Independent insurance agency — Houston, Texas
We shop the whole market. You keep the same agent.
We don't work for one insurance company. We run your home, car, business or truck through every carrier we represent, then sit down and show you what each one came back with — including the ones we'd tell you to skip.
Coverage for the way Houston actually lives
Almost everything that goes wrong with a policy goes wrong before there is ever a claim — a limit set at the legal floor, a percentage deductible nobody converted into dollars, a peril that was never on the form. This is the part we argue about with you up front.
Auto
Texas requires 30/60/25 — thirty thousand dollars per injured person. An ambulance ride and one night in a Houston trauma unit clears that before anyone discusses surgery.
- Liability set where a bad night doesn't reach your house and your wages
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist, the coverage that pays when the other driver has nothing worth suing for
- Collision and comprehensive, with the deductible set at the number you'd actually file over
- SR-22 filings after a suspension, and the carriers that still write after a lapse or an at-fault claim
- Rideshare and delivery endorsements — a personal policy excludes the moment the app is on
Uninsured motorist. Texas has no shortage of drivers carrying nothing, and when one of them hits you, UM is the only coverage standing between your hospital bill and your savings.
Home
On the Gulf Coast a homeowners policy is decided by three things: wind, hail and water. The premium is the least interesting number on it.
- Your windstorm and hail deductible is a percentage of the dwelling amount, not a flat $1,000 — at 2% on a $350,000 dwelling that's $7,000 before the carrier pays a cent
- Replacement cost on the roof rather than actual cash value, which is the difference between a new roof and a partial cheque
- Replacement cost on contents too, so a nine-year-old sofa is replaced instead of depreciated
- Water backup and service line, both endorsements that are not on the form unless someone adds them
- Loss of use, so the policy pays for somewhere to sleep while the house is being rebuilt
No homeowners policy in Texas covers rising water. Flood is a separate policy through the NFIP or a private market, it usually carries a 30-day waiting period, and being outside the mapped 100-year floodplain has never meant safe — Harvey proved that across half of Harris County. See what the roof math looks like.
Renters
Your landlord insures the building. Not one thing inside it belongs to that policy.
- Personal property at replacement cost, including what lives in your car
- Personal liability — most Houston leases now require $100,000 or more, and the lease will name the number
- Loss of use if the unit becomes unlivable, which covers the hotel and the difference in rent
- Scheduled items for a ring, a laptop or a tool bag that exceeds the standard sub-limit
Renters is usually the smallest policy we write, and pairing it with your auto policy triggers a multi-policy discount on the auto side. For a lot of people the discount covers most of the renters premium.
Business
Texas is the only state where workers' compensation is optional for most private employers. Which is exactly why every general contractor's contract demands it anyway.
- General liability, and a business owner's policy where property and liability are cheaper bundled
- Workers' comp, and an honest conversation about what non-subscriber status actually exposes you to
- Commercial auto for the vans and pickups titled to the company — a personal policy will not answer a work claim
- Tools, equipment and inland marine for everything that travels to the job site and gets stolen there
- Additional insured and waiver of subrogation endorsements, issued the same day you need them
If a GC or a landlord handed you an insurance requirements page, email it over. We read the limits and the exact endorsement wording off that page and quote to match it, which is the only way a certificate gets accepted the first time.
Life
Term, permanent and final expense, priced across carriers in one sitting instead of one company's product.
- Term at 10, 15, 20 or 30 years — almost always the right answer when there's a mortgage and a kid
- No-exam options up to a set face amount, underwritten in days instead of six weeks
- Final expense with no medical questions on some plans, for funeral costs specifically
- A straight look at your employer's group coverage, which usually ends the day the job does
Life premiums are filed with the state. The identical policy from the identical carrier costs the same whether you buy it from us or from a call center — the only difference is whether somebody compares eight of them for you first.
Health
Marketplace plans, small-group coverage and Medicare supplements — plus the part everyone skips.
- ACA marketplace plans, with a subsidy check run before you look at a single premium
- Small-group plans from two employees up
- Medicare supplement and Part D, reviewed every single year because the drug formularies move
- Dental, vision and short-term coverage for the gap between jobs
We look up whether your doctor and your pharmacy are actually in network before we compare a single price. A cheaper plan that drops your specialist or moves your prescription to tier 4 is not a cheaper plan.
Commercial truck
The FMCSA minimum for general freight is $750,000. Almost no broker will tender a load at that number — they want a million and a certificate with their name on it.
- Primary auto liability at the limits brokers actually accept, not the legal floor
- Motor truck cargo matched to the commodities on your real rate confirmations, not a generic schedule
- Physical damage on tractor and trailer, owned and financed, with the lienholder listed correctly
- Non-trucking liability and bobtail for the miles you run off dispatch
- Occupational accident, and workers' comp where the contract insists on it
MCS-90, BMC-91X, Form E and Form H filed directly with the FMCSA and the states. Certificates for a new broker go out the same business day. See the trucking desk.
The roof math nobody shows you before the storm
Hail is the most common large claim in Harris County, and two words on page one of your policy decide what you get paid: replacement cost or actual cash value. Most people find out which one they bought while standing in their driveway with an adjuster. Move the sliders instead.
Two words, one very large difference
- ACVThe carrier subtracts depreciation for every year the roof has been up there. A composition roof is typically written down over a 25-year life, so roughly 4% a year comes off before your deductible does.
- RCVThe carrier pays what it costs to put a new roof on today, minus the deductible. Some policies pay it in two cheques — one now, the rest once the work is finished.
- DeductibleYour wind and hail deductible is a percentage of the dwelling amount, not the flat number on your auto policy. It is often the single largest figure in the whole calculation.
On your declarations page this lives under Loss Settlement and Windstorm and Hail Deductible. If you can't find either line, send us the page and we'll find it in about a minute.
Coverage A on the declarations page — not what you paid for the house.
That difference is the entire reason we ask which one you have before we talk about premium.
Illustrative only. Depreciation schedules, roof-payment terms and deductibles vary by carrier and by policy form; the policy actually issued to you controls. We are happy to run the real numbers off your declarations page.
Houston runs on trucks. We write a lot of them.
The port, the yards off Wallisville, the lanes out I-10 to San Antonio and I-45 to Dallas. Trucking is its own insurance market — its own carriers, its own filings, and its own list of reasons a policy gets cancelled mid-term. We keep a desk on it instead of treating it as commercial auto with a bigger vehicle.
- Primary auto liability $750K floor, $1M in practice
- Motor truck cargo Matched to your commodities
- Physical damage Tractor & trailer
- Non-trucking / bobtail Off-dispatch miles
- General liability Premises & operations
- Occupational accident Owner-operators
- Excess & umbrella Above primary
Filings, handled
Filed directly with the FMCSA and the state, so your authority isn't sitting in limbo while a load waits.
- MCS-90
- BMC-91X
- Form E
- Form H
Certificates the same day
A new broker wants the COI before they'll tender. Send us the holder's exact name and address and it goes out that business day — usually inside the hour.
New authority
Under a year in business is the hardest thing to place in this market. We know which carriers still look at it, and what they want to see first: CDL history, MVRs and a CSA profile that isn't already flagged.
Renewals without the surprise
Thirty days before it expires we re-shop your policy against the whole market and tell you what we found. You hear the number from us before you hear it from the carrier.
Start a quote
Three short steps. We ask the questions your line of business actually turns on — because a truck quote and a renters quote have almost nothing in common — and then a licensed agent calls you.
- AutoDriver's licence numbers and the VINs
- HomeThe address and the year the roof went on
- BusinessThe insurance requirements page from the contract
- TruckingMC and DOT numbers, equipment list and driver MVRs
- Any policyYour current declarations page gets us most of the way there
No account to create, no automated quoting engine, and we don't sell your number to anyone. It rings at this office.
Independent means the quote isn't decided before we start
A captive agent works for one insurance company and can only sell you that company's filed rate. We're appointed with several, so quoting is a comparison instead of a formality — and when one of them takes a rate increase across the state, we can move you instead of explaining it to you.
A captive agent
- Quotes one company, because that is the only company they are contracted to quote
- When that carrier files a statewide increase, your choice is the increase
- Your claim goes to a national call center and a different adjuster every time you follow up
- Coverage gets shaped to fit whatever product is on the shelf
BlueNova
- Quotes every carrier we're appointed with and shows you what each one came back with
- When a renewal jumps, we re-shop it thirty days out — before you ever open the bill
- You call the person who wrote the policy, and that person calls the adjuster
- Coverage gets shaped to the risk first, then we go find who will write it
Our roof took hail in May and I called on a Saturday. He had the claim filed before I finished explaining it, and he called the adjuster twice so I didn't have to.
I was three days from losing a contract because my old agent couldn't get a certificate out. BlueNova sent it the same afternoon and then found me better cargo limits for less than I was paying.
Come by, or just call
We're on Wilcrest off the Westpark Tollway, west side. Walk-ins are fine — bring your current declarations page and we'll read it with you line by line, whether or not you end up switching anything.
- Phone
- (877) 875-2322
- Office
- 3200 Wilcrest Dr, Suite 170
Houston, TX 77042 - Hours
- Monday to Friday, 8am – 6pm Central
Saturday by appointment - Languages
- English and Spanish
Questions we get before people switch
Short answers. Longer ones on the phone.
No. Rates are filed with the Texas Department of Insurance, so the premium for a given policy from a given carrier is the same whether you buy it direct or through us. The carrier pays our commission out of that premium. The comparison is free; what you're really choosing is whether a person or a call center handles it when something happens.
Usually nothing you did. Carriers file rate changes by territory, and on the Gulf Coast those filings are driven by what hail and wind cost the carrier statewide, plus what it costs them to buy their own reinsurance. Roof age matters too — the same house can get re-rated as the roof passes a threshold. That is exactly the moment to re-shop it, and it's the moment most people don't.
Usually, yes. Non-standard auto is a normal part of what we do, SR-22 filings included. The rate will reflect the record — but the record ages off, and we re-shop it the month it does. That last part is the piece almost nobody gets around to doing for themselves.
Same business day on an active policy, usually within the hour during office hours. Send the certificate holder's exact legal name and address, plus any additional insured or waiver of subrogation wording the contract calls for. Getting that wording right the first time is the difference between one email and four.
No, and it is the most expensive misunderstanding in this city. Rising water is excluded from every standard homeowners form. Flood is a separate policy through the NFIP or a private carrier, and most new NFIP policies carry a 30-day waiting period — so it cannot be bought once a storm has a name on it. Being outside the mapped 100-year floodplain is not the same thing as being safe.
Sí. Cotizamos, explicamos la póliza y manejamos su reclamo en español, de principio a fin. Vea el sitio en español.
Send us your current declarations page
It is the one document that shows your limits, your deductibles and what you're paying for them. Give us ten minutes with it and we'll tell you whether you're covered correctly — which is a different question, and a more expensive one, than whether you're paying too much.