Personal Insurance Clients

Welcome to the Levitt-Fuirst Personal Insurance Client Page

Our goal with this page is to focus on our clients, offering direct access to pertinent information that impacts your current insurance. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Personal Insurance Premium Increases & Potential Discounts

The 2020-2021 personal insurance market has seen a lot of disruption, causing consistent and substantial increases in rates for most policy holders (read about the causes of the increases, and some potential discounts that may assist you in controlling these increases).

New Products

We want to remind you of coverages insurance carriers have introduced over the last few years.

Personal Cyber Liability
Equipment Breakdown
Family Protection

Optional Coverages

Optional coverages are important to consider depending on your individual situation.

Earthquake
Flood
Home Employee /
Personal Directors & Officers
Mold
Valuable Items

Please contact us with any questions you might have.

Levitt-Fuirst Personal Insurance Team

Kimberly Vargas, Managing Director

kvargas@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4250

Cesar Lina, Account Executive

clina@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4247

Eleanor Gerber, Account Executive

egerber@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4265

Erica Faigman, Account Executive

efaigman@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4241

Jeanna Russell, Account Executive

jrussell@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4240

Michele Carsone, Account Executive

mcarsone@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4208

Valerie De Leon Garcia, Account Executive

vgarcia@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4256

Victoria Lopez, Account Executive

vlopez@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4243

Miguel Tejada, Personal Insurance Claims Manager

mtejada@levittfuirst.com
(914) 457-4269

4 QUICK VIDEO LESSONS ON QUALITY INSURANCE

6 Things To Know About Home Insurance

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

[Music]

hi I want to talk to you today about

insuring valuable articles jewelry fine

art antiques and the difference between

ensuring these items with a high quality

carrier versus the standard average

carriers now the first thing to realize

is that insuring these items on a

homeowner’s policy is not a good way to

homeowners policies cap at a very low

limit the amount that they’ll pay for

valuable articles maybe five thousand

dollars and it’s going to be subject to

your homers deductible so that’s not

sufficient how do you do it many of us

Benefit of Scheduling

are familiar with scheduling valuable

articles onto a writer the benefit of

using scheduling with a high quality

carrier is that that carry will pay up

to fifty percent over and above the

scheduled limit in subject to the total

value of the schedule if you lose an

item or it’s destroyed and the cost has

appreciated over the amount that you

scheduled on the policy gold and

diamonds are regularly appreciating over

time so having this 50% cushion is a

huge benefit of a high quality carrier

Benefit of Appraisal

secondly is the need for appraisal a

high quality carrier is only gonna

require an appraisal for very expensive

items whereas the standard carrier is

going to require an appraisal to

schedule even an item that’s only a few

thousand dollars next an alternative way

Blanket Coverage

versus scheduling to insure valuable

articles with a high quality carrier is

called blanket coverage you can have one

blanket dollar amount fifty a hundred

thousand two hundred fifty thousand or

more to cover dozens of items as long as

no single item exceeds fifty thousand

dollars the benefit of doing this is

that you don’t have to keep the schedule

up to date if the value of the items

that you have change over time as long

as they don’t exceed fifty thousand it’s

covered by the blanket and if you

acquire new items along the way also

they’re covered by the blanket without

having to worry about adding on to

policy every time you buy something new

Pears Sets

lastly many of us have was called pears

and sets of Agra items a pair of

earrings a set of China

if you break or lose or have stolen

one piece of the pear or set a standard

carrier will only pay to replace that

one piece or repair it as closely as

possible to what it was a high-quality

carrier will give you an entirely new

pair of earrings or a whole new set of

China another benefit to a high-quality

care so the key thing is remember do

this before you have a valuable article

lost or stolen or destroyed get the high

quality insurance and have peace of mind

thank you

[Music]

you

5 Things To Know About Auto Insurance

TRANSCRIPT

Intro

I down here in my garage

in front of my wife’s vehicle I’m going

to tell you a personal story it’s going

to give five reasons why insurance for

automobiles from a high quality personal

insurance carrier is better than the

insurance that you can get from those

carriers to make the funny commercials

on TV and radio I’m going to call them

the funny commercial carriers so I was

driving down to New York City one day in

this vehicle I had my wife and children

in the car there was a lot of traffic

bumper-to-bumper unfortunately I got

into an accident so didn’t appear to be

any injuries my car was drivable so I

called up our insurance carrier and they

said can take your vehicle to any repair

shop that you feel comfortable with and

it’s convenient and even go to the

dealership that you want the funny

commercial carriers on the other hand

would have told me here’s a list of our

authorized repair shops you need to go

to one of these doesn’t matter if I had

a bad experience with that repair shop

or wasn’t convenient that’s where I’d

have to go

that’s difference number one the second

Repair Parts

difference comes with respect to the

type of repair parts use the high

quality carrier is going to allow for

original equipment parts these are parts

made by the manufacturer the funny

commercial carriers are going to tell

you that you have to use aftermarket or

private label parts these parts are

typically less expensive and oftentimes

they don’t perform as well I’d the third

Rental reimbursement

difference comes with respect to rental

reimbursement vehicles today are much

more complicated behind bumpers and the

panels that are very sophisticated they

just take longer to repair in this case

the repair took about 30 days so during

that time as you might expect my wife

wanted a comparable vehicle to the one

that was in the repair shop one of the

same size the same technology the same

comfort and you know capable of handling

children and their friends and all of

the stuff that they lug around all over

the place so a vehicle like this costs

about 70 or 80 dollars a day to rent a

high-quality parrot carrier is going to

pay whatever it costs to rent a

comparable vehicle for as long as it

takes to fix your vehicle the funny

commercial carriers are going to pay

typically a set dollar amount per day

capped at 30 or 40 dollars a day and

they may cap as well the number of days

that they pay or the total amount that

they pay so you can see quickly that you

might not be able to rent a comfortable

vehicle for very long while you’re

waiting for yours to be repaired next

Agreed amount

the fourth difference comes if the

vehicle is told the high quality carrier

is going to pay what’s called an agreed

amount this is a specific dollar amount

in the policy spelled out and the

carrier’s going to pay that amount

whenever your vehicle is totaled

the funny commercial carrier is going to

pay something called the actual cash

value this is the fully depreciated

value of the vehicle at the time that

it’s totaled out and everybody knows how

quickly vehicles depreciate once the

driven off a lot so the actual cash

value is going to be less in the high

quality carriers agreed that finally

Attorney

unfortunately in this story that I told

I was sued by the driver the other

vehicle now I had to go get an attorney

to defend myself of course and my

insurance company hires that attorney

and pays that attorneys fees I can tell

you that I slept better at night until

that case got settled

knowing that I had an attorney that was

hired by a very high quality reputable

insurance company is opposed to an

insurance company that spends a lot of

money making funny TV commercials and

funny radio

is that you here 20 times a day

[Music]

you

4 Things To Know About Valuable Articles Insurance

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

[Music]

hi I want to talk to you today about

insuring valuable articles jewelry fine

art antiques and the difference between

ensuring these items with a high quality

carrier versus the standard average

carriers now the first thing to realize

is that insuring these items on a

homeowner’s policy is not a good way to

homeowners policies cap at a very low

limit the amount that they’ll pay for

valuable articles maybe five thousand

dollars and it’s going to be subject to

your homers deductible so that’s not

sufficient how do you do it many of us

Benefit of Scheduling

are familiar with scheduling valuable

articles onto a writer the benefit of

using scheduling with a high quality

carrier is that that carry will pay up

to fifty percent over and above the

scheduled limit in subject to the total

value of the schedule if you lose an

item or it’s destroyed and the cost has

appreciated over the amount that you

scheduled on the policy gold and

diamonds are regularly appreciating over

time so having this 50% cushion is a

huge benefit of a high quality carrier

Benefit of Appraisal

secondly is the need for appraisal a

high quality carrier is only gonna

require an appraisal for very expensive

items whereas the standard carrier is

going to require an appraisal to

schedule even an item that’s only a few

thousand dollars next an alternative way

Blanket Coverage

versus scheduling to insure valuable

articles with a high quality carrier is

called blanket coverage you can have one

blanket dollar amount fifty a hundred

thousand two hundred fifty thousand or

more to cover dozens of items as long as

no single item exceeds fifty thousand

dollars the benefit of doing this is

that you don’t have to keep the schedule

up to date if the value of the items

that you have change over time as long

as they don’t exceed fifty thousand it’s

covered by the blanket and if you

acquire new items along the way also

they’re covered by the blanket without

having to worry about adding on to

policy every time you buy something new

Pears Sets

lastly many of us have was called pears

and sets of Agra items a pair of

earrings a set of China

if you break or lose or have stolen

one piece of the pear or set a standard

carrier will only pay to replace that

one piece or repair it as closely as

possible to what it was a high-quality

carrier will give you an entirely new

pair of earrings or a whole new set of

China another benefit to a high-quality

care so the key thing is remember do

this before you have a valuable article

lost or stolen or destroyed get the high

quality insurance and have peace of mind

thank you

[Music]

you

4 Things To Know About Umbrella Insurance

TRANSCRIPT

[Music]

I’m sitting here outside my friend’s

pool to help you visualize your biggest

exposure and that is lawsuits all it

takes is one bad lawsuit to wipe out the

assets that you’ve built up over time an

umbrella policy gives you additional

liability protection over your other

insurance

it’s your least expensive policy in your

insurance portfolio but your most

important one you have homeowners

insurance that gives you a couple

hundred thousand dollars for protection

but imagine during the winter someone’s

making delivery and they slip on ice and

get hurt and they sue you for millions

of dollars where someone has a party and

there’s an ex into the pool and once

again you get sued an umbrella policy

gives you additional protection over

your homeowners policy you’re bigger

exposure is your car

what if someone from your household is

out driving they take their eye off the

road for a second and cause a serious

accident and you get sued for millions

of dollars your umbrella policy goes

over your automobile policy also the

better-quality umbrella policies also

give you worldwide covers so if you’re

out playing golf and you hit someone

with a golf ball you’re out skiing you

ski into someone and you get sued your

umbrella policy will protect you the

other thing that the quality umbrella

policies give you that you don’t get

elsewhere is uninsured motorist on your

auto policy there’s a little bit of

coverage in case you get into an

accident caused by someone else and

someone in your car gets injured and you

sue those other people for hitting you

but they don’t have enough coverage your

own insurance policy will pay you for

that the better quality companies will

include that in your umbrella policy the

biggest issue or question that you have

with umbrellas is how big of an umbrella

policy should you take out and that all

depends you have to weigh your assets

versus your exposures do you throw a lot

of social events at your house do you

have a pool

do you have youthful drivers in your

household these are the things that

you’re going to have to weigh to

determine how big of an umbrella policy

you want to protect your assets

thank you

[Music]

you

OUR REVIEWS

Levitt Fuirst Associates Ltd

5.0

Based on 259 reviews

review us on

Peter Corba

13:39 19 Jun 24

Joe Cannova is an amazing partner, we have worked with Joe for some time now, he is responsive, knowledgeable, Joe and his team are always willing to assist immediately.

Leigh Vazquez

19:10 11 Jun 24

An absolute pleasure to work with. Betty is fantastic, and Joe Bruno works at the speed of light. An amazing crew who really cares.

Emmet Christie

18:02 11 Jun 24

Joe Cannova is a great asset to have at work. He answers within minutes almost every-time (no exaggeration) and never misses an error on any insurance I send over to him. Seriously, he makes one of the many tasks at work effortless. Thank you Joe, I appreciate your consistency and dependability. I would recommend him to anyone for insurances purposes.

Michael Ripa

17:36 03 Jun 24

BILL REYNOLDS

15:40 03 Jun 24

Thank you Pat, your response time is amazing - always quick and accurate!

joan duignan

19:46 16 May 24

Joesph Bruno is one of the most efficient and professional insurance brokers I have the pleasure of dealing with and I have dealt with quite a few over the last 20 years. Whenever I request a certificate of insurance, I am guaranteed to receive it within 30 minutes but normally a lot less time. Always helpful, professional and polite. thank you, Joseph Bruno, I wish there were more like you!!

nanci kirshner

21:40 21 Mar 24

I have been a customer of LF Associates for probably over 20 plus years and all I can say is how outstanding this company is. Everyone who works for the company is on point, knowledgable and always working as hard as they could to make things as easy and understandable navigating the crazy insurance world we live in. Michele the nicest person and my insurance god, I am blessed to have her on my side and what she has done for me over the years is remarkable. Everyone needs her in their corner. I promise you will not be disappointed. Call them now!!!!

Champion International Construction Corp.

17:20 06 Mar 24

Outstanding customer service! Levitt-Fuirst has provided our company with exceptional professional service, catering our business insurance coverage to exactly what our individual needs are and all the while, treating us like we're their only customer. The Levitt-Fuirst team consistently proves their commitment to protecting our priorities and for nearly two decades and counting, they have exceeded our expectations. We highly recommend Levitt-Fuirst for anyone seeking top-notch insurance service!

SPEAK WITH AN INSURANCE SPECIALIST TODAY

Or call us at (914) 457-4200

Family Offices

Families with significant assets are increasingly turning to Family Offices to manage their personal finances. The Levitt-Fuirst Personal Lines practice works extensively with Family Offices, not only in supporting their mutual clients, but also in providing insurance to protect the Family Office itself.