When Sop reported on State Farm’s Fido Defense to the Rigsby sisters’ Qui Tam claim, I thought surely it was way too early for dog days; but, when Rebecca Mowbray mentioned man’s best friend in the Times Picayune today, I had to stop and check – and these are definitely the dog days of insurance.
Popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies
See if you don’t think so, too, after reading Mowbray’s story, Leaving Citizens may be costly; Policies may restrict some coverage.
Some of the new insurance companies that are moving into the state and taking over policies from the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. are selling coverage that is different in small but important ways.
Several companies exclude coverage for dogs, especially breeds that may have vicious tendencies, a factor that could be a problem for many households with canines. Others exclude coverage for things like trampolines, all-terrain vehicles or pools with diving boards or slides, which might not be a big hit for families with children.
Still others require co-payments on living expenses if policyholders are displaced by a hurricane, restrict how high a house is elevated off the ground unless the sides are covered, or require flood insurance on homes in flood zones, no matter whether there’s a mortgage.
None of these things are necessarily a big deal as long as agents know about them to make sure their customers are a good fit. But Jody Boudreaux, executive vice president of the Professional Insurance Agents of Louisiana, said that’s exactly the problem: in many cases agents haven’t been able to see the policies, because companies were still getting approvals from the Louisiana Department of Insurance while they were trying to get agents to transfer their policies.
“Some of the agents keep asking for a copy of the policy and they haven’t given it to them,” Boudreaux said. “I think the agents were under the impression that the policies would be at least as good as Citizens’ policies. As they get into it, they find out that there may be exclusions that could be a big deal to some of their customers.”
You can bet your bottom dollar excluding fido will be a big deal to some folks. It seems de’ man in Mandeville has the right idea.
Al Pappalardo, an insurance agent with offices in Mandeville and Lakeview, said he’s doing his best to find out what’s in the takeout company policies, but he will probably move forward with transfers to make sure people don’t lose the opportunity, lest the takeout companies’ capacity fills up in the New Orleans area. If something is revealed in the policies later that makes it a bad fit, it’s easy enough to rewrite the policy with Citizens before Oct. 1. “They always have the ability to stay with Citizens,” he said..
That’s all the bow-wow on the exclusions for now; but, we’ll keep watching and let you know what we find out.