Insurance company that will write homeowners policy when the home is in the name of a trust?

Question

Named insured on the policy is deceased and policy has already been renewed til June '09. However, home has been transferred into the name of a trust. Unsure of what name is listed on the deed to the home, although the insured's three surviving children are trustees. No one lives in the house full-time -- it is used as a family weekend retreat between the childrens families -- but there is a caretaker 2 days a week maintaining the property. I work for an independent agency and I know that Travelers and Safeco would not write it since it is not occupied by a trustee. Perhaps a broker would be the way to go?

Answer 1

A broker will be the way to go because you will need to write this as a stand alone Seasonal Residence (not a Rented Dwelling as it is not being occupied by tenant's). Coverages will probably be limited to Fire and Extended Coverages (or it's local equivalent). This will have to be written by non-standard markets which a broker would have access to.

Answer 2

None, because the house isn't owner occupied.  The thing about a HOMEOWNERS policy, is it must be owner occupied.

So you need a rental unit policy, as clearly, the trust can't live there.  (A trustee is NOT a trust).  

Again, the problem with a rental policy, is that it's not full time occupied.  

I think you're going to end up with Foremost Iinsurance as the best bet.  If you write with both Travelers and Safeco, LOL, you ARE a broker!  But Foremost (www.foremost.com) will write what you're looking for.  Obviously, the coverages will be less broad, and the premium will be much higher, than a standard homeowners policy.

You could also always write a commercial property policy on it, but again, you'd be paying mongo high rates.

Answer 3

Your problem isn't that the house is in a trust - that is fairly common.  Its that the named insured is deceased and apparently the named insured was never switched to the trust (as it should have been) when the house was placed into the trust.  Someone needs to straighten out the title confusion first.