AIG Home Insurance Review – Protect Your Home
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One of the worst things imaginable for homeowners is facing property damage and covering costs. Houses are expensive, and especially if you’ve just purchased a new home, the last thing you want to have to consider is repairing your house due to natural disasters like a tornado or wildfire. Beyond covering the expenses of fixing up your home, you also don’t want to be faced with recovering or replacing your personal property, not to mention contending with loss of use if your home is no longer safe to reside in.
All of this sounds devastating (and a little scary), but thankfully, there’s something you can do about it. While home insurance won’t necessarily prevent accidents or disasters from happening, with the right insurance coverage, you at least won’t have to contend with all of this on your own. Just like car insurance or pet insurance, home insurance policies handle a wide range of covered losses so that your personal liability is lower if something happens to your home.
If you compare insurance companies and insurance products, AIG Home Insurance should be on your list. Also known as American International Group Inc., this insurance company only covers high-value homes. Keep reading to learn more about AIG and determine whether or not they’re a good fit for you and your home.
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What is AIG Home Insurance?
Interestingly, while AIG stands for American Insurance Group, it was initially founded in 1919 in Shanghai by Cornelius Vander Starr as the insurance agency American Asiatic Underwriters. Since its founding, the company has grown to cover over 80 jurisdictions and countries.
As was previously mentioned, AIG Home Insurance is specifically catered towards high net-worth individuals and homes. In most states, that amounts to a home valued at $750,000 or more, although that number is $1 million in New York. AIG offers both personal insurance services and insurance policies for commercial businesses. They also offer auto insurance and insurance for yachts, horses, valuable collections, and excess personal liability coverage.
Beyond providing insurance, the company also focuses on helping people understand risk management and mitigation. Some of these products include things like financial lines of credit and personal lines of credit in addition to liability and property insurance.
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How does AIG Home Insurance work?
AIG Home Insurance is different from other companies in the insurance market regarding getting started. Rather than filling out a form online, you will need to navigate to their website and call a human being to get a home insurance quote. Their toll-free telephone number is 800-225-5244, allowing you to connect to someone who can direct your call.
In terms of policies, AIG comes with basic coverage and a host of add-ons. The basic coverage protects things like your belongings, dwelling, medical payments, and personal liability in the event of a claim. From there, you can also add services from add-ons that extend blanket property insurance for your valuables to wildfire insurance or guarantees on the replacement of your home.
How much does AIG Home Insurance cost?
Like other insurance companies, it’s hard to give a specific cost or quote with AIG since insurance rates vary from state to state and depend on various factors, such as your deductible and coverage limits. This is especially true in the case of AIG Home Insurance since they are specifically targeting high-net-worth individuals and high-value homes, meaning that the amount of coverage you’ll need varies greatly.
While AIG isn’t quite transparent about insurance costs, they can share some ways that you can save money on your insurance coverage. For example, if you’re willing to take on more risk up-front with a higher deductible, you can lower your monthly premium by taking on as much as a $100,000 deductible on your policy.
AIG also offers a variety of “Smart Home” discounts, which, if they are a direct-reporting or central station system, can help qualify you for additional savings. These include home features such as burglar alarms, residential sprinkler systems, an automatic water shut-off valve, a backup generator, or a gas leakage detector. You can also get multi-policy discounts with AIG if you combine your home insurance with an AIG excess flood insurance policy or private collections policy.
AIG Home Insurance features
Broad basic coverage
When it comes to basic coverage, there are six areas that AIG can help you with. For starters, AIG insurance includes protections on your dwelling, which helps cover costs to repair or rebuild your home after a covered loss and structures like garages and fencing. AIG also offers personal property coverage, including clothing, furniture, and technology.
AIG also includes loss-of-use features so that if you have to stay at a hotel or board your animal while your home is being fixed, you don’t have to cover all those costs. They also offer personal liability insurance if someone is injured at your home and will help pay for some medical bills related to that injury, regardless of who is at fault.
Great additional coverage
The basic coverage offered by AIG is good but not too special compared to some of the additional coverage the insurance company offers. The following features will give policyholders some added peace of mind, especially when you consider that AIG is helping cover high-value homes.
- Extended dwelling coverage limit (50-100% depending on the state) in case a rebuild exceeds your policy limits
- Guarantee on the replacement cost of your home for covered losses
- Up to $25,000 in coverage for any business property in a covered loss
- Coverage if water backs up through the sewers
- Will replace your personal belongings with new items regardless of the condition of the lost property
- Higher blanket personal property coverage than what you would find with typical home insurance policies
- Food spoilage
- Landscaping costs from damages
- Option for cash settlement for a total loss rather than a rebuild
Complimentary mitigation services
When you have home insurance through AIG, you also gain access to several preventative programs that help extend the value of your insurance. These include things like the Wildfire Protection Unit if you live in a high-risk area and want proactive protection (including access to a private firefighter) or their Hurricane Protection Program, which gives you access to a hurricane mitigation specialist. Especially with the way that climate change has impacted natural disasters on the coasts and throughout the country, these mitigation services can help you reduce risk and safeguard your home and belongings.
Variety of discounts
Just because you require home insurance for your high-value home doesn’t mean that you don’t want to save some money. AIG offers various discounts, from savings for smart home features like burglar alarms and temperature monitoring sensors to security discounts for living in a guarded gated community or perimeter gate protection. They also offer multi-policy discounts for those with an excess flood policy, personal excess liability policy, or private art collection policy.
Use Home Insure to Find Affordable Home Insurance
- Get Home (or Rental) Insurance as Low as $19/Month
- Compare rates in minutes
- No cost or obligation to check
- Rates subject to qualification and approval
Who is AIG Home Insurance best for?
High-net-worth individuals
If you have a lot of expensive possessions and a costly home, AIG is a great fit. This is because the appraisal value of homes covered with AIG’s home insurance needs to start at $750,000 (or a million dollars if you live in New York). AIG offers high-end insurance for high-end clients who have art collections or are worried about earthquakes or wildfires. You’ll get a lot from AIG’s thoughtfully curated coverage if this is you.
Homeowners living where natural disasters are common
Another reason you may want to choose AIG is because they are committed to helping address how climate change impacts the housing insurance landscape. Their policies cover natural disasters like fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes, and they also have mitigation units to help homeowners assess their risk ahead of time. Their Wildfire Prevention Unit will help get you access to a fire-protective Thermo-Gel if you want it, and their Hurricane Protection Program can offer faster claims for repairs following a storm event.
Who shouldn’t use AIG Home Insurance?
Consumers who don’t meet the requirements
In case it’s not obvious, if you don’t meet the financial requirements with your home to qualify for AIG Home Insurance, it’s not a good choice for you. That isn’t to say that you need to necessarily feel bad about your home, just that this insurance company isn’t the right fit for where you are as a homeowner today.
High net worth individuals without as much to insure
Just because your house does meet the $750,000 appraisal minimum to insure doesn’t necessarily mean that AIG is the right choice for you. Certainly, people living on the coasts or with extensive landscaping or collections will get the most bang for their buck when choosing AIG as their home insurance plan. If you need wildfire or hurricane help, this is a great option. However, if you live in the Midwest and mostly worry about tornadoes, AIG might not be the best fit for you and your current needs.
Pros and cons
Pros
- High coverage limits. One of the best things about AIG is its high coverage limits. Ensuring that your high-value home is properly covered in an emergency or natural disaster can offer great peace of mind for individuals whose homes and contents are expensive. AIG is structured around insuring expensive, luxury homes, and it shows in the details offered by their coverage.
- Extensive coverage. AIG goes well beyond traditional home insurance policies. From extended dwelling coverage limits to higher blanket personal property coverage, you can rest assured that your high-value home and belongings will be replaceable if you need to file a claim with AIG.
- Mitigation services included. By offering mitigation services as a free component of its home insurance, AIG allows homeowners to take meaningful steps towards analyzing and monitoring their risk — and doing something about it. If you live in an area prone to hurricanes or wildfires, these services can be incredibly useful.
Cons
- Not available in all states. Unfortunately, you won’t qualify for home insurance through AIG if you live in Alaska or Hawaii. Additionally, while they offer California policies, yours will be managed through AIG’s E&S or Excess and Surplus Lines. You live in a higher-risk area, so your policy must be managed differently.
- No online portal for claims. This isn’t the biggest con ever, but having to call a phone number to work with your personal representative to file claims is a bit of a drag in the 21st century. While this does ensure that you get high-quality service and that all of your needs are properly met and addressed, it does take some of the convenience out of having a home insurance policy with AIG. Especially if you’re shopping around, it can be nice to fill out a few simple forms to compare policies and coverage costs.
- High minimum appraisal for coverage. If your home doesn’t appraise at $750,000 (or $1 million in New York), you won’t be able to take advantage of any of the benefits an AIG home insurance policy comes with. If you’re right on the cusp, this can be particularly frustrating, especially if you reside where wildfires or hurricanes are prevalent.
FAQs
Is AIG available in all 50 states?
Not quite. AIG handles underwriting for insurance policies in all 50 states with the exception of Hawaii and Alaska. Additionally, in 2022, AIG left the admitted homeowners market in California but still services the state through E&S subsidiaries.
How do you get a quote for AIG home insurance?
You can’t apply for a home insurance quote with AIG online, unlike other insurers. To get a quote for AIG home insurance, you’ll need to schedule an appointment with an AIG Private Client Producer.
How do you file a claim with AIG?
To file a claim with AIG, you’ll need to reach out to your independent insurance advisor. If you can’t immediately reach them, you also have the option to get assistance over the phone by calling 888-760-9195.
. How long does it take AIG to settle a claim?
Generally speaking, AIG aims to settle claims in as few as seven to ten business days. That is only an average and, of course, is a best-case scenario. Depending on the extent of your claim as well as the volume of claims they’ve received at any period of time, things could take longer than that.
Is AIG reputable?
According to A.M. Best, which scores insurance companies based on their financial strength, AIG is quite reputable. They have received an A ranking and are viewed as having strong financial strength as an insurance company.
What identity items does AIG cover under its home contents policy?
According to their website, identity items or documents covered as eligible home contents include your passport, birth certificate, or any immigration permits and documents. Generally speaking, if it is a government-issued form of identification, then it would be covered.
Use Home Insure to Find Affordable Home Insurance
- Get Home (or Rental) Insurance as Low as $19/Month
- Compare rates in minutes
- No cost or obligation to check
- Rates subject to qualification and approval
The bottom line
Insuring any home is important to check off your to-do list when you become a homeowner, but that goes double when your home is expensive. Especially if you have a high net worth and expensive belongings, properly insuring your house with the right coverage is critical to protecting your assets. When it comes to serving high-net-worth clients, AIG has a longstanding reputation for providing best-in-class insurance coverage.
One of the biggest perks of using AIG is how they go above and beyond with their coverage. In addition to more basic covered losses, AIG has thoughtfully devised various other costs that other insurers don’t always cover. These could be anything from landscaping costs associated with your home repair to providing custom estimates, reports, and risk assessments as part of their Architectural Legacy Service. All of this is designed with the understanding that your home is more than just a dwelling; it’s also a financial asset.
If you like to do things online, you’ll probably be bothered by having to start your policy and file claims over the phone instead of through a web portal. While this can be a little more tedious, it ultimately ensures you get the best service possible, and your needs are truly met. Assuming you meet the minimum appraised home value to sign up for home insurance through AIG, this may be a sacrifice you’re willing to make.
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Writer
Brent Ervin-Eickhoff is a Chicago-based writer, stage director, and filmmaker with a background in digital marketing and content creation. In addition to Joy Wallet, Brent has written for Complex, Volkswagen, HowlRound, Picture this Post, and Third Coast Review, among others. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Marketing for Content Creation at Court Theatre at the University of Chicago. Brent graduated from Ball State University with Academic Honors in Writing.
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