The Other Face of Property Insurance

We’re not going to shock anyone when we say that most people view their homeowners insurance as a necessary evil. It’s understandable. Florida remains mired in high unemployment and the housing market is still in distress. The Miami Herald predicts passage of a new foreclosure law that will once again fire up bank filings to start foreclosure proceedings.

We are living in challenging financial times and every item that detracts from our monthly income has to be scrutinized for value. But there are some expenses that just aren’t discretionary and your homeowners insurance premium is one of them. Homeowners insurance…can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

We understand that attitude.

But we also think it’s important that Florida policyholders understand what they are getting for their premium dollar and to put that value/cost in perspective.

We’re betting that for the average homeowner, if you divided your annual premium by 12, your monthly insurance cost would be roughly the same as, or probably less, than your cable and Internet bill. What happens if you don’t pay your cable and Internet bill? No TV, no YouTube, no web access. What happens if you don’t pay your insurance premium and your home suffers a loss? You could potentially be out thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Everything that you’ve worked for could be lost. Your family could be on the street.

Scary? Yes it is, but before we get accused of fear mongering take another look at that cable bill and your insurance premium and see if you can tell the real difference in what you’re buying. The best way to illustrate the difference is to borrow the tag line from the Florida Insurance Council, “insurance is about people” not things.

Insurance is about making people whole when they suffer a loss. Insurance is about being there to help a policyholder get through a devastating event. Insurance is about providing some normalcy in what is an otherwise abnormal and chaotic time. But for most homeowners, insurance is about providing the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that their largest single investment is protected.

At Olympus Insurance we understand that “insurance is about people” and our focus is to live up to what that tag line implies. Homes can be rebuilt, furnishings can be replaced but how an insurance company treats the policyholder is the real measure of value. Our service, and that’s what insurance is really, is designed from top to bottom with the policyholder in mind. From the agent experience, to billing, to customer service, to claims, our approach is to fully live up to the promises of our product.

Okay enough self-promotion. There are 6.4 million residential structures insured in the state of Florida with a total insured value of a little over 1.8 trillion dollars ¹. That’s a lot of money but more importantly, that’s a lot of protection that’s being extended to the over 16 million ² Floridians who live in those structures.

Given Florida’s history of hurricanes, tropical storms, sinkholes and wild fires, can you see how homeowners insurance plays an important role in ensuring that you, your neighbor and the stranger down the street are all able live your lives in our great state as long as you choose to? Without insurance, one serious storm could turn parts of Florida into a rubble strewn ghost town.

Homeowners insurance…it’s a business, yes, but at the macro level it is an essential service required to maintain our Floridian way of life.

¹ Florida Insurance Council fact book
² United States Census Bureau, Florida persons per household

This article is for informational purposes only and does not form a part of, replace, change or amend any terms, conditions, provisions or language within your Olympus Insurance policy. We encourage you to read your entire policy.