Six Ways to Help Your Clients Prepare for Hurricane Season

Hurricane Preparedness Week (May 1-7) is a good opportunity to reach out and help clients ensure they and their families stay safe and are positioned to recover from any hurricane damage. As a trusted advisor, here are six ways you can lend your expertise. 

• Talk About Risk. Property owners outside coastal areas often underestimate how far inland hurricane damage can extend, and how severe it can be. People who have ridden out prior storms may be overconfident that “it won’t happen to me”. Remind clients that, with climate change, storms are becoming more severe and unpredictable and often affect more areas than previously.
• Explain Coverage. While homeowners insurance often covers wind damage, in many coastal states property owners must buy a separate policy to cover wind damage. Most homeowners and renters insurance doesn’t cover flooding, and neither does a windstorm policy. For many hurricanes and tropical storms, flooding causes more damage than wind, so it’s important for clients to get flood insurance to protect their property. 
• Explore Insurance Gaps. Verify both the types and amount of coverage your clients have. Determine whether rising construction costs and/or home improvements have created potentially costly coverage gaps. 
• Emphasize Timing. While most hurricanes occur during hurricane season, they can and have hit in every other month. Encourage clients to purchase or increase coverage now. Remind them that when purchasing flood insurance there is a 30-day waiting period for coverage to take effect. 
• Discuss Loss Avoidance. Many property owners don’t realize that when flooding is imminent or predicted, NFIP policyholders can receive up to $1,000 to purchase supplies like tarps, sandbags, water pumps, plastic sheeting, and lumber. That money can also be applied to moving and storage expenses for personal property, or for labor—including that supplied by the property owner, family members, or a professional. Homeowners should also take steps like clearing debris from gutters and elevating or moving valuables and furniture to a higher floor ahead of a storm.
• Offer Preparation Tips and Resources. Encourage clients to have a family emergency plan, including evacuation routes, and to collect emergency supplies. Remind them to make or update a household inventory with photos and videos, and to store important documents in a secure and watertight location such as a safe deposit box. Encourage them to visit ready.gov for more detailed information on disaster preparation, and FloodSmart.gov for more information on flooding and flood insurance.