Page 18 - West Virgina 811 Magazine 2021 Issue 1

By Virginia Reames
The Policy Center LJackson, MS
You Are Not Alone!
If You Got Non-Renewed,
ast time, we talked about how all of the catastrophic natural events that have happened worldwide this year were
paid for by your carrier’s “reinsurance” (5+billion alone from Laura and Zeta just in Louisiana!) and that most insurance rates would “probably” be going up.
HA! If it was only going to be that simple!
The big trick now is going to be getting insurance at ALL! Yes, you read that right. It’s not as though insurance
was getting “Scarce” or anything – it’s just that after so many expensive hits, companies are opting to take a seat on the sidelines, so to speak.
Companies are now deciding what they will, and most importantly, what they will NOT write, going forward. Yes, again, you read that right. They are deciding what they won’t write. Not surprisingly, this is becoming quite a problem!
Accounts that have had a claim or two, will probably have a more difficult time getting renewed. It won’t do any good to call the competing agent – he can only write what his companies will write – and right now, they are sending out list after list of accounts that they won’t be renewing. Some will be for claims, but others will be for types of businesses that have been determined to be
“high risk” – potentially being risky – “potentially”.
Someone sitting at a desk somewhere
in Outer Slobovia has decided that
what your business does MIGHT be risky, they put it on a list and BAM!
You get a letter of Non-Renewal. Did you have any claims? Doesn’t matter. You might. Probably haven’t. They just have decided they’re not going to write, say excavators or plumbers anymore. I might be exaggerating to make my point – but not much.
Changes that will affect how we do business over the next few years are
happening all around us – and we find out when we run into them. No – no one gets a phone call that says “well, we have a “hard market” coming up and our company will be non-renewing this, this and all of those on the list we just sent you”.
Nope.
As a customer, you open the mail one day and see “Notice of Cancellation, Non-Renewal or Change”. You call your agent, who’s gonna have to get “right back to you” after he calls the company – only to learn, yeah, they’re not writing that line anymore. Has nothing to do with you – but it will definitely impact you. Especially because of the prices you’ll probably run into when you find the company that WILL write your business!
And property....OMG!
Way in the back rooms of the insurance companies are a group of folks named
16 • West Virginia 811 2021, Issue 1