By Michael Steele Homeowners Insurance May 5, 2020

Your Top Choices for Homeowner’s Coverage

When it comes to purchasing homeowner’s insurance, it’s important to do your homework before signing on the dotted line and handing over your hard-earned money.

This is why, using our decades of combined experience, the team at IHS Insurance Group has compiled a list of top carriers we believe are worth taking a look at if you’re in the market for homeowner’s insurance. Granted, there’s no single option that’s sure to meet everyone’s unique combination of needs and preferences, but we believe these companies are worth investigating.

Before diving in, let’s quickly outline our three main selection criteria: coverage, cost, and customer feedback.

Why is the Coverage Provided by a Homeowners Insurance Carrier Crucial?

For many of us, our homes represent one of the biggest investments we’ll make during our lifetime, so it’s ultra-important that you protect it sufficiently with coverage that’s as comprehensive and well-rounded as possible.

For example, it’s ideal that your carrier offers coverage options like replacement cost on your dwelling and personal contents, extended replacement cost to help cover unforeseen expenses, and high liability limits that can protect you in the event of an accident on your property.

What’s the Importance of an Insurance Carrier’s Customer Feedback?

A company’s customer support department is the direct link between you and your insurance carrier. Therefore, their quality (or lack thereof, sometimes) can make or break your overall experience when it comes to things like billing, policy changes, coverage questions, and so forth, regardless of coverage or price (more next).

As a result, you’ll want to focus on home insurance companies that come with high marks from clients related to their promptness, friendliness, and knowledge.

Furthermore, make sure that adjusters have reputations for helping customers with the claims process, and that the carriers pay claims and make repairs promptly.

Another important factor in this regard is a carrier’s financial strength rating according to organizations like A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s, which measures their ability to pay claims to policyholders and meet other financial obligations. After all, the point of insurance is to have coverage when you need it, so make sure that any carriers you consider have strong financial ratings.

How Does Cost Factor into Which Insurance Carrier You Should Choose?

It’s not necessarily the case that paying more for your homeowner’s insurance will deliver better coverage, customer support, or claims experiences. Similarly, paying as little as possible might not deliver what you need if a loss occurs to your property.

Still, you’ll want to focus on insurance companies that have reputations for balancing affordability and providing a solid level of value for the money.

With these details in mind, we’ve listed our top three homeowner’s carriers below, the details surrounding why we chose them, along with their high-level pros and cons.

Carrier #1: Allied Trust

Allied Trust is a relative newcomer to the marketplace, who’s offered fully customizable home insurance policies to residents of Texas and Louisiana since 2015. The company also bundles flood and personal umbrella policies, provides online access for paying bills, viewing your policy, and downloading documents, and offers a variety of payment options.

Pros:

Offers an HO-3 policy form
Competitive rates

Replacement cost loss settlement options on all coverage amounts

Cons:

Currently writes in TX and LA, only
Making policy changes after issuance can be time consuming
The company doesn’t always calculate an accurate home replacement cost

Carrier #2: Nationwide Allied

Nationwide is a Fortune 100 company with an A+ (Superior) A.M. Best financial strength rating. Currently, they’re one of the top 10 property and casualty carriers in the US, who also offers a suite of other insurance options, including homeowners, which could be helpful if you need other lines.

In general, Nationwide has a reputation for catering to the mid-to-upper end of the homeowners market.

Pros:

Express policy system delivers easy, accurate policy quoting and issuance
Excellent financial strength, experience in the homeowners market, and claims-paying programs
Multiple policy coverage endorsements and options: equipment breakdown, A/C on roof, low deductibles, enhanced personal property coverage, etc.

Cons:

Less competitive rates on lower-value homes
No online client quoting capabilities
Although their mobile app is highly-rated, its auto and homeowners functionality is lacking

Carrier #3: Safeco

With Liberty Mutual as its current parent company, Safeco is a property casualty insurer who’s been in business since 1923 and writes homeowners insurance across most of the US.

They offer a wide range of coverage options, including identity recovery, valuable articles protection (jewelry, fine art, sports equipment, etc.), equipment breakdown, personal property replacement cost, and single-loss deductible if your home and auto are damaged in the same incident.

Safeco also offers significant multi-policy and newer home (less than 10 years old) discounts.

Pros:

Great bundling discounts for home and auto policies

Excellent claims payout
Overall customer satisfaction across all lines is one of the highest in the industry

Cons:

Rates can be unstable, depending on the area
Safeco relies heavily on Liberty Mutual’s financial strength
Home insurance customers leave behind mostly unsatisfactory reviews

How Can You Learn More About the Best Home Insurance Companies?

Shopping for home insurance isn’t always easy, especially if you have questions or concerns about any of the companies you’re considering. The team at IHS Insurance Group can help you select options that meet your needs and preferences, and that tick all the boxes when it comes to coverage, customer feedback, and cost.

In the meantime, would you like to obtain a FREE Quote, we have two convenient ways to reach us:

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