Clearsurance: Despite Recent Natural Disasters, Homeowners Fail to Enhance Coverage

A recent online survey of 1,000 U.S. individuals uncovered that the majority (87 percent) are concerned about a natural disaster striking their area but very few have taken action to protect themselves from being uninsured or underinsured. Of those that said they took action, the majority went no further than reviewing their policy. Only 18 percent enhanced their homeowners coverage and 12 percent purchased a new insurance plan.

“We conducted this survey following a string of devastating events across the country and the findings highlight a clear problem: consumers’ lack of knowledge about their own homeowners policies and what is and is not covered,” said Todd Kozikowski, co-founder and chief revenue officer for Clearsurance, a crowdsourced review, rating and educational platform for the insurance industry that conducted the survey and presented results in its Natural Disaster Report.

“This is why we created Clearsurance. Our aim is to help people make smarter insurance decisions by empowering them through education and reputable reviews shared by other consumers. This knowledge will ultimately help homeowners secure proper coverage for property losses, and be ready for inevitable natural disasters in the future.”

Kozikowski cited data from CoreLogic that 70 percent of flood damage from Hurricane Harvey was uninsured to underscore the concern that an overwhelming majority of victims are not adequately covered.

Other findings from the Clearsurance survey include:

• The most frequently noted natural disaster claim filed was wind damage at 28 percent, followed closely by flood at 25 percent
• Wind and flood were followed by ice (15 percent) and earthquake (12 percent)
• The least commonly filed claim was wildfire at 10 percent nationally, though it was notably higher for respondents from the West at 25 percent
• 82 percent of participants are expecting a rate increase for their policies following the 2017 storm season
• 35 percent of those expecting a rate increase think it will be 10 percent or more and 47 percent expect it to be between 1 and 9 percent

Massachusetts-based startup Cleasurance.com currently has ratings of 370 insurers on its site.