[V8] Physician heal thyself: I forgot my own insurance coverage

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Once upon a time, back around the dawn of time I was an insurance agent, and
owned three different insurance marketing organizations.  Most of my
business was in commercial general lines, and required that I travel
continuously to service, see, and maintain contact with my clients against
potential competition from local agents and agents that had sales forces and
were far larger than me.  

 

Anyway, as I have written previously, my GMC pickup is toast, burned beyond
recognition while plowing.  Sad but true, that nearly exceptional example of
a fine heavy duty pickup truck is gone to glory, and I am without hauling
capability of any kind, precisely when we are in the midst of a move to a
new home.  Sigh.

 

Well, I did have coverage on the truck.  I had put comprehensive insurance
on the truck a bit less than two years ago, prompted by the fall of a dead
fir tree after a wind storm.  Lucky I did.  But I approached the appraisal
and valuation of the loss with a certain element of trepidation because in
point of fact, the truck was fourteen years old, and despite its impeccable,
rust free condition, I have had far more experience with insurance company
claims departments than most people will ever even dream about.  I needed
not to worry.

 

I knew how to do my homework, so I read everything that I could find on line
about current valuations of trucks like mine.  I KNEW  that the current NADA
“book” value was around $7200, and I figured that anything less than that
would be fighting grounds.  

 

I also had a plow on the nose of the truck at the time of the fire and knew
that plow might create a certain difficulty in valuation.  The plow was a
Boss straight 7 ½’ plow which cost around $4500 mounted with sales tax on my
truck four years ago.  I knew that my mechanic had bought a used Boss plow a
year two ago after a search, and he paid around $1500 for it, which he
reported a steal.  I looked in the sell and swap magazine that comes out
every week and there was only ONE used Boss plow for sale and that owner
wanted $2800 FIRM for it
it was only one year old.

 

After the fire I promised my wife that I would NOT plow again, and indeed
where we are moving, I will clear snow away with a snowblower.  So my
interest was merely adhering to the stipulation of the policy, which was
“fair market value” for the plow.  I knew there was to be a “negotiation”.

 

Now, the insurance company’s procedure was to send a wrecker to the site of
the truck (a servicing garage located about a mile from where my building
is, and where the fire took place), and haul the truck/wreck to an impound
yard in Saco, which is almost two hundred miles from here in southern Maine.
Once there their appraiser would view the truck, report his findings back to
the company home office in San Antonio, Texas where a “Total Loss Committee”
would review the claim and apply a valuation. They have their own valuation
services to use, and their own “books”.   A lot of people gasped when I said
the truck was being towed away, but that is the insurer’s process and I
still held the title in my grubby fist.  I also have the insurance
commission on speed dial.

 

About three weeks it took, but one afternoon I got a call from the insurance
company claims office. Their valuation of my truck was just over $7500
including tax, and my net after deductible was something over $7200.  They
were still working on the plow and would call me later.

 

On the first of April I got a call, and their valuation of the plow was
$640.  Politely I said that, no, that would not due at all, and I would
provide them with fair market value for the plow at the time of loss and
would call them back.

 

I then called the Boss plow dealers around and got zip:  they have no used
Boss plows, NEVER see used Boss plows,  a new one would be just about $4500
plus tax, installed.  I then printed the ad for the one used Boss plow that
I knew of in Maine, and called them back with the information, offering to
fax them the information that I had.

 

The woman with whom I spoke was very pleasant and authoritative.  She left
the phone for a minute to review all the previous information in the file
along with the policy.  When she returned, I was in for a shock.  It seems
that I had purchased an equipment endorsement for my vehicle policy back
when I first moved here in 1991.  I had bought a very nice ’87 Ford F150 4X4
that fall.  That truck came with a VERY nice Leer cap that I knew cost a
bunch of money new, so I had put the $5000 value endorsement on the truck
policy.  

 

Thus the plow was actually insured for its full replacement value at the
time of loss, and all I had to do was send the insurance company either the
original bill of sale or a statement of purchase price on the dealer’s
letterhead, and they will pay the full value of the loss.   I had forgotten
all about the “inside” details of my auto policy.

 

I never read my auto policy. In fact, I never even SEE my auto policy
because unless I deliberately thumb through the company website to read it,
I just know that it is the same basic auto policy with the same values as
has been there for thirty nine years.  So I forgot that I had really done a
good job insuring myself in 1991.  

 

And the insurance company was better than I was at the time of loss.  Good
thing.

 

Roger