Article: How to save money by reporting claims early

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 06/04/2019 06:39 PM EDT

Hi Home Inspector Forum Readers!

For the first article of the month, we really wanted to address an industry pain point: fear of the insurance company. Most of the time, if inspectors delay or avoid reporting complaints, it's because they're afraid that the insurance company will mishandle them and/or up their premiums. But, there are lots of reasons why reporting claims early is important?and many of those reasons involve home inspectors saving money. We hope to shed some light on a few of those benefits.

Enjoy!
Stephanie

How To Save Money By Reporting Claims Early

Let's face it: Insurance companies have a bad reputation. Most people don't trust insurance carriers (let alone like them). And, while many people learn this distrust from others, some learn it from bad experiences with the insurance companies themselves. With a culture of skepticism surrounding insurers, it isn't surprising why home inspectors don't want to report complaints to their providers before they turn into claims. After all, isn't free legal help with no effect to your premiums too good to be true?

Not here at InspectorPro. In fact, not only do most policies come with free pre-claims assistance, but most policies also have a Waiver of Deductible Endorsement. In Part 2 of our deductible discount series, we break down how Waiver of Deductible Endorsements like the one we offer here at InspectorPro can save you money. (For those of you who missed Part 1, you can check it out here.)

You can save money by reporting claims early.

When you report a claim, the most you will owe your insurance carrier is your deductible. However, there are ways to pay less. You can receive discounts by reporting your claims promptly.

In a recent article for the Insurance Risk Management Institute (IRMI), risk manager Christopher Mandel explained the importance of reporting claims early:

"All insurance claims must be 'reported' to be investigated and resolved. The timing of this most important first step in the claim administration process is critical as it is well established that the more quickly claims are reported, the more likely it is that all relevant evidence can be secured, and the more efficiently the claim will be resolved. And, often, doing so often leads to lower claim costs."

Since timing can play a pivotal role in claims handling, many insurance companies offer early reporting incentives in the form of deductible waiver endorsements of up to 50 percent off to encourage insureds to quickly report potential claims to the insurance company. Let's go over some of the key characteristics of early reporting incentives.

[READ MORE]