Agent Testimonials: You Can Make a Difference

In a moment, flooding can undo the financial security that took your clients a lifetime to build. As an agent, you can make a difference:

Talk to your clients about flood risk.
Inform clients of their flood insurance options.
Speak with policyholders about mitigation activities in their communities and steps they can take to mitigate flood risk in their home, such as elevating the structure or installing proper flood openings, to help reduce their flood insurance costs.

By making flood insurance your business, you can help protect your clients and community while generating additional revenue.

FloodSmart agent case studies

Learn from agents across the country about how selling flood insurance with the NFIP helps them protect their clients, increase community awareness, and grow their business.

Q: Why do you sell flood insurance?

A: “We want to help clients avoid big problems. It’s important to sell flood insurance because we want to make sure people can recover from any unexpected loss. We go the extra mile to develop a plan to recover from the unexpected.”

Q: Why do you advocate for renters insurance?

A: “Well, renters have property. Protecting our stuff is important. It’s a bed you sleep in, it’s the chair that you have breakfast in, it’s the TV that you watch your favorite ball game on. It’s very sentimental. In order to recover from the unexpected, it’s important to consider that coverage.”
Q: Why do you sell flood insurance?

A: “I’m so glad I had flood insurance, and I am so glad that I can help other people get their own flood insurance. Everyone should have flood insurance; it is important for protecting the life you’ve built.”

Q: What are some hidden flood risks that clients might not think of?

A: “Floods can come from anything. It can be heavy rains, hurricanes, bayous that overflow, rivers that go over their banks. You just never know when these incidents are going to happen.”

Q: Why do you recommend flood insurance to those that are not required to have it?

A: “Flood insurance is important because you don’t know where it can flood. It can be financially and emotionally devastating. There are areas in Houston that have not flooded before like they did in Harvey. Many people were left without homes, and many of those people didn’t have flood insurance.”
Q: Why do you sell flood insurance?

A: “Florida is 100 miles across, with water on either side. Between every home is a waterway, a pond, or a retention basin. We’re surrounded by water. Everybody is at risk for flooding here.”

Q: What strategies do you use to sell flood insurance?

A: “Any time we interact with a client, we talk about flood insurance. We have a real urgency around it.”
Q: Why do you sell flood insurance?

A: “I do it to take care of people. Houston is as flat as a pancake, surrounded by water, with a high water table. Additionally, severe storms and changing weather patterns are the new normal. Houstonians should prepare for a world where the threat of hurricanes is a rule, not an exception.”

Q: What’s it been like working with the NFIP to file claims post-disaster?

A: “It’s been very refreshing to see the NFIP do the right thing when there’s a snag in the claims system. As an agent, I want to be involved with an organization that will have common sense and do the right thing. In today’s world that’s not common.”
Q: Why do you sell flood insurance?

A: “Immediately after a flood event, many of my clients’ first reaction is to feel worried or frustrated. That’s where my work begins, helping to explain the first steps to file a claim and referring people to preferred vendors. “It’s a good feeling when you spend all this time selling insurance policies, to know your people are protected. It’s a great feeling to be able to tell them, ‘Yes, you are covered. Here’s the number and let us know how we can help.’ People appreciate that.”

Q: How do you explain the value of flood insurance?

A: “We write a flood insurance quote with every policy we sell, but sometimes it takes severe weather for clients to understand their risk. When that happens, a lot of the clients will call me back saying, ‘Bobby, we rethought it, and we think flood insurance is definitely worth the $450 bucks.’”

Liability for non-disclosure

As an insurance agent, you have a responsibility to inform your client about all of their risks and what coverage is available, including the risk of flooding. Otherwise, your client may hold you accountable if they didn’t have coverage and were never informed.

The top two Errors and Omissions (E&O) pitfalls are not offering coverage and not offering the right amount of coverage. You can protect yourself from possible E&O-related lawsuits by staying up to date with the latest program changes and attending flood insurance training.

Visit NFIP Services to download the latest insurance manual, sign-up to receive flood insurance bulletins, and to register to take flood insurance workshops and webinars.

You can better help your client understand flood risk by knowing your community’s flood map and seasonal flood risk factors and staying up-to-date with the NFIP.