Bob Graham, Executive Editor

Nearly half of motorists (85 million) fear their assets won’t be fully covered if a hurricane struck them, according to a new GMAC Insurance survey.

“Clearly, somewhere along the way, trust in the insurance company has been lost,” said Gary Kusumi, CEO and president of GMAC Insurance’s personal lines division.

If property-casualty agents don’t respond to this news, the trust their clients have in them also will suffer.

Simply put, holding an insurance policy and reading it are two different things. For those people that do read the documents, the language of insurance policies can be as daunting as learning the paso doble for “Dancing with the Stars.”

The policy should give people solace because it contains what is and isn’t covered in a hurricane, fire, car crash or other incident. And if and when they have questions, they should be contacting their agent.

For their part, agents might spend a bit more time explaining what is and isn’t covered in hurricanes and other weather events. They also should continue to remind their clients of their willingness to respond to inquiries about what is and isn’t covered. Any client touch is a good one, but this one might be more important than the goodwill that comes from sending out a calendar at New Year’s.

A lack of trust in carriers will trickle down to agents – unless they act to restore this trust in their carriers and the profession.