FAQ

What is an Independent Insurance Agency?

An independent insurance agent represents multiple insurance carriers, typically offering consumers a choice of insurers, policies, and pricing that suit your cover needs and may be better aligned with your budget. An Independent Agency can shop your insurance for you with multiple companies at one time, saving you valuable time and money.

Captive and Direct Agencies can only offer you the products and coverage's that the insurance carrier who employs them provides, limiting your product and coverage choices.

What is wrong with having State Minimum Liability Limits? I don’t want to pay more than I must for insurance.

As an agent with 24 years’ experience, my answer is “EVERYTHING” is wrong with having minimum Maryland state liability limits. Maryland state insurance limits are currently $30K for single bodily injury/ $60k total bodily injury per accident and $15K in property damage. That is the amount of liability coverage required in the state of Maryland to legally tag and operate a motor vehicle.

Having the state minimum coverage can put you at higher risk and give you much higher exposure for a possible lawsuit if you cause an accident and someone is injured. Imagine for a moment…. You are driving down Rt 50 on your way to vacation in Ocean City and you look away for just a split second to change the radio, not realizing traffic in front of you is at a complete stop. Once you do realize it, you do not have enough time to react and rear end the vehicle in front of you injuring another four people on their way to the beach and totaling both of your vehicles. The vehicle you are driving still has a loan on it of $23K and the 2022 GMC Acadia you just totaled in front of you was a $58K vehicle. $15K in property damage is not going to be enough to cover the claim for the vehicles and $60K in bodily injury is most likely not enough coverage for one injured person let alone 4 injured people. If you do not have enough coverage, you can be sued. If you do not have the savings to pay the difference out of pocket, your future wages can be attached, and you may be forced to sell off other assets to satisfy the debt.

We recommend having no less than 100/300/100 coverage for both Liability and Uninsured/ Underinsured Motorist coverage. We would love to see you have 250/500/100 with a $1 Million Umbrella… but we will discuss that later. You may be surprised to find out just how insignificant the price difference is to have the higher coverages you need.

Uninsured/ Underinsured Motorist Coverage is the coverage that protects you on that one day that someone causes damage to your vehicle or injures you when they have failed to pay their insurance premium and allowed the policy to lapse, or they have Maryland state limits for liability, and it is not enough coverage to pay your medical bills and replace your vehicle.

An accident happens in a split second and you can not rely on the other driver to have proper coverages or insurance at all. But you can review your policy regularly and make sure you have the proper coverage to protect you if the unfortunate accident should happen.

We will review all your coverages, deductibles, and added coverages to be sure you have peace of mind and are as protected as you desire to be.

What is an Umbrella Policy and why would I need one?

An umbrella policy is a liability insurance policy that provides an extra layer of coverage over and above your underlying insurance policies, which may include auto, home, boat, or rental property. When something awful and unexpected happens, like if you severely injure or kill somebody in a car accident, you want to make sure that your assets are protected. There is a good chance that your basic auto policy will not provide the amount of liability protection that you need, and an umbrella policy is where you would find that additional layer of protection to protect your home, retirement, and future income in the event of a lawsuit.

Is Flood covered under my Homeowners Policy?

A Flood Loss is absolutely NOT covered on your homeowners insurance. Flood is covered by a separate individual policy which can be written by standard insurance carriers but is run by the National Flood Insurance Program. We can also offer you Private flood insurance and excess flood insurance.