Top 5 Hacks To Lowering Your Flood Insurance Cost
Lowering Your Flood Insurance Cost
In the face of increasing flood risks, securing adequate flood insurance coverage is essential for homeowners and businesses alike. However, the rising costs associated with flood insurance premiums can be a significant financial burden. At Coastal Insurance Solutions, we understand the importance of protecting your property without breaking the bank. That’s why we’ve compiled the top five hacks to help you lower your flood insurance cost while still maintaining comprehensive coverage.
Given the unpredictable nature of weather patterns and the growing frequency of extreme weather events, the need for reliable and affordable flood insurance has never been greater. Our expert insights aim to guide you through various cost-saving measures that can mitigate not just the financial impact of floods, but also ensure a quicker recovery from any potential damage.
1. Increase Your Deductible
One sure fire way to lower your flood insurance cost is to increase your deductible—the amount you pay out of pocket before your insurance coverage kicks in. By opting for a higher deductible, you can reduce your flood insurance cost significantly. Increasing your deductible can be done on your existing policy and a higher deductible can be selected upon purchase on a new policy. Either way, the most sure-fire hack to lowering flood insurance cost is to increase your deducible. However, it’s essential to ensure that you have sufficient savings to cover the higher deductible in the event of a flood. Coastal Insurance Solutions can help you assess your financial situation and determine the optimal deductible amount for your needs.
2. Provide an Elevation Certificate
While elevation certificates are no longer required to purchase coverage under NFIP’s pricing approach, Risk Rating 2.0, a property owner may choose to provide an elevation certificate and submit it to their agent to determine if it will lower their cost of insurance. Private flood insurance providers also often offer discounts for properties with elevation certificates.
An elevation certificate is a document that certifies the elevation of a building relative to the base flood elevation determined by FEMA. Buildings located above the base flood elevation are at lower risk of flood damage and may qualify for premium discounts from private insurers. By providing an elevation certificate to your insurance provider, you can demonstrate that your property is at reduced flood risk, potentially leading to lower premiums on your private flood insurance policy. This incentive encourages property owners to invest in mitigation measures such as elevating structures, which not only reduce flood risk but also result in long-term cost savings on insurance premiums. Coastal Insurance Solutions can help you obtain an elevation certificate and leverage it to secure discounts on your private flood insurance policy, further reducing your flood insurance cost while ensuring comprehensive coverage for your property.
3. Understand and Mitigate Your Flood Risk
Implementing flood mitigation measures can significantly reduce your property’s risk of flood damage and directly lower your flood insurance cost. Simple measures such as elevating utilities, installing flood barriers, and improving drainage systems can greatly enhance your flood risk profile. Both NFIP and private insurers are likely to offer reduced premiums if your utilities are elevated away from flood-prone areas of your home, such as the basement or garage, thus reducing the flood insurance cost. This strategy keeps your most valuable assets away from the highest-risk areas, minimizing potential flood damage. Coastal Insurance Solutions provides comprehensive flood risk assessment services designed to help you identify potential hazards and effectively reduce your flood insurance cost.
4. Consider Private Flood Insurance Options
In addition to a potentially massive decrease in flood insurance costs, private flood insurance policies often have shorter waiting periods before coverage becomes effective. Unlike standard NFIP policies, which require a 30-day wait from the time coverage is written until it goes into effect, private policies can reduce the flood insurance cost by becoming active more quickly. FEMA implements this waiting period to prevent just-in-time policy purchases before a major weather event.
Private flood insurance policies also offer higher coverage limits, ensuring that homeowners have adequate protection for their property and belongings, ultimately influencing the overall flood insurance cost. A flood insurance policy separates your home’s building coverage and contents into two primary areas of coverage against flood risk:
Building Coverage
This coverage for your home insurance policy covers the building itself, including attached fixtures, plumbing and electrical systems, furnaces, water heaters, carpeting, flooring, and more. It also extends to detached garages and solar energy equipment, impacting the flood insurance cost by providing broader coverage.
- The NFIP caps coverage at $250,000 for single-family homes.
- A private market flood insurance policy can provide coverage up to $4,000,000.
Contents Coverage
This protects your personal belongings, including clothing, furniture, electronics, and detached appliances like washers and dryers. It’s another area where flood insurance costs can be adjusted based on the coverage limit.
- The NFIP provides up to $100,000 in actual cash value coverage.
- A private market flood insurance policy can provide coverage up to $1,000,000.
Private flood insurance policies may cover additional items and structures that NFIP policies do not, such as detached garages, sheds, and certain personal property, further affecting the flood insurance cost. Unlike the NFIP, which does not cover structures not permanently attached to your home like garages, pool houses, or sheds, and specifically excludes swimming pools, private market options like Neptune may include coverage for swimming pool repairs & refill costs up to $10,000 if that coverage extension is chosen. Neptune also offers up to $50,000 in optional coverage for unattached structures, potentially reducing your overall flood insurance cost.
5. Compare Multiple Flood Insurance Quotes
Compare Private Flood Insurance Quotes
Homeowners can compare flood insurance quotes online in minutes with Coastal. Simply enter your address and a few details about your home and you be comparing multiple online quotes in under 3 minutes. Count on the flood insurance experts at Coastal Insurance Solutions to guide you through your options and ensure you have the coverage needed to better protect your home.
About the Author
David W. Clausen is the CEO of Coastal Insurance Solutions. With over 20 years' experience and over 1 billion insured, David and Coastal Insurance Solutions are the recognized leaders in high net worth insurance. For the fifth consecutive year, David Clausen has been awarded Top Producer by Insurance Business America and the 2023 Agents of The Year by Insurance Journal. David is a trusted high net worth insurance expert who’s published more than 200 articles. His articles & press releases have generated over 500K pageviews and has been featured on blogs such as Google News, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, Market Watch, Fox, The New York Times, etc. David founded Coastal Insurance Solutions in 2001 after earning a BBA from the State University of New York College at Oswego.
