Church Insurance Specialist
When you need insurance for your church building and liability insurance, it’s important to work with a church insurance specialist. Although there are many different insurance agents throughout the US, 99% do not specialize in insurance for churches.
Most businesses require limited coverages, not including the additional insurance protection churches require. As a result, the average insurance agent cannot offer your church the coverage needed.
In addition, the insurance agent will not realize these coverages are available and needed, as their insurance companies do not offer these enhancements.
This creates multiple gaps in a church’s insurance coverage, which leaves these churches entirely financially responsible.
A church insurance specialist has specific training and expertise related to insurance solutions for churches. They have access to specific church insurance providers, which is not available to most insurance agents.
How Do You Work With A Church Insurance Specialist?
Church insurance brokers represent several insurance companies. Depending on your church’s size, needs, and complexity, the church insurance specialist will recommend a particular company or company.
When designing insurance for smaller churches, your insurance agent may focus on two or three specific companies to meet your needs. These companies may be priced more competitively for smaller churches.
If your church also has a licensed preschool, private school, elementary school, junior high school, high school, college, or a church ministry, this could change which insurance companies are best for churches with schools.
Insurance for larger churches may need access to insurance companies that can provide even greater protection that is not affordable to a smaller church. For instance, larger churches and schools may need an umbrella policy to provide additional security over their abuse limits. Most of the typical church insurance companies will exclude the abuse coverage within their umbrella policy.
When you talk with your church insurance specialist, they will quickly evaluate your needs and obtain the necessary church insurance quotes.
What Information Do I Provide To The Church Insurance Specialist?
In preparation to discuss your church insurance needs, we recommend providing a copy of your entire insurance policy to your church insurance agent. This will allow the church insurance specialist to conduct a complete review of your policies so they can make the needed recommendation.
Upon completing the review, the insurance agent will discuss all of the coverages included, potentially missing insurance coverages, and confirm your church building insurance limits are adequately insured. Depending on how well your church property insurance coverage has kept up with inflation, your church buildings may be severely underinsured.
The insurance agent will also discuss any language concerning the insurance contract identified in their review. The language within your policy can change how a policy responds in the event of a claim. Many churches believe they have coverage protecting them for different liability concerns, only to find out the policy language narrows how the policy will respond by placing strict requirements on the church before coverage would be available.
Your church insurance specialist is there to guide you along the way. Because we represent you, our client, we make sure the insurance company we place you with has the coverage your church needs.
You will also need to have available the following information to obtain a church building insurance quote:
- Legal name of church
- DBA of church (if applicable)
- FEIN number for church
- Church Property Address
- Mailing Address (if different)
- Current church insurance renewal date
- Expiring premiums
- Any claims in the past 3 to 5 years
- Approximate year church was established
- Approximate year each church building was built
- Building Updates
- Roof
- Plumbing
- Heating
- Electrical
- Date fire extinguisher was last inspected
- Square footage of each building
- Total number of church members
- Total number of employees
- Annual payroll when requesting workers’ compensation quote
- List of church owned vehicles
- Year, Make, & Model of each vehicle
- VIN number for each vehicle
- Average distance driven away from the church property
- Any known damage
- List of approved drivers
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Drivers license number
- Any tickets or accidents (past 5 years)
Once we have all of the needed information, we will complete your application, run a replacement cost estimator, and request quotes from the insurance companies that would be the best fit.
As church insurance brokers, our job is to represent our clients’ best interests, not the insurance carriers’. We only need to ensure your church meets the underwriting guidelines established by each insurance company.
Your Church Insurance Specialist Will Identify Available Discounts
In commercial insurance for churches, we can apply for discounts on your behalf as your insurance agent. We must justify each discount we apply or request from the church insurance companies.
Depending on the type of insurance coverage, we may access some pretty substantial discounts. Some insurance companies will also give the power of the discount to the church.
For instance, churches whose premiums meet the insurance companies’ guidelines can take an online course every few years. They may qualify for a 15%, 20%, or even 25% discount on top of any discounts we could include. These discounts can add up to some substantial savings.
Your church insurance specialist will ask many questions about your church and staff. Some of these questions are about underwriting concerns, and others are about insurance discounts they are trying to determine whether you qualify for.
Some of these discounts may include the following items:
- Age of your church buildings
- How experienced are your church staff
- Location of church property
- Strong financial stability
- Crime Index less than 500
- No claims in past 5 years
- Central monitored burglar and fire alarms
- Roof Age less than 15 years old
- Service agreement in place for fire extinguishers
- Playground is fenced and locked
- Not used by outside groups
- Employee handbook
- Ergonomic workstations
- Automatic extinguishing over commercial cooking surfaces
- Painted parking stops
- Risk manager on staff
What Insurance Coverages Do Religious Nonprofit Organizations Need?
As mentioned, churches require additional coverages that are not needed by other organizations. Your church insurance specialist will make specific recommendations based on your church’s needs.
From the outside perspective, most people think all churches are the same. While we may all be on a mission for Jesus Christ, churches come in all shapes and sizes and require different church liability insurance protection.
Some of the most common church insurance coverages include:
- Church Property Insurance
- General Liability Insurance
- Abuse and Molestation Insurance
- Directors and Officers Insurance
- Workers’ Compensation
- Employment Practice Liability Insurance
- Religious Expression Coverage
- Business Auto Insurance
- Mission Trip Insurance
- Group Health Insurance
- 15 Passenger Van Insurance
- Bus Insurance
While your church may not need all of these coverages, these are some of the most common insurance coverages your church insurance specialist will discuss with churches. Your church insurance specialist may also recommend additional coverages not mentioned above, such as a crime policy, builders’ risk coverage, inland marine policy, umbrella insurance, earthquake insurance for churches, and flood insurance for religious organizations.
Your church insurance specialist must be provided with as much information as possible. Through this dissemination of information, they will design and develop a church insurance program tailored for your church.
Can Two Churches Share FEIN Numbers?
Believe it or not, this is a common assumption churches make. We ask for your church’s FEIN number when obtaining church insurance quotes. It is expected that we share our FEIN number with this church, school, or nonprofit.
As your church insurance specialist, we need to know if these other churches, schools, and nonprofits are ministries of your church or completely different organizations.
If they are an extension of your organization, sharing FEIN numbers is acceptable. However, we will need to include them as part of the total church insurance program, as these two ministries are one and the same.
You cannot share FEIN numbers if your church and the other church are not in the same ministry. This is because you are two separate business entities in the eyes of the government and insurance companies.
We Want To Be Your Church Insurance Specialist
Integrity Now Insurance Brokers has the experience your church needs. We have helped thousands of churches throughout the U.S. obtain the coverage they need at an affordable price.
We are here to help you obtain the needed church property insurance and church liability insurance.
The owner is also a youth pastor. As a youth pastor and lifelong church member, he established his company to help churches. This experience gives him the needed insight into the issues churches face every day.
Contact us today and let us know how we can best serve you. You can complete our online church quote form or call us.
