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In the past few years, there have been a number of bigger natural disasters in many parts of the country that have served to significantly increase the amount of money people in those areas have to pay for their home insurance policies. One state where this is the case is Colorado, where a number of recent incidents have led to people seeing big increases in their monthly payments for that coverage. As such, it might be incumbent upon their insurance agents to explain to them why their costs are on the rise, and what they might be able to do to improve their positions.

Home insurers operating in the state of Colorado have been hit with a large number of claims related to hail and wildfire damage in recent years, and as such, many homeowners are now finding themselves in a tough position with regard to the cost of their policies, according to a report from Colorado Springs television station KXRM. Consequently, people in areas that are deemed to be at higher risk for these issues will likely see growing premium costs going forward.

""Everybody assumes that once they've had a major catastrophe claim like this that either their rates or going to go sky high and they can't afford it or they won't be able to get insurance at all,"" John Putnam, an insurance consultant with Putnam Assurance and Risk Services, told the station. ""Some companies are also going to take a much harder stance insuring people who live in the trees. There are some carriers that have not experienced a lot of hail or have not experienced a lot of fire losses.""

What's the fallout?
The Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association recently reported that one particularly large wildfire did as much as $420.5 million in damages, to as many as 4,000 home and auto insurers, the report said. That makes it the most destructive fire in state history, but another, which caused $460.3 million in damages, was still more expensive.

Agents who can work with consumers to educate them about exactly what contributes to higher rates, and what might be able to reduce them again, might find their customer satisfaction increase significantly - and that can be important to long-term success. Studies have shown that when it comes to keeping consumers happy, it's more often quality customer service that gets the job done and keeps people from shopping around, instead of simply being able to provide lower prices.

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