How often does your association bid it’s insurance policy?  How many agents are asked to bid? Does the current agent get to choose which companies to bid before other agents are asked to find different companies to bid?

 

Thank you.

 

Naomi Cohen

 Speaking for condominiums in the Seattle area, almost every single property uses an insurance broker.  Those brokers usually provide a comparative bid every year before renewal.——————————_Steve HorvathSeattle, WACondo Connection: condoconnection.orgSMAARTE Consulting & Management: smaartegroup.com-—————————–

We renew annually.Our agent will canvas the market place and test the waters for others that may want to bid. We are doing that now and he has reported that 2 big outfits have declined to bid.  We are waiting on 1 more.

Our agent also screens for reputable companies and we deal only with those that are highly rated in the industry.Your agent will probably tell you that to change to a different company, the new company will actually want to come out and inspect before writing a policy.This can be a time consuming process.  We currently have a good reputation with our company for low volume/cost of claims and it has already proposed a renewal with very little increase in cost.So, being a regular customer is often a good thing.  Changing companies every year? Not so much.
-—————————-PaulGerton, President, ArlingtonVA——————————

As a Condominium community manager, we had a very close relationship with our Insurance broker. Insurance is the largest line item on the budget year after year. Each year our Broker would present 2-4 options/quotes from different carriers to the board about 3-4 weeks before renewal. You can’t really go to multiple “agents” or Brokers for quotes because they will end up locking each other out of the markets. Essentially, a large firm or established Broker is going to have the best relationship with the carriers and offer you the best coverage for a competitive price. If you need a referral, feel free to reach out to:

Taylor Bacot, CIC
Vice President
Alliant Americas
D (713) 624-6315
C (713) 775-2520
E Taylor.Bacot@alliant.com
alliant.com

While I’m an insurance agent, I would typically say that while periodically going to bid is fine, the relationship your association has with the insurance service provider and the quality of carrier(s) the association is with are far more important than the pricing aspect.

Usually if you want to go out to bid, you’d involve an independent broker that accesses several carriers that may offer coverage.That all said, the relationship is what matters most. If you’re with a good set of insurance companies and the service provider you has provides great service, I’d typically say it makes sense to stick with who you’re with.
-———————Brian Kalmenson ——————————