policy nightmares

Sometimes, you just don't realize how good you've had it. For example, having my sister Judy be in charge of my insurance policies. For 40 years, she was in the insurance business, and I would have her buy my policies for me..car, home, etc. I remember that when it was time for renewal, she would call me and try to explain what my policy covered or any changes that she was making. And I would always cut her off and tell her not to waste her voice because I didn't understand insurance policies and trusted her judgement.
Many, many of the people I'm dealing with would give their eye-teeth to have my sister. Because it's now after the storm that they are finding out about their policies. And in a whole lot of cases, their discoveries are not pleasant. Is it the mistake of the agent, or were they not listening...maybe a combination of both. Or they wanted to save a few bucks a month and after all, their house had never flooded in 30 years. So I am seeing people with 4 feet of water in their home, and no flood insurance at all. But some others, they have flood insurance for their dwelling, but no contents. So they can fix their house, but all their belongings are not covered. Then there are the folks that never read their policy after they bought it. One guy had $200,000 on dwelling, and $100,000 in contents on his homeowners policy. He remembers telling his agent to give him whatever he had on homeowners, give him on flood. The agent gave him $200,000 for flood dwelling, but nothing on flood contents! So he can get his house fixed, and sit on the floor because he can't replace furniture. Then there's the guy with $150,000 on dwelling, and he thought he had $97,000 in content. But his policy reads $9,700. Hope he shops at WalMart to replace belonging. When we left him, he said that he was going into his destroyed kitchen to find something so that he could drink heavily.

And then there is the task of explaining the flood policy to someone, as in, what it doesn't cover. This is the one particular case when I start hoping that the men aren't going to kill the messanger. That's because they have garages full of jet skis, 4-wheelers, major lawn equipment that is capable to cutting the grass at a professional football field. Or several of the guys were into woodworking and had equipment that could build Michael Dell's house. And so you stand as far as you can away when you tell them that the only things covered in the garage are freezers, washer and dryers. And then after the anger is over, you try not to make a big deal about the guy who is lying on the floor, cradling his Harley Davidson, and sobbing.

So the moral of this story is to read your policy with the same amount of attention that you put into reading all those funny emails that we get. And don't think that just because you've never flooded, it can't happen to you. Make Noah your new hero.