Can Your Insurance Company Cancel Your Policy? Know Your Rights and Risks
Hey there, it's Mike Goodman with Goodman Insurance Solutions. And today, what I want to talk about is, can my insurance company cancel my insurance policy? And the answer is yes. They can do this in a couple of different ways. First way being is that they will send you a notice saying that, on this date, we will no longer be offering you coverage, meaning that, that could be in as soon as 10 days, maybe 20 days, 30 days. And [00:00:30] then, another way that they could do that is they will send what's called a non-renewal, meaning that, at the end of your policy period, whenever that ends, they will not be starting a new cycle, whether that be a six-month policy for a 12-month policy.
Okay, so why does this happen? At the end of the day, if the insurance company is not being profitable, just as any other business would want to be, they're going to get off of that account. So, [00:01:00] maybe at some point in time that account was considered to be a favorable account, meaning that there is not a ton of accidents, not a ton of claims, everything was great. But at some point in time, if there was a trend that started in the wrong direction to where there was a bunch of liability claims or different types of claims, small claims even, they look at it like, okay, we're seeing this trend of claim, after claim, after claim, when is [00:01:30] there going to be the big one? And so, what they will do in those situations is they will study those things and decide, hey, are we comfortable staying on this account and taking on that risk? Or should we dismiss ourself from this policy and let someone else assume that risk?
And so, a lot of times I'll see this specifically on the auto side of things, if we've got someone that's repeatedly getting different type of violations, whether [00:02:00] that be speeding, driving under the influence or anything like that. Now, a couple of speeding tickets here or there, a lot of times I'm not going to see any cancellation because of that. But again, if time, after time, after time we're seeing something that's heading in the wrong direction, I have seen them make the decision to get off of that account.
And so, just wanted to cover that. That is one thing that they do have the right to do. They can non- [00:02:30] renew or cancel your policy. And that goes for, I mean, really any type of insurance that you would have. They do operate in the private sector and they have that right to do so. Obviously, there's different rules they have to follow in terms of the amount of time that they have to give you. And that's going to vary by state that you live in.
And so, if you ever have any questions at all relative to your policy that you've got with us, or even if you're not a customer yet, and [00:03:00] you've got a question about anything we talked about today or any other insurance type of material, feel free to reach out. Give us a call at (620) 531-0261. We are on most social media platforms. You can check us out on our website as well at kansasinsuranceagent.com. Shoot us an email also at Mike@goodmaninsurancesolutions.com. Hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll talk to you next time.