Common questions
If your question is not here, call us — it is a two-person office and one of us will pick up. Nothing on this page is a sales pitch, and asking costs you nothing.
Working with us
The questions people are too polite to ask on the phone.
What does it cost to work with you?
Nothing. We are paid by the insurance company you end up with, not by you — a commission on home, auto and commercial policies, and a monthly fee on marketplace health plans. It does not come out of your premium, and the price you pay is the same as if you had gone to the carrier directly. So a conversation costs you nothing whether you buy anything or not.
What does independent actually mean?
It means we do not work for one insurance company. A captive agent can only sell you what their employer offers, so when that company is wrong for you they either sell it to you anyway or send you away. We compare across multiple carriers and place you with whichever one fits, which also means that when your renewal jumps we can move you rather than explain it.
Who will I actually be dealing with?
Pat or Spencer — there is nobody else. Pat founded the agency in 1986 and Spencer is his son. Home and auto are Spencer's; everything else either of them handles. You are not going to get a different name each time you call, and neither of us is going to hand you to a call centre.
Do I have to move everything at once?
No. Plenty of people start with one policy and move the rest at their own renewals, which is usually the sensible order anyway — cancelling mid-term can cost you more than waiting a few months saves. Tell us when each of your policies renews and we will tell you which ones are worth looking at now and which ones can wait.
What areas do you cover?
All 87 Minnesota counties. The offices are in Lakeville and Northeast Minneapolis, so the Twin Cities metro is where most of our clients are, but the licence is statewide and a good part of what we write is outside the metro.
Health insurance and MNsure
Individual and family coverage, on the marketplace or bought direct.
Will I get help paying for health insurance?
It depends on your household size and income, and the rule changed recently. From 2021 through 2025 there was no upper income limit on the premium tax credit. That ended on January 1, 2026 — the cap at 400% of the federal poverty level came back, and above that line there is now no credit at all rather than a smaller one. Below it there is often more help than people expect. There is a checker on our MNsure page that gives you the direction from two numbers, and we confirm the real figure with you.
Should I buy through MNsure or straight from an insurance company?
If a premium tax credit is available to you, buy through MNsure — the credit exists nowhere else, so buying direct means voluntarily paying more. If your income is above the cap you are paying full price either way, and off-exchange plans sometimes carry networks or plan designs the marketplace does not. That is the whole decision, and it takes about five minutes to work out which side you are on.
When can I buy health insurance?
During open enrollment for the following year, or within 60 days of a qualifying life event — losing employer coverage, moving, marriage, divorce, a birth or adoption. Buying directly from a carrier rather than through MNsure does not get you a different calendar: any plan that counts as real major medical follows the same annual window. Short-term products can be bought year-round, but they are not the same kind of coverage.
Do I need a MNsure account before I contact you?
No, and most people who call us do not have one. If you have not started at all we set the account up with you, work through the application together, and go through the plans you qualify for. If you already have an account, adding Pat as your assister lets us see the application from our end so we can check it before it goes in.
Is Medicare the same thing?
No, and the dates are different. MNsure and individual plans are for people under 65; Medicare has its own enrollment periods built around your 65th birthday, plus an annual window each autumn for changing plans. If you are approaching 65 the timing matters more than the plan choice does, so it is worth a call before your birthday rather than after.
Home and auto
What do you need from me to quote home and auto?
For auto: a VIN for each vehicle, and a name, date of birth and licence number for each driver in the household. For home: the address, roughly when the roof was last done, and any claims in the last five years. The fastest route is to send us your current declarations page — everything on that list is already printed on it.
Does bundling home and auto actually save money?
Usually, and it is normally the single biggest discount available on either policy — which is why our quote form asks about the other one. It is not automatic, though. Occasionally the best home carrier and the best auto carrier are different companies and the split beats the bundle. We quote it both ways and show you the difference rather than assuming.
What is different about insuring a house in Minnesota?
Hail and ice dams, mostly. Roof coverage is where Minnesota home policies differ from each other the most — whether you are covered for replacement cost or actual cash value on a hail-damaged roof can be a five-figure difference on one claim, and it is not the sort of thing that shows up in the premium. Ice dam damage is treated differently by different carriers too. Those are the two things worth reading on any home quote we send you.
What does no-fault mean for my auto policy?
Minnesota is a no-fault state, which means your own policy pays your medical bills after an accident regardless of who caused it. The state minimum is $40,000 per person per accident — $20,000 of medical and $20,000 of other expenses like lost wages. It is worth knowing that figure, because the minimum is where a lot of policies sit by default and it is not much if somebody in the car is seriously hurt.
Claims and certificates
Something happened. Do I call you or the insurance company?
If anyone is injured or in danger, call 911 — and deal with a fire, a gas leak or water actively running before you call anybody about insurance. After that, either works. If you already have your carrier's 24-hour claims number, using it is faster than waiting for our office to open. If you do not, or you would rather have somebody in your corner while it happens, report it to us and we will take it from there.
Will making a claim put my rates up?
Sometimes, and it depends on the type and the size. That is a real question with a real answer for your specific policy, and it is one of the more useful things to phone us about before you file — we can tell you how your carrier treats that kind of claim, and whether the amount you would recover is worth what it does to your renewal. What we will not do is talk you out of a claim you should make.
How fast can I get a certificate of insurance?
Usually the same day for policies we write, and often within the hour if you send the holder's exact name and address with the request. There is one exception worth knowing: workers compensation written through the Minnesota Assigned Risk Plan. Those certificates come from the servicing carrier rather than from us, so they take longer and we cannot issue them ourselves.
Can you help with a policy you did not write?
For a certificate, no — those have to come from whoever holds the policy. For everything else, ask anyway. We can usually tell you whether what you have is reasonable, and if it is, we will say so rather than inventing a reason to move you.
Still wondering something?
Ask us directly. We would rather answer a question than have you guessing — and if the answer is that what you already have is fine, we will tell you that too.
Or send us a message and we will get back to you.