NHSI, Author at National Hurricane Survival Initiative

How to Hurricane-Proof Your Home… Affordably

March 6, 2019 by NHSI

Hurricanes can cause tremendous stress to homeowners, even before they hit. From grocery stores jam-packed with frantic shoppers to gas stations lined up with thirsty cars, preparing for an upcoming storm causes stress for just about everyone around town. And even after the storm has passed, it often may leave countless obstacles scattered in its wake. One of the most daunting post-hurricane challenges is assessing the damage to your home (and figuring out how to pay large, unexpected bills to repair the damage).

Now imagine a different way. Instead of the usual stress and frustration associated with such an ordeal, you can be calm and collected while assessing the storm’s aftermath. You’re able to do this because you were fully prepared to face the storm before it hit. Your home was already armed with a backup generator, storm shutters, and wind- and water-resistant measures securely in place. The best part is, you were able to do it all through 100% financing with no money down.

A unique and efficient program called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) makes this possible. Scientific American has proclaimed the PACE program as one of its top 20 “world-changing” ideas; PACE is an affordable program that allows homeowners to make energy efficient and hurricane protection improvements to their homes that will continue to benefit them long after hurricane season has passed.

According to a survey by the National Hurricane Survival Initiative, 66% of Floridians identified installation of impact-resistant windows as one of their top three home-hardening preferences. With wind and water damage contributing significantly to a hurricane’s disastrous after-effects, PACE eligible storm protection improvements can greatly reduce the potential damage of a hurricane, including high-impact doors and basement membrane waterproofing.

“Everyone wants their home to be able to withstand the worst of a hurricane, but not every family’s budget has the means to make home hardening possible,” says David Kelly, Senior Vice President of Sales with Ygrene, a PACE provider and national leader in clean energy financing for storm home improvements. “Floridians are fortunate that the state is one of just three in the nation that allow residential PACE, so they should take advantage by investing in their future while increasing their property’s value now.”

The process for getting PACE financing approval is simple, taking just three easy steps:

Get qualified
Select a project
Choose a contractor.

Homeowners can get prequalified in less than thirty minutes with an online application, and their entire project is 100% financed with no money down. Even repaying the financing is easy; payments are added onto and made with the owner’s property tax bill and can be delayed up to a year or more, with the cost spread out over the lifetime of the financing agreement (sometimes up to 30 years). Eligibility is primarily based on factors other than credit score, such as home equity.

PACE projects aren’t just proactive ways to start preparing for the inevitable challenges of hurricane season. PACE home improvement solutions can also result in a more sustainable home for you and your family. Options such as solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, and wind turbines may help lower your utility bills.

In the end, the greatest value of PACE-financed improvement is the peace of mind that comes with knowing your home is properly hardened against the forces of nature, before they happen. The more prepared you are before the hurricane, the less you’ll need to worry once it arrives.

Ygrene PACE Financing How it Works from Ygrene Energy Fund on Vimeo.

For more information regarding Ygrene and how you can begin the PACE process today, visit Ygrene.com.

When Typical Homeowners’ Insurance Isn’t Enough

March 1, 2019 by NHSI

People want the best home protection possible for their families, and Floridians in particular understand how important this is when it comes to hurricane preparation. As a former Florida insurance commissioner, Kevin McCarty understands this better than most.

McCarty’s career with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation began right before Hurricane Andrew devastated much of South Florida in 1992, providing him a firsthand look at how severely a storm can impact the state. Through the intensity of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, when Florida was battered by eight named storms including hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, McCarty was witness to massive disaster areas with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of damages. McCarty knows how unexpectedly dangerous and damaging hurricanes can be.

“It is unfortunate that many people only learn the terms of their homeowners’ policy coverage after a catastrophic event occurs. Imagine their surprise and regret when they learn that things like spoiled food, evacuation costs, family mementos, luxury goods and similar items are not in fact covered under their standard policy,” McCarty says. “Fortunately, a new innovative new product allows homeowners to obtain affordable supplemental coverage with proactive claims processing that will put cash in their hands quickly and allow them to return to their normal routines as soon as possible, without the stress of the traditional claims adjusting process.”

To protect his own family, McCarty uses a supplemental coverage called StormPeace. Offered by Assured Risk Cover, StormPeace strengthens a homeowner’s policy with no inspections, adjusters, or deductibles by covering expenses that are normally excluded in homeowners’ policies. McCarty recognizes the reality of many families in Florida who live paycheck to paycheck – as well as the urgency to resume their lives and the helpless frustration they feel over long claim times. StormPeace offers peace of mind in these situations; after Hurricane Irma, for example, 100% of StormPeace’s policyholders were paid, with 98% of them receiving funds via direct deposit within 72 hours.

No Deductibles or Adjustments

StormPeace is available for homeowners, renters, and mobile homes. A claim and attestation of damage is all it takes to initiate payments, and a detailed listing of actual losses is available afterwards. The streamlined claim filing system has been modeled so the process is quick and hassle-free.

A Parametric System

StormPeace is what’s called a “parametric” insurance, meaning policyholders can receive payments once the specified parameters are met. StormPeace focuses on two predetermined factors: the distance between your property and the center of the hurricane, and the strength of the storm when it’s closest to your property.

Reduced Waiting Period

Since the parameters are easy to find out and verify, the claims process is simplified and access to funds is almost immediate. The National Hurricane Center provides real-time hurricane tracking, so once the payment conditions are met, StormPeace uses the GPS locations for insured properties to reach out to policyholders about their claims eligibility within 24 hours of the hurricane end. All that’s required is a claim and attestation of damages to receive your payment within 72 hours!

No Landfall, No Problem

All nearby hurricanes are eligible, even if they don’t actually make landfall. StormPeace understands that hurricanes can cause significant damage, regardless of landfall or not.

Not Your Typical Coverage

Payments can be used for any out-of-pocket expense that directly resulted from the hurricane, including water damage of all types, as well as spoiled food, damaged pools, and fallen trees. Another potentially major expense that isn’t covered by most typical insurance policies is the cost associated with evacuating. A survey by the National Hurricane Survival Initiative revealed that 40% of respondents spent $500 or more as a result of evacuating for Hurricane Irma, and 58% stayed put despite evacuation recommendations.

Learn more about how StormPeace works here or visit www.stormpeace.com

Don’t Go Into Another Hurricane Season Without This Important Business Tool

August 31, 2018 by NHSI

Speed of recovery means everything for businesses. You don’t want to wait days or weeks after a hurricane to reopen, because that’s lost income. What’s more, many businesses see a surge in demand after a hurricane, so they absolutely have to stay open or at least minimize downtime.

That’s why Assured Risk Cover created StormPeace for businesses. It’s designed to give business owners the cash infusion they need immediately after a hurricane so they can get back on their feet quickly.

Business interruption coverage is becoming increasingly popular, yet it has its limitations. Most commercial insurance policies require proof of physical damage before they will pay for business interruption. StormPeace, however, offers business interruption coverage with or without physical damage, because often all it takes is a power outage or evacuation order to force a business to close its doors.

Florida businesses are preparing for this hurricane with StormPeace – because the faster they recover, the sooner their customers and the local economy benefit. They can apply the funds toward a wide variety of expenses, including:

Temporary location rental
Transportation
Debris cleanup
New equipment
Business income loss or payroll expenses
Repairs

Like the StormPeace residential policy, applying for business coverage is simple. Just provide your business name and address and choose a policy limit, up to $60,000 and lower than your hurricane deductible, if you have one. There’s a simple, painless claims process and you’ll receive your payment within hours of the hurricane. The amount you receive is calculated based on the strength of the storm and its distance from your business location. It doesn’t matter how the loss was caused (e.g. by wind, flying debris, water, rain, storm surge, or mold from water), so long as the triggers are met.

According to FEMA, 40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster, and another 25% that do reopen fail within a year. A small business can be extremely vulnerable to a major weather event, and it represents years of sweat equity and investment. The stakes are too high to leave anything to chance.

Get started at www.stormpeace.com today!

Parametric Insurance Puts Money in Your Pocket

August 29, 2018 by NHSI

What’s the one thing you can’t live without? It probably took you .07 of a second to answer, “My phone, of course!”

Our phones are indispensable. Without our phone, we can’t look anything up, listen to music, communicate with others, or purchase anything. It’s our lifeline and your constant companion.

So why are we still asked to abandon the “smart” part of our smartphones and use the same old dialing method when transacting with insurance companies? Admittedly, some are getting better at putting the customer experience on the smartphone. There are some great examples, like Lemonade, Metromile, and GEICO.

But – and here’s the big but! – there’s still too much friction when you try to file a claim after disaster occurs. You have to look up a phone number, call the number, sit on hold, speak to three different people, provide your policyholder number (and who knows where to find that number anyway?) and wait another 15 minutes until you’re given some kind of assurance that you’re being taken seriously and someone will look into your claim.

Or maybe you go to your insurer’s website and open up one of those dreaded chat windows. You can bet the uncertainty and delays only get worse when hundreds of other people are trying to get answers online after a major disaster.

As J.D. Power notes, “most insurers’ digital offerings are lacking in insurance-specific capabilities such as processing claims, effective shopping and servicing of policies.”

It shouldn’t be this difficult for the consumer.

Fortunately, two breakthroughs have converged to ease the pain of the interminable claims process:

Parametric insurance has shortened the time to payment.
Mobile technology has made it immediate.

You can now have a claims payment hitting your bank account within hours, with no hassle or human interaction.

The problem has been around forever: Too many things happen during a disaster that aren’t covered by a typical homeowners policy. With the exception of the dwelling and contents, few things damaged or destroyed are covered. Historically that put consumers in a bind, until advanced data science and computing came along and made it possible to insure all these additional risks. In fact, if it doesn’t appear in your homeowners policy, a supplemental hurricane policy will cover it.

Here’s an example of how parametric and mobile are teaming up to help people recover faster. Let’s say you live in Florida and a hurricane passes through your town, toppling a huge tree in your driveway. Now you’re stranded because your car is stuck in the garage. To make matters worse, you lost power, your food is spoiling, and you can’t get out to restock until the tree has been removed.

Few of us would have the cash sitting around to take care of these urgent matters quickly. If you’ve been through a hurricane, tornado, or similar disaster, you know the first 24 to 48 hours can be paralyzing. Your world is turned upside down.

However, if you had purchased a StormPeace policy, you can get the money you need almost instantly. There’s a painless claims process because the computer instantly calculates how much dough you’re eligible to collect. The amount is based on the strength of the storm and its distance from where you live.

So, you’re sitting on your front step lamenting your situation when all of a sudden you get an email saying you’re eligible for a claims payment. All you have to do is click “accept” attesting to the loss claims amount, and the money is wired to your bank. It’s like “found money” because you even forgot you purchased that parametric policy! And it’s a good thing your insurer notified you electronically, because your phone is about the only thing you own that’s working at the moment.

Applying for a StormPeace policy couldn’t be simpler:

Submit your name and address
Select a limit
Click buy

Parametric insurance has been around for a while, used by many businesses. But StormPeace is one of the first companies to deliver this valuable tool to homeowners and other consumers. It provides the peace of mind that they’ll have money in their pocket to handle those surprise expenses that pop up, like needing to buy a generator, repair a pool cage or boat dock, or replant landscaping. They can also use the funds to meet their homeowners’ deductible, which can run into the thousands. Without meeting that deductible, repair work on your house will be delayed even longer.

Thanks to StormPeace, all you need is your smartphone to buy an insurance policy and get paid after the storm! You can still call us, too. Visit www.stormpeace.com to get started.

Six Tips for Preparing to Protect Your Family and Home This Hurricane Season

August 22, 2018 by NHSI

When it comes to protecting what matters most, FedNat Insurance Company wants to use its 30+ years of safeguarding experience to remind homeowners how they can best be prepared for the unpredictability of hurricane season in Florida.

1. Review your insurance policy

Discuss your policy with your insurance agent to make sure you understand what is covered and how much your deductible is. Flood insurance is a separate policy and typically has a 30-day waiting period, so don’t wait for a storm to develop before you seek to obtain coverage.

2. Create a disaster supply kit

The kit should include items such as flashlights, batteries, cash, first aid supplies, sunscreen, bug repellent, trash bags, medicine, chargers, water and non-perishable food.

3. Develop emergency plans

Map evacuation routes and set up family communication plans. Remember that phone service might not be available, so think of other ways of communicating such as email, social media or texting. Include pets in your plans. Store insurance information and other important documents (such as passports) in an easily accessible location and on the cloud.

4. Conduct a home inventory

Create a paper or digital inventory of your home’s contents. Include photos or videos of your home and belongings along with receipts, descriptions and estimated values.

5. Prepare your home

Keep tree limbs trimmed away from your roof, so large branches don’t fall and damage your home. Be prepared to fortify your doors, windows, roof and other vulnerable points with protective devices and have extra parts for hurricane shutters and other storm-proofing tools on hand. Remove any debris or items from your yard that could become projectiles in a storm.

6. Stay connected

Consider downloading weather-monitoring apps and subscribing to your local community’s wireless emergency alerts. Listen to local officials for updates and instructions.

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