Personal lines · independent broker
Renters insurance.
The cheapest insurance you'll ever buy. Covers your stuff, your liability, and a place to stay if your rental is damaged. Most policies run $15–25/month.
What it is.
Renters runs $15-$25/month for most policies. It's the only insurance most twentysomethings will ever buy, and it's the cheapest dollar-for-dollar coverage in the personal lines. Liability protection is the bigger value than the contents — a single "my dog bit my neighbor" claim pays for fifty years of renters premium.
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.
A washer hose in your unit fails overnight. Water damages two apartments below yours. Building covers the structure; you're liable for $18K in damage to neighbors' property. Renters liability pays in full minus the deductible. Without it, that's coming out of pocket.
Burglar takes laptop, TV, jewelry, gaming console — $4,800 total. Replacement-cost renters pays you $4,300 after the $500 deductible. ACV-only policies would have paid less based on age and depreciation.
Upstairs neighbor's kitchen fire makes your unit uninhabitable for 6 weeks. Loss-of-use pays the difference between your normal rent and the temporary furnished rental, plus restaurant meal differential and pet boarding.
How to read a renters 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.
Do I need renters insurance if my landlord has insurance?
Yes. Your landlord's policy covers the building structure, not your belongings or your personal liability. They're entirely different policies.
What's the difference between replacement cost and ACV?
Replacement cost pays what it'd take to replace your 5-year-old TV with a new one today. ACV pays the depreciated value (which could be a fraction). Replacement cost is usually $20-50/yr more — worth it.
Are roommates covered on my policy?
No, unless they're listed by name. We typically recommend each roommate get their own renters policy — they're cheap, and shared policies create complications at claim time.
Does it cover floods?
No. Flood (rising water from outside) requires a separate NFIP or private flood policy. Water damage from a burst pipe inside the unit is covered.
Want a second read on your renters 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.