Thank you for visiting my  website. I want you to have access to some basic information about my insurance agency, my insurance philosophy, and access to all the important phone numbers and addresses.

The insurance industry has undergone some dramatic changes in 2008 and 2009.   Some insurance carriers too have sold themselves(Safeco to Liberty Mutual) to others.  Some insurance policy forms continue to be have important insurance protection taken away(we can document that Metropolitan Direct Property & Casualty Insurance Company in 2009 removed from their California home policy form Guaranteed Replacement in California and replaced it with a 125% "extended limit").  In contrast, we work with a select list of insurance carriers that continue to IMPROVE and BROADEN the insurance protection available in the marketplace for homes, cars, personal liablity and scheduled items such as art and jewelry.

For example, we are one of the few insurance agencies in the country that can offer as of the Summer of 2009 a true GUARANTEED DWELLING REPLACEMENT Home Insurance policy. That's right, NO CAP on the dwelling limit and FULL BUILDING CODE COVEARAGE!! We have access to earthquake insurance from our select group of insurance carries that provides the broadest protection for your home, detached structures, personal property and loss of use. The California Earthquake Authority DOES NOT offer extended dwelling replacement type earthquake insurance. We have earthquake insurance options that will increase your dwelling limit by 125%, 150% or 200%!

I have strategically positioned my insurance agency to only offer the very best fire, earthquake, flood, windstorm, and liability insurance protection for your cars, homes, fine art, jewelry, other collectibles, watercraft and other "toys" from carriers such as Fireman's Fund, ACE Private Risk Services, Chartis, Chubb, Travelers, Allied Insurance, Safeco, AXA Art Insurance, Pacific Select, GeoVera, and others. 

Many insurance carriers and agents market themselves by promoting how much they can potentially save you by switching to them. However, we focus first on helping you understand what it means to have the right type of insurance protection and second, then finding that protection from a top-rated quality insurance company at competitive premiums. There is no point in thinking you have saved yourself a few hundred dollars by swithching your insurance only to find out you have an uncovered loss in the amount of $10,000, $25,000, $100,000, $500,000 or more than $1,000,000!  We act as trusted advisors to our clients, not mere salesmen or saleswomen.

You need to understand as a consumer that there are HUGE differences in the insurance policy you buy from company to company. Why?  Because the polices are essentially a legal contract promising for a payment of your premium certain benefits. These benefits DIFFER DRAMATICALLY from company to company. If your current agent only represents primarily one insurance company you simply don't know how much you potentially are underinsured because your current agent not wanting to lose your commission wouldn't want to tell you that you could have better insurance protection options elsewhere!  They may not even know that better coverage options are available for you in the insurance marketplace!  You may love your current agent or company because of many years of small stuff being handled well, but if you have a catastrophic property or liability loss, will your claim experience still be the same? Probably not.  Have you ever had a second set of professional independent insurance agent eyes review with you what type of insurance protection you now have and give you a second opinion? Probably not. If you think by being with the same agent/carrier for years will guarantee that no matter what happens to you your agent/carrier will "take care of you" simply because of all these years with them, sorry, this will not be the case! 

We don't not "quote" insurance rates. As mentioned above, we act as trusted advisors to our clients. We don't want to work with clients who just want a "quote" for one or for all their policies.  If we just "quote" apples to apples what you have, you could still be insured improperly! We want to work with clients who appreciate that we are different in how we help our clients manage their pesonal risks.  We want clients for life who want us to help them manage the confusing world of personal property and casualty insurance for them properly so that there will be no surprises when a small or large loss occurs. 

Our clients have us review and handle if it makes sense, all(auto, home, pesonal liability, earthquake, art, etc) their personal property and casualty insurance.   However, there may be valid reasons we will tell a client to keep an existing policy with another carrier or agent!  

We have a unique process that has the following steps:

Step1 - Discovery  

We ask you questions to understand your needs, objectives, goals, prior claim and insurance agent or insurance company experiences and to identify what risks you need to manage.

Step 2 - Analysis

Based up the information we gather, we put together an analysis of your current situation and determine if you have any MAJOR GAPS in your insurance protection that need to be resolved immediately.

Step 3 - Take action

We present you with our recommenations and the actions you need to take to be properly protected and we help you implement this plan.

Step 4 - Examine and Review

On an annual basis we examine and review with our clients the original insurance plan and make changes to it as needed and even before your renewal date if it makes sense. 

I call the above process my "D.A.T.E." process.  Please call me right now at 925-944-7100 if you want to go on a "D.A.T.E" with David Shaffer Insurance Services.

In addition, although we can't solve all your financial challenges, we get asked a lot for names of those who can help solve the other areas of financial planning.  I work with a select group of Certified Financial Planners and Attorneys who can provide for my clients expert knoweldge on life, health, disability, long term care insurance and can provide estate planning services.

Please click on the various items listed on the left, such as Frequently Asked Questions or Consumer Links for a variety of information.

Finally, I am writing an On-Line Guide to Homeowners Insurance. See the navigation bar to your left to view it. 

Thank you for visiting my website and try to MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!

David Shaffer