I get asked often about picking an insurance agent. People buy a house and they want to find an agent. Or they want to shop around. Unfortunately, most people make the same mistake: they shop solely based on price. Insurance is something that should not go to the lowest bidder, like building a house. You want someone good.
I tell clients who call me that they need to like their insurance agent and NOT shop on price. Insurance agents can make the price look good in a lot of ways, but most of those end up costing money in the long term. They need to find someone who will work with them, explain to them why one policy is better than another, answer their questions, and be able to walk them through this process.
For example, you look at two policies that look the same, but one policy provides replacement cost coverage on your contents and the other does not. The replacement cost policy is better for most people, but will be more expensive. Is that something you should pick? A good agent will help you with that.
Of course, sometimes you want someone independent to look at your policy for you. I still offer free insurance reviews by simply emailing me at jonathan@jonathangstein.com and asking for a review.