Joseph Kaufman

Hi, this is Joe Kaufman "The Home Insurance Guy" Thank you for visiting my website. I run a family-owned agency here in Saint Peters, MO. We are a full-service agency that specializes in Home Insurance. There are many ins and outs when it comes to covering one of your biggest assets (your house) with insurance.

I wanted to take the time to answer some of the most frequently asked home insurance questions to help you be a little bit smarter about your options. It's important that you have an understanding of what your home insurance covers and avoid some mistakes that can potentially cost you thousands in the event of a claim. Here are the 3 most important home insurance topics to be aware of:

FAQ 1: What is the difference between Full Replacement Cost and Actual Cash Value?
To me, this is the most important need to know topic when it comes to home insurance. This can be the difference between having a solid policy that pays out the way you want it to or costing you thousands out of pocket. So a full replacement policy means the company will replace everything like it is brand new. This includes the outside structure and the contents.

An Actual Cash Value policy or ACV will take depreciation into account in the event of a claim so the older the house and contents are the less money you get if you file a claim. For example if you have a 15 year old roof and have an ACV (Actual Cash Value) policy and it gets ruined by hail you will be paying almost completely out of pocket to replace the roof, but a full replacement policy will replace the roof brand new minus the deductible.

Another example would be if a fire swept through your house a full replacement policy would replace your 20 year old couch like you just bought it the day before the fire. An actual cash value policy will pay pretty much what you can get on craigslist for it so a very big difference. At our agency the only policies we write are full replacement even though it is a few hundred cheaper to do an ACV Policy.

What is a Percentage Deductible?
Many insurance companies try to reduce their risk exposure by doing % deductibles for wind/hail and I get asked what exactly does this mean. Is that a % of the damage or what is the deducible if something happens? First of all wind/hail is the most common claim that happens and the biggest risk so you will see a % deductible that means it is going to be a percentage of your dwelling.

For example if you have a 2% wind/hail and your house has a $300,000 dwelling then you will have to pay out of pocket $6,000 if there is a wind/hail claim. This will help keep your premium down as the higher deductible you have the lower your premium., but wind/hail is the most common home insurance claim so you want to make sure there are no surprises when filing a claim.

What are the main perils or covered claims when it comes to a typical home insurance policy?
Great question here is a list of what your home insurance is there to protect you against:
Fire or lightning
Windstorm or hail
Explosion
Riot or civil commotion
Damage caused by aircraft
Damage caused by vehicles
Smoke
Vandalism or malicious mischief
Theft
Volcanic eruption
Falling object
Weight of ice, snow or sleet
Accidental discharge or overflow of water or steam from within a plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or automatic fire-protective sprinkler system, or from a household appliance
Sudden and accidental tearing apart, cracking, burning, or bulging of a steam or hot water heating system, an air conditioning or automatic fire-protective system
Freezing of a plumbing, heating, air conditioning or automatic, fire-protective sprinkler system, or of a household appliance
Sudden and accidental damage from artificially generated electrical current (does not include loss to a tube, transistor or similar electronic
component)

I hope this helps answer some of your home insurance questions. Feel free to reach out to Joe Kaufman " The Home Insurance Guy" at 636-293-9498 (Call or Text)

Hi there! This is Joe Kaufman with Farmers Insurance and having a solid auto insurance in place is important to make sure if disaster strikes you are covered. Also Farmers has just released a new auto insurance product that is crushing our competition when it comes to pricing.

In this brief article we will cover what liability limits are along with some solid features you should have on your auto policy. Let’s start with liability limits, this is the most that your policy will pay out in the event of a bad at fault accident. For example: 100/300 means that the policy will pay out $100,000 per person for injuries and up to $300,000 per accident if more than one person is injured.

These liability limits range from 25/50 (state minimums in Missouri) to an umbrella policy that starts at a million. Now if you have low limits and are in an at fault accident where the injuries are above what you have they can get a lawyer and come after you so it is important to have good limits.

A full coverage simply means your vehicle is covered by comprehensive like hail damage, theft or hitting a deer as well as collision coverage. There are other features that can be added that are really beneficial if you find yourself in need.

Towing/Roadside is one I highly recommend and is usually pretty cheap to have on the policy. Also we offer windshield replacement which we will fix a small nick for Free or replace the windshield if need be. The other one that can be important to have is Rental Reimbursement so if your vehicle is in the shop due to an at fault accident we will give you rental while it is being repaired.

Those are just a few key points on auto insurance. Give us a call or text to (636) 244-4597 and we can prepare a proposal for you with our amazing rates and great coverage.