right, and reliably oversold
Switching insurers
Every agency you speak to has a financial interest in you moving, including this one. So here is the other side of the ledger — what a switch actually costs you, and the New York statute that exists because this conversation is so often conducted dishonestly.
Switching is sometimes right and it is often oversold. Switching is sometimes right and it is often oversold. New York Insurance Law 2123 forbids misleading statements and incomplete comparisons made to get somebody to drop a policy they already have, which is the trade's name for its own oldest trick. Before we recommend a move we price what you lose as well as what you save: claims-free and tenure credits that restart, a policy period you are part-way through, and, on a motor policy, the New York lapse trap — a gap in cover on a registered vehicle costs you the registration and a civil penalty for every day of it, which is far more expensive than the premium you were saving.
Moving a policy is new business, and new business frequently pays a producer more than a renewal does. That is the incentive operating on the other side of every comparison you are shown, and it is worth knowing before you read one.
It does not follow that switching is wrong. It is often right. It follows that the case for switching should include what you lose, and that a comparison which shows only the gain is not a comparison at all — which is more or less what New York Insurance Law 2123 says.
Twisting, which is the trade's word for its own oldest trick
Insurance Law 2123 prohibits making a misrepresentation, a misleading statement or an incomplete comparison of policies for the purpose of inducing somebody to lapse, forfeit or surrender an existing policy. The industry calls it twisting when it is done between companies and churning when it is done within one.
The usual form is not a lie. It is a quote for lower limits or a higher deductible, presented against your current premium without mentioning the difference. Or a life policy replaced with a new one because the new one pays a fresh first-year commission, with the restarted contestability period and surrender charges left out of the conversation.
So the test is simple and you can apply it yourself: are both proposals the same limits, the same deductibles, the same endorsements? If not, you are being shown two different products with two different prices, and the cheaper one is cheaper for a reason that has been left off the page.
What a switch actually costs
Tenure and claims-free credits. Many carriers reward years of continuous cover with them, and they generally restart with a new company. A saving of eighty dollars that costs a credit worth two hundred a year from the third year onwards is a bad trade that looks good on day one.
A fresh underwriting window. Under Insurance Law 3425 a personal-lines insurer has sixty days at the start of a new policy to underwrite and cancel for almost any reason. Moving puts you back into that window, which you had already come out of where you are.
The retroactive date, on anything claims-made — professional liability, cyber, some pollution cover. A new policy that resets it strips cover from every year of past work. This is the most expensive mistake in this whole section and it is invisible on a price comparison.
And relationship history, which is soft but real. A carrier that has held a risk for nine years without a claim behaves differently on a marginal one from a carrier that issued the policy in March.
When it is genuinely right to move
When your renewal has risen materially more than the market. When something has changed that another carrier would price better — a claim ageing out, a violation dropping off, a young driver leaving the household, a roof replaced, a business reclassified. When you have received a nonrenewal or a conditional renewal.
When your current cover has a structural gap that your carrier will not fix. And when policies are scattered across three agencies such that nobody can see whether the umbrella still sits above the underlying limits — consolidating is worth real money and it is a coverage argument rather than a price one.
The one that costs us money
A fifty-dollar saving is not a reason to move. Neither is habit, and neither is the fact that somebody new has looked at your policy and would like to earn something from it.
So we write down when the answer is to stay where you are, and it is a common answer. If you bring us your declarations pages and the honest conclusion is that your existing policy is well built and fairly priced, you will get that in writing along with anything we did find. It costs us the sale and it is the only version of this conversation worth having.
In order
How this works in practice
Same limits, same deductibles
If the two proposals differ, it is not a price comparison. This is the test you can apply without us.
Price the losses too
Tenure and claims-free credits, a fresh sixty-day underwriting window, and the retroactive date on claims-made cover.
Ask why it is cheaper
There is always a reason. A different carrier's appetite is a good one; thinner cover presented as the same is not.
Expect 'stay put' sometimes
An agency that never recommends it is not comparing, it is selling. It is a common and honest answer.
Questions we are actually asked
Switching insurers — frequently asked
Should I switch insurance companies to save money?
Only if the saving survives the losses. Moving can restart tenure and claims-free credits, puts you back into a sixty-day underwriting window, and on claims-made policies can reset a retroactive date that protects years of past work. A material increase or a changed circumstance justifies a move; a small saving usually does not.
What is twisting?
Inducing somebody to drop an existing policy through misrepresentation, misleading statements or incomplete comparisons — prohibited by New York Insurance Law 2123. In practice it is usually not a lie but an omission: a quote at lower limits shown against your current premium without mentioning the difference.
Will I lose anything by switching?
Possibly: tenure and claims-free credits that restart, the protection of having come through the sixty-day underwriting window, and relationship history that can matter on a marginal claim. On professional liability or cyber, you also risk the retroactive date, which is the expensive one.
Do you ever tell people not to move?
Regularly, and we put it in writing. If your existing cover is well built and fairly priced, that is the finding, and you keep the notes either way. An agency that has never given that answer is not doing comparisons.
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.