Only if I have to.
With aviation insurance, there is everyone else, and then there is Avemco. They are a 'direct writer', so they don't go through brokers. So if you talk to their rep, he will only quote you Avemcos policy.
Brokers will send your information some if not all the other insurers and see what they get back for quotes. Most of this is pretty much automated, they feed the information about aircraft and pilots into a quoting system and get either a quote in return, or they are told that they have to talk to an underwriter.
So you want to do two things: Get a quote through a broker that 'works all markets' (iow is a representative for all aviation insurers) AND get a quote from Avemco. Now, once you have asked one broker to give you quotes, you are somewhat locked into that broker. You can use another one, but you'll have to give him a letter that you appoint him as your representative. In the days when all quotes were manually prepared by the insurers, they would only quote the first broker that approached them for a particular airframe, now with the automatic quotes that is not really the case anymore.
We have had good service from the following agencies:
Airpower Insurance (Phoenix, AZ)
Falcon Insurance (Kerrville, TX)
both write nationally
I had one insurance policy through the AOPA insurance agency. AOPA has sold that business to another agency and I don't know anything about the new agency that is now their 'partner'.
Now the reason I said 'If I have to' with Avemco is the following:
Avemco has a 'per person' sublimit. So if you hurt someone on the ground, that persons recovery is limited to 100k before your personal assets are at risk. With most other insurers that write 100k/1M insurance, the sublimit is a 'per passenger' sublimit with a definition of what is a passenger (usually 'a person who is within the insured aircraft or in the process boarding or alighting from it'). I have control over who gets into the aircraft with me, so a per-passenger sublimit doesn't have much of a downside. I can't control who I hurt on the ground, and 100k is 3 days in the hospital and a couple of broken bones.
Now, the reason to go with Avemco is if you are an unusual risk. Avemco is more tolerant to those than most of the other insurers.
- advanced age (>70) in a complex aircraft
- a twin with little twin time
- a complex plane with the ink on your PPL barely dry.
In those cases, Avemco may be willing to insure you when others wont. By taking on the 'bad' risks, Avemco has a higher loss ratio and as a result will often quote higher premiums than the competition. Another good thing with Avemco is that their 'earned premium' doesn't vest as quickly as with other insurers. So you can insure with them at whatever moon price they quoted and after 6 months, re-shop on the open market, cancel your policy and move to a lower priced competitor. Other insurers, once you have a couple of months with them will keep the entire years premium.
All the brokers talk to the same set of insurers. There may be differences in how they try to sell you to the insurers, but in the end its a pretty small market. So when people tell you 'go with XYZ agency, I pay half of what everyone else pays', they usually omit some information, e.g. that $5000 deductible their broker recommended or the fact that the hull value is lower than replacement. The main difference between the brokers is their level of service.
