Wildfires are creating some serious problems for homeowners. Owning homes in certain states has escalated due to infrastructure and wildfire risk. Our very own Adam Loner and Martha Ricci are familiar with the woes of ensuring a home in a wildfire zone. Listen to them discuss the state of homeowner’s insurance amidst the high rates of wildfires across the United States. On the episode, Adam and Martha also discuss some alternative ways to prevent and protect your home from fire risk.
Wildfire Risk & Insurance Transcript
00;00;02;01 – 00;00;18;29
Chip Arenchild
Welcome to Know Your Risk and Insurance Coverage with Risk Pro Net, where we will discuss all things insurance for you and your company. Risk Coronet is a network of independent agencies who offer specialized insurance across business sectors.
00;00;19;01 – 00;00;33;25
Chip Arenchild
Regardless of where you are in your insurance journey. We want to invite you to join us to think about insurance differently. Know your risk and insurance coverage with risk Pro Net provides answers to all your insurance questions.
00;00;33;27 – 00;00;53;14
Chip Arenchild
Welcome everybody again to an episode of Know Your Risk and Insurance with Risk Pro Net. And today we’re right in the middle of wildfire season. And so we’re going to have a great conversation with Martha and Adam from the Moody Agency in Denver, Colorado. And we want to talk a little bit about what people can do to be prepared for a wildfire.
00;00;53;16 – 00;01;17;24
Chip Arenchild
Recognize that this wildfire exposure seems to be happening everywhere now in the United States. It’s not just limited to what we once thought was California or Oregon or New Mexico. And then we’re going to find out what you can do to prepare yourselves and what you can expect going forward. So I’d like to introduce you to Martha and Adam from the Moody Insurance Agency, and both Martha and Adam, or they consider themselves personal risk consultants.
00;01;17;24 – 00;01;24;10
Chip Arenchild
And so Martha and Adam, welcome to know your Insurance with Risk Pro Net. How are you guys doing this morning?
00;01;24;12 – 00;01;29;04
Martha Ricci
Great. Thank you chief. We’re glad to be here and give you help as we can.
00;01;29;06 – 00;01;52;00
Chip Arenchild
Well we’re looking forward to hear about it. I think when I think about wildfire in Colorado, the one that sticks in my mind is the fire that happened on New Year’s Eve where literally in the dead of winter, that fire starts burns to that poor town of yours. And then it’s snowing the next day. And so can you give us an idea of what’s happening, boots on the ground in your neighborhood with wildfire right now?
00;01;52;02 – 00;02;26;18
Martha Ricci
Well, unfortunately, Colorado is probably the hot spot right now even as much as California. We do have carriers that are really looking tough, that where you are even some of the residential areas back where I live in Highlands Ranch are being put under the microscope. So it’s very difficult right now. If you’re in the mountains, it may literally be impossible to get coverage because even our surplus lines carriers are saying we’re not interested more.
00;02;26;21 – 00;02;44;18
Chip Arenchild
So that sounds, you know, like you said, you’re just like California right now. Even inside of towns and inside of city limits, it makes no sense. Our consumers are just being told we can’t find coverage for you right now. Our standard markets have gone away. The surplus lines markets are over-the-top expensive and may not always offer a solution.
00;02;44;25 – 00;02;59;25
Chip Arenchild
We have a a state run program called the Fair Plan that our consumers can use. It’s super hard to work with. Very expensive and frustrating. As Colorado developed anything that provides coverage for the consumers right now.
00;02;59;27 – 00;03;22;02
Adam Loner
Not yet, to my knowledge. You know, we’re definitely going down the similar path that California experienced back in 2016 and 2017. And for Colorado, even though we’ve had a couple pretty, pretty bad wildfires over the last couple of years, it feels like things are are just now getting started. And carriers and both our DUI are finally starting to react.
00;03;22;05 – 00;03;43;16
Adam Loner
So we still have yet to see what’s going to happen for all those folks living in the mountains, or even close to the mountains that are all of a sudden struggling to find coverage, and especially at a reasonable premium, it’s becoming a very much you have to pay to play kind of thing, living in the mountains. But the entire state, frankly, has become a wildfire risk, as we did see in that Lewisville fire.
00;03;43;18 – 00;04;00;20
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. You know, I think that’s pay to play is a good way to say it. I’ve been talking to people. Just another one of these. Well, for us in this property it’s hyperinflation, right. You don’t expect your premiums to, you know, we’ve seen premiums on our side out here go from a $2,000 to eight, nine, $10,000, right?
00;04;00;20 – 00;04;17;12
Chip Arenchild
I mean, the the increase is staggering and people aren’t prepared for it. What do you think you could tell people that they need to be thinking about if they have a home that is now in one of these high risk areas, how do they determine they’re in a high risk area? What do they need to be doing to prepare themselves?
00;04;17;14 – 00;04;43;27
Martha Ricci
Well, I think the first thing they need to do is talk to their broker, because we’re going to have the statistics and the underwriting to know what is and what is not a good place to be at this point. Like Adam said, they’re just taking us to the limit on this. And the things that I think are the most important at this point is to know what’s at your house, and that is combustible.
00;04;44;02 – 00;05;08;04
Martha Ricci
Okay. So you’ve got to have your trees removed, at least if you’re really concerned, at least 150ft back, if you have pine trees six feet up, cut them up. Get rid of the needles. Imperative stuff. You’ve got to have ember resistant, venting screens so that the embers that are blowing don’t come into your house and cause your house on fire.
00;05;08;10 – 00;05;22;28
Martha Ricci
We’re seeing those 1 to 2 miles away from a fire. So that’s that’s a big deal to it. And any, you know, just brush removal. Don’t stack your wood for your fireplace outside by your home.
00;05;23;00 – 00;05;29;19
Chip Arenchild
Are there resources for consumers that you can that you provide to let them know these types of things?
00;05;29;22 – 00;05;46;22
Martha Ricci
Most of the carriers have something on their website for marketing purposes. Yes, that will tell them this. And really they ask these questions before they’ll even let us have a quote. So if they’re in a rural wildfire area, we’re going to have to know obvious.
00;05;46;24 – 00;06;01;05
Chip Arenchild
As a consumer, am I able to give you my address and be able to be told relatively quickly if I’m in one or not in one? Or is it is it that sophisticated ad yet? Or how are how is determination made at this point?
00;06;01;08 – 00;06;13;06
Martha Ricci
Well, I think for us, Adam and I both, we could take a look at an aerial view of an address and pretty quickly give you an answer as to whether it’s going to qualify or not.
00;06;13;08 – 00;06;38;18
Adam Loner
I think one big concern for people looking to purchase property, in the mountains or near the mountains here in Colorado is definitely to consider insurer ability from an investment perspective. You know, the harder it’s getting to insure more remote locations, the harder it’s going to be to eventually make money on that asset or to even sell it to anybody that can’t come in with a cash buy.
00;06;38;21 – 00;07;09;06
Adam Loner
Something that consumers can consider when they’re purchasing a new home is where the nearest water source is. If there’s a local fire hydrant within 1000ft, or if it’s a situation where the fire department is potentially going to have to haul in water. A lot of properties out here have a buried cisterns of thousands of gallons of water. It really doesn’t help us from an underwriting perspective, although it’s great to have that water closer to hopefully better protect your home if the fire department’s able to get out there.
00;07;09;09 – 00;07;34;11
Adam Loner
I think that from an underwriting perspective, a lot of insurance carriers have pretty much concluded that most homes fires are at least in the wildfire situation. Most home fires are started from embers floating from up to two miles away. So, like Martha said, it’s definitely important to consider what’s flammable around the perimeter of the home. And it’s not just trees and mulch and landscaping around there.
00;07;34;11 – 00;08;01;15
Adam Loner
It’s the kind of furniture that you put on your on your patio or your deck. It’s the material that your deck’s made out of. Either a composite material is less flammable than, say, a wood deck. And then even even with the roof, most of the wood shake roofs have pretty much been removed from Colorado. And I’m definitely seeing a trend of people going to a slate or a metal roof or some sort of tile that’s that’s entirely noncombustible.
00;08;01;22 – 00;08;12;05
Adam Loner
Of course, the asphalt shingles still hold up really well. But the biggest concern is not necessarily a fire coming right up to your front door, but it’s coming through the air.
00;08;12;07 – 00;08;34;11
Chip Arenchild
You know, I think that’s one of the one of the things we’ve learned out here is that we’ve had the wind driven events in California. I know we’ve had them in other states as well, but but what you mentioned, the firefighters will tell you, it’s that ember that floats up and gets into your attic space through your venting that starts a fire or a fire or a spark or an ember, lands close to your house, catches something else combustible on fire, and runs up the side.
00;08;34;11 – 00;08;57;14
Chip Arenchild
So as a consumer, clearing my space obviously is the number one thing, but it’s difficult for people to do that, right? We haven’t had to do that for years. We’ve never thought about that as consumers for years. And so it’s a change process. Do the carriers go out and inspect these homes when they’re when they’re going to write them, or how does a consumer get themselves in the best position possible to be able to be accepted for coverage going forward?
00;08;57;14 – 00;09;00;18
Chip Arenchild
What do they need to do to protect themselves?
00;09;00;20 – 00;09;28;05
Martha Ricci
Well, in addition to what Adam and I have both said, there’s, there’s some other things they can do as well. Dry hydrants, for example. But that’s not necessarily all that great either, because the fire department still has to get in there. So all in all, for me it’s really about taking care of the house, making sure those flammable things aren’t there if possible.
00;09;28;07 – 00;09;50;17
Martha Ricci
I mean, you know, not everybody can afford to Trex deck, but a wood deck is a problem. The pine trees are huge because they go from, you know, top to top to top and burn down. And that’s those needles that are below the trees. They’re flammable. The fabric on the the cushions that are on your patio, furniture flammable.
00;09;50;19 – 00;10;17;24
Martha Ricci
So these things are crucial, you know, being close to a fire department. Well, here in Colorado, that’s just not always possible. We have homes that are 1450 miles away. Those, in my opinion, I would recommend not buying one of those because there’s no hope if that house lights up, it’s over. So you have to be conscious of where you’re buying, where are your flammable?
00;10;17;28 – 00;10;36;00
Martha Ricci
Are what you can do to the house itself to prevent the fire from coming in again. The ember vents or, screens, the brush removal, the clearing of stuff on the ground, you know, needles, dry leaves, anything that’s going to light up.
00;10;36;02 – 00;10;41;06
Chip Arenchild
So, Adam, can you kind of give us an idea of what carriers are doing right now in Colorado?
00;10;41;08 – 00;11;06;27
Adam Loner
Absolutely. You know, most carriers worth their salt out here in Colorado, have contracted with the third party wildfire defense program. The name of the program is Wildfire Defense Services or insurer WDS. And for the most part, I think pretty much every admitted carrier in the state has done that. There’s only a few carriers out there that will physically go out and inspect the home.
00;11;06;29 – 00;11;32;22
Adam Loner
However, we are starting to see that more amongst our standard market, where it’s kind of done in the background and nobody knows about it, but they’re going to send a risk manager at least to do a drive by and get a better idea of the aspect of what we’re looking at from an underwriting perspective. And carriers are being very careful about what they keep on their books and how they write their business to not potentially have to non-renewal someone a year after we insure them.
00;11;32;22 – 00;11;59;26
Adam Loner
So it is very much looking at a long term perspective. Your high net worth or high value home or private insurance carriers, there’s many different terms for this slew of carriers, but they go out and they inspect every single home, and they often put together a very comprehensive write up with recommendations that a customer can do to prevent potential loss, not only from a wildfire perspective, but also, you know, water, water damage not caused by weather.
00;11;59;29 – 00;12;26;02
Adam Loner
So the carriers are definitely getting more involved and throwing more resources at this situation to provide a as good a product as they can for the consumers. There’s really good information on the WDS Wildfire Defense Services website and another another website to look into is the Firewise community website that outlines, different characteristics of a community that can help your entire neighborhood better protect yourselves.
00;12;26;02 – 00;12;28;25
Adam Loner
And each other against this kind of exposure.
00;12;28;28 – 00;12;46;16
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, that’s good advice. Hey, we have the Firewise communities out here as well, and I know it’s quite a process to get recognized as such. And so we’ve also had a problem with the carriers not always recognizing that that really gives them an advantage or helping them. Right. In our case right now, I hope I hope you guys have different luck with that in Colorado.
00;12;46;22 – 00;13;03;26
Chip Arenchild
So I’m a consumer, and I find out that my house may be in this wildfire area. What should I do to get the best options possible? What what recommendations do you have for me, as I also know, recognize it? My house or my second house may be in a wildfire area. What should I do?
00;13;03;29 – 00;13;24;23
Adam Loner
It’s definitely important to remain on the on the offensive. As a homeowner, especially in a risky area. You need to keep up on your maintenance, make sure that your gutters are clean. Again, consider the proximity of potentially flammable furniture or other items around the exterior of your home.
00;13;24;25 – 00;13;43;05
Martha Ricci
The big thing with insurance carriers here that we are seeing is exterior spray colors, so that if there is a fire, they’re going to water down the outside of the house and maybe give some hope to saving some of the things there. Of course, nothing’s ever guaranteed, but that does help.
00;13;43;08 – 00;14;20;15
Adam Loner
If you mentioned ember resistant vents and that’s something that a lot of older homes that are existing in Colorado have not been retrofitted with, and we’re not built with. And we’re even seeing, you know, some newer builds that don’t even come with that feature. And as you mentioned, you’ve seen it. We’ve seen it time and time again in California, where the fire actually starts from embers getting up inside into that insulation and I think it’s depending on the situation and the construction of the home, it can be reasonably affordable to have your home retrofitted, but it really is best to do everything you can to protect your home from a potential loss.
00;14;20;15 – 00;14;28;24
Adam Loner
Yes, it’s insured, but the impact of the fire and the displacement from your home has on your life can be absolutely traumatizing.
00;14;28;26 – 00;14;42;12
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, we’ve learned that. We’ve learned that out here. I think you guys had some examples as well from the Colorado fires, in terms of understanding that the way the coverage was written prior to the these wildfires may not be sufficient going forward.
00;14;42;14 – 00;15;12;00
Martha Ricci
That’s correct. In fact, the House of Representatives here has a bill going currently to try and help protect the consumer better. They’re requesting additional time frames for loss of use because of the fact that labor and materials is much harder to get. It’s taking much longer to replace these homes than it was before. And it’s it’s coming down to, you know, rolling back to the insurance companies.
00;15;12;00 – 00;15;32;10
Martha Ricci
And I would like to see I would like to see our consumers take some help for themselves as well, because if it’s their property, they need to take pride in knowing they want this house to stand forever. And all these things that we’ve talked about are very important in the consumer needs to take this to heart.
00;15;32;12 – 00;16;04;29
Adam Loner
The news is very doom and gloom kind of situation. And and, you know, the biggest thing we want to stress to people is that you have to be prepared. And it’s not just prepared before the fire, it’s during and after the fire. And so some things that people can be doing on, you know, an annual basis or, you know, as frequently as you feel comfortable doing is a to have a, a go bag packed and prepared with all of your essentials, dog food, things for your pets, whatever you’re going to need, if you have to leave your home for a couple of days or even longer, you know, part of the pain of
00;16;04;29 – 00;16;23;03
Adam Loner
losing your home and all of your things inside it is the process of getting paid from your insurance company. No matter who it is, you’re going to have to come up with an inventory of everything that you own inside the home. And so we definitely stress the importance of, I think every annual renewal, it’s a good idea to walk through your house with a video.
00;16;23;03 – 00;16;45;29
Adam Loner
You don’t need to do it real slowly, in two in depth. As long as you have a video where you can pause certain at certain frames and see what items are in that room. And just remember, because you’re really not thinking your best when you’re rushing out of the house in the event of a fire to to save your life and something that every carrier makes you do after after a fire, losses come up with a home inventory.
00;16;46;02 – 00;17;02;13
Adam Loner
And, you know, while it doesn’t need to be necessarily too in depth, you do have to materialize what you want the insurance company to pay you back for. And it’s it’s way better to have to be prepared beforehand than to try and do that off of memory, or to do it from your Zillow photos from before you buy your home.
00;17;02;17 – 00;17;24;25
Chip Arenchild
That’s a great point, Adam. That’s been that was one of the things we’ve learned as well, is that it’s very difficult to go back and and remember everything that you really have. And so having some good habits and frequency of taking a look at what you have. So those are some good advice. Is there anything Moody does. Are you to do in particular for your clients to make sure they’re staying on track with these things as we move forward?
00;17;24;27 – 00;17;43;11
Martha Ricci
Well, as risk consultants, of course. Adam and I discuss this right up front with these individuals, but also our service people are well in tune with this as well. And when they do their reviews with the client, either every six months or annually, they are discussing these factors as well.
00;17;43;14 – 00;18;02;01
Chip Arenchild
That’s very good. And so going forward, it seems like you guys will have to even do more work and more effort to find carriers that will work in these areas and, and work on your client’s behalf, which I’m sure you’re doing. So why would I want to use Moody? Why would I use Moody’s Insurance brokerage of risk consultants then, and somebody else down the street?
00;18;02;01 – 00;18;04;28
Chip Arenchild
What’s my advantage of using the Moody Agency?
00;18;05;00 – 00;18;37;23
Martha Ricci
Well, there’s a couple, I believe. First of all, we’re broker. So as you mentioned, we have the opportunity to go out to different markets and so forth versus say, state former farmers. If they say no, you have to go to another place to look into another place to look. So that’s a good thing. Since we’ve been here for all of these fires, we’re well versed in how to address the issues that can come up both on the consumer side, what to do to protect your home and the insurance side where we can go to get these things.
00;18;37;25 – 00;18;56;26
Martha Ricci
And I personally feel like we need to encourage and educate our our clients to understand their policies. You’re paying big money for these policies. Please understand them. And if you don’t, we will educate you. That’s what we do.
00;18;56;29 – 00;19;15;24
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, even more than ever. I think people buy homeowners insurance and you just have always been able to think it’s covered, not pay too much attention to it. And now when these fires have hit, what we’ve learned is you actually need to be really paying attention to what what your policy reads, what coverage grants you have, what limits apply, and how you’re going to use them.
00;19;15;24 – 00;19;32;06
Chip Arenchild
Because it does matter does matter who your carrier is, and it doesn’t matter what your policy form reads in the days are just assuming you have it and moving forward. It’s tough. It’s all about behavior change for consumers right now and then having to do things they’ve never had to do before, and that’s tough to nudge people along that path.
00;19;32;06 – 00;19;34;17
Chip Arenchild
And it sounds like you guys are doing it.
00;19;34;20 – 00;19;59;15
Martha Ricci
It’s a process, and it’s certainly we would never want to lose a home for a client. I mean, the the I can’t I can’t even picture the trauma that would come with that. I, I just can’t. So it’s our job to make sure to do the best that we can so that it doesn’t happen. And in the event that it does, that we help, you know, help with the claims process and so forth.
00;19;59;17 – 00;20;25;01
Adam Loner
You know, one thing that I consistently have heard since I started with Moody is doing whatever is best for the client. And you hear that from both Brad and Trey Moody on a pretty regular basis. And we’ve really started to take that to heart, where we are a broker and we have a very large quiver of different options that we can use to find the best value and the best coverage, and to fit the customer’s needs by listening to what’s really important to them.
00;20;25;04 – 00;21;00;19
Adam Loner
But it isn’t always that we have the best fit for the client, and we like to look at our customer’s income and insurance to see what their options are. And sometimes we can advise them on making their insurance better if we’re not necessarily the case. And I think it’s important to me to be honest and transparent with our foot, with our customers and the people that come into the door for our advice, to look at it as if, you know, we’re part of their family and to use our knowledge about the insurance industry and leverage our relationships to put them in the best situation, whether they are insuring with us or if they insure elsewhere.
00;21;00;23 – 00;21;04;15
Adam Loner
We just want them to have the best advice and the best insurance experience.
00;21;04;18 – 00;21;21;06
Chip Arenchild
As well, said. I know as a risk pro member and knowing that we have members across the United States, one of the values that I’ve seen is when we have clients that have other homes in other parts of the states, we’re able to rely on each other and get the best advice from the foot on the ground in that state.
00;21;21;06 – 00;21;37;26
Chip Arenchild
And that’s been something that’s been really helpful and I think as this wildfire continues to go on, we’re going to see more and more of it as people have second homes in other areas and how we share that information and communicate it so we can make sure we’re getting the best deals for our clients and the best options for them.
00;21;37;28 – 00;21;55;28
Chip Arenchild
Have they changed the fire? You know, I don’t think the consumer often understands, how insurance is viewed by the carriers. Right. Like, so have they changed the fire rating maps or the the hazard maps in Colorado since these fires have happened, or are they still operating under old mapping technology? Do you know.
00;21;56;00 – 00;22;20;23
Adam Loner
There’s a lot of new technology coming out that doesn’t necessarily agree with other data from other services? And I think carriers are doing their best to kind of take the best of each of these sources to come up with their decision. There hasn’t been much change as far as the mapping, but I know every carrier is taking a close look at what areas they’re more comfortable with and where they’re less comfortable with and applying rate to those areas.
00;22;20;26 – 00;22;44;00
Adam Loner
And so they kind of tell you through their premiums or through their decision to insure and not, or what they’re going to do. And some carriers are even implementing a wildfire deductible, which has been around in California. And I’m surprised it’s taken us so long to get here. I hope that our carriers in this state are effective in implementing that strategy, instead of just turning people away out the door.
00;22;44;03 – 00;23;05;18
Chip Arenchild
I hope your state’s a little more progressive than we’ve been at it. Right? I think a wildfire deductible makes a lot of sense for the carrier to be able to still provide some coverage, although although we have had these catastrophic events where the deductible may not matter. I one thing we’ve learned is, as a consumer, a homeowner’s insurance was so easy it was almost an afterthought.
00;23;05;18 – 00;23;27;07
Chip Arenchild
Right? And now with this wildfire exposure, it’s really changing the behavior of the homeowner, as well as maybe helping them to understand the constraints the carriers are under. Everyone thinks it’s just individual against them, but I don’t know that people realize what the carriers are up against in terms of concentrations and values and the losses that they’re paying, and that these things are now real.
00;23;27;07 – 00;23;44;05
Chip Arenchild
And this climate change, no matter how you sit on the fence, it’s occurring. Right. We’re having events that have never happened before, and they’re happening if with enough regularity that the carriers just aren’t taking the chance on it. It creates a lot of frustration for the consumer. And I’m not I don’t know the answer on how to educate them.
00;23;44;05 – 00;23;50;11
Chip Arenchild
And I don’t know what you guys are thinking about that as well. Are you doing any seminars or anything for your clients out there?
00;23;50;13 – 00;24;12;24
Martha Ricci
Well, actually we’re doing these podcasts and that helps get the the real issue out to them. But I’m with you, Jim. Some just don’t want to face. They just want to face it is a reality for them. It’s like my insurance will take care of me. I’m good. The consumer has to get more involved. They must get more involved.
00;24;12;26 – 00;24;35;08
Adam Loner
I think it’s important for us to maintain transparency while also keeping it simple. Of course, you don’t want to show someone inside the whole sausage factory, and it could create an hour to lot, two hour long conversation. But it’s definitely important to try to convey and, in consumer understandable terms and not use our insurance lingo. What’s going on in the industry.
00;24;35;08 – 00;24;43;13
Adam Loner
And it helps build the picture for them to have a better attitude towards working with you so you can have the best outcome for both.
00;24;43;16 – 00;24;51;21
Chip Arenchild
So Adam, you mentioned but the state of the industry is in Colorado right now. Can you just give us a quick snapshot on how things are right now?
00;24;51;23 – 00;25;16;25
Adam Loner
Absolutely. It’s no secret that Colorado is one of the fastest growing states in the country. And with the massive influx of people moving to Colorado and purchasing homes, along with supply chain shortage issues, it’s really driving up the cost of construction, the cost of repairs, and we need more hands helping to repair and rebuild homes out here that drives up the cost of labor for us.
00;25;16;28 – 00;25;23;05
Adam Loner
That cost gets translated directly over to the insurance carriers when they have to cover a claim.
00;25;23;07 – 00;25;56;17
Martha Ricci
It doesn’t affect just the high net worth chip. It’s all houses. We haven’t even started to rebuild a house yet. Not one house from the Marshall Fire. That’s how much shortage there is in this state of of labor and materials. And when you have that situation, of course, inflation is off the chart. With those two things. The cost of insurance is going up, not just for those in the exposed areas as well, because the insurance company has to cover their losses somehow.
00;25;56;19 – 00;26;14;02
Chip Arenchild
So we’ve got that that perfect storm that’s happening everywhere. We’ve got the inflation, increased cost of construction, no labor or limited labor to get it done. You have your contract, had a time frame on it that your loss of use was only for 12 months, and you haven’t even started rebuilding your house. And it’s 18 months after the loss.
00;26;14;02 – 00;26;33;21
Chip Arenchild
What happens to you, then? That was something we discovered out here, which again shows why the contract is so important. I think now more than ever you need to if you’re a homeowner, you really need to have a personal risk consultant like you to are to be able to walk you through this process and then at least give you the ideas on what you need to do to be prepared.
00;26;33;27 – 00;26;41;18
Chip Arenchild
And then they can make a decision. But today’s of buying insurance and burying your head in the sand I think are are gone. If you really want to protect yourself.
00;26;41;20 – 00;26;44;09
Martha Ricci
Certainly are here in Colorado and California.
00;26;44;11 – 00;27;03;04
Adam Loner
You’re right. It’s definitely important to have a local expert that knows the state and is able to build the build your insurance exactly the way you need it, so that you aren’t left out in the cold, or a member of a class action lawsuit against an insurance company months after the fact. While you’re living out of a long stay hotel.
00;27;03;06 – 00;27;21;26
Chip Arenchild
No one wants to do that. I’ve enjoyed hearing what’s going on in Colorado and the things that as a consumer, they need to be prepared. If I was someone in Colorado and I just found out that my home’s in a wildfire area, and I call the moody and certain agency, and I asked for a personal risk consultant.
00;27;21;28 – 00;27;23;27
Chip Arenchild
What should I expect?
00;27;23;29 – 00;27;46;18
Adam Loner
You know, everybody in every family is a little bit different. And I know for the general consumer, shopping your insurance can be painful and going through all of your information time and time again. So my process upfront is a little bit more simple. I want to hear your insurance story, you know, what are your opinions, what’s been going on in your life with your insurance, and what would you like to see insurance do better for you?
00;27;46;21 – 00;28;04;20
Adam Loner
And I try to keep it with with kind of a shorter data collection process upfront so that I can build out a couple of different quotes and shop around the market to get a better idea of what direction we like to head in. And then I’ll usually schedule a about a 30 minute, sometimes longer, depending on the level of questions or how deep of a discussion we get in.
00;28;04;22 – 00;28;31;11
Adam Loner
But I like to sit with a proposal in front of my customer, so we’re both looking at the same thing and basically talk through line for line and, and determine how we’re going to use this insurance, how we expect to use it in the in the worst case scenario, and having a live quote right then and there when we’re having that conversation, when we can do live changes and see how something affects the premium and then have an open discussion about if it adds value to their insurance package.
00;28;31;13 – 00;28;42;07
Adam Loner
Sometimes we uncover a lot throughout that process, going directly through the coverages and what’s actually covered that I’m not able to do upfront without the direction of knowing exactly where we’re heading.
00;28;42;10 – 00;28;56;02
Chip Arenchild
Okay, good. Very good. Martha, if I was coming in and I ran into you, what does your process for helping me understand this wildfire exposure and things that I should be thinking about or how I could get some help?
00;28;56;04 – 00;29;17;24
Martha Ricci
Well, like Adam, I do a very short survey, get some questions about what’s going on with your insurance. Have you been non renewed by your current carrier? If so, was that due to wildfire? I will also go out and look at the house from an aerial view from a street view. Get the wildfire score number from our carriers right up front.
00;29;17;24 – 00;29;37;21
Martha Ricci
So I’m going to know pretty early on whether or not it’s going to be eligible for one of our standard carriers, so I don’t waste a lot of time using them. I can move right on to, surplus lines if need be. But like Adam, I want to keep it short. I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t want to lead you on and tell you.
00;29;37;21 – 00;29;45;02
Martha Ricci
Yes, we’ve got something for you. No, let’s make it short, simple and let’s get to the point as soon as possible.
00;29;45;04 – 00;30;06;13
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. Good. Well, it’s been great to hear about what you are trying to do to help your customers get ahead of this situation in Colorado and the impact that these fires are having. And what we know is it’s not just Colorado, it’s it’s the whole western United States, and it’s going to move into other places as well. So appreciate your time this morning and just learning a little bit about it.
00;30;06;13 – 00;30;14;24
Chip Arenchild
And if there’s 1 or 2 things you’d like to just let somebody know right now, what would it be like. What would you like to tell a consumer right now?
00;30;14;26 – 00;30;36;19
Martha Ricci
You pay good money for your insurance. Make sure that your broker educates you on what each important issue on your policy is. You, as a consumer, are somewhat responsible for what you buy. So you don’t want to get a, brick in the head at the time of a loss. Understand your policy.
00;30;36;21 – 00;30;38;15
Chip Arenchild
Adam, what do you think?
00;30;38;18 – 00;31;03;10
Adam Loner
I think it’s definitely important to talk to multiple people in the insurance industry, whether it’s a couple of different agents. It’s very important to get a second opinion. It’s very easy to get an insurance license. And so it’s up to you as a consumer also to interview the people that you’re working with and make sure that they have the expertise and knowledge to properly serve you, especially in these in these dangerous times in Colorado, frankly.
00;31;03;12 – 00;31;21;07
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. And they’re not going away right now. Right in the middle of it. So okay. Well there you go, folks. Thanks for listening to know your Risk and Insurance with Risk Pro Net. Today we had Martha and Adam personal lines consultants from the Moody Agency talking about the Colorado wildfire situation and the impact on the property market.
00;31;21;09 – 00;31;32;28
Chip Arenchild
Encourage you, if you have any questions, to reach out to them directly. You can find the contact information in the show notes and we’ll have some highlights of our conversation. So thank you. Talk to everyone soon.
00;31;33;01 – 00;31;51;17
Chip Arenchild
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Know Your Risk and Insurance Coverage with Risk Pro Net. For more information about Risk Brunet, please visit our website. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for insurance insights from everyone at risk. Pro Net, we want to say thank you for tuning in and see you next time.
