What to have ready for a home, auto or umbrella quote.

Drivers

Carriers expect to see every household member of driving age, whether or not they drive your cars. Leaving someone off is one of the more common reasons a policy gets corrected after it is issued.

• Full name of each driver, as it appears on the license.
• Date of birth.
• Driver license number and the issuing state.
• Marital status and, for younger drivers, whether they are a student and where.
• Any violations or at-fault accidents, with roughly when each happened. Approximate months are fine.
• Any lapse in insurance, and how long it lasted.
• Anyone in the household who should be excluded from the policy, so it can be discussed rather than discovered.

For context on what the liability numbers on a quote actually mean, see auto liability limits explained.

Vehicles

• Year, make and model, with the trim level if you know it.
• VIN for each vehicle. This is the detail that most improves accuracy, because it pins down engine, trim and safety equipment.
• Whether each vehicle is owned outright, financed, or leased, and the lienholder or lessor if there is one.
• Approximate annual mileage.
• Garaging address, which is where the vehicle actually sits overnight, not necessarily your mailing address.
• How the vehicle is used: commuting and the one-way distance, pleasure, business, farm.
• Any delivery, rideshare or other commercial use, even occasional. This is important enough to raise unprompted.
• Aftermarket equipment or modifications.

Home

Approximate answers are workable here. Guesses presented as facts are not, because carriers verify a good deal of this.

• Address, and whether it is your primary residence, a second home, or a rental.
• Year built and total square footage above grade, plus whether there is a basement and whether it is finished.
• Construction: frame, masonry, or something else. Number of stories.
• Roof type and the year of the last full roof replacement.
• Heating type, and whether there is any wood stove or supplemental heat source.
• Approximate years of any updates to the roof, wiring, plumbing and heating or cooling systems. These matter more than most people expect on older homes.
• Pool, trampoline, or a dog, if any apply, including the breed. These affect liability eligibility with some carriers.
• Alarm, monitored or local, plus water shutoff devices, sprinklers or deadbolts.
• Any home business, short-term rental use, or tenants.
• Recent renovations, and whether the square footage changed.

One thing worth understanding before you compare home quotes: the dwelling limit is about the cost to rebuild, which is a different question from what the house would sell for. See dwelling coverage versus market value and extended versus guaranteed replacement cost.

Current coverage, and why the declarations page wins

If you take one thing from this page, take this: find your declarations page and send it.

The declarations page is the summary page at the front of your policy. It lists your coverages, your limits, your deductibles, the endorsements attached, and the discounts applied. It is the policy as it actually exists.

A verbal description is the policy as it is remembered, and memory is consistently generous. Deductibles get recalled lower than they are. Liability limits get recalled higher. Endorsements such as water backup, extended replacement cost, or scheduled jewelry are easy to be sure about in the wrong direction. Someone who says "I have full coverage" has told you almost nothing, because that phrase is not a coverage.

This matters most when you are comparing. Two quotes are only comparable if you know what the existing policy says. Otherwise a cheaper number may simply be a thinner policy, and you will not find out until a claim. Our compare your coverage page exists for exactly this: send the declarations page and get a straight read on what is in it.

So gather, for each existing policy: the declarations page, the carrier, the expiration date, the current premium, and anything you know you have asked to be added over the years.

Loss history

• Every claim in recent years, on home and auto, with roughly the date, what happened, and whether it paid.
• Claims that were reported but closed without payment. These sometimes appear in carrier databases, so it is better to mention them.
• Any claim on a property you no longer own.
• Any non-renewal or cancellation, and the reason.

Claims history is checked, not taken on trust. Volunteering it costs you nothing and keeps the quote honest.

Umbrella

An umbrella sits above your home and auto liability, so a quote for one needs the underlying policies in view as well as a few extras.

• The liability limits currently on your home and auto policies. An umbrella generally requires minimum underlying limits.
• Every property you own, including rentals and vacant land.
• Every vehicle, boat, motorcycle, recreational vehicle and trailer in the household.
• Every driver, including young drivers.
• Whether you sit on any board, including a homeowners association or a non-profit.
• Any rental activity, including occasional short-term rental.
• Pool, dog, or other liability features already noted on the home section.

Why an accurate answer beats a flattering one

It is tempting to shade an answer toward the version that prices better. A clean record, a newer roof, nobody else driving the car.

It does not work, and it costs you the one thing a quote is for. Carriers pull motor vehicle records, claims history and in many cases property data as part of underwriting. What was shaded gets corrected, usually before the policy issues and sometimes after. Either way the price moves, and now you are making a decision on a moving number.

A quote built on wrong information is not a price. It is a guess that changes later. The point of this checklist is to get a real one.

Where to send it

Declarations pages and anything else can be sent through the secure document upload page. If you would rather go through it on the phone, the office is open Monday to Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Pacific, at (541) 681-8793.

Vantage Point Risk is an independent agency in Eugene, Oregon. This checklist is written to be useful on its own. Take it to another agency and it will work just as well there.