[TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

On 11/28/2013 11:36 AM, Kenneth Goodwin wrote:
> Jim has hit the nail on the head.  Another area that all of the major
> insurance carriers departed from after Hurricane Ike was the Texas coast
> (one mile from any body of water was the State Farm cancellation policy).  I
> wouldn't file a claim today unless the entire house was damaged so
> essentially I am only insured against a total loss.  Even then if you read
> the details of an insurance policy, the claim rules change significantly.
> Most of these changes (e.g., change in the deductible for peril against a
> named storm)

Named Storm:  Does that now mean the new policy of naming winter storms 
removes them as well?

73

Roger (K8RI)

> are beginning to be clearly spelled out in the policy.  So to
> file a claim for just a tower is an invitation to cancellation and with a
> recent claim on record (publically available data), you will find out what
> expensive insurance really means.  I would highly suggest the ARRL equipment
> insurance.  It is a marine policy, no questions asked, solely based on the
> insured value in dollars and you can specifically pick what you want
> insured.  Again recent claims may result in a denial from the ARRL
> subcontracted insurance company.  Personally I can't wait until all of this
> hits New Jersey/New York and I can listen to them scream and cry foul.
> Obviously they were not paying attention to the Katrina, Ike and Florida
> insurance policy holders.  Ken K5RG
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 07:15:29 -0800
> From: Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net>
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower
>
>
> On aspect, not specific to Kimo's anecdote, is that experience with
> insurance companies before 2007 may not be relevant today.
>
> The market and banking system anomalies hit insurance companies hard.
> In school you learn about the idealized scheme where the sum of all the
> premiums collected from all policy is slightly more than the sum of all the
> loss payouts for the year.
>
> However, in reality, what happens is that the money that is paid in, and not
> yet used to settle claims, is invested in various speculative instruments
> ranging from T-bills/T-bonds to Credit Default Swaps and other exotic
> investments.  In "good times" the profits from these investments allows the
> insurance company to charge lower premiums for a given loss experience (e.g.
> they only need to collect enough that
> premiums+investment profits is > loss payouts).
>
> AIG, for instance, was making money hand over fist by taking the counter
> side to mortgage defaults: e.g. they were betting that the mortgages
> wouldn't default, and they could collect premiums and never payout.
> This allowed them to offer very competitive rates in their other lines of
> business.  OOps, that didn't work so well when the laws of probability went
> against them.
>
> So, now, insurance companies in general have to charge higher premiums:
> the investment income isn't there, the loss payouts are still there, so
> premiums have to go up.  Or, they can manage the future loss payouts.
>
> And the latter is being manifested in a variety of ways:
> Here in Southern California, it is becoming VERY hard to get new policies
> written on existing houses, because large swathes of subdivisions are now
> deemed "high fire risk"; essentially you draw a boundary some X hundred feet
> from the boundary to undeveloped land, an everything in there is in the
> hazard zone.  Whether they are or aren't in real life is irrelevant  (There
> are lots of cases where the concern is legitimate.. urban/wildland interface
> is a big problem).  The problem is that anything that triggers a
> re-evaluation is a potential cause for your insurance going away.
>
> I think this is similar to the problem in Florida with hurricanes.  The big
> players have decided it's not worth it to insure houses in FL any more.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk