Q8. My mortgage information has changed, do I need to call you or will they?

By all means, call us! We cannot emphasize this enough. Even if you are told that notification will be sent it would be best for you to call. The number one reason for cancellation at our agency is from inaccurate mortgage information being listed on policies where an escrow exists. It is rare indeed when a lender notifies us with changes to an insured's escrow or mortgage information. The typical scenario goes like this:

Mr. Doe has a mortgage with lender BLUE and has an escrow set up for his insurance renewal payments. Sometime during the policy term Mr. Doe changes to a different mortgage holder, either because he chooses to or because lender BLUE is bought by another entity. In this case, let's say lender BLUE is bought by lender RED. Maybe one of the lenders tells Mr. Doe that his insurance agent will be contacted about the change and not to worry about it, but in the many steps involving the sale, that notice is never mailed out. When the next renewal period rolls around the renewal invoices are mailed to lender BLUE because that is the lender still listed on the policies. Lender BLUE receives the invoices but when their records are checked, they see that they no longer have an escrow account for Mr. Doe. So, they toss those invoices into the garbage can. Lender RED does have an escrow account, but never receives an invoice because the insurance agent and the issuing company do not know about lender RED. Mr. Doe doesn't worry overly much about the expiration and cancellation notices he is receiving because he knows he has paid his premiums to his lender every month. It is not until the policy is cancelled that Mr. Doe finds out that his agent never received the new mortgage information.

The moral of this story is two fold. First, if you make any changes that may affect your policy (mortgage, address, phone number, etc) please call us so that we can update your records and policies. Second, never ignore expiration, late, or pending cancellation notices. If you receive one of these notices then something is very wrong and if you call immediately, we can usually prevent cancellation.