Many Bay Area Consumers are Under insured because...

San Francisco consumers beware - at a certain point in your financial lives you need a different type and form of home/auto/ and umbrella insurance!
Examples of this include:

• Homes that are not protected by enough Extended Rebuild Coverage for a true rebuild.
• Homeowner Policies that have a narrow Liability form
• A non ISO auto policy with very large gaps in Coverage
• An improperly formed Umbrella policy that fails to cover a claim
• Misalignment of the named insured on a home insurance policy

Although many of the above examples may sound involuted or abstruse, they are real examples.
For many consumers once they have a net worth of $10 Million or more, it tends to seem obvious that they need an insurance specialist to back them. But for those that have net worths between $5 and $10 MM it is often is much less obvious. These so called sub High Net Worth Individuals need help too, according to a report of Hanover. At Marindependent Insurance Services LLC , we tend to agree.
Some of my findings over the years have demonstrated to me the following:

• Most Consumers have never once thought about how much Coverage they carry to rebuild their home. Can you honestly rebuild your Tiburon home with that much coverage A?
• Many Customers have never read their liability policy and do not even know what personal injury coverage is.
• Almost no one, outside the insurance industry has ever heard of the ISO.
• Few remember to check their umbrella declarations for the listing of any minor personal insurance policies.
• Clients rarely consider all the entities involved a standard HO3 or HO5 policy.

The good news is that during your annual review, some of these items should be addressed. The bad news is that if you are with one of the standard insurers, they may not be able to accommodate many of these so called gaps in insurance. Some of these gaps I call Affluent Insurance Gaps. Affluent Insurance Gaps are special holes that regular insurers will not cover. Affluent insurers - attempt to fill many (but not all) of these affluent coverage holes.
Some carriers choose to provide LESS BROAD coverage to keep premiums low. Remember you can save 15% in ten minutes or less! And that is great when you make $25,000 year, but when you make $752,938 per year, is saving 15% matter when you have a net worth of $6MM and another $9MM in future income potentially coming in?

Get Real - Proper Risk Protection takes time, sometimes months long. It take money, yes it will cost you more. It requires honesty - Why lie if your kid is delivering Pizza in Larkspur? Lastly - it takes an agent that is independent and willing to take on your situation.
You may might not have a $10MM net worth yet... but you might some day.

Scott W Johnson is the Manager and Owner of Marindependent Insurance Services LLC - a Marin Based Insurance Agency / Brokerage. A specialist in harder to write risks and affluent insurance.