Judy Wiggins- Home, Auto, and Flood Insurance

Judy Wiggins is a small business owner and owns three successful Allstate agencies. She's been in the insurance business for about 9 years and before that she was in education.  She is married to her wonderful husband Michael and they have a son Luke who is 9.  As a family, they love to travel, go on hikes, and enjoy life's adventures.  She also loves serving and working in her community.

More about Judy here:
 www.allstate.com/wigginsj

Your hosts: Colton Cockerell & Trisha Stetzel
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Colton Cockerell
Trisha Stetzel

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Transcript

Colton Cockerell: 0:05

Hello and welcome to another exciting

episode of Bridge the Gap: 0:07

Connecting Business Perspectives with your hosts myself, Colton Cockerell and Trisha Stetzel. Our goal is to bridge the generational, gender, and life experience gap in business through our unique styles of gathering information from our guests. now let's get it started. All right. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another exciting episode of Bridge the Gap where we're connecting business perspectives. I already got our guests to laugh, right, we started fantastic. We're off to a great start. But my name is Colton Cockerell. I'm a Certified Financial Fiduciary and an independent financial adviser. Yes, independent financial adviser. But I'm not doing this alone. I'm always here with my lovely guest, and she would kill me if I did not introduce her first before our guests. So today, I have Trisha Stetzel as always with me, Trisha, take a bow. Just enter the applause, all that good stuff.

Trisha Stetzel: 0:58

I keep calling you. Do you realize that you said your lovely guest, right? I'm not your co host. Yeah, it's okay. I still love ya.

Colton Cockerell: 1:06

It's a long week. Trisha. This

Trisha Stetzel: 1:09

has been a very long week. But we have an amazing guest with us today. So first off Trisha Stetzel Results Xtreme Business Solutions. I'm super excited to be here with you, Colton. But I'm even more excited that we have Judy Wiggins with Judy Wiggins Agency on the line with us today. So Judy is a small business owner and owns three successful Allstate agencies. She's been in the insurance business for about nine years. And before that she was an education. She is married to her wonderful husband, Michael. And they have a son Luke, who is nine years old. As a family, they love to travel, go on hikes and enjoy life's adventures. She also loves working in her community, Colton. And, Judy, I'm so excited to be here, Judy, welcome to the show.

Judy Wiggins: 1:56

Hello, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Colton Cockerell: 1:59

Absolutely. And you know what, Trisha, I'm a little disappointed. I thought you were going to call me your co guest. But I guess I guess not. So we're going to talk about Property and Casualty. I'm actually really excited about this. Because first and foremost, I know hurricane season is right around the corner. And, Judy, I know you probably get a ton of questions about this time around this time of year. So So let me ask you this. First and foremost, what changes since Harvey really have been made to to insurance as far as windstorm and protection and things like that? Maybe flood zones or really whatever you want to expound on.

Judy Wiggins: 2:32

So really, there haven't been a whole lot of changes since Harvey. And I know that the big question that I always get is flood insurance and remapping the flood zones, and I used to be in an X now I'm moving to an AB changing flood zones, the changes that we've seen in the last couple of years are actually a result of Ike. So we have not seen the Harvey changes yet. takes a little longer for flood to catch up. And then with other insurance, really, there have not been a lot of substantial changes since Harvey Harvey was mostly a flood event. And again, I think in the future, we'll see some changes remapping possibly.

Colton Cockerell: 3:10

So how long I did not know that how long does it typically take for insurance to catch up with the catastrophes such as you know, the flooding that we experienced, you know, two, three years ago?

Judy Wiggins: 3:21

You know, I'm not really actually sure the answer to that question. I know that, like I said, we recently saw some remapping in the last couple of years, and that was all as a result of Ike/

Colton Cockerell: 3:32

Ike. Goodness, Ike, that is so long ago, holy cow.

Trisha Stetzel: 3:36

You all say it was like eight or nine years ago, right?

Judy Wiggins: 3:39

Yeah. But FEMA is in charge of that. And so, you know, FEMA is part of the federal government and it takes the federal government a little longer to move along. You might want to edit that part out.

Colton Cockerell: 3:51

You know what, it's funny you say that, because I was gonna tell Trisha after the show how she was gonna be so happy because I was gonna say, Yeah, they're pretty good dragging their feet. So Never mind. You open the door,

Trisha Stetzel: 4:01

Colton loves to put a little bit of a little bit of that in the show just a little.

Judy Wiggins: 4:06

And at that point, no, I don't want to say anything negative, but ya know, the, the changes that we've seen are from

Trisha Stetzel: 4:13

well, and so duty just to make you feel a little bit better. I was in the military. So I absolutely understand how slow the government can be. I mean, it's just part of it, right? There's a lot of red tape and things that people have to go through in order for that to work. So flood insurance, in my opinion, is pretty affordable. There are a whole lot of people out there that aren't even in flood zones that may or may not choose flood insurance. Can you just talk I mean, we're down here, close to the coast. Whether or not you're in a flood insurance zone or a flood zone, excuse me. Do you? would you encourage or at least educate people on having flood insurance?

Judy Wiggins: 4:51

Absolutely. We are on the coast. We have seen some major catastrophes with flooding in the last several years. My agency and I, we worked through Harvey claims we paid out, I've gone back and looked at the number several times between my two loads. I had two locations at that time. And because of the people who had flood insurance, our agency paid out over $15 million in claims. So when I say that our agency was there for people during Harvey, I mean that we were dealing with a lot of claims. And I can't tell you how many people I spoke to on the phone that said, You know, I never had I've never flooded I didn't flood during Allison, I didn't flood during Ike didn't flood during the tax floods. Name a time when the city of Houston or some surrounding area has flooded. They're all saying they had never flooded. And some people they didn't flood during Harvey but a lot of people did. A lot of people during Harvey who flooded didn't we're not in a high risk flood zone, they were in an X zone. And having conversations with people knowing that they had insurance to help them was was amazing. Because we we know that we put the right things in place. They they agreed to that everything was good. But then also talking to people who did not who flooded but did not have insurance and hearing them say I know I don't have flood insurance, I should have carried it. And then also we had people who didn't flood but got really close. And they were just everybody was on edge. And so we wrote a lot of flood insurance after Harvey too, because people were just nervous, because they saw how close it got. Right? Well, I definitely recommend it. We like to have that conversation with everyone in the agency. But ultimately, it's the it's the customer's choice. If they're not in a high risk zone, it's their choice that they want to carry that are not

Colton Cockerell: 6:47

Trisha, you know, what kind of stood out. And all that to me is she was talking about how, during the flood, whether you had insurance or not, you know, she was there helping individuals going through everything. She She sells insurance. She's not in the Claims Department, but yet she still took the time to do I think that's awesome. That's customer service right there.

Judy Wiggins: 7:06

Yeah, we, we the first month after Harvey, I want to say we were fielding about 400 inbound phone calls a day. And most of them were related to the flood, and most of them are related to Harvey. And the sad thing is that I kind of equate it to Groundhog Day, you know, the movie with Bill Murray, how it's the same thing over and over. So as you're talking to customers that are calling in, they're all telling their story. And every story is very similar. But there was a common thread in there of, I'm just so grateful that wasn't worse than what it was. I'm so grateful to be alive. I'm so grateful that people are here to help me. And it could always be worse. Even when I'm talking to people who had it really, really bad. They're still saying that that hopefulness that they all had of it could have been worse. And that was it was hard to listen to all of those stories, and it was draining. But it was so fulfilling to because that's what we do. I mean, yes, we sell insurance, but we're selling insurance for a disaster or for a claim. And I tell people all the time that I hope that you get your insurance bill, you mumble and you moan and you gripe a little bit about it because you're like, Oh, I'm paying something that I don't even get anything out of. And I hope that you never have to use it. Because if you do you're having a bad day.

Colton Cockerell: 8:24

You know, it's I say the same thing about long term care insurance. Yeah. It's like, you never want to use it. But man, if something happens, it's the best thing to have. Oh, my goodness. So Trisha, I know you, I keep asking a bunch of questions. Can I ask one more?

Trisha Stetzel: 8:42

I know, you always talk all over me, it

Colton Cockerell: 8:45

washes out of the way and take up all the time so that you don't have a lot left. That's kind of like the way I've been working. No. Okay, last question here. Let's talk about rates. Specifically, I want to talk about all the time, you know, as a young person, I'm hearing Oh, you know, you got to bundle your home bundle your auto right? Is that does that really save you a lot of money? Is that something? Or is it better to shop separately for your home and your auto?

Judy Wiggins: 9:09

So really, that just depends. I always encourage people to have their home and auto together, because then you have it at one agency, you have one local agent helping you with that. And and for a lot of companies, there are some really good bundling discounts that go along with that.

Colton Cockerell: 9:26

Alright, so Judy, let me ask you this. Everyone is so concerned about rates write their premiums when it comes to insurance, is the premium you have the amount that you pay is that everything when it comes to insurance, is that the most important thing that people need to be obsessed about?

Judy Wiggins: 9:41

Absolutely not. Rates are important because obviously we all want something that's affordable, but you get what you pay for. Not all insurance policies are created equal. So there are policies that cover some things and other policies don't cover that. They need to get a little Technical on you some policies are replacement cost, that means that if your home is insured for$400,000, they're insuring it for $400,000. There are other policies that are what they call actual cash value, where they depreciate part of that. That that's, that's part of what's going to make the rate change. Another thing that's important with rate is your deductible. Some people want to carry a higher deductible and have a lower rate, because in the event of a claim, they have the money to pay for that higher deductible. Other people don't have that savings to pay for that. So they want to have a lower deductible. I like to tell the story about if there's a$400,000 house and you get a 5% deductible on your home, you're pretty much self insuring your roof at that point. Because I mean, $20,000 is what you're saying that you're wanting to pay for. So there's so many variables that play into rate, like the type of policy, like the types of perils that it covers. And I know of somebody who purchased a policy that was a little less expensive, and then had a free, they were victims of the freeze their home, the pipes, burst, ceilings caved in, in every room $40,000 worth of damage, they found out that their policy doesn't cover freeze. So it is so important to know what your policy covers and what it doesn't cover what your deductibles are and what you're paying for. Because ultimately, you're paying for your insurance company to be there for you in the time of a claim.

Trisha Stetzel: 11:33

Yeah, and I think that's so Yeah, and I think that's so important, Judy, you know, as you were talking through that I was thinking about people, you know, in, in the summer, a lot of people get swimming pools, right, and they never call their insurance agent, to let them know that they made a change to their house, and their insurance agent never checks in with them. So they go years, right, where they've maybe built a structure or a swimming pool or something under their house. And because their insurance agent never checks in with them. There's some disaster and well, it's not covered, right? So can you talk a little bit about the importance of customer service between the agent and the client? I'm assuming, because you guys are amazing that you call your clients on a regular basis.

Judy Wiggins: 12:16

salutely we do. So when a policy is about to renew, if it's an auto policy or a home policy, we're going to call them we're going to check in and offer an insurance review for them. because like you said, life changes. If you bought your policy five years ago, and you've made updates to your home, you you have you have kids now that you didn't have before now your kids are driving. I mean, there are life events that trigger a phone call to your insurance agent. But you don't always think about that. So that's what we do on our end is we do call out and proactively reach out, check in see how things are going review the policy, education is so important. Because if I'm sure if I asked you right now, what are your liability limits on your auto? You might know? Or you might say, you know, I'm not really sure. And most people that we talk to are like, um, well, I have full coverage, or I have $500 deductibles, but it's like, well, what's the liability limits on your home? What's it on your auto, because that's the part of insurance that you know, you're required to have by law. But that is a huge part of insurance as well to protect your your wealth to protect your assets. And you definitely we love to educate people about that.

Colton Cockerell: 13:32

And the financial advisor could totally appreciate that. So let's talk about let's talk about that liability limits. Can you just kind of walk me through that and just what you seen and what you would recommend.

Judy Wiggins: 13:44

So really, it's a personalized approach. However, the state minimum liability limits are 30,000 per person, 60,000 per occurrence and 25,000 for property damage. So what that means is if I get in my car, and I cause an accident, if there's one person injured, all my insurance is responsible for is $30,000. But there's a couple of people injured, they're responsible for $60,000 and, and my insurance is only going to pay $25,000 toward the repairs of the car, or if the car's totaled out. That's the state minimum. That's what you're legally required to have. We all know with medical bills and expenses. And we all know with some of the cars that we've seen on the roads lately, that that is just not enough coverage for the other party. And yes, this is coverage for the other party. But what happens if you cause an accident and someone is really injured, and your insurance company is only going to pay 30,000 of that they're going to come after me for the rest of it right? We see this happen. So we we talk to people about increasing their limits. The maximum not the maximum but one of the higher levels is 250 per person. 500 per occurrence 100,000 per, for property damage or even higher than that. And then we also talk to people about umbrella policies, because then once it's once those limits are exhausted on your auto or even on your homeowners insurance, then you can have 1 million 2 million in additional coverage to help in those situations. There is a story I can tell you. Last year, one of the one of my team members was talking to a customer reviewing the policy, and we increased her limits to the maximum to 5500. A few months later, there was an accident that caused a fatality. And, and she was so grateful to have that coverage, because she was not responsible for paying anything. They they settled at the at the maximum limits. That's what insurance can do for people. You know, a lot of times we think, oh, we just have to have it where required? And yes, and if you have a mortgage and if you drive a vehicle, you are required to have it. But it it can do so much more for you. And that's what we try to tell people about.

Trisha Stetzel: 16:10

Is it my turn Colton.

Colton Cockerell: 16:12

I'm trying to be quiet. I literally

Trisha Stetzel: 16:15

took over the whole show.

Colton Cockerell: 16:17

I know. I'm not talking to you. I take care of everything else from here on out.

Trisha Stetzel: 16:23

Colton gonna sit there with his arms arms folded like a little kid. It's okay. Judy, this is man, I love all of the the technical. The technical data that you're giving us is it's not something we don't normally go down that path. And I think that's really cool that you're doing that for us. So from I like to go back to the customer service, because I know you and Man, you've got three agencies now. Right? I haven't even talked to you since you added that third one. So I know that you've got something really great going out there. So you tell us where your agencies are?

Judy Wiggins: 16:56

Yes. So I've an office in Friendswood, an office in Pearland and then an office in Sugarland. We help people all over the entire state of Texas. So, I mean, we have customers in every corner. But yes, those are where the three offices are located.

Trisha Stetzel: 17:13

That's awesome. And congratulations. That's so dang exciting. So Colton, can I ask the Can I ask the hard question?

Colton Cockerell: 17:22

Okay. Okay. One more quick question.

Trisha Stetzel: 17:25

Yeah, go Hurry up.

Colton Cockerell: 17:27

Hey, I'm sorry. All right. Regarding umbrella policies, yep. Helpful, are all hype.

Judy Wiggins: 17:35

I think they're helpful. And I've seen where they're helpful. Especially as a financial advisor, you you understand how important it is to protect your your net worth your assets, whether it's your home, your retirement. In Texas, they do not garnish wages, but in a lot of states they do. And so that's one of the things that they tell people about when they're talking about umbrellas is they can go and garnish your wages. Obviously, Texas, it doesn't happen here. But they I know, right? But if somebody Sue's you, they can go after your retirement accounts. If they're not protected properly, they can go after your home, they can go after your assets. And you never know what's going to happen. And you know, we were talking about the technicalities of liability limits. But to increase your limits, it is not that expensive. It sounds so expensive, going from 3060 to 250 500. But it is it's really not that expensive. And we talked earlier about how inexpensive flood insurance can be an umbrella policy many times is even less than a flood policy. So that talking about rate and and having the importance of rate. these are these are policies that are very affordable, and can really save you if you're in that situation. And the sad thing is, is being in the industry that I'm in is we see people in that situation

Colton Cockerell: 18:59

should drive to good points. Trisha, have a good have a good insurance agent have a good financial advisor. What sounded like right.

Trisha Stetzel: 19:07

That's what I heard. And I know that's why you asked that question, Colton. I'm gonna I'm gonna smacky The next time we see each other in person just saying. So, Judy, this time for the hard question. Okay, Colton, what would you ask me? I'm going to ask her about if you could have an ostrich or an elephant. Which one would you choose and why?

Colton Cockerell: 19:34

Wow. Okay, question.

Judy Wiggins: 19:37

I'm going to choose elephant. Because when my son was little, he would point to them and call them aaes. But also, I have tried to feed an ostrich before and they're kind of vicious and a little scary. So I'm picking elephant for sure. They seem a little nice.

Colton Cockerell: 19:57

They're like gentle giants, right ostrich is more or less like vultures, they're just gonna like peck you if you

Judy Wiggins: 20:04

go through the drive thru Safari things and I mean they I roll up the windows when I get to them.

Trisha Stetzel: 20:10

And there's no ostrich listeners are gonna stop listening now.

Colton Cockerell: 20:14

I'm so sorry. You're right. I don't discriminate against Ostrich's or elephants, so I apologize.

Judy Wiggins: 20:19

They're both really nice animals, but I'm gonna choose elephants.

Trisha Stetzel: 20:26

Okay, that's a really good answer.

Colton Cockerell: 20:29

I mean, you do have some bad some bad ostriches bad elephants out there. So I mean, you know, it's just you can't you map the whole species for just a few of them, you know?

Trisha Stetzel: 20:37

Yeah, absolutely. So I think Colton, we really have bridged the gap here, right during our conversation, because no matter if you're a young, a young chick like you, right, well, duckling, or like an old mother, hen, mother, goose like me, like, right wing wise owl. We all need insurance. But here's the thing. If you don't have a trusted advisor, then you really, you're probably not in the right place. Right? You've got to go and have a relationship with your insurance agent, because it really is, Judy, you were talking about it before we started recording. It's really about education. And I appreciate that very much. So I think whether you're young or old, someplace in the middle, insurance is the law. And but you can go and find somebody that you actually can build a relationship with. And I think that that's really important. All right. Are you gonna ask the generation question or you want me to do it?

Colton Cockerell: 21:33

I talked enough today, so I'm gonna let you take care of it. All

Trisha Stetzel: 21:36

right. I love it. So Judy, would you divulge to our listeners what generation you belong to?

Judy Wiggins: 21:44

I will, so I'm kind of on the cusp. Sometimes, like I always thought that I was Gen X. But I think now if I'm up on my knowledge, like I think I might be I'm a xenial.

Colton Cockerell: 22:03

I like that. I've never heard that.

Judy Wiggins: 22:07

Cuz I'm right on the edge of x and Mullin and millennial. So I think I miss xinial thing.

Trisha Stetzel: 22:15

Well, and here's the thing, Judy, they change the dates on us all the time. And they actually dropped the Y Jenner's I have no idea where they went because there used to be some what, which I think is where you fit in now. Right? I've never heard that before.

Colton Cockerell: 22:30

Oh, real quick. Generally.

Trisha Stetzel: 22:34

Gonna Google it. Go ahead, Colton.

Colton Cockerell: 22:37

Oh, no, no, no.

Trisha Stetzel: 22:38

Please leave me Oh, no, no. Okay. So um, so, Judy, when you think about your own generation, is there a particular generation that you identify more with?

Judy Wiggins: 22:49

No, I think probably Gen X is what I identify a little more with. Yeah. I would say Gen X.

Colton Cockerell: 22:59

I'm happy where I'm at. No, I'm good. I'm comfortable.

Judy Wiggins: 23:02

That's a very generic answer. It's like, we are who we are. And I mean, I'm not a boomer. And I don't want people calling me a boomer, although I love the boomers, and I'm not a millennial. And so Gen X is just that kind of sandwich that nobody really talks about. And we're just like, I'm cool with it.

Trisha Stetzel: 23:24

And we work hard and we make great businesses and we're great with people. I'm just saying, Colton. I don't know about your generation. All right. We have goofed around a whole lot on this one, Judy. Thank you for coming on the show today. This has been so dang much fun. Would you please provide our listeners with your contact information? You're gonna have to spell it out since it's only audio so when you give if you give your email address and also spell out your name for us?

Judy Wiggins: 23:54

Absolutely. It's Judy Wiggins agency. My name is Judy Wiggins, J U D Y W I G G I N S. The best number to contact the agency is 281-992-1926. And my email is my last name Wiggins. And then letter j@allstate.com.

Trisha Stetzel: 24:14

Awesome. Colton. any parting words, my friend.

Colton Cockerell: 24:18

I just want to just formally apologize to Trisha Stetzel all for taking most of the question time. I feel horrible. That is all.

Trisha Stetzel: 24:26

That is do not. You do not? You're still my friend. It's okay, Judy, thanks for putting up with us. We like to have a little bit of fun on the show. Otherwise, it would just be a boring interview.

Judy Wiggins: 24:37

I appreciate the fun because we all know that insurance and getting technical is not the most exciting or fun thing to talk about. So I'm glad we had a lot of fun doing it.

Trisha Stetzel: 24:46

Yeah, we did. And I think you even laughed at Colton when we open the show, which was totally, totally worth it. You got to leave that in there Colton.

Colton Cockerell: 24:54

Of course. I'll leave that in there. Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: 24:56

All right. I love it. All right, you guys. Thank you so much again, Judy. are being with us today. And this concludes this week's podcast Tune in next week for another exciting episode of Bridge the Gap: Connecting Business Perspectives.

Colton Cockerell: 25:10

Thank you again for tuning in to this week's episode of Bridge the Gap: Connecting Business Perspectives. If there's a certain professional or profession that you want to hear from leave a comment in this week's Facebook posts. Please subscribe and share this podcast. Colton Cockerell with Sharer McKinley Group, LLC is located at 820 South Friendswood Drive Suite 207 Friendswood, Texas 77546 phone number to 281-992-5698. Securities and investment advisory services offered through NEXT Financial Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC Sharer McKinley Group is not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group, Inc.