It is late February in Sherman. The winter has been unusually mild.
Ted is standing in the church parking lot looking up at the sanctuary roof.
Ted is the head of the finance committee for his church just a few blocks off the highway. He likes predictable numbers. He likes budgets that balance.
But weather forecasts for March are anything but predictable.
Ted knows that in North Texas a mild winter is often just the calm before the storm. It won't be long before the weather apps are issuing the first severe thunderstorm warnings of the season.
Ted looks at the long asphalt roof. It has not been replaced in twelve years. He worries that its luck is running out.
He remembers the church down the street. They got hit by a massive hailstorm last April. They had what they thought was a good insurance policy. But when the adjuster left they found out they had a larger than expected deductible that required them to pay $100,000 before the insurance company kicked in to cover the property damage.
They had to take out a loan just to afford their hail claim.
Ted walks back to his office and pulls the file for the church insurance policies. He sees the declaration page. He sees the numbers. And he feels a knot form in his stomach.
He realizes that if a natural disaster hits Sherman next week his church might be writing a check it cannot cash.
Ted is right to be worried. The insurance market for churches and religious organizations in Texas has changed post COVID. Carriers are tired of paying for roofs. They are shifting the cost to you.
You need to know what Ted found out. You need to understand the three realities of roof insurance before the first hailstone falls on your roof.
The first thing Ted noticed was the wind and hail deductible.
For many years the church had a flat deductible of $10,000. If the wind blew the shingles off the church paid ten grand and the insurance provider paid the rest.
But current policies are different.
Some church leaders see a 2% hail deductible and assume it means they pay 2% of the claim cost. They think if the repair costs $50,000 they will pay $1,000.
This is a dangerous misunderstanding.
The percentage is based on the Total Insured Value of the building.
If your sanctuary is insured for five million dollars a 2% deductible is $100,000. It does not matter if the property damage is only sixty thousand dollars. You still have to pay the first $100,000.
This is the Deductible Trap. Insurance companies use it to shift the risk of small and medium storms entirely onto the church budget.
But there is a remedy that Ted did not know about.
You do not have to just accept the high risk or the high insurance premiums. You can actually buy down your very large deductible with a separate, stand alone insurance policy.
This is a strategy used in comprehensive risk management. You deliberately raise your deductible on your primary property insurance policy. You might raise it to even 5%. This drastically lowers your base cost because the carrier has very little risk.
Then you purchase a separate Deductible Buy Down Policy.
This is a secondary insurance policy that covers the gap. It pays the deductible amount that the primary carrier does not cover.
By stacking these policies you can bring your actual out of pocket expense down dramatically. You also get the savings of the high deductible policy without the terrifying financial exposure.
Ted looked closer at the policy language regarding the roof.
He saw three letters that terrified him. ACV.
This stands for Actual Cash Value.
When a twelve year old roof gets destroyed the check you get depends entirely on how the policy values that roof.
The best coverage is Replacement Cost Value or RCV. This means the carrier pays what it costs to put a brand new roof on the building today regardless of how old the destroyed roof was.
But many carriers automatically switch roofs to Actual Cash Value once they reach a certain age. In Texas that age is often as low as ten years.
ACV pays you the value of the roof minus depreciation.
Imagine that the roof on Ted's church costs one hundred thousand dollars to replace. But because it is twelve years old the insurance adjuster says it has depreciated by 40%.
If the policy is ACV the carrier will only pay $60,000.
Ted's church has to come up with the rest to put a roof back on. And that is in addition to the deductible we just discussed.
This is the Depreciation Surprise. It leaves churches with half a roof and a massive bill.
The remedy for this is a Standalone Hail Policy.
If your main insurance agent cannot get RCV coverage because of the age of your roof you can look outside the standard market.
We are starting to see policies that focus purely on wind and hail claims. They pay cash for roof damage based on the severity of the storm. This can eliminate the depreciation gap.
This strategy is especially useful for smaller churches with limited budgets. It allows you to insure the specific risk of the roof without having to buy an expensive package that covers things you do not need.
It ensures that when the storm passes you actually have the funds to rebuild.
Ted noticed one more clause in the renewal offer. It was for a Managed Repair Program.
The premium for this option was significantly lower than the others. It looked like a great way to save money.
But there is a catch.
A Managed Repair Program changes who is in charge of the claim.
In a standard policy you hire the contractor. You choose the materials. You decide when the work gets done. The insurance company writes the check.
In a Managed Repair Program you sign away those rights.
The insurance company chooses the contractor. They choose the vendors. They control the schedule.
Their goal is to fix the damage as cheaply as possible to protect their bottom line. They are not incentivized to restore your sanctuary to its former glory. They are incentivized to get the job done at the lowest possible cost.
You lose control.
You might find yourself with a contractor who does not understand the unique needs of your church. You might find yourself with materials that do not perfectly match the aesthetic of your building.
If you have a dispute about the quality of the work you have very little leverage because you are not the one paying the contractor. The insurance company is.
The remedy here is simple. You must work with an independent agency experienced in Texas Church Insurance that has access to multiple markets.
You need an advisor who can find carriers that pay for the claim without demanding the keys to the construction site. You need insurance coverage that respects your right to rebuild your church your way.
Do not trade your sovereignty for a slightly lower premium. The cost of a bad repair job will far exceed the savings.
Ted sat back in his chair and looked at the weather map on his computer screen. The line of storms out west was getting bigger.
He realized that relying on a single insurance policy from a standard carrier was a mistake. The market had shifted. The risks had changed.
He needed a new strategy.
This is where True Texas Church Insurance steps in.
We do not just sell you a policy. We act as your architect. We customize coverage that protects your budget from the specific threats facing Texas churches all across the state.
We can help you structure the deductible buy down to save money without increasing your risk. We can find the standalone hail policy to cover your older roof. We ensure that you keep control of the repairs so your church activities are not interrupted by bad contractors.
But we do not stop at the roof.
We perform a comprehensive review of your entire risk profile.
We look at your General Liability Coverage to make sure you are protected from slip and fall lawsuits. We check your Directors and Officers liability insurance to protect your board. We review your Auto Insurance to make sure the church bus is covered for liability and physical damage.
We check your Employment Practices Liability to protect you from hiring disputes and your Sexual Misconduct Liability to protect your children. We even review your cyber liability to make sure your donor data is safe from cyber attacks.
We look at everything from congregation size to the age of your building to build a custom plan.
Ted learned that hope is not a strategy. He took action to fix the auto coverage and general liability insurance before they needed to file a claim.
You can do the same.
The hail is coming to Sherman. It is coming to Dallas. It is coming to Tyler.
Do not wait for the natural disaster to hit. Do not wait for the adjuster to tell you that your check is not coming.
Click the button below to get a Customized Roof Insurance Strategy that protects your church before the March storms begin.