What is a Dec Page?

Here at Hanby, we understand most people don’t deal in the insurance space every day like we do. In the current insurance marketplace, with rates skyrocketing, there is a lot of confusion about “apples-to-apples” insurance quotes.  When shopping for insurance, most people use the declarations page, often called a Dec Page, but they don’t fully understand the parts and terminology on the document. The purpose of this post is to take the confusion out of the dec page to help you better understand your insurance policy.

Dec Page Misconceptions

When you buy insurance, the dec page can be confusing. On the homeowner’s dec page, you will see things like: Coverage A (dwelling), Coverage B (other structures) and additional coverage for personal property, liability and medical payments. The majority of people see those coverage numbers and they ask another agent to match the dec page. Any agent cant make those numbers to match for the purpose of quoting but those numbers aren’t all the coverage, they are just one part. All those numbers show is how much an insurance carrier is obligated to pay out in the event of a loss.

Buying insurance isn’t like buying bananas.

The caveat to that — and this is why a lot of people don’t like insurance — is the coverage is usually built either by policy form or by endorsements to the policy. In Texas, about 20 years ago, the insurance department deregulated the home policies. Prior to that, buying insurance in Texas was a little more like buying bananas. If you went picked out a quote on your house, most companies offered the exact same policy form. That’s just not true today. While you might go to one company with a policy for $5,000, a second company might offer a policy for $4,000 with matching numbers on the dec page. Those are not necessarily the same, because they may not be the same policy form or have the same endorsements.

Policy Forms

In 2003, the State of Texas begin letting insurance companies write their own policy form as long as it was approved by TDI (Texas Department of Insurance).  Now the policy form differs by carrier. For example, Allstate, State Farm and Farmers write their own policy forms. They’re all a little bit different with different endorsements. It’s important you know which policy form you are buying and that you understand if it’s less coverage that your current policy.  The policy form can usually be found at the top of your dec page. We recommend using this website to help compare policy forms: Policy Comparison Tool

Endorsements

An endorsement is a rider to an insurance policy that can add, remove or modify the coverage offered by the policy. On the insurance dec page there is a section for endorsements that lists all of the endorsements on the insurance policy. It’s important that you check the endorsements and make sure that you’re getting the same or better coverage.  Many carriers don’t offer coverage for things such as repeated leakage and seepage of water or damage to your foundation caused by water. So, please don’t compare your dec pages numbers like they’re apples to apples. Make sure you check and ask about endorsements.

Help from Your Agent

If you have a trusted advisor, like Hanby, ask your agent to compare them for you. We will be honest and make sure you’re getting the same coverage. See our Homeowner’s Insurance Buyer’s Guide and Auto Insurance Buyer’s Guide while you’re shopping. Remember buying insurance is not like buying bananas.

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