Most personal lines reviews are a dec page audit — same limits, same deductibles, same carrier, +6% premium, sign here. That is not a review. It is a renewal. A real review looks at four specific things almost every annual check-in skips: are the limits still current against today’s values, what would actually happen in a worst-case loss scenario, are the right endorsements on the policy, and do the home, auto, and umbrella actually work together as one program. If your last review didn’t touch all four, that wasn’t a review.
Personal insurance is sold on price and renewed on price, and most agents never get past it. The dollar amounts feel small, the conversation is short, and the gap between what the policy says and what the household actually needs is the part that almost nobody looks at. This piece is what we would have walked you through at the kitchen table if you had given us the time. If you didn’t, this is the version on paper.
- [Miss 1: Limits that no longer match today’s values](#miss-1)
- [Miss 2: A worst-case scenario nobody actually walked through](#miss-2)
- [Miss 3: Endorsements that should be on every program and almost never are](#miss-3)
- [Miss 4: A home, auto, and umbrella that don’t actually work together](#miss-4)
- [What a real review looks like at Avanti](#what-real-review-looks-like)
- [Frequently Asked Questions](#faq)
Miss 1: Limits that no longer match today’s values
Personal lines limits drift. The asset they cover doesn’t.
Dwelling. The house you bought for $400K three years ago is probably a $500K–$550K rebuild today. Iowa replacement costs have moved roughly 30% on the construction side in five years, and almost nobody’s homeowner’s policy is keeping pace automatically. If the dec page still reads close to the original purchase number, you are running an under-insurance problem that only surfaces on the total loss it was bought to handle.
Umbrella against net worth. You bought a $1M umbrella in 2020. Your net worth in 2026 is a different number. The umbrella was sized to the smaller number and nobody asked you to resize it. The bottom million covers everything you used to have. The top million-plus is exposed.
Auto liability against the umbrella requirement. Most umbrellas require $250/500/100 underneath them. A lot of clients are still carrying $100/300/100 auto liability because nobody re-stacked the underlying when the umbrella went on. When the claim happens, the umbrella looks at the auto, finds the underlying requirement isn’t met, and pays zero.
A real review opens with three numbers — current dwelling, current net worth, current auto-liability — and asks if the policy still reads against today’s reality. The answers are usually no, no, and “wait, what?”
Miss 2: A worst-case scenario nobody actually walked through
A real review walks specific losses through the actual policy. Most agents never do this, because they have never read your policy at that level. The five scenarios I run every time we audit a household:
The kitchen fire. $80K of smoke and water damage. Does the dwelling limit hold to actual replacement cost? Is the loss settlement replacement cost or ACV on contents? What is the additional living expense coverage and for how long? Is the personal property limit (Coverage C) enough?
The basement flood from a backed-up sewer. $25K in finished basement, HVAC, and contents. Almost nobody has water backup of sewers and drains scheduled — it is not in the base homeowner’s form. The claim is denied. This one I see four or five times a year.
The dog bite at a neighbor’s barbecue. Eight-figure-potential liability event, lifetime medical care for a child. Homeowner’s liability responds. Then umbrella. If umbrella isn’t sized to net worth + future earnings, the bottom of the claim is on the household.
The teen at-fault accident on the family SUV. $2M+ judgment scenario. Auto BI limit pays first. UM/UIM is a non-issue here — this is at-fault liability. Auto BI exhausts. Umbrella picks up if (a) it exists at the right size, (b) the underlying auto liability met the requirement, and (c) the umbrella didn’t carve out household members. Three things have to be true. Often only one is.
The fine art / scheduled property theft. $15K of inherited art or a $20K firearm collection goes missing. Special limits cap homeowner’s recovery — typically $1,500 on jewelry, $2,000 on firearms, $5,000 on silverware/goldware, $2,500 on business property in the home. The only way to claim full value is to have scheduled the property. If it wasn’t scheduled, the math is brutal.
A real review walks all five of those. Most reviews walk none. If your last review didn’t take you through at least two specific loss scenarios with the actual policy in hand, you got a renewal, not a review.
Miss 3: Endorsements that should be on every program and almost never are
There is a short list of endorsements that almost every personal lines program in Iowa should carry and almost none do by default. A real review either adds them or asks why not.
Water backup of sewers and drains. Common cause of basement loss. Not standard.
Ordinance or law (extended). Building codes change. Required updates after a partial loss are not paid for under the base policy. Standard 10% bump is inadequate on older homes — should be 25%+.
Service line coverage. Underground utility line failures (water, sewer, electric, gas) on the homeowner’s side of the meter. New, cheap endorsement. Most clients have never been offered it.
Equipment breakdown. Furnace, AC, water heater, well pump — mechanical breakdown not from a covered peril is excluded under standard HO-3. Endorsement fixes it for a few dollars.
Scheduled personal property. Jewelry, firearms, fine art, silverware, collectibles, bikes worth more than $1,500, watches. Scheduled = full agreed value at claim time, no deductible on most carriers. Unscheduled = pennies on the dollar.
Identity theft expense. Cheap, useful, almost always available, almost never elected.
Auto OEM parts endorsement. After a collision, the difference between OEM parts and aftermarket parts on your repair quote can be $2,000–$8,000 depending on vehicle and damage. Some carriers exclude OEM by default.
A real review names which of these are on your policy and which are not, and why. Most reviews never raise the question. The sublimits, exclusions, and conditions piece walks through the fine print where these gaps actually live.
Miss 4: A home, auto, and umbrella that don’t actually work together
Most households have a homeowner’s policy from one carrier, an auto policy from another carrier, and an umbrella sitting on top of both. They were bought at different times, by different agents, with different filing dates and different limits. They look like a program from a distance. Up close, they are three separate documents.
A real review checks the program for actual interlock:
– Underlying limits meet the umbrella’s requirement. Auto liability at $250/500/100 (or whatever the umbrella schedule requires). Homeowner’s liability at the underlying number. If the underlying is short, the umbrella will deny the claim it was bought for. – All household members are on the umbrella. Some umbrellas carve out members of the household who don’t live there full time — college kids, household help, foster placements. Read the definitions. – Personal injury extension. Defamation, false arrest, slander. Standard umbrella may or may not include it depending on carrier. Some carriers require an endorsement. – Uninsured/underinsured motorist on the umbrella. Some umbrellas extend UM/UIM, some don’t. The cost is small. The exposure on a hit-by-an-uninsured-driver scenario is large. – Home-based business activity. Etsy shop, consulting practice, Airbnb-ing the cabin, photography on the weekends. None of those are covered under standard HO-3 — they are excluded as business pursuits. A real review names the activity and either adds an endorsement or recommends a small commercial policy. The umbrella does not paper over the gap. – Second homes and rentals. Lake place, cabin, rental property. Each one is its own policy plus an extension on the umbrella. The “I’ll put it on later” version of this conversation is how the gap stays open for five years.
A real review stacks all three policies on the desk and reads them against each other. Most agents have never opened more than one document at a time.
What a real review looks like at Avanti
The Residential Risk Audit™ is the structured version of all four checks. It is a written document. It names the limit gaps in dollar terms, walks the scenarios in plain English, lists the endorsements you don’t have and what each costs to add, and shows whether your home, auto, and umbrella actually constitute a program or just a stack of unrelated policies. Clients keep it. We refresh it every renewal.
If you went with another agent this round, you don’t owe us anything — but if you’d like the audit document for your own records, I am good for a 30-minute call and we’ll send the written RRA over. It is the conversation your next renewal will need either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a Residential Risk Audit™ different from a normal annual review?
A normal review compares this year’s dec page to last year’s. The RRA compares your dec page to your actual household — dwelling against rebuild cost, umbrella against net worth, auto liability against the umbrella’s underlying requirement, endorsements against the named exposures, and the program against itself for interlock. The deliverable is a written document, not a verbal walkthrough.
How much does dwelling really need to move year over year?
Replacement cost has moved 25–35% on Iowa single-family construction since 2020. Most homeowner’s policies carry an inflation guard endorsement that adjusts dwelling annually, but the inflation guard rarely keeps pace with actual construction cost increases over a multi-year window. A real review confirms the actual rebuild number rather than trusting the inflation guard alone.
Why is umbrella sized to net worth instead of to a default like $1M or $2M?
Because a default isn’t a number for your situation. Investable assets, home equity, retirement accounts, future earnings — all of those are recoverable in a judgment. The umbrella has to sit above that total, not at some round number that felt comfortable when it was sold five years ago.
What is the single most common gap on Iowa personal lines policies?
Water backup of sewers and drains, by a wide margin. It is not in the base homeowner’s form. The claim arrives, the carrier denies, the client finds out at the worst possible moment. Add the endorsement.
Can my current agent run this same review?
Yes — if they will. Ask for it in writing. Ask for the four checks: limits against current values, two specific loss scenarios walked through, named endorsements with cost-to-add, and program interlock between home, auto, and umbrella. If your agent declines or hand-waves, that is the answer. If they do the work, great. The point is the work, not who does it.