If you’re a New York resident looking for insurance, you’re in the right place. We’ve compiled all the info you need to help you find home, auto, life, health or long term care insurance right here on this page.
We recommend you read it over, contact the New York State Insurance Department at (212) 480-2301 with any questions, and let us help you find the coverage you need today.
Auto Insurance
Healthy competition exists amongst auto insurers in New York. Nearly 270 insurers currently write auto insurance policies there, with over $8 billion generated annually. Choosing your insurer wisely will help ensure you get the auto insurance protection you and your family deserve.
Residents of New York are required to purchase certain minimum amounts of auto insurance to satisfy the financial responsibilities of owning and operating an automobile in that state.
These coverages include:
- Personal Injury Protection (PIP)
- Bodily Injury Liability—Protects you against claims alleging your negligence or fault in an accident. State-mandated minimums are $25,000/$50,000, with limits of $50,000/$100,000 respectively in the event of death.
- Uninsured Motorists—Provides bodily injury protection for you and your family members, as well as anyone to whom you give permission to drive your automobile. Required minimums are the same as those for bodily injury liability.
- Property Damage Liability—Insures against damage to another person’s automobile or property. State-mandated minimum is $10,000.
Car insurance companies also offer additional protection through coverages not extended in state-mandated minimums. These types of insurance further protect you and your family in case of an auto accident. Some non-required options include uninsured motorist, comprehensive and collision. Ask a licensed auto insurer to explain these added policies, their coverages and prices in NY.
Tips for lowering your insurance premium include:
- Find out what insurance will cost before you buy a car.
- Set deductibles at the highest possible levels.
- Inquire with your insurance company about any discounts available, such as multiple-auto or multiple-policy discounts.
- Drive safely.
- Don’t drink and drive.
- Maintain a good payment record.
Health Insurance
There are two ways to get New York medical insurance: by purchasing a group plan or an individual plan. Group plans typically offer health insurance through your employer, whereas individual plans are purchased on your own from an independent agent or company.
Your choice in health insurance policies typically include:
- Fee-for-service plans: often called traditional or indemnity health insurance
- Managed-care plans: include Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), and Point-of-Service plans (POS)
If you buy a fee-for-service plan, you and your insurance provider each pay for part of your health care costs. You pay only your deductible when visiting your doctor, and later pay either a co-payment or co-insurance in the amount of 20-30 percent of your total medical costs. Your insurance company reimburses you a predetermined, allowable amount for each health care service. Your choice of doctors and hospitals is unlimited, and no referrals are necessary.
In contrast, if you buy a managed-care plan, no deductible is usually required—but you must use a doctor or hospital within a predetermined network of providers. You must enroll in this type of plan in order to participate, and you are responsible for a periodic, fixed fee. Health care services are billed at negotiated rates in this type of plan. If you choose to go outside the contracted network, services may not be covered, or may be covered at reduced rates.
If you decide to purchase health insurance on your own, follow this process to weed through your options and choose the best company or agent:
Step 1: Determine the type of health coverage that best fits your needs and budget. Analyze your lifestyle, present health insurance needs and ability to pay.
Step 2: Compare costs. Examine necessary monthly premiums, deductibles, co-insurance amounts and co-payments.
Step 3: Look for the benefits you need. Investigate to see which health insurance provider offers the medical services you deem most necessary.
Step 4: Check to see if the doctors you prefer are listed as in-network health insurance providers (if considering a managed-care plan).
Step 5: Consult an independent rating firm (such as A.M. Best or Weiss Ratings, Inc) to see which insurance companies have the best customer satisfaction and performance ratings.
Step 6: Eliminate health insurance companies that do not meet your requirements, and choose the insurer that performs best on the features most important to you.
Home Insurance
Our homes represent the largest investment most of us will ever make. Home and property loss can be devastating and unexpected, so it is vitally important to hold sufficient coverage to help ease any economic and emotional hardship this could bring you and your family.
New York home insurance policies are sold on either a monoline basis or as a package policy. A monoline policy contains coverage of only one type, while a package policy includes several different types.
Homeowners and tenant’s policies are sold in packages that protect against liability, property theft and medical payments. Package policies are generally less expensive than those purchased separately.
Available homeowner’s policies in New York include:
- Homeowners – 1 (HO-1)—A basic policy insuring your home and its contents against certain perils such as fire or smoke damage, windstorms, hail, explosions, bodily injury, medical payments, and vandalism and malicious mischief. Offered by very few insurers, due to its narrow coverage definitions.
- Homeowners – 2 (HO-2 )—Insures against perils in the HO-1 policy, as well as against falling objects; weight of ice or snow; damage resulting from an accidental discharge or overflow of water from within a plumbing, heating or air conditioning system, or automatic fire sprinkler system; and electrical damage to appliances.
- Homeowners – 3 (HO-3)—The standard and most-widely-used policy. Covers your home for all risks of physical loss except those specifically excluded. Also offers coverage for loss of your home’s contents.
- Tenant’s/Cooperative Owner’s – (HO-4)—Insures against damage to an apartment’s contents and personal liability suffered in the insured’s unit.
- Homeowners – 5 (HO-5)—Protects your home against the same perils as HO-3, in addition to covering your personal possessions for all risks of physical loss, except those specifically excluded.
- Condominium Unit Owner’s – (HO-6)—Provides the same coverage as HO-4, but used in insuring condominiums.
- Homeowners – 8 (HO-8)—A modified version of the HO-1 policy, providing actual cash value coverage instead of replacement cost coverage. Generally used when replacement value exceeds the home’s worth.
There are two methods home insurance companies in this state use to settle your homeowners insurance claim. The method used determines the amount you pay in premiums and the amount you receive in the event of a claim.
One technique is insuring for your home’s actual cash value. This pays you for the replacement cost of your home minus its depreciation. This means you are reimbursed what your property was worth immediately before your loss.
Another technique is insuring against your home’s replacement cost. In this case, you are paid what it would cost to rebuild or replace your home using similar materials, up to the limits of your policy. This method pays you more because there is no deduction for depreciation. However, it requires insuring your home for at least 80 percent of its replacement value.
Life Insurance
Life insurance helps bridge the gap between your dependents’ financial needs and monies available to them through other sources in the event of your death. But life insurance issues can be complicated, and many consumers spend large sums of money every year on premiums that are not well suited to them, their families and their lifestyles.
Nearly 140 insurers currently write New York life insurance policies, according to the New York State Insurance Department. Over $188 billion are generated annually through these insurers.
Choosing the right insurance company—and the right coverage at the right price—is vital to ensuring your family’s protection in case of your death. Analyze your family’s lifestyle, determine other financial sources available to them, and choose a policy that would meet their needs in your absence.
Your family can use your life insurance proceeds to:
- Pay off any remaining debts
- Settle your estate
- Provide necessary income
- Pay off a mortgage
- Pay for education
- Provide retirement
Life insurance premiums are based on three concepts: mortality, interest and expense. Because life insurance premiums take into consideration the shared risk of death by a large group of people, an insurer can use a mortality table to determine the average life expectancy for each age group.
Insurers invest your premiums, assuming they will earn a particular rate of interest from these investments as profit. After company expenses are taken into consideration, the insurer then arrives at a premium amount.
State law requires life insurers to provide a “free look” period of a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 30. This allows you time to review the policy, decide whether it is right for you, and cancel it without penalty, if you choose.