Believe or not insurance rates for personal and business insurance are at some of the lowest rates in years. 

The reasons for this include:

Insurance companies continue to see record returns in the stock and bond markets.

In simple terms they are making hefty returns by taking your insurance premiums and investing them in the financial markets.  The more premium dollars they bring in the more the can invest equals more profit.

Insurance companies haven't faced major catastrophes in the recent years on a country wide basis.  Insurers might have faced some local or even regional catastrophic losses but, widespread losses haven't happened in consecutive years.

Here is how you can take advantage of the situation if you are with a direct writing insurer (State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Allstate, or Farmers).  Ask your current agent what they recommend to get their company's best rate.  There might be new discounts that you can take advantage of that weren't available the last time you renewed your policy.  You also should call some of the other direct writers to get competitive quotes. 

If you are with an independent insurance agent that represents many companies ask which companies they are obtaining quotes from and call other independents to see what companies they have available. 

For business owners it is even more important in dealing with independents to give each agent a choice of a couple insurance companies to quote from.  This will give each agent the opportunity to get the best possible pricing from each of their selected companies.  For instance if your current agent has selected companies a, b, and c to get quotes from but doesn't go to company d for timing or other reasons, you might be missing out on the most competitive quote.  On the other hand, if your current agent has only companies a, b, and c to quote from and a competing agent has companies d, e, and f to go to the chances of getting the most competitive quote are that much greater.

It may take a little bit of effort on your part (not much) but, for your home, auto, or business it could save you thousands of dollars.

Gary Hanson

Professional Insurance Strategies

www.proinsgroup.com