Personal insurance, explained before you're asked to buy it.
Home, condo, renters, auto, and umbrella. Below is what each one actually does, where it stops, and the desert-specific questions that come up around it. Read as much or as little as you want.
Homeowners
A homeowners policy is really four coverages sold together. Most confusion comes from not knowing which one is doing the work in a given situation.
- Dwelling
- The structure itself. The number here should be what it would cost to rebuild your home today, which is not the same as what you paid for it or what it would sell for. In this valley, rebuild costs have moved a lot, and a dwelling limit set six years ago is often low now.
- Other structures
- Detached things: a casita, a garage, a block wall, a pool enclosure. Usually a percentage of your dwelling limit rather than a number you pick.
- Personal property
- Your belongings. Note that jewelry, art, firearms, and collectibles usually have low internal caps, so a single ring can exceed the whole category limit. Those get scheduled separately if they matter.
- Loss of use
- What it costs to live somewhere else while your home is repaired. During a widespread event this is the coverage people wish they'd looked at, because rentals get scarce and expensive at exactly the wrong moment.
- Personal liability
- Claims that you or your household injured someone or damaged their property. This is the coverage the FAIR Plan does not include, which is why FAIR Plan almost always needs a companion policy.
Every one of these has exclusions, sublimits, and conditions written into the policy form. The summaries above are meant to orient you, not to tell you what your specific policy covers. When we talk, bring me the declarations page and I'll go through yours.
The desert questions.
These come up constantly out here and are handled badly often enough that they're worth their own section.
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The house is empty half the year
A lot of valley homes are occupied October through April and sit empty the rest of the year. Standard homeowners policies contain vacancy and unoccupancy provisions, and depending on the form and how long the place is empty, certain losses can be limited or excluded during that period.
This is fixable. There are policies written for seasonal and secondary homes, and there are endorsements that address the gap. What causes trouble is not knowing the provision is there until a pipe fails in July.
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You rent it out sometimes
Most homeowners policies exclude business use of the property, and renting your home to guests is business use, whether it's a whole season or three weekends during festival season. A claim during a rental period can be denied under a policy that wasn't written for it.
There are products built for this, and the platform's host protection is generally not a substitute for your own coverage. If you're renting or thinking about it, tell me, even if you think it's too small to mention.
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Condos and country clubs
In an association, the master policy covers part of the structure and your HO-6 covers the rest. Where the dividing line falls is written in your CC&Rs, and it varies. "Bare walls" associations leave you responsible for a lot more than "all-in" associations do.
There's also loss assessment, which covers your share when the association bills owners for a loss that exceeds its own coverage. It's often a small limit by default and inexpensive to raise. Send me the CC&Rs and the master policy and I'll tell you where your line sits.
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Wildfire exposure
Brush zones, canyon lots, and cove neighborhoods get looked at differently by carriers than a home in the middle of a developed grid. Whether the standard market will write your home is decided largely by the address.
The order of operations is always: try the standard market first, look at what mitigation could change, and only go to the FAIR Plan and a companion policy if that's where it lands. Details on how that pairing works are on the California page.
Auto
California requires liability coverage, and the state sets minimum limits. Those minimums are low relative to what a serious accident actually costs, and a judgment above your limit comes out of your assets.
- Liability. Injury and property damage you cause to others. The part that protects what you own.
- Collision and comprehensive. Damage to your own vehicle, from a crash and from everything else respectively.
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist. Covers you when the person who hit you has no coverage or not enough. Worth more attention than it usually gets.
- Golf carts and low-speed vehicles. Common here, not automatically covered, and the rules differ depending on whether it's street legal.
- RVs and trailers. Separate policies, and the coverage while parked differs from the coverage while towed.
Under Proposition 103, California carriers must weight driving record, annual mileage, and years of driving experience above other rating factors. That's why an honest mileage estimate is worth giving carefully.
Umbrella
An umbrella policy sits on top of your home and auto liability and takes over when those limits run out. It's usually sold in millions and costs less per year than most people expect.
- Who it's for. Anyone with assets to lose, a pool, a teen driver, rental property, or a household that hosts a lot.
- What it needs from you. Carriers require underlying limits at a certain level before they'll write it, so the umbrella conversation often starts with raising home and auto liability first.
- What it isn't. It doesn't extend your property coverage, only liability. It won't pay to rebuild your house.
Questions people ask me
Will getting a quote affect my current policy?
No. Asking for a quote does nothing to a policy you already have. Your current coverage continues exactly as it is until you cancel it yourself, and I'd never advise cancelling anything before a replacement is actually in force.
How much does it cost to work with you?
For a standard personal lines placement, my compensation comes from the carrier as a commission built into the premium. If a situation ever called for a broker fee, California requires a signed written agreement disclosing it before you owe anything, and I'd walk you through that in advance rather than surprising you with it.
Do I have to switch everything at once?
No. Plenty of people move one policy and leave the rest where it is. Bundling sometimes saves money and sometimes doesn't, and I'll tell you which it is in your case rather than assuming.
What if my home has already been declined somewhere?
Common right now, and not the end of the conversation. A decline from one carrier tells us something about their appetite, not about whether your home is insurable. Tell me who declined it and why if you know, and we'll work from there.
Can you promise my claim will be paid?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. Claim decisions belong to the carrier and depend on the policy language and the facts of the loss. What I can do is make sure the policy is written for how you actually use the property, so you're not relying on a coverage that was never there, and help you through the process if a claim happens.