kbehrent
Well Known Member
In the recent past, and currently in the RV-12 forum, there have been some insurance related topics regarding the practice of individuals who request quotes from multiple brokers who represent the same group of insurance companies. Usually there are one or more past or current brokers who voice their dislike of this practice and who insist that they "the broker" don't set the price, the insurance companies do, thus no need to get competitive quotes for the same insurance companies. In other words, "Trust me, you won't find it cheaper anywhere else". 
Starting to feel the pucker factor yet??
I can speak from experience of owning my own business since 1995 that I have had numerous occasions where I have gotten quotes, from two separate brokers, for the same coverage, from the same insurance company and the premiums were miles apart. In every case, the highest price was from my current broker who got lazy or greedy and thought I would continue to renew without checking with another broker from time to time. I have saved 10s of thousands of dollars over the years by making my broker compete for my business. These savings do NOT represent different premiums from different insurance companies, these are savings for the same coverage with the same insurance company, just different brokers!
Most recently, last Oct I contacted my aviation related broker (NIG) who handles my policies for my Mooney, hangar, and contents and advised them I needed to get a personal policy for my RV-9A that I had just gotten the airworthiness certificate for. I wanted full coverage starting with the 1st flight with $100,000 hull. I was totally expecting to have to grab my ankles on this one. It had been a week or two and I still hadn't heard back from them and so I decided to get a quote from NationAir just to have something to compare. I gave them the exact info I had given NIG and they quickly came back with a quote from Chartis that totally surprised me. Totally affordable, no ankle grabbing necessary. A day or two later, I finally got my quote from NIG, also from Chartis, but considerably higher premiums and liability only coverage during Phase I, full-coverage starting Phase II. Never heard of this restriction before! Although I had decided to go with NationAir (Dah!!), I was so surprised about the difference that I decided to investigate this further. At this point, I had not told neither broker about the competing quotes. I told NIG that something didn't smell right and that the premiums seemed way too high and the Phase I liability coverage seemed unusual. So, they went back to Chartis and came back with a cheaper premium with full-coverage AFTER the first few hours. Again I complained and they supposedly went back to Chartis and finally came back with the same premium amount as quoted by NationAir, but full-coverage only AFTER the first flight.
Okay, so I had enough, spilled the beans about the competing quotes, and of course NIG than claimed they would be able to match the quote that I got from NationAir. Sorry Charlie, too late! Whether their voodoo wasn't working, the force left them, planets didn't line up, calculator made in china, running windows on their desktop, switched to decaf that day, or just incompetent or greedy, I NO longer TRUST them in their ability to represent ME.
Positive Note: Yet, another savings gained by me for getting competitive bids from multiple brokers. If I would have followed the questionable advice from those brokers here on this forum who criticize others for doing this, I would have paid too much to the SAME insurance company, for more restrictive coverage, but hey, the broker would have scored a higher commission. Instead, I've found a new broker (NationAir) who unknowingly competed for my business, knocked it out of the park in both price and service, and made me a very happy and satisfied customer.
My Advice: If a broker says "trust me, we don't set the price and we all quote the same", quickly check your wallet, put your back to the wall, and quickly vacate the room because someone is going to score and it won't be you!
Just my $.02 worth, but it may save you from a uncomfortable experience and lots of $$$.
Starting to feel the pucker factor yet??I can speak from experience of owning my own business since 1995 that I have had numerous occasions where I have gotten quotes, from two separate brokers, for the same coverage, from the same insurance company and the premiums were miles apart. In every case, the highest price was from my current broker who got lazy or greedy and thought I would continue to renew without checking with another broker from time to time. I have saved 10s of thousands of dollars over the years by making my broker compete for my business. These savings do NOT represent different premiums from different insurance companies, these are savings for the same coverage with the same insurance company, just different brokers!
Most recently, last Oct I contacted my aviation related broker (NIG) who handles my policies for my Mooney, hangar, and contents and advised them I needed to get a personal policy for my RV-9A that I had just gotten the airworthiness certificate for. I wanted full coverage starting with the 1st flight with $100,000 hull. I was totally expecting to have to grab my ankles on this one. It had been a week or two and I still hadn't heard back from them and so I decided to get a quote from NationAir just to have something to compare. I gave them the exact info I had given NIG and they quickly came back with a quote from Chartis that totally surprised me. Totally affordable, no ankle grabbing necessary.
A day or two later, I finally got my quote from NIG, also from Chartis, but considerably higher premiums and liability only coverage during Phase I, full-coverage starting Phase II. Never heard of this restriction before! Although I had decided to go with NationAir (Dah!!), I was so surprised about the difference that I decided to investigate this further. At this point, I had not told neither broker about the competing quotes. I told NIG that something didn't smell right and that the premiums seemed way too high and the Phase I liability coverage seemed unusual. So, they went back to Chartis and came back with a cheaper premium with full-coverage AFTER the first few hours. Again I complained and they supposedly went back to Chartis and finally came back with the same premium amount as quoted by NationAir, but full-coverage only AFTER the first flight. Okay, so I had enough, spilled the beans about the competing quotes, and of course NIG than claimed they would be able to match the quote that I got from NationAir. Sorry Charlie, too late! Whether their voodoo wasn't working, the force left them, planets didn't line up, calculator made in china, running windows on their desktop, switched to decaf that day, or just incompetent or greedy, I NO longer TRUST them in their ability to represent ME.
Positive Note: Yet, another savings gained by me for getting competitive bids from multiple brokers. If I would have followed the questionable advice from those brokers here on this forum who criticize others for doing this, I would have paid too much to the SAME insurance company, for more restrictive coverage, but hey, the broker would have scored a higher commission. Instead, I've found a new broker (NationAir) who unknowingly competed for my business, knocked it out of the park in both price and service, and made me a very happy and satisfied customer.
My Advice: If a broker says "trust me, we don't set the price and we all quote the same", quickly check your wallet, put your back to the wall, and quickly vacate the room because someone is going to score and it won't be you!
Just my $.02 worth, but it may save you from a uncomfortable experience and lots of $$$.
