Personal lines · independent broker
Home insurance.
Standard HO-3 / HO-5 coverage on the home you own. Single-family, townhome, duplex — we match you to a carrier whose appetite fits your roof age, square footage, and any non-standard features.
What it is.
A homeowners policy is really four policies stacked: dwelling coverage, other structures, personal property, loss of use. On top sits liability and medical. The trick is that each of these has sub-sublimits buried in the form — and the carrier's default sublimits often don't cover what you'd assume they do (jewelry caps at $1,500, water-backup caps at $5,000, etc).
The lines in your policy.
Each one is its own knob. The carrier's default rarely fits a real life.
What a claim looks like.
Three anonymized files. Numbers are illustrative.
Slow leak, three weeks before discovery. Hardwood, drywall, cabinets affected. Total claim around $48K. Policy pays in full minus the $1K deductible — IF the water-damage sublimit is set at $50K. With the carrier's $10K default, the homeowner would have eaten $38K. We catch this on every read.
Carrier adjuster offers a partial roof replacement at $11K. Homeowner invokes the appraisal clause (allowed under most policies) and engages an independent adjuster. Final settlement: full roof + gutters at $24,800. The clause was the lever; without it, the partial offer would have stuck.
Friend's child is bitten. Medical + settlement runs $42K. Homeowner carries Coverage E at $500K (we'd recommended bumping from default $300K two years prior). Carrier pays the full claim plus defense costs. Premium delta for the upgrade had been around $40/yr.
How to read a home policy.
The four things worth looking for on the dec page, in the order we read them.
The first page tells you who's actually covered, on what address, and under whose legal entity. A surprising number of policies have the wrong name, the wrong address, or a missing additional insured, and you don't find out until you file a claim. Cross-check it against your driver's license, your title or lease, and any contract that requires you to be insured.
Policy limits are abstract until you stack them against the assets they protect. A $300k liability limit feels generous in isolation; against a $1.2M home and a college fund, it isn't. Walk down each numbered line on your dec page and ask: if this were the cap on the worst day, would I be okay?
Page one shows you the base form. Pages four through twelve show you what the endorsements added, and, more importantly, what they took away. Water-damage exclusions, roof-payment schedules, named-storm deductibles, scheduled-valuables caps. These small numbered forms decide more claims than the headline limits do.
Carriers re-rate, re-form, and re-endorse policies at every renewal. If you keep last year's dec page, a side-by-side read takes ten minutes and tells you which limits drifted, which sublimits got cut, and which endorsements quietly disappeared. It's the single most useful habit in personal insurance.
Frequently asked questions.
What does "replacement cost" actually mean?
Two flavors: replacement cost on the dwelling means the carrier rebuilds the structure regardless of depreciation. Replacement cost on personal property means they replace your 12-year-old TV with a new one, not a depreciated one. Both are usually worth paying for; many policies default to ACV (actual cash value) on personal property unless you ask.
How do I know my dwelling coverage is enough?
We pull your square footage, construction type, and zip from the carrier's quoting tool, then cross-check against Marshall & Swift / Xactware reconstruction estimates. If they're more than 10% apart, we flag it. Most policies older than 5 years are under-insured by 25-40%.
Is flood covered?
No. Flood is always a separate policy through the NFIP or a private flood market. We write both. Sewer/water backup is different from flood — that one is an endorsement on your homeowners policy, and we add it for most clients in low-lying KCMO neighborhoods.
Do you handle claims, or do I deal with the carrier directly?
We're not a public adjuster, but we coach you through the claim and step in when the carrier's offer looks low. Roughly one in six claims ends up getting a meaningful bump after we get involved.
Want a second read on your home policy?
Send us your declarations page. You'll get it back marked up, in plain language, with the gaps and the over-coverage flagged, yours to keep, no obligation to switch.
or phone (913) 408-7280
We're an independent broker. We represent you, not the carrier , paid by the carrier we ultimately place with, but accountable only to the person whose name is on the policy. Read more about how we work.