AIS Home Insurance Review: Is it the right choice for you?

Your homeowners insurance policy protects your home, your property, and your family. But your property protection is only as good as your insurance carrier. Before you buy an AIS home insurance policy, let’s check out all the pros and cons of AIS Insurance Solutions.

AIS ( Auto Insurance Specialists ) is an independent insurance brokerage that joined the industry in 1968 selling car insurance to Californians. Today, AIS calls itself “your insurance industry insider” and puts its 50+ years of experience to work pairing policyholders in all 50 states with the best insurance company, coverage, and cost based on their insurance needs. Basically, AIS does all the dirty work—comparing policies, price shopping, talking to insurers—so you don’t have to.

AIS and its sister company PoliSeek are wholly owned subsidiaries of Mercury Casualty Company (better known as Mercury Insurance), meaning that Mercury owns AIS and its stock. This shouldn’t affect your transactions with the company as a policyholder. However, some customer complaints claim AIS pushed them to choose Mercury policies, even when they weren’t the cheapest available option.

To get an AIS home insurance quote, you can enter your information online, and AIS will email you with more options to get in touch with an agent and purchase a policy.

But if you’re looking for quick and comprehensive insurance quotes, AIS might not do the trick. Use Insurify’s comparison tools for instant quotes and savings on your home, auto, and life insurance rates.

AIS Home Insurance Partners

When purchasing AIS home insurance or any other insurance products, it’s important to know that AIS doesn’t underwrite its own policies, meaning AIS doesn’t actually provide your insurance coverage. As a brokerage, AIS works for consumers, matching potential policyholders with their best-fit insurance plans (as opposed to insurance companies, which provide consumers with insurance protection). So even if you buy home insurance through AIS, your insurance provider will actually be one of AIS ’s insurance partners.

AIS ’s home insurance partners include:

• American Modern Insurance Group

• Arrowhead General Insurance Agency

• Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance

• Burns & Wilcox

• Carnegie General Insurance

• Century National Insurance

• Chubb

• First American Insurance

• Foremost Insurance Group

• The Hartford

• Infinity Insurance

• International Insurance Group

• Liberty Mutual Insurance

• MAPFRE Insurance

• Mercury Insurance

• MetLife

• National General Insurance

• Nationwide

• Pacific Specialty Insurance

• Plymouth Rock Assurance

• Progressive

• RLI Insurance Company

• Safeco Insurance

• Stillwater Insurance Group

• Travelers

After AIS finds you a policy, your AIS insurance agent will go over all the details, including which insurance company will provide your coverage. You should research any potential provider’s customer satisfaction ratings before signing any contracts. And you can choose a different provider and policy if you don’t like AIS ’s first pick.

Components of an AIS Home Insurance Policy

AIS finds the most favorable policy based on each policyholder’s coverage needs and cost preferences. Any policy AIS offers should include:

Property Coverage

The most basic homeowners policy starts with property insurance: dwelling coverage and other structures coverage. These options ensure that your home’s physical structure, along with your garage, pool, driveway, gazebo, outbuildings, and any fences on your property, are covered in case of property damage.

Personal Property Coverage

Next comes personal property coverage, which pays to repair or replace your most valuable assets after a natural disaster or break-in. Keep in mind that if you’re looking to insure expensive jewelry or fine art, you’ll probably need to buy additional coverage.

Loss of Use Coverage

Also referred to as additional living expenses (ALE) coverage, this pays for your family’s incurred living expenses (like a hotel stay) if a covered loss leaves your home unlivable. Some policies offer different types of coverage for loss of use and ALE, so check to see what a policy actually pays for and what it doesn’t before you buy.

Personal Liability Coverage

The liability insurance portion of your homeowners policy protects your family from legal action in case someone is hurt on your property. Whether your dog bites a neighbor or a delivery driver slips on your porch, personal liability has you covered.

Each of these coverage options is important to protect your property and family, but every homeowners policy and company are different, and some don’t automatically include all of these components. Since AIS doesn’t underwrite insurance policies, you may need to augment your policy with additional medical payments or loss of use coverage, depending on which insurance company AIS finds for you.

Optional Coverages for Your AIS Home Insurance Policy

With any insurance policy, you have the option to purchase additional policies to fill any gaps in your coverage. Common additional protections AIS can help you find include:

Personal Injury

This endorsement, also called a personal offense policy, protects your family against legal action regarding libel, slander, wrongful eviction, and similar cases.

Flood Insurance

Home insurance policies don’t cover damages caused by floods, but 90 percent of America’s natural disasters involve flooding, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Depending on the location of your home, you may qualify for private or federally backed flood insurance.

Earthquake Insurance

Ground movement—earthquakes, landslides, and soil liquefaction—are excluded from home insurance coverage. If you live in an earthquake-prone region, an earthquake policy could save you from paying thousands of dollars in repairs.

Scheduled Coverage

This offers additional protection for valuables such as jewelry, furs, and fine art, which basic homeowners coverage doesn’t include.

Extended Replacement Cost

This makes sure your insurance company will cover rebuilding costs in case of a total loss, even if repair costs are higher than your policy limit.

AIS can help you find the cheapest policies for your home insurance and additional coverages, but keep in mind that your options are only as affordable as AIS ’s partners. When it comes to policies like earthquake and flood insurance—where your home’s location can leave you paying anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for basic coverage—shopping for rates with independent agents on your own might help you find lower premiums.

Available Discounts

Since AIS finds the best insurance products for customers based on their specific needs, the company itself cannot offer discounts. But you can still save money. AIS prides itself on making sure customers get the best bang for their buck, stating, “Our agents are here to find every price-break available.”

On its website, AIS lists potential discounts for home and auto insurance policies, including bundling your insurance products (which can save you up to 15 percent on your policies) and installing a home alarm system (which racks up two percent savings on your home insurance ).

AIS also has a referral program for existing customers. Anyone who refers friends and family to get a quote with AIS (and mentions the existing customer’s name and number) receives a $25 digital gift card.

AIS Home Insurance Reviews: Customer Satisfaction

• Better Business Bureau Rating: A+

Unlike larger insurance companies, AIS doesn’t have a J.D. Power customer satisfaction rating, an A.M. Best rating, or a Moody’s financial strength rating, which may deter potential customers from turning to AIS for insurance services.

Still, AIS customers rate the company and its services well overall, with four- and five-star ratings across platforms like Yelp and Google Reviews. Customers who left five-star ratings primarily attributed their happiness with AIS to the ease of buying policies with the company, as well as AIS ’s ability to reduce their premiums.

AIS has various locations including California, Texas, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Some customers reported great experiences with their local AIS agents but less-than-favorable experiences with AIS as a company overall.

One common source of confusion among lower-rated reviews was the difference between AIS ’s responsibilities and the insurance provider ’s responsibilities. This is especially apparent in reviews about the claims process, as any insurance claims policyholders file go to the company that provides the insurance coverage. While AIS helps customers find insurance coverage, AIS does not issue its own policies and, therefore, isn’t involved in the claims process.

Other one-star reviews note customers’ dissatisfaction with price increases. Various customers claim AIS increased their rates without proper notification or charged them significantly higher premiums after discussing lower options. Still, AIS is quick to respond to customer complaints and works to solve any problems promptly and directly.

Frequently Asked Questions - AIS Homeowners Insurance

AIS Insurance Overview

AIS has been in the insurance game for over 50 years, and it shows through the company’s ability to maximize savings and provide stellar customer service. Keep in mind that AIS can help you find the lowest premiums among their partners, but you might find cheaper home insurance rates outside of the AIS sphere. Before you buy AIS home insurance, remember that AIS is just the middle man, and the AIS agent who helps you secure your policy is not the same as the insurance company you’ll deal with for future claims.

That being said, AIS insurance agents can help you find more than a home insurance policy. They can also help you with renter insurance, auto insurance (with an even larger range of auto insurance companies), and motorcycle insurance. If you’re a business owner, you can also get help with business insurance and workers’ compensation.

AIS Home Insurance Contact Information