[2018] Hurricane Michael (1 Viewer)

I'm sitting here thinking about whether his insurance covers the truck.
Absolutely no way. Insurance companies are the world's greatest bookies. They play the numbers better than anyone and rarely lose in the insurance game. Even if someone would insure him while using his vehicle in these storm chaser excursions, the cost would be so high that you could probably just buy a new vehicle with the premiums.

Brett: "Hi Mr Insurance Man, I'm Brett Adair. I'd like to get some insurance for my vehicle here."

Insurance Man: "Wow. That's a pretty fancy truck. I see a lot of equipment in there. Are you looking to insure the contents as well?"

Brett: *I sure would. And hopefully I can get full replacement cost in the event everything here is totaled".

Insurance Man: "Well, I'm sure we can help you. What is the approximate cost you have in everything you have here?"

Brett: "$97,000"

Insurance Man: "Well, you'd probably be looking at about $22,000 to 25,000 per year for full replacement coverage. But exactly what do you use this fancy vehicle for?"

Brett: "I'm a storm chaser. I take this vehicle to the heart of the worst weather I can find, including hurricanes and tornadoes."

Insurance Man: "Ooooooohhh!... well I'm glad you mentioned that bit of information. I will have to give you a quote from our 'special uses' rate book. Hmmm, just a second here.... Oooookay,... the rate for 'storm chaser' is $78,000 per year."

Brett: "$78,000??? That's almost what it would cost me to buy new equipment outright!"

Insurance Man: "Well, did I explain that the premium drops to $70,000 per year after you've been accident or claim free for three years?"

Brett: "Well, if that's the best you can do... I suppose I'll have to go with that."

Insurance Man: "Okay then... let's take a few moments to write your new policy. Oh, and by the way... keep in mind that you will have a $20,000 deductible."
 
If you have damage to your vehicle from a storm like this, I suspect the insurance carrier will ask questions if it is not at or near the home location listed in the policy. So if you live in New Orleans and your vehicle sustained damage in Mexico Beach (or nearbye) from Hurricane Michael, they’re likely gonna want to know why the vehicle was there.
They might pay the claim but renewal will be tough. I mean, why would an insurance carrier want to insure a vehicle that is intentionally put in harms way? Duh.

My sugestion is that if you are a storm chaser, get a cheap vehicle and self insure it but carry liability .
 
Absolutely no way. Insurance companies are the world's greatest bookies. They play the numbers better than anyone and rarely lose in the insurance game. Even if someone would insure him while using his vehicle in these storm chaser excursions, the cost would be so high that you could probably just buy a new vehicle with the premiums.

Brett: "Hi Mr Insurance Man, I'm Brett Adair. I'd like to get some insurance for my vehicle here."

Insurance Man: "Wow. That's a pretty fancy truck. I see a lot of equipment in there. Are you looking to insure the contents as well?"

Brett: *I sure would. And hopefully I can get full replacement cost in the event everything here is totaled".

Insurance Man: "Well, I'm sure we can help you. What is the approximate cost you have in everything you have here?"

Brett: "$97,000"

Insurance Man: "Well, you'd probably be looking at about $22,000 to 25,000 per year for full replacement coverage. But exactly what do you use this fancy vehicle for?"

Brett: "I'm a storm chaser. I take this vehicle to the heart of the worst weather I can find, including hurricanes and tornadoes."

Insurance Man: "Ooooooohhh!... well I'm glad you mentioned that bit of information. I will have to give you a quote from our 'special uses' rate book. Hmmm, just a second here.... Oooookay,... the rate for 'storm chaser' is $78,000 per year."

Brett: "$78,000??? That's almost what it would cost me to buy new equipment outright!"

Insurance Man: "Well, did I explain that the premium drops to $70,000 per year after you've been accident or claim free for three years?"

Brett: "Well, if that's the best you can do... I suppose I'll have to go with that."

Insurance Man: "Okay then... let's take a few moments to write your new policy. Oh, and by the way... keep in mind that you will have a $20,000 deductible."

Ha, I hear you.

I was actually thinking he has commercial insurance (it's his business) and that risk is part of the business. If he's insured the way he should be, he probably pays a high premium but he's covered when he's doing what he does - chase storms.

They'll write anything if you'll pay for it. I was wondering what @efil4stnias thought, that's his game.
 
Ha, I hear you.

I was actually thinking he has commercial insurance (it's his business) and that risk is part of the business. If he's insured the way he should be, he probably pays a high premium but he's covered when he's doing what he does - chase storms.

They'll write anything if you'll pay for it. I was wondering what @efil4stnias thought, that's his game.
Trust me... whatever the deal is, the insurance company ain't going to lose a penny because the insurance policy will not go into effect until the premiums have totaled the full amount of what was lost. That's just how the insurance companies roll.
 
Looks like I missed the excitement / terror when I was at the doctors office. hope they're ok.
 
Trust me... whatever the deal is, the insurance company ain't going to lose a penny because the insurance policy will not go into effect until the premiums have totaled the full amount of what was lost. That's just how the insurance companies roll.

Please stop.

Thats not how they roll. And if you ever had to file a claim and get indemnified for a loss, you know. it.

Thats some Facebook rant crap.
 
Anyone here wish they could be a storm chaser?

To the extent we saw today? No. Get 300 yards from an ef0 or ef1 tornado in the plains with a great view? absolutely. Its actually on my bucket list. As far as Hurricanes go,not really because of the surge. The winds dont scare me much,but drowning in the wind is a major fear.
 
Trust me... whatever the deal is, the insurance company ain't going to lose a penny because the insurance policy will not go into effect until the premiums have totaled the full amount of what was lost. That's just how the insurance companies roll.


Well to be fair, insurance companies are not supposed to lose money. They would go out of business and we need insurance.

Nor does your loss equal your premium. Rather what insurance companies do is spread the risk by insuring thousands of homes and cars. The insurance companies will take a big hit on a storm like this, but there might be thirty years in between big storms like this on the panhandle and years of premiums collected to offset the loss.

Storm chasing is such a rare and odd occupation that they might not even ask such a question on the application. With the thousands upon thousands of cars that will be damaged in this storm, losing one or two to stormchasers might not even be a big enough deal for them to even go through the effort of writing up an exclusion.

Now will the insurance companies nickel and dime people on their claims? That's for sure, but even that varies for company to company and adjuster to adjuster. I fight with insurance companies for a living and there are some good folks working on claims too. That said, if a policy can be interpreted in one of two ways, they will interpret in the way that makes them pay less.

Fortunately for us, in La if a policy is written vaguely and subject to interpretation , the law requires it be interpreted in favor of coverage.
 
Ha, I hear you.

I was actually thinking he has commercial insurance (it's his business) and that risk is part of the business. If he's insured the way he should be, he probably pays a high premium but he's covered when he's doing what he does - chase storms.

They'll write anything if you'll pay for it. I was wondering what @efil4stnias thought, that's his game.

Thats exactly right.

When someone obtains a commercial policy, they have to provide a description of operations. Underwriters will then match it with the best classification code they have on hand. So if an insurance carrier provided a storm chaser with insurance, barring any reEdikulus exclusion ( which the Agent would have to catch - if not - hello E & O - and chuck can expand on that...E & O topics make me ill lol) , they are on the risk. Period. Full stop.

There are several factors at play, but basically whomever underwrote this policy for him knew exactly what he was doing and he paid premiums that were calculated of exposure.

FWIW, Lloyds of London will write insurance for A N Y T H I N G....for a price lol
 
Well to be fair, insurance companies are not supposed to lose money. They would go out of business and we need insurance.

Nor does your loss equal your premium. Rather what insurance companies do is spread the risk by insuring thousands of homes and cars. The insurance companies will take a big hit on a storm like this, but there might be thirty years in between big storms like this on the panhandle and years of premiums collected to offset the loss.

Storm chasing is such a rare and odd occupation that they might not even ask such a question on the application. With the thousands upon thousands of cars that will be damaged in this storm, losing one or two to stormchasers might not even be a big enough deal for them to even go through the effort of writing up an exclusion.


Now will the insurance companies nickel and dime people on their claims? That's for sure, but even that varies for company to company and adjuster to adjuster. I fight with insurance companies for a living and there are some good folks working on claims too. That said, if a policy can be interpreted in one of two ways, they will interpret in the way that makes them pay less.

Fortunately for us, in La if a policy is written vaguely and subject to interpretation , the law requires it be interpreted in favor of coverage.

It absolutely isn't asked on a personal auto policy application. If you use the vehicle for ride sharing or for hire in other ways is asked because you'd need a commercial policy or endorsement for the ride sharing. With the amount of losses that are going to come from this on comp claims for PAP's for people living in Florida alone, I doubt storm chasers' vehicles would factor into the equation whatsoever.
 
Well to be fair, insurance companies are not supposed to lose money. They would go out of business and we need insurance.

Nor does your loss equal your premium. Rather what insurance companies do is spread the risk by insuring thousands of homes and cars. The insurance companies will take a big hit on a storm like this, but there might be thirty years in between big storms like this on the panhandle and years of premiums collected to offset the loss.

Storm chasing is such a rare and odd occupation that they might not even ask such a question on the application. With the thousands upon thousands of cars that will be damaged in this storm, losing one or two to stormchasers might not even be a big enough deal for them to even go through the effort of writing up an exclusion.

Now will the insurance companies nickel and dime people on their claims? That's for sure, but even that varies for company to company and adjuster to adjuster. I fight with insurance companies for a living and there are some good folks working on claims too. That said, if a policy can be interpreted in one of two ways, they will interpret in the way that makes them pay less.

Fortunately for us, in La if a policy is written vaguely and subject to interpretation , the law requires it be interpreted in favor of coverage.

LAw of large numbers, concentration of risk, etc etc...all factored in already.

Someone living on the coast is going to pay significantly higher wind rates than someone 250 miles inland.

for commercial insurance, we absolutely have to know what you do for a living to properly classify the risk. Are there agents that will misclassify? sure. Are there clients that will purposefully mislead what they do to obtain a lower rate? absolutely. But each are far and few between....but there are safeguards in place ( E & O for Agents....material misrepresentation for insureds purposefully misleading carrier as to what they do)

And companies dont earn their profit off just premiums paid...they invest. So if done wisely, they will always turn a profit unless something like this happens ( and then they call their REINSURER lol )

Recently, carriers have found that the bad PR is way worse than battling someone who just lost everything in a storm.
 
It absolutely isn't asked on a personal auto policy application. If you use the vehicle for ride sharing or for hire in other ways is asked because you'd need a commercial policy or endorsement for the ride sharing. With the amount of losses that are going to come from this on comp claims for PAP's for people living in Florida alone, I doubt storm chasers' vehicles would factor into the equation whatsoever.

You might be right, but on the claim, there's a designation the insured has to make about whether they were engaged in business at the time of the loss.

People always ask me about whether this or that would be okay, and it usually involves some kind of misrepresentation about tax or insurance. I tell them "Don't ask me to tell you it's okay to commit tax (or insurance) fraud. If you think the chance of them catching is it really slim, and I agree with you that it probably is slim, that's still your call to make on a risk management basis - don't ask my opinion on whether you should do it."
 
You might be right, but on the claim, there's a designation the insured has to make about whether they were engaged in business at the time of the loss.

People always ask me about whether this or that would be okay, and it usually involves some kind of misrepresentation about tax or insurance. I tell them "Don't ask me to tell you it's okay to commit tax (or insurance) fraud. If you think the chance of them catching is it really slim, and I agree with you that it probably is slim, that's still your call to make on a risk management basis - don't ask my opinion on whether you should do it."

If a stormchaser is using his PERSONAL AUTO to chase storms, and is live feeding/tweeting/on the news over the past several years, and his personal agent says " i didnt know what he did for a living" the courts in La would be like " yeah ok well someone paying ( usually E & O if carrier stands firm on declination of coverage) "
We spend a good bit of time fleshing out what our clients actually do before we even go to market on a risk. We have to in order to protect ourselves and our clients from having a claim denied. Plenty times ive lost a client because i had them properly classified, but the rates were just so high only to have them obtain insurance from another and find out they were mis-classified. ( to a lower rated class ). If that agent wishes to roll the dice and HOPE no claim , far be it from me to stop em. lol
 

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