We continue to seek ways to improve and provide better service and coverage to our policyholders through our ITV Awareness Program. Providing information to policyholders about how much coverage is needed to fully repair or replace their dwellings can empower them to make choices that best fit their needs.

In the next few months, we will be updating the policy package to include a customized letter that explains Insurance to Value (ITV) and the difference between replacement cost coverage and actual cash value. We will also roll out a new ITV information page, with educational material, on TWIA.org. 

When we began the ITV Awareness Program, our first order of business was to get an accurate understanding of the current state of ITV at TWIA. The Underwriting Department performed in-depth research and analysis on ITV and discovered opportunities for improvement that we have now initiated.

• In 2013, we added the Form 220 to residential policies which increases the coverage amount each year based on an industry index. Since the factors used were only applied to the coverage amount and not the original replacement cost calculated at the inception of the policy, we could not provide an updated evaluation as to the adequacy of the amount of coverage in the event of a loss.
• In January 2016, we made a modification that also increases the replacement cost amount at renewal using that same index. This helps to ensure that our policyholders are properly covered in the event of a loss.

Our current focus is developing educational information we will make available to policyholders on the website and in the policy package letter about what replacement cost is, what actual cash value means, different insurance amounts, and the effects those amounts have on coverage in the event of a claim.

We will update the agent community as we get closer to launching the ITV information webpage and implementing the policy package letter.