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Over the last several years, many consumers across the country have likely seen their home insurance premiums increase significantly, and therefore had to deal with the increased burden for lack of any better options to keep their costs down. That issue might soon become even more pronounced in Texas after a state regulator did little to slow increases that many experts said would be sizable. For that reason, it might be incumbent upon insurance agents in the state to let clients know about the ways in which their policies are changing, and why, because many consumers might be upset at the large increases.

The insurance commissioner for Texas recently allowed the state's three largest home insurance providers to significantly increase premium costs for about 2 of every 3 homeowners in the state, according to a report from the Dallas Morning News. This follows many of them already having increased rates last year, and consumer advocates say that these changes are particularly problematic for many residents.

What's the issue?
Public Insurance Counsel Deeia Beck was opposed to all three increases for a number of reasons, claiming that insurers were trying to ""exaggerate"" their expected losses and ongoing expenses, the report said. For their part, the insurers in question say that they're still staying within state rules when it comes to how much of every premium dollar they have to spend on claims. However, it should be noted that the state's insurance commissioner, Julia Rathgeber, is still said to be reviewing these changes after learning about the proposals late last year. Experts say that this may, then, end up going through just via the office's inaction, and therefore ending up costing homeowners a lot more than they paid last year.

Insurance agents who can most successfully explain the issues at hand to clients may be those who are able to keep their customer satisfaction ratings as high as possible going forward. Consumers tend to value that kind of customer service more so than anything else, so it should be a priority for agents going forward. That does not, however, mean that they shouldn't also try to work with customers to find as many discounts as they possibly can to once again reduce their costs, because when it comes to premiums, people are always eager to keep them as low as possible.

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