Empirical Evidence Showing Why You Should Insure With Regional Insurance Companies

November 18, 2022

Hudson Valley Agents has been touting the benefits of insuring your interests with local and regional insurance companies for thirty years. Many times, this call to action falls on deaf ears. As an independent insurance agency, we have been writing homeowners, car, and business insurance for over thirty years with regional and national insurance companies. However, when it comes to insuring property like homes, rentals, and investment properties, we specifically seek out our regional insurance company partners more often because our region, especially the Hudson Valley, is well insulated against the weather disasters that most of the rest of the country experiences regularly. Recently, State Farm has told its re-insurers that it expects claims from Hurricane Ian in Florida to total $1.03bn and that most likely doesn't even cover damage to vehicles. Guess who gets to share in the rate increases that will no doubt come down the pike? New York policyholders, that's who. On November 10th, an article on bankrate.com mentioned Louisiana’s position along the Gulf Coast and the low-lying areas along its southern border, making it particularly vulnerable to hurricane damage. Because of the risk of storm damage, the state's home insurance market is facing challenges. So, anyone in New York with insurance with a company that writes in Louisiana will likely see an exponential rate increase. Again, on November 10th CBS News reported that Texas now has the 2nd highest homeowners insurance rates in the nation due to a 163% increase in natural disasters over the last ten years. Once again, those rate increases are spread out to policyholders in other states to help ease the pain in that one sector. Anyone reading this gets the point. Hudson Valley Agents writes with seven different regional insurance companies that are domiciled right here in our region and only write business in our area. All of them are A-rated, financially stable companies. Why? Because they do not experience the kind of interstate losses that national carriers like Geico, Allstate, or State Farm do.