Executive Vice President and CEO, Peter Pelizza, recently joined Pam Jahnke on her radio show, The Wisconsin Farm Report, to discuss unexpected losses in the agriculture industry.
A quick recap:
On farmers looking to save money by cutting insurance: “Don’t cut on what you need coverage for, but maybe think about how much you keep for that individual loss. Rather than taking a building and saying, ‘I’m not going to insure it to full value’ or those other things, maybe take a look at raising your deductible. Instead of $500, maybe go to $1000. Instead of $1000, maybe go to $2000 or $2500. It’s easy for me to say, but the reality is you can probably find $1000 or $2000. If it’s $200,000 that you fail to insure, it’s a little more of a spend and a little more difficult to find.”
On evaluating a farmer’s risk: “Everyone’s farm is their business, and they should look at their farm and say, “What are the things from an enterprise risk management standpoint that could put me out of business? And make sure you cover those things first.”
On trends in the insurance industry: “The trend in automobile insurance is that frequency and severity are on an uptick. There’s more accidents and the cost of those accidents are higher. Why? People are driving more. Why are they driving more? Because gas prices are down. Because the economy is better, so people are going back to work. Those things lend way to greater frequency and more travel. And then, you take a look at these cars with the sensors and the cameras and everything, oh my gosh, what’s $10,000 in an automobile repair today? It’s nothing.”
On Rural Mutual’s unique ability to understand and properly protect farmers: “This is all stuff that, fortunately, Rural Mutual understands because of our structure and because of who we are and our board of directors and what our birth was 82 years ago by that group of Farm Bureau members. We get it and we can stay in tune with it. There’s not a lot of companies out there that insure farms.”
To listen to the full interview click play below.
If you are interested in learning more about how Rural Mutual can protect your financial livelihood, click here to find a local agent.
