Church Insurance Specialist
When you are in need of insurance for your church building and liability insurance, it is important to work with a church insurance specialist. There are many different insurance agents throughout the US, however 99% of them do not specialize in insurance for churches.
Most businesses require coverages that are limited in nature, and will not include the additional insurance protection required by churches. As a result, the average insurance agent will not be able to offer your church the coverages needed.
In addition, the insurance agent will not realize these coverages are available and needed, as their insurance companies do not offer these coverage enhancements.
This creates multiple gaps in a churches insurance coverage, which leaves these churches completely financially responsible.
A church insurance specialist, has specific training and expertise related to church insurance. They have access to specific church insurance providers, not available to most insurance agents.
How Do You Work With A Church Insurance Specialist?
Church insurance brokers, represent a number of insurance companies. Depending on your churches size, needs, and complexity, this will point the church insurance specialist to a particular insurance company or companies.
When designing insurance for smaller churches, your insurance agent may focus in on two or three specific companies to meet your insurance needs. As these companies may be priced more competitively for smaller churches.
If your church also has a licensed pre-school, private School, elementary school, Jr. High School, High School, or College which is a ministry of the church, 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 school may need an umbrella policy to provide additional protection over their abuse limits. Most of the typical church insurance companies, will exclude the abuse coverage within their umbrella policy.
When talking with your church insurance specialist, they will quickly evaluate your needs and obtain the needed 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 kept up with inflation, your church buildings may be severely under insured.
The insurance agent, will also discuss any insurance contract language that may be concerning, which was identified in their insurance 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 needed coverages your church must have.
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 replacement cost estimator and request for quotes from the insurance companies that would be the best fit.
As church insurance brokers, our job is to represent our clients best interest and not the insurance carriers best interest. We only need to make sure your church meets the underwriting guidelines established by each insurance company.
Your Church Insurance Specialist Will Identify Available Discounts
In the world of commercial insurance for churches, as your insurance agent we can apply for discounts on your behalf. We are required to provide justification for each discount we apply or request from the church insurance companies.
Depending on the type of insurance coverages, we may access to some pretty substantial discounts. Some insurance companies will also put the power of the discount into the churches hands.
For instance, churches whose premiums meet the insurance companies guidelines, can take an online course ever few years. They may qualify for a 15%, 20%, or even 25% discount on top of any discounts we were able to include. These discounts can add up to some substantial savings.
Your church insurance specialist, will be asking you a lot of questions about your church and staff. Some of these questions are for underwriting concerns, and other questions are for insurance discounts they are trying to see if 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 Churches Need?
As mentioned, churches require additional coverages which are not required by other organizations. Your church insurance specialist will make specific recommendations based on your churches specific needs.
From the outside looking in, most people think that all churches are the same. While we may all be on 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. There are additional coverages not mentioned above, that your church insurance specialist may recommend as well. These include a crime policy, builders risk coverage, inland marine policy, umbrella insurance, earthquake insurance for churches, and flood insurance for religious organizations.
It is important for your church insurance specialist to be provided with as much information as possible. It is through this dissemination of information, that they 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. When obtaining church insurance quotes, we ask for your churches FEIN number. It is common to hear 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 a ministry of your church or are they completely different organisations.
If they are an extension of your organization, the sharing of FEIN numbers is acceptable. We will need to include them as part of the total church insurance program, as these two ministries are one in the same.
If your church and the other church are not the same ministry, you are not allowed to share FEIN numbers. This is because you are two separate business entities, in the eyes of the government and insurance company.
We Want To Be Your Church Insurance Specialist
Integrity Now Insurance Brokers, has the experience your church needs. We have helped thousands of churches through the U.S. obtain the needed coverage and 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 has established his company to helping churches. This give him the needed insite of knowing the issues churches face each and every day.
Reach out to use today and let us know how we can best serve you. You can either complete our online church quote form or simply give us a call.
