I guess one of our Top 5 SERVICE ISSUES in the agency is working with mortgage companies.  Sadly, it’s not often a pleasant experience because of what we think is a heavy turnover of service employees within the mortgage industry.

We face these the problem first-hand here in the agency.  My staff handles some mortgage complications almost daily.  We have to make sure that the communication is right between the mortgage company and the insurance company for our insureds.  Take it from me, my staff exerts a LOT of patience in dealing with this segment of our work.

My assistant, Mandy Skrove said – “We need to blog about this.”  I asked her to put together her first-hand account of this process and how you, our customer or a prospective one, could save yourself and us some aggravation in dealing with your own mortgage service-related issues.

Mandy writes:

Who Should Update the Mortgagee Information on your Insurance Policy?

The answer is YOU.  Most insureds, not surprisingly, don’t recognize this responsibility.  It’s not the insured’s fault.  There is just no mortgagee manual to help us! 

Here’s an example:  You’ve found a better interest rate for your mortgagee and agreed to move forward with your refinance with a new institution.  You make a phone call to begin a refinance on your home loan.  The work does not stop there.

That representative sets the tentative closing date and usually contacts our office to request a declaration page or send an updated form known as the Evidence of Insurance showing the new institution on the policy.  BUT, 25% of the time the loan doesn’t get completed for a variety of reasons.  Meanwhile, the policy has already been updated for a future date to reflect the new mortgagee information.  The problem?  You guessed it!  NO ONE contacts us back to say the loan was never processed or the customer decided, in the end, to go to a different institution.  The mortgagee RARELY contacts our office to say they no longer hold the loan that our customer applied for.

Most people believe “someone else will handle that for me.”  While we pride ourselves on servicing our customers well here at Benton White Insurance, we need some help along the way from our wonderful customers. 

Here are some ways to catch the error:

• You should review the declaration pages that are sent to you after the change has been made and make sure the correct loan/mortgagee is listed.
• You should always review your insurance renewal declaration page to know that the correct insurance documents are being sent to the correct mortgagee. 
• If you receive a letter stating the correct mortgagee information that needs to be listed on your insurance policy, that’s a sign – “I need to call Benton White’s office!”
• If you receive a letter from a mortgagee stating they don’t have record of your insurance.  If that happens, you can be sure the mortgage company is about to apply for a policy on your behalf and will begin charging you for that premium.  That could cost you anywhere between 35% to 100% more than you are paying with our company.
• If you receive a past due notice that you are now responsible for the homeowners premium that your mortgagee was holding for you in your escrow account.  Again, CALL, TEXT or EMAIL US!

If ANY of these things occur, please contact us IMMEDIATELY.  Unfortunately, you can’t assume someone else is handling it or they must have it wrong or that it will be corrected by itself. 

Almost weekly, we are trying to put out a fire for a customer that can often take MANY weeks to resolve.  You and your insurance agency spend a considerable amount of time on the phone dealing with a myriad of, many times, not properly trained mortgage service workers who are now requesting that an up-front homeowners premium should be quickly paid until the mortgagee finally makes a payment to the carrier.  If that happens, you have to spend unnecessary money that will be held for several weeks until the money is, hopefully, refunded back to you by the mortgage/insurance company.

Here’s another example:  A customer of ours refinanced the mortgage over a year ago.  No one ever told us the mortgagee was changed.  Then the loan gets sold right before the renewal in June 2021.  Meanwhile, the first mortgage has sent a letter saying they need proof of insurance for the past year or they will charge the customer.  The current premium due for the insurance is now past due because the invoice was sent to the wrong institution.  We made four phone calls to correct the current mortgagee to get the information needed to update the policy and get the payment made ASAP.  We uploaded the corrected insurance pages to their website with the invoice.  The mortgagee proceeds to send the wrong amount to whatever address they had in their system (which was incorrect).   Now we are waiting for them to find the check and see if it will be forwarded to the correct address or if we need the check canceled and resent.  If the mortgagee doesn’t cooperate to get this premium paid, the customer will be forced to pay the premium almost immediately in order to keep the policy from canceling.  This started on 7/6/21 (20 days after the renewal was effective) and is still not resolved.

Here’s the bottom line:  we are trying to reduce the frustration for all involved.  Please communicate with us pronto if you have a change or your loan is sold.  Don’t trust that the banks will do it.  They won’t take care of that for you and usually, we find out a bit too late to avoid a lot of headaches. 

Always remember, the responsibility for updating your insurance policy information is yours because you own your mortgage, you own your insurance policy and you are always in the driver’s seat FIRST if there is a change to be made. 

The old adage remains:  “Help us – Help you!”  😊   

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Thanks to Mandy for that first-hand information.  All of these examples could easily be much easier and less financially painful for you if you keep us in the loop and inform us of any changes to the insurance policy you give us the pleasure of writing for you.

I hope this gives you some insight into the mortgage company process.  We want to be the most efficient and total service insurance agency you can find.  You can help us accomplish that goal.  We hope you will!

Connect with us if we can help you with your insurance now or in the future.  And tell your friends we are doing all we can to make insurance easy for everyone!  TEXT or PHONE us at 615.377.1212.  EMAIL us at info@BentonWhite.com. 

Please stay safe in your corner of the world!