The marina called this morning My boat is under water!!!!

[rondds]

i didnt realize that nonsense happened with marine ins too! heaven knows, it goes on all the time with auto insurance.

i had one claim with allstate on my regal back in the fall of 1999. hit something, needed a new alpha drive. allstate paid the whole thing, sight unseen, and it never came up again. not when i applied to state farm and BOAT/US for my next boat (spring 2002), or when i went back to Allstate for this current boat (july, 2004).

 

[First Born]

Guys insurance companies are for profit organizations.

http://www.osbie.on.ca/risk-management/risk-assessment-toolkit/priority-chart.aspx

Frequency - likely hood that a claim will happen
Severity - resulting damage from a claim that happens

Basically if the severity is low you should use any risk management technique except insurance. Insurance is intended to help keep you or your business going in the event of a tragic event that would have otherwise put so much of a financial burden on you that you would not be able to continue.

In fact, insurance companies (or underwriters) avoid or try to avoid a client with a mind-set of, "Why should we care about that, isn't that why we have insurance?" Insurers call that morale hazard, poor attitudes or casualness about safety due to the existence of insurance as a safety net.

That is my Risk management 101 lesson for the day, there are some really good sites out there that will go into it alot further.

Now to reality in Hotlanta's case he has already turned in the claim because when it occured he did not know how bad it was, who was responsible, how it happened, etc. Once a claim is turned in might as well go ahead and collect on it. Also say that he has more damage resulting from the loss that was not identified (not sure what, so maybe I am pushing it here) but if he goes back and tries to make a claim after a year they are going to deny the claim for not notifying the company as soon as the potential of a claim was identified.

now time for a disclaimer - I have no idea what I am talking about, I have no knowledge of personal lines insurance. Everything above is of an opinion basis which I am sure will be challenged any minute. If you have any specific questions about insurance you should always contact your insurance professional.

 

[Skip]

Big Boats are different. I insure with USAA for all our vehicles, property, life, etc. But they do not insure vessels valued at over 100K. Thus you get into the marine specific carriers, with deductibles as a percentage of your total insured value. This then changes the pain threshold for what you are willing to claim. As gary alludes to above, insurance claims on big boats are for catastrophic issues.
So it goes.
Skip

 

[Nehalennia II]

Hey Hotlanta. I'm glad you're back in action!

 

[rondds]

Insurance companies CERTAINLY are "for profit." check marsh & mclennan's 4th quarter and 2006 year-end numbers.