In our experience, good insurance companies that act in good faith tend to make copies of their policies easily obtainable. Bad insurance companies that act in bad faith tend to make copies of their policies very hard to obtain. If your insurance company allows you to download a copy of your policy from their online portal, then, in our experience, you can breathe a sigh of relief.
The catch is: how do you know what the policy looks like?
A lot of agents and insurers will send you a copy of the declaration page or send you a summary when you ask for a copy of the policy. A lot of times they will try to pass off the summary or declaration page as the actual policy form itself. Do not let them pull the wool over your eyes.
The best way to ensure that you are receiving the actual policy is to ask for “a certified copy of the policy with all endorsements.” The actual policy form with all endorsements will be a document that is typically over 30 pages and is commonly more than 50 pages long. If you’ve received a document that is only 8-10 pages long, you can be almost positive that you did not receive an actual copy of your policy.
Why is it so important to get a copy of the actual policy and not just a summary? The devil is in the details. The actual policy form contains the legal language of the contract – remember that an insurance policy is a contract. A summary of a contract is not the contract itself. To properly determine coverage, you must know the actual legal language of the policy to know exactly what is covered and what isn’t covered.
Unbelievably, there are several insurance companies whose agents do not have copies of polices. We have spoken with agents who don’t actually know the difference between an actual policy and a summary – or if they know the difference, they plead ignorance when asked for a copy of the actual policy. Imagine if you went to a car dealership and a car salesman tried to sell you a car that he had never actually seen, or driven. His only experience with the car was having read about it in a brochure. Would you trust his opinion of the car? An insurance agent who sells you a policy they have never read is the equivalent of a car salesman who sells you a car they have never seen. How do you know what’s actually being covered by your insurance policy when the person who sold it to you doesn’t know what’s covered either?
If you have a question about your policy – even if you want to know whether you are looking at a copy of your policy – shoot us an email or give us a call.
info@fair.claims
571-989-FAIR
