By Anu Varna Panchal
A beautiful five-bedroom/three-bath home on a New Tampa golf course is an idyllic situation for many new Florida residents. The best part? Although the beach is just an hour away, you congratulate yourself on picking this new house that sits high and dry, far away from both coastal and inland flood zones. Well, think again.
“The entire state of Florida is prone to flooding,” says Bill Sullivan, owner of the New Tampa location of GreatFlorida Insurance, which offers “Insurance for Floridians by Floridians” and has been in business statewide since 1991. The New Tampa location in the Cory Lake Professional Center location on Cross Creek Blvd. opened in 2005 with a previous owner, who decided to sell her franchise to Sullivan in May 2013.
A mere couple of inches of flooding in a house can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage, which is why all Florida homeowners should buy flood insurance, Bill says. However, unless they are guided by a professional, few understand how exactly to go about protecting their most valuable assets. At GreatFlorida Insurance, Bill and his wife Julie provide three things he says you can never get from a website or 1-800 phone call — guidance, personalized service and solutions.
“Insurance is a very personal business,” Julie says. “Every situation is different. The more information about a family and individual that we have, the better job we can do as an agent.”
Bill assesses his clients’ current needs, and also figures out future ones. For example, if a family has a 13-year-old, Sullivan knows that in a few years, he’ll have to adjust the family’s auto insurance policy for that new driver. He also explains to parents that their children still are covered under their parents’ policy, even if they’re in college out of state, as long as the auto insurance is in the parent’s name and the vehicle has the corresponding Florida tag.
Bill can write insurance for the entire state of Florida, but mainly services New Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Lutz, Zephyrhills and Land O’Lakes. His services include auto, boat, motorcycle, homeowners, renters, business, flood and umbrella (liability) insurance.
Bill earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and worked in investment banking for 25 years in New England before moving to Florida in August of 2012. Bill got his “2-20” insurance license so he could sell all lines of property and casualty insurance. Julie also works in the office as the general manager and is a licensed 4-40 sales and service representative. Those with a 4-40 license are licensed to sell insurance, but required to work under the supervision of someone with a 2-20 license.
When Kyle Briese bought his first home, located off S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel, he needed homeowner’s insurance.
“I wanted to get coverage from a local company, someone easy to work with,” he says. Kyle emailed GreatFlorida and, within an hour, got a call back from the agency. “They worked hard to find the best coverage that fit into my budget.” Briese adds that he was so pleased with the customer service that he since has requested a quote for an additional insurance product.
Insurance & Your Financial Portfolio
Bill explains that at GreatFlorida, insurance is treated as an ongoing and vital part of a client’s financial portfolio. The Sullivans get to know clients and their families, and then begin combing through their network of insurance carriers to put together the best possible coverage for each client.
With their intimate knowledge of the insurers that are large household names such as Progressive and Nationwide, as well as smaller carriers you’ve never heard of, they are alert to changes in pricing and coverages and can quickly reconfigure your portfolio.
“For me, it’s a matter of aligning myself with a company that best represents my clients,” Bill says.
If a client tells him they have had repeated unpleasant encounters with their insurance carriers, Bill says he will not hesitate to take matters up on behalf of his clients with that carrier’s representative.
“Fortunately, I’ve not had that happen,” he says. “I’ve created relationships with good companies.”
Florida can be a tricky climate for insurance, Bill says. People move here in droves to the new and existing communities being built in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, expecting cheaper insurance than in the big cities up north from where they moved. He adds that many relocated clients are surprised that they have to piece together policies, rather than have them “bundled,” as they often are in other states.
The Sullivans guide their clients through the intricacies of insurance — sometimes even before the purchase of a home — by pointing out structural features that enhance the safety of a home and can benefit the homeowner in insurance fees. One major piece of advice that clients need to hear is the importance of flood insurance, Bill says, something few newcomers understand or feel is important.
“Even if they don’t expect to be washed out to sea, even just a couple of inches (of water in their homes) can cause terrible damage,” Bill explains. “The amount of people who do not understand that their homeowners insurance does not cover that — the absolute shock and surprise when they put in the claim and realize it’s not going to be cover — that’s not when you want to find that out.”
Heading off that sort of problem before it gets to the stage of “reactionary” insurance is what someone like Bill can do. Many GreatFlorida customers are “high capital clients,” which means they have numerous assets that need to be protected, such as perhaps several rental properties, in addition to their primary residences.
“It is an advantage to the client, a convenience, to have a person (working on their behalf) who has a big picture of everything that is going on,” Julie says.
GreatFlorida Insurance is located at 10353 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite C. For more information or to make inquiries, you can reach Bill or Julie at 994-1143. You can also find out more information at NewTampa.GreatFlorida.com or see the ad on page 17 of this issue..
No comment yet, add your voice below!