Changes Coming To Your Next NC Homeowners Insurance Policy Renewal

Effective April 1, 2014, every homeowners insurance policy in NC is changing as it renews.  No, this isn’t an April Fools joke, but for a few unwary homeowners, this will be no joking matter.  And while most of these changes are minor, there is at least one big reduction in coverage that could affect many people.  Here’s a summary of the changes to this form but as always, my advice is that everyone read their policy carefully and consult with their agent for any questions they may have.   

·         A sublimit of 10% of your personal property coverage amount will now apply to any personal property located in a storage facility.  This is the most significant change and could catch some homeowners by surprise should they have valuable items stored in a storage unit.  If you have personal property stored in off premises storage units, then you should contact your insurance agent before your next renewal and make arrangements to protect that property.

·         The new NC homeowners form has a new sublimit of $250 that applies to antennas, tapes, wires, records, disks, and other media in or upon a motor vehicle.  For those of you with valuable CD collections traveling around in your car with you each day, just know that you are now going to be unprotected.  Might I suggest you convert them to mp3 files and put them on a jump drive or perhaps subscribe to a streaming service? 

·         For business personal property located away from your residence premises the sublimit  is increasing from $500 to $1500.

·         The theft peril as regards Personal Property located in student housing  is being modified to allow coverage to apply as long as the student has been there in the past 90 days instead of the previous 60 days.

·         The incidental low power recreational vehicle liability coverage has been modified to expressly exclude motorized scooters used off of your residence premises.  If you are one of the many intrepid souls saving gas by driving your scooter to work take note; you will now need to purchase liability coverage for your scooters.

At Clinard Insurance Group, we want every insurance buyer to be an informed consumer.   We insure thousands of families all across North Carolina, helping them with their homeowners insurance, auto insurance as well as business insurance and life insurance.   If you would like help with any of your insurance needs, please give us a call at 877-687-7557.

Walnut Cove Fire Department Achieves A Better Protection Class Code

The hard working fire department folks of the Walnut Cove Fire Department have successfully improved their fire districts official protection class rating.  And they have achieved this just a few years after they were placed probation for one year as a result of failing to meet state requirements.  Residents and property owners in the Walnut Cove Fire District should enjoy improved safety and perhaps lower property insurance rates as a result of this change.  The new class rating took effect Jan 1^st, 2014.

Several factors go into the development of property insurance rates like the construction materials, the age and what is inside the property.  But a huge part of the rating puzzle comes from the protection class rating.  This applies to all types of property insurance from homeowners insurance to dwelling fire insurance and even business insurance policies like commercial fire insurance and businessowners insurance.  Fire districts are all assigned a protection class rating number between 1 and 10.  The lower numbers indicate better fire protection and will help reduce property insurance rates while the higher numbers indicate poorer protection and thus generate higher insurance prices.   These protection class ratings are certified by the state.  In the process of evaluating these ratings, the state studies the fire department’s ability to respond quickly, whether or not they have water available at hydrants or if they have to carry the water on their trucks.  The quality of the supporting fire departments in surrounding districts can also have an impact on their protection class ratings.

In the case of the Walnut Cove Fire District, they were able to make huge strides in a relatively short period of time to reduce their protection class rating.  For owners of property located inside the city of Walnut Cove their new protection class rating will drop from an 8 to a 5.  For those in a 5 mile district surrounding the town limits, their new class rating has dropped from a 9 to a 6.  The people of Walnut Cove and in particular their fire department should be proud of this accomplishment and what it means for the safety and protection the people and property in the Walnut Cove Fire District.

If you are an owner of property located in the Walnut Cove Fire District, carefully check your next property insurance renewal policy.  If you are unable to determine your property’s protection class from the renewal policy then I suggest you contact your insurance agent to be sure that the policy renewed with the new protection class code applied to the rate.  It would not be unusual for an insurance company to miss these changes and I wouldn’t want you to miss out on the savings that your fire department has earned for you.

Clinard Insurance Group, is an independent insurance agency located in Winston Salem, NC.  One of our missions is to help all insurance buyers to be informed consumers.  We insure thousands of households and businesses all across North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.  If you would like help with your auto insurance or home insurance, or your business insurance or even your life insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

NC Homeowners Rate Increase May Be Looming – Here’s Why We Need It

NC home insurance rates underwent a 7% rate increase last July and some customers still haven’t felt this increase if their policy has not renewed since then.  Despite this, the NC Rate Bureau last Friday requested another homeowners insurance rate increase.  This new request is for an increase that averages 25.3% across the state.  Wayne Goodwin, the current NC Insurance Commissioner, has stated that he will not approve this rate increase.  This will mean that the process will require a hearing to issue a ruling one way or the other which could then be appealed to the courts.  Even though the overall requested rate increase statewide is 25.3%, the actual rate increases by territory will vary.  Some territories could see decreases of up to 2.7% while other territories, especially coastal ones would see increases as high as 35%.

The struggle between the insurance companies and the NC Insurance Commissioner over homeowners rate levels is at once political and economic.  From the comments section of the various news feeds online, I see that the general public is overwhelmingly in support of the insurance commissioner and his goal of holding down rates.  While this is an expected result, it does underscore the fact that this is a very political issue.  Since most people react to this news by considering only their pocketbook, then it is only natural for an elected politician to want to pander to their stance.  But I believe that If consumers were able to better understand the economic equation that insurance companies face, and also see how the unraveling of what used to be a stable insurance marketplace negatively affects them, then they might have a different viewpoint.   

To that end, I want to give my readers a different perspective on the negative impacts on their lives that a distorted and dysfunctional insurance marketplace can generate.    Here  I will share with you here an insider’s view as to what has already happened and what I think we can expect if we continue down this path of infighting between the NC Insurance Commissioner’s Office and the NC Rate Bureau over NC property insurance rates.

You need to know that the NC Rate Bureau is an entity that is owned by the member insurance companies who sell insurance in our state.  Its goal is to pool loss data for statistical purposes and to use that data to generate rates for many types of insurance policies.  This large pool of insurance claim and loss data should, in theory, allow the rate bureau to make rate requests that are more accurate than any one insurance company could generate with their own partial loss data.  And what the Rate Bureau is telling us is that the losses in our state for homeowners insurance are far exceeding the premiums that the insurance companies are allowed to charge to pay for them.

From my perch as an insurance agency owner, I have witnessed a number of big changes taking place in the home insurance over the past 3 years.  Compared to the decade leading up to 2010, our current homeowners insurance marketplace is currently dysfunctional and getting worse each month.  The burden of these changes has fallen squarely on the insurance agent’s shoulders to be sure, but they are also falling disproportionately on the shoulders of the customers who become caught up in the tangled mess that inadequate rates leave behind.

The first beginnings of change came in late 2011 when the largest insurance companies changed their underwriting rules such that they would no longer write new homeowners insurance policies without the supporting auto insurance for that same customer.  This is because while the home policy was statistically guaranteed to lose money for them,  there was enough profit in auto insurance to cover those losses.  Shortly thereafter, smaller insurance companies, not wanting to be left holding the bag, changed their rules to match those of the big boys.   Today you would be hard pressed to find an insurance company willing to write a new policy on your home without demanding the insure your autos as well.   The burden of this change fell hardest on the elderly who still owned their homes but had stopped driving.

Not long after that, insurance companies decided to extend this no home without auto rule to apply to their existing book of business.  Now they wouldn’t renew a homeowners policy if they didn’t also write the auto insurance.  Suddenly many homeowners who insured their home and auto policies with different companies were facing a non-renewal of their home insurance unless they brought their auto insurance to that company as well.  This change dragged quite a few more homeowners into the vortex of marketplace disorder. 

As insurance companies were turned down for one rate request after another, many chose to use an archaic rule, called consent to rate as the tool to get their home insurance clients to pay them rates that are above the state mandated maximum rates that the insurance commissioner has allowed.  This was a way, albeit one policy at a time, to make an end run around the insurance commissioner’s power to control rates.  But as you can imagine, asking clients give you written permission to increase their rates, one policyholder at a time is a very inefficient and costly way to get a rate increase.  Now an additional number of homeowners insurance customers were drug through a new paperwork mess that even left some with no coverage at all.  I have no doubt in my mind some homeowners out there who think they have coverage, do not because they failed to sign a consent to rate letter in time.  With no signature, their policy would not have renewed and if they didn’t notice that they didn’t pay a bill recently, they may not realize that they have no coverage.

One of the more dislocating gyrations of this dysfunctional market occurred when several insurance carries simply stopped doing business in NC.  They non-renewed all of their policies and moved on.  This kind of action reduces competition between insurance companies, and puts additional upward pressure on pricing.  In addition, when they leave, they leave all insurance markets, so we see reduced competition and higher pricing in other areas like auto insurance, business insurance and workers compensation insurance.

More recently we see insurance companies reducing the coverage provided under their homeowners insurance policies.  If they can’t raise rates then they need to reduce losses and that means reducing coverage under the policies themselves.  The most dramatic of these are special, higher deductibles for wind and hail claims and reduced coverage for roof damage.    If you don’t read the fine print, you may not realize that your policy has changed and perhaps  now you have a $5000 wind and hail deductible, or a deductible equal to some percentage of a wind and hail loss.   Worse yet, we are also seeing a number of insurance companies reducing the coverage for damage to roofs from a full replacement cost protection to a depreciated value protection.  This could cause serious cash flow issues for homeowners with a damaged or destroyed roof.  Imagine that your roof is damaged in a hailstorm and you must replace it.  Assume that you have a 30 year roof on your house and it is 20 years old.  If the cost to replace the roof is $15,000, then with depreciated value protection, you will only receive 1/3, or $5000 for this insurance claim.  You will have to come up with the other $10,000 to replace your roof out of your own pocket. 

All of these results are generally negative for the consumer and they hit consumers unevenly.   If insurance is to do anything at all, it is to pool assets among a large group of people so that everyone suffers just a little and no one suffers a lot.   And while many consumers will tell you that insurance companies are out to screw them over, they should understand that these insurance companies are operating in competition with each other and none of them are getting rates high enough to make a profit so they are stripping down the policy or putting consumers through the consent to rate process in order to attempt to make a profit and stay in business.  Only a diehard conspiracy theorist would believe that this many insurance companies would take this much drastic action in a competitive environment if they didn’t feel they had to in order to survive.  If our insurance commissioner would allow the free market to operate then insurance rates will go up right away, but over time competition will allow rates to stabilize and settle at a level that allows for a more stable insurance market.   I know no one wants to pay more for their insurance but blindly supporting a politician’s goal of keeping rates below profitable levels will generate more pain and agony for all consumers over the long haul.

At Clinard Insurance Group, we insure thousands of families all across North Carolina.   We want all insurance buyers to be informed consumers.  If you would like help with your home or auto insurance, life insurance or business insurance, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557.

Are You Managing Your Certificate of Insurance Process Carefully?

It is no secret that the larger companies with big budgets and teams of lawyers often lead the way over smaller companies when it comes to risk management and safety issues.  Still, smaller companies can learn by watching the behaviors of the large companies in their trade group. This blog is designed to share with you some of what the big boys already know when it comes to insurance certificates.

Most small contractor companies understand the need to obtain certificates of insurance to prove that their subcontractors are insured.  But what often gets lost is a clear understanding of just why you need that certificate and how your certificate processes might impact your company’s risk profile.

If I were to randomly survey the small contractors that call our office to request an insurance certificate on one of our clients, and ask them why they need this certificate, the lion’s share of them would say that they need it for their insurance company when their policies are audited.   And while I understand that this is the most pressing issue; you don’t want to have to pay for insurance on your subcontractors if you don’t have to; this mindset completely overlooks the risk management component of this process.  In fact, the real reason that you want a certificate of insurance is to make sure that you are not taking on the risks of an uninsured subcontractor on your job site.  Look at it this way; you’ve put a lot of thought, time and care into your insurance protection. Do you want to let an uninsured subcontractor put all of that in jeopardy? 

Focus now on the risk management side of this equation.  You are relying on this certificate of insurance to protect your company from dangerous or uninsured subcontractors.  With that in mind, take a look at this short list of issues to keep in mind regarding the insurance certificates that you request from your subs. 

Make your certificate request to the insurance agent, not the subcontractor.  Several years ago it was reported that people were offering blank and/or fraudulently completed certificates of insurance for sale on ebay.  If your uninsured subcontractor wants to find a way to fake a certificate of insurance, it is not going to be that difficult to do.   So, to help insulate your process from this risk, ask your subcontractor for the contact information for his or her insurance agent and then contact the insurance agent directly to request the certificate.

Carefully review the certificate information.  So many contractors simply file away certificates of insurance without even glancing at them.  This is a dangerous practice.  You should take a minute to check the names of the insurance companies listed as providing coverage.  Do they look legitimate?  Are they names that you recognize?  Now take a close look at the policy effective and expiration dates.  If a policy will be expiring soon, especially if the expiration date is before you expect that the subcontractor will be finished at your job site, then you will need to get another certificate, one that shows that the policies were renewed.  Last of all, check the limits of coverage shown for each policy.  You want to be sure that your sub has limits high enough to keep your insurance from having to respond to a large loss.

Remember, with an insurance certificate you are looking at a snapshot in time.  Keep in mind that any information shown on the insurance certificate is just a record of the coverage in place on the day that the certificate was created.  If your sub fails pay his next insurance bill then he could be working on your job site with cancelled coverage, exposing your company to a huge unknown risk of loss.  And don’t be fooled by the idea that you will receive a notice of cancellation if your sub gets behind on his insurance payments.  The ugly truth is that most insurance companies do not even want to see copies of certificates issued by their agents and they have no intention of letting you know if a policy is cancelled.  The truth is, they couldn’t notify you of a cancellation, even if they wanted to as they have no record of the certificate in their files.

The Additional Insured option provides better security for you.  The larger contractors have taken this route and small contractors who care about their risk management should consider it as well.   In addition to asking for a certificate of insurance from your subcontractors, you might also consider asking that your company be added as an additional insured on the subcontractor’s policies.  Some companies charge for this but generally the charge will be pretty low.  As an additional insured, you will now receive an endorsement to the policy from the insurance company, so you know that they know about you.  This also solves the snapshot problem as you hold a position on the sub’s policy that entitles you to receive cancellation notices or notices of nonrenewal should any of those be triggered.

Don’t fall into the trap of focusing only on the audit requirement of an insurance certificate while forgetting that you need protection from your subcontractors and their behavior on your job site.  Don’t let your certificate of insurance procedures become a simple rule following process, instead take action to be certain that your company is getting the protection that it needs from the risks of uninsured subcontractors. 

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in lovely Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance buyers to be informed consumers.  We have different types of contractor insurance programs, from landscapers insurance, plumbers insurance, electricians insurance to painters insurance programs and many others.  We insure contractors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.  Should you need any help with your commercial insurance policies, I hope that you will feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

Electric Shock Drowning – Are You At Risk From This Silent Killer?

Electric shock drowning, referred to as ESD, is a relatively new danger to swimmers and boat owners.  With so many more docks now connected to shore power for lights and other electrical conveniences, more people each year are falling victim to ESD.  And since most people are completely unaware of this risk, we will continue to read about additional innocent victims each year.

Electric Shock Drowning comes about when small amounts of 120 volt alternating current leak into fresh water in places where swimming occurs.  Swimmers can be electrocuted or incapacitated by this AC leaked current.   This is a fresh water phenomenon as fresh water is highly resistant to electrical flow, meaning that a swimmer caught in the flow of escaped electrical current now becomes the path of least resistance for this current trying to return to its source.   It takes very few amps to incapacitate a person and lead to drowning.  Salt water by contrast has a low resistance to electricity so that the current would flow around a swimmer in salt water.

Electric shock Drowning incidents are most common around docks and marinas, but there have also been cases reported at water fountains, irrigation ditches, golf course ponds and other bodies of water.  Many cases may simply be written up as drowning if no one was there to hear the victim cry out before he or she drowned.  Despite these other places for ESD, the most common cause comes from a boat plugged in to shore power that is leaking this current into the water around it.  Before AC current can escape into the water around the boat, two things must happen.  The first is that the boat itself must have some electrical fault on board.   This would be a short circuit of some type or another, a wiring error or a malfunctioning appliance which is sending AC electricity away from its intended path.  Remember that AC electricity travels in a loop, from its source to the load and back again, forming what is called a circuit.  When the circuit is broken, AC electricity will try to find a way back to its source.  Proper AC setup requires that there be a green grounding wire serving as a backup return path for the electricity to complete its circuit if there is a fault in the circuit.   So the second thing that must go wrong is that the grounding system is broken or fails so that the AC current cannot return to its source.

So what can you do to protect yourself and your loved ones from ESD?  The best plan would be to never swim around docks or marinas where shore sourced electricity is present unless that electricity is turned off.  This is also why rough play on docks is so dangerous as it could lead to someone falling into the water around the dock.  Now if you must swim or dive around your boat in order to work on fittings or equipment, you should be sure that all electricity is turned off before you enter the water.  Should you ever feel tingling or shocks while swimming, then you should not return to the dock.  Touching a metal ladder in this case could be immediately fatal.  Instead, swim away from the dock or marina and head to shore 100 yards or more away.  To rescue an ESD victim, do not go in the water as that could make you a victim as well.  Instead, turn off the shore power connection at the meter or unplug the shore power cords, then throw a line to the swimmer or row out to help the victim.  And now that you know more about ESD, please spread the word about these risks to all of your friends and family who have docks or spend time at marinas and might be at risk.

For those of you who own docks with shore power, there are a few additional precautions you should take.  Post no swimming signs at your dock.  Only hire trained marine electricians to install or service the wiring at your dock.  Those trained as land electricians do not have the training or understanding to safely install or service wiring in a marine environment.  You can also purchase testers that can test your dock and the waters around it for electricity leaks.  Please also consider the following protective devices for your dock.

Isolation Transformer – This device transfers electricity from the shore to the boat without the shore wires physically touching the boat’s wires.  If you have a fault, then the current no longer seeks a path through the water back to shore.

Galvanic Isolators – These are designed to help prevent your boat from suffering from or contributing to galvanic corrosion while plugged in to shore power.  Choose a failsafe model that requires that if it fails, it will fail in the off position.

Reverse Polarity Indicator – Can tell you if a neutral wire becomes hot thus removing your protections from circuit breakers that are installed on hot wires.

Growing up around water, I know I have many wonderful memories of swimming and playing around docks.  But we need to rethink this tradition as our docks are changing and becoming more dangerous places.  Please share this information with anyone you know who may be at risk.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance buyers to be informed consumers.  If you need any help at all with your personal auto insurance, your home insurance or boat insurance or even your life insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com. 

The Parent’s Role In Teaching A Teenager To Drive

This year, National Teen Driver Safety Week runs from October 20 – 26.  That got me thinking that now might be a good time to review the parent’s role in teaching a teen aged child how to drive safely.  This year, the theme of National Teen Driver Safety Week is:  It Takes Two – shared Expectations for Teens And Parents.

Gaining the freedom that comes with learning to drive and obtaining a drivers license is a life changing process for most teens and their parents.   The public schools in North Carolina take on some of this instruction, but most teens generally only receive about 6 hours behind the wheel in drivers’ education programs.  We know for sure that this is not enough time to learn to drive safely.  We advise our parent clients that they should spend at least 100 hours in the passenger seat with their teen behind the wheel learning from them.  If they can increase those hours to 150, then their child will have an even better chance of becoming a safe driver.   These hours of supervised driving are critical to the success of the driving training that a parent provides for his or her child.  This is a safety issue and the best way to insure that your child will be a safe driver is to practice good driving skills when your child rides with you in the car and to pass on your knowledge as the trainer in the passenger seat while your permitted child drives.   

It will also help if you have a good understanding of the statistical realities for inexperienced drivers.  As an example, a recent study found that 75% of serious teen automobile accidents were the result of driver error and that more than half of these wrecks were caused by one of three mistakes made by the teen aged driver.  These three common errors in judgment were:

1.       Driving too fast for road conditions – Teach your child about speed management, not only following the posted speed limits but also learning to make adjustments in speed for weather, traffic or road conditions that demand slower speeds.

2.       Driving while distracted – First of all, emulate non-distracted driving when you drive and your child rides with you.  Help them understand just how quickly a distraction can kill them.  Make it scary and make it personal if you have to but help them understand this concept.

3.       Failure to detect a hazard – Teach your child to constantly scan the road and the area around them for possible hazards.  They must learn to get the big picture by taking in data all around them for purposes of spotting hazards.

To help you with this important teaching process, Clinard Insurance Group has created a driver training book that breaks down what your child needs to know and how you can teach it to them into an organized, step by step approach.  If you and your child keep a log of the hours driven under training, this can help give him or her the incentive needed to learn these skills so that your teen will understand where the two of you are in the training process and will know what is required to finish this training.  Learn more about this training booklet here.

Once your child has completed the training while driving with you under a license permit, then the next step is to have your child test for and obtain a restricted driving license.  At this point your job is not finished.  Do not let up in your supervision of your child at this point.  At this point, it is important that you take the time to learn the rules of the graduated license system in your state and make sure that you consistently apply them to your newly licensed teen driver.  If your teen is anything like mine, then he will tell you that no other parents are making their children follow these rules to the letter of the law.  He will be wrong when he says this and it is your job to make sure that he moves through the graduated licensing process step by step, following all restrictions.   Graduated licensing programs have had a major impact in reducing deaths and injuries for teen drivers in states that have implemented them so please follow that process all the way to the end.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, we insure thousands of families all across NC, SC, GA, and TN.  We want to help you with the process of turning your child into a safe driver and have many tools on our website for this purpose.  We can also help you reduce the cost of auto insurance for your teen driver while still helping you get the coverage that you need to feel comfortable with this change.  Please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 for help.

Did Your Car Dealer Forget To Add Your New Car To Your Auto Insurance Policy?

What a huge thrill.  Taking your new or even gently used car home from the dealership is a big day for anyone.  But before you drive off that lot you need to make sure that your insurance is in place on this new car.

Car dealers always want to help make the car buying process as painless as possible.  That’s why they often offer to handle the call to your insurance company for you to add coverage for your new car to your auto insurance policy.   And this seems more than convenient, but for some unlucky people this convenience has come at a huge cost.  I’m an insurance agent and have been for 30 plus years.  My word of advice is that you don’t leave this job to someone else.  Mistakes and oversights happen and we are discovering more and more cases where we don’t know about a new car purchase until months after it actually happened.    If this discovery comes after your car has been totaled in a wreck then you might lose quite a lot of money.   Please don’t delegate this important part of the car buying process to anyone else.

With that in mind, it might help to review exactly what the NC auto insurance policy says about changing  the cars on the policy.   I must preface this discussion by saying that this blog is oriented around the North Carolina Personal Auto Insurance Policy form so if you are located  in another state, or if your vehicles are insured on a commercial auto insurance policy then what you read below may not be accurate for your particular situation.  Also,  I want to keep the attorneys happy here by saying that whatever you read in this blog may or may not be accurate for your particular situation and that there is no substitute for reading your policy as what is written there will supersede anything that you read here.

Ok, so we have the disclaimers out of the way, now let’s see what the NC Personal Auto policy says about vehicle changes.  The policy form addresses this issue as two different categories which I will call replacement vehicles and newly acquired vehicles.  Replacement vehicles language refers to the case where you are replacing one vehicle with another one.  The newly acquired vehicles language will refer to the instances when you have acquired a vehicle and are also keeping all of your existing vehicles.  We will study each of these situations separately.

Here’s what the policy language says regarding replacement vehicles:  “If a newly acquired auto replaces a vehicle shown in the Declarations, it will have the same coverage as the vehicle it replaced except that coverage, if any, under Part D – Coverage For Damage To Your Auto applies only if you ask us to insure it within 30 days after you become the owner. “  For me, that means that if you replace one vehicle with another then the liability insurance will apply to the new vehicle no matter if you forget to tell the insurance company or not.  But the physical damages protections under coverage D, called collision and comprehensive coverage, will not be available for the new vehicle unless you ask the insurance company to make this vehicle change on the policy within 30 days of the purchase of the new vehicle.  So if your car dealer forgets to call in the car change, and you don’t catch the oversight, then after 30 days the new car will have no comprehensive or collision insurance in force if it replaced a car that had comprehensive and collision coverage in place.  Of course if the replaced vehicle was insured for just liability insurance, then that is all that you will ever have on the replacing vehicle unless you ask the insurance company to make the car change on your policy.

Regarding the situation where you purchase an additional vehicle that is not replacing a vehicle on the policy, the insurance policy language reads this way: “If the newly acquired auto is in addition to any shown on the Declarations, it will have the broadest coverage we now provide for any vehicle shown in the declarations if you ask us to insure it within 30 days after you become the owner.”   In this case your comprehensive and collision protection will be automatically apply to the new car as long as at least one other car on your policy has this coverage.  But all insurance on that new car will end if you don’t ask the insurance company to add the car to your policy within 30 days.

The take away for you as an insurance consumer in North Carolina is that it is your responsibility as the car owner to notify your insurance agent or insurance company as soon as you take ownership of an additional or replacement vehicle.  Leaving this detail to your car dealer could put your insurance protection and thus your assets in jeopardy.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC,  we insure thousands of families all across the state of North Carolina.  If you need help with your auto or home insurance,  or even your business insurance or your life insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.