Hi friends, Jean Valentino. Welcome back to another episode of Gene Valentino’s

Grassroots Truth Cast. We’ve had them all on the show from all walks of life,

but when I bumped into Eddie Xarin, I got to tell you, I came across a guy who

just happens to be uh man stayed in an insurance industry profession, which is

where I started many years ago. So, when I met Eddie during my uh travels more

recently uh here in Pensacola, Florida, I knew this was a topic I a person I was

going to have on the show at some point. The Eddie Xarin Insurance Agency

provides personal and commercial insurance. Yes, they’re here locally in

Pensacola, but they’re doing stuff nationwide. And that’s what I wanted to

talk about. Not only his areas of expertise locally and what he’s providing for in terms of insurance

coverage locally, but I want to talk about the industry. I want to talk about the issues and then I want to make sure

you talk to Eddie about the same issues. It’ll help you understand why the

insurance has been such a debacle over the last several years and what Eddie

did to survive during a rather auspicious times under political

political changes in our nation and social economic changes in our nation.

We’re going into it right after this.

Hello everyone. Please keep supporting Jean Valentino’s Truth Podcast. We need

our voice to get out there far and wide and help save our country.

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Hi friends, welcome back to the Grassroots Truth Cast and meet my guest Eddie Xarn of the Xarin Insurance

Agency. Hello Eddie, how are you? Good. Jean, how are you? I’m doing fine. We on this very cold

January day in 2026, we find ourselves uh with a little time

on our hands to have an insurance conversation. It might have been about frozen pipes,

but but um the the fact is is there’s um so much going on in the industry in

general, and Florida really is a different animal. Uh Eddie, but before we get in on some of the specifics, tell

me the general uh tidbits about the Xarin Insurance Agency, your team, and

your scope of work you do right here in Pensacola. Well, we uh we like to think about our

agency as the Walmart of the insurance industry because we we do virtually

anything that people need and we’ve been doing that u for 50 years. I started my

career in September 1st, 1975 with Nationwide and and then it progressed

from nationwide to independent status. And uh so we operate as a full-blown

independent agency. And we represent uh our insurers. We I like that we we

represent our insurers versus representing insurance companies because it’s the ins it’s the insureds who pay

our bills. Yeah. You know, one of the things I’ve noticed about the industry over the last

50 years and is that it has morphed uh

big fish eating small fish and I’ve noticed the industry’s policies and

positions changing uh and and it really got even more confusing to the public

because they were changing on a state-by-state basis. It wasn’t necessarily wasn’t necessarily a um a

policy that was geared for the nation’s uh clients of a given company. It was

geared more toward policy and financial um disciplines based on what the legal

uh mandates were within those states. Uh

generally speaking, I find that um uh the McCarron Ferguson Act and other acts

going back to the 1950s pushed insurance down to the state level. And as a

consequence, when you became a licensed agent, there were nuances

uh uh uh in each and every state that you were taking a licensing exam for.

and um uh only by endorsement we could see is uh these policies being able to

cross state lines. Did it create more confusion for you or did you care? You

had business in your own state, but did you worry about business in 49 other

states? Well, not not 49, but you know, we we do

business in other states like Alabama, Mississippi, uh uh Georgia, I we have a

little bit in Texas, but each state has their own own rules and uh of course the

McCarron Ferguson Act made it a it made insurance a state regulated uh item. But

you know, Jim, when you talk about the federal flood program, for example, some of the stuff that the federal flood

program has done over the years has really been adverse uh risk selection. And as a result, I

read that the the flood program operates every year at a 20 billion plus deficit. Of

course, I guess you know where that deficit comes from. uh ultimately taxpayer funds. But uh the idea of a of

a national insurance program for property, especially wind,

has always been kind of an intriguing subject. But the problem with states

seems like if they don’t have a problem with wind uh you know the the state governor

whoever the regulatory bodies they don’t seem to be that interested in anything that be a

national wind program for example because they don’t have a wind they don’t have a wind problem and uh so I

don’t know if we’ll ever we’ll ever get a national wind uh program in the United

states at least in my lifetime. Yeah. I remember looking at it just a

little differently and saying, “Well, why don’t you just include wind in all 50 states and if someone thinks they

don’t have a wind problem, endorse it off the policy because the law allows you to and give them a credit

for taking wind off the policy.” Uh as opposed to some other states when it’s

where it’s vital. What what um I’m concerned about is that uh the states on

a state-by-state basis are basically going allocart with the menu on what’s

hot and what’s not in their region and the premiums are showing it. For example, look at our look what’s been

the case here in Florida for the last several years regarding hurricane, wind,

flooding, and everything else. The basic perils of pol. you you’re having trouble getting a standard insurance company

here. Now, I know it’s coming back now and things are relieving uh uh pressures

on the homeowner and the automobile driver and the business owner, but what in your opinion has happened over let’s

say the last two or three years to the average homeowner or driver that’s

impacted the way they were covered before and paying before versus today?

Well, all the carriers, commercial and uh residential,

they they would really like to ensure a new property away from coastal water. Uh

that’s their ideal risk. So, if they can’t get that, they’ll ensure an older

building uh that’s uh preferably in new

condition. And that’s where we have ongoing battles on a daily basis of

finding risks that are older uh that will qualify for a carrier. Of

course, the roofs are the number one issue you you go through. And uh I guess

the general consensus of the industry is that if if Jean, if you and I have a

house next door to each other and you’ve got a new roof and I got a 20 year old

roof, the senses we have a hurricane, the new roof is going to sustain the

hurricane much better than my older roof is going to sustain it. And that’s about

all they really uh seem to to really uh hang their hat on is that the age of the

roof. And it doesn’t seem to make much difference if it’s a 50-year architectural shingle or a metal roof or

whatever. They just want to ensure buildings that have relatively newer roofs. And that’s that’s just where we

are. And then you have to have these inspections and uh and they will, you

know, they will decline to ensure a property for uh obvious maintenance

issues or they give you 45 days to correct them. But it’s it’s a battle. That’s that’s what we do a good bit of

the day, just trying to qualify risks that carriers will take and give them a

a a competitive premium and and good benefits because, you know,

when you you get a carrier who’s going to give you an actual cash value policy

where everything’s depreciated, that to me is a open invitation that when the

customer has a claim uh that they going to be very disgruntled.

Yeah. What do what do you see as the biggest uh insurance mistake that people

are making right now, knowingly or unknowingly? Uh where are they where are you finding that they’re falling into

trouble, not maintaining their property? uh

because that uh and it’s really uh some

of the people that can’t maintain the property can’t afford to buy insurance

and then when they don’t maintain their property like for example they have a leaky roof you know what’s going to

happen over time you could have rotten trusses and all kind of other issues

but uh proactive building maintenance I see is a real problem in a lot uh a lot

of areas in in in Florida and uh I don’t

know exactly uh why that is but but we see a lot of a

lot of properties are just not wellmaintained and and uh if they do get

insurance it’s actual cash value it’s a basic form it’s really not very good

coverage but it’s the only coverage they can get and they’re paying more for a

whole lot less. Uh, but I don’t know. Uh, I don’t really

know what a a solution to that would be because we haven’t we haven’t found one.

Do you find do you find the people being overinsured, underinsured

when you ask them, do they know uh how how astute are they with their coverage

and the level of risk they’re they’re knowing or unknowingly taking right now?

You know, it’s it’s funny because uh you can tell someone based on a Marshall

and Swift software replacement cost guide that we have to deal with every

homeowner’s car carrier that we write with and say you come up with 600,000

and the insured says, “Wait a minute. Uh the most I could sell this house for is

300,000. Why would I want to insure it for more than the market value?

Because the homeowners policy being a replacement cost policy is not is not a

market value policy. It it’s what it would cost to rebuild your home with new materials. And unfortunately, those

reconstruction or construction prices and material costs have not gone down

that I can tell. uh in many many years they they basically g continue to go up.

So you get a discrepancy between the market value and replacement value. And

a lot of people I just don’t believe they understand the difference. I don’t know if they don’t

want to understand it or or they just don’t think it’s valid. it. It cost a

fortune to rebuild and uh we insured a

we insured a office oh three four years ago and it was a very nice office and

the replacement value per square foot was like $550 a square foot and uh that’s what the guy

paid to build the office. I mean, he had all the records. Uh, but cost of recon

of reconstruction has not gone down. And I don’t think uh I don’t think we’re

going to see it go down even though the price of housing is going down a little

bit and uh some of the builders are giving incentives to buy down the interest rate to make it more

attractive. But to build a house or build put up a commercial building,

that’s been nothing going down about either one of them. Eddie, do you think most homeowners

understand the difference between market value on the house and replacement value?

I do I do not believe the average consumer understands that. Uh, and of

course, you know, if they’re not if they’re not dealing with it, they’re not in the construction business and they

haven’t had a loss and and you know, they they bought the house and they just

don’t have anything really to hang their hat on, but it it’s u it’s amazing. Uh

there there was a time where replacement value and and market value were pretty

close, but uh a lot of times they’re they’re not. And uh you know, you could

take a a million-doll home and put it uh

you know, East Hill somewhere and uh it might be worth two million,

but you could take that same million-doll home and put it in an undesirable area. It might be worth

$700,000. So the location, you know, has a lot to do with market

value, but replacement value is not really uh not really derived by the uh

location. It’s uh it’s just what it cost to build the house. Yeah. The cost um to rebuild. I remember

I used to be an instructor of the insurance licensing courses going way back and we talked about five maybe six

different um values replacement value and uh in and insurance value or or or

ACV value or market value were just two or three uh different values. There’s

also um appraised value from a tax point of view. Uh there’s there’s all kinds of

values and one of the problems you think you have is that you know when the house

burns to the ground you’re not worried about the value of the land uh the waterfront or the concrete. It’s

probably there to stay. People don’t often understand that. Folks, we’re talking with Eddie Zarin. He’s uh with

the Xarin Insurance Agency. Been in the Pensacola region for oh help me out

Eddie close to 50 years. um 50 years. 50 years. It’s been um I came to town

about 44 years ago and I I knew you’d you’d been around then. He’s on 229

Beverly Parkway, Pensacola, Florida 32505. His office number is 850438-9169.

Give Eddie a call. Uh you know, sometimes it’s not about just wanting to

sell you an insurance policy. Some people are in dire straits, Eddie. At least that was my experience. They

didn’t have a clue whether they were covered or not, whe what they should do.

They needed some direction. And you know, in this business, um it’s not like

you make a fortune off of a a policy. You’re you’re hoping a lot of policies

accumulate to support the business over the years. And that’s how uh the insurance business works from a from a

occupation or professional point of view. And Eddie’s got a CPCU. He’s a

chartered property casualty underwriter. I won’t hold that against you, Eddie.

Well, it took me it took me six years to get it, Jane. Uh someone who’s smarter

than I probably could get it for years, but took me six years. But it’s uh it’s

a it’s a very comprehensive overview of the insurance industry

uh legal aspects uh operational uh accounting statistics rate making um

so it it was a it was a wonderful experience. Uh there just so much to learn in this industry and I love I love

the fact that it has connected me to so many wonderful people. over the years, people that I became

dear friends with that I would have never met probably in another type of

business. And I that’s the part that I like most about it. I don’t particularly like insurance companies per se, but I

sure do like the clients we’ve uh had the privilege of serving.

It’s always been a pleasure as well uh to just to have a friend in the insurance business. Uh insurance people

by their very nature seem so well connected on so many fronts and I understand the spirit of the independent

agency system which is what you are. uh you know, insurance companies come and

go, but uh so you want the flexibility of

being able to place their coverage and the renewal uh their renewal of their

coverage into another policy into another company if the circumstances warrant. Um

what what what rules would you put out there? Would you recommend an ins a homeowner uh check his policy once a

year? Um, do they know what’s covered and not covered when you review the

policy with them? Well, you know, one shoe doesn’t fit, you

know, every every foot. uh when you look at a when you look at

any kind of especially a property policy or liability policy, I would encourage

people to look at the exclusions because you most of us think we know what’s

covered, but what we don’t fully understand is what’s not covered. and uh

the exclusions, reading those, you know, if if if there’s an exclusion in there

that really you have a real problem with. A lot of times you can pay a little extra money and get the exclusion

removed and some, you know, and sometimes you can’t. Of course, flood is a a basic exclusion that you you’re

going to have to get a separate flood policy if you want flood insurance. But, you know, it’s interesting to me

contractually when you think about homeowners insurance. I remember doing

the people’s homes way back and you look at their home and the shingles are

curled up and you say to the homeowner, “Mr.

homeowner, are do you notice your your shingles are curled?”

A lot of times they would say, “Well, uh, Eddie, uh, the roof’s not leaking.”

Well, I couldn’t argue the point whe the roof is leaking or not. I I didn’t

actually know. And some of them would say, “Well, you know, if we have a hurricane, I’ll get a new roof,” which

was true. So the industry really would were putting on new roofs

uh for roofs that were basically had no life value left and contractually

a property policy has a exclusion for wear and tear. Uh, and

that’s what I guess we’re going through right now is is is getting away from

paying for uh, you know, a worn out roof, for example, or whatever. But, you

know, that’s the way it was for forever. We, the industry bought new roofs and

with the number of hurricanes we had that what, you know, there wasn’t much point in

actually changing out your shle, just wait for the next hurricane. But that really that’s really changed now.

Yeah. What kind of weather damage do you think uh surprises homeowners the most

uh when they go filing a claim? They think they’re covered and all of a sudden they find out they’re not. What

What’s your experience? Well, the time to find out what your coverage uh are before you have a claim

because obviously, as you know, when you have a claim, you can’t you can’t alter the policy

uh based on your data loss to change the coverages. It doesn’t work that way. But, you know, uh I think one of the

things too, a lot of guys, you know, have these uh garages that, you know,

they go out there and they tinker and maybe they got a couple old cars or whatever and that out that outside

building could be worth, you know, $50,000 real easy and they have a loss.

They find out they’ve got $5,000 coverage on that out building and they

just, you know, they never knew it. no one ever asked them. Or, you know, if you had a $15,000 ring for your wife and

she left it on the dresser and you went to dinner and came back, somebody broke into the house and stole that ring and

you find out you got 2,000 miles coverage because there was no scheduling of the jewelry.

uh there’s a lot of uh a lot of potential uh areas where you could have inadequate

coverage, but like I say, the time to look at your policies before you have a loss. And uh of course, none of us think

we’re going to have a loss. And maybe maybe we won’t, but chances are you’re

going to have something in in the state of Florida. Yeah. in your mind. Um, let’s switch

gears and move talk about business insurance for a minute and the general liabilities, excuse me, associated with

it. What is it, um, the most common insurance gap on the business owner side

that you see small businesses uh, suffering from? What should they be keeping their eyes on?

Well, the value of their uh contents which would include their inventory and

generally the inventory is it would be covered for the cost. In other words, if

if the wholesaler says it’s a wholesale electrical company, the inventory would be covered uh at wholesale not retail

and you know the value of anything and everything inside that that building. A lot of times the inventory

fluctuates. So you can either kind of pick a high number and ensure

for that amount or you can do a a month of reporting form and report your

inventory so you don’t get in a inadequate situation. But most people don’t want to do that. So really

probably the easiest way just pick a pretty good high number. And if you if you got in a situation where inventory

look like it’s going to go way up, stay up, then you increase your coverage. But, uh, proper amounts of insurance

because, you know, a lot of people say, well, if I go up on

the contents, if I go up on the building, uh, it makes the premium go up. Well,

that’s true. But the idea is to insure properly and you know and if you

don’t owe if you don’t owe any money on your house, you don’t owe any money on your business and you decide, well, I’m

not going not going to buy property insurance. I’m just going to selfinsure. Well, you you can do that. And uh you

have a loss, you just pay for it out of pocket. Most of us are not in situations

where that’s an ideal course. But uh

there was a time when the market was hard where we were getting quoted five and eight and 10% win deductibles and

and there are a lot of people still believe that those those wind

deductibles apply to the amount of the loss but and that’s not the case as you know

it applies to the total amount of coverage and uh

they just just didn’t really have any idea how how large that wind deductible

really was. I mean, you know, if you got a million dollar bill with a 10% deductible,

you got a $100,000 win deductible. And if if you lost the $50,000,

you don’t have any coverage. Yeah. Hey, staying with the business

insurance coverage for a minute, what um claim could occur that could financially

crush a small business who has a business owner’s policy with you? What’s

the kind of claim that would just take take down a small business that you’ve seen?

Well, you could have a you know, you could have a situation where your building was destroyed. you can’t

operate and you have loss of business income on

your policy, generally 12 months is about as long as you can uh get loss of

business income for, but it might take two years to get you squared away so you

can get back into business. So then you got a year where you’re dealing with construction

or whatever and uh and your business is not operating. That could that certainly

could put you out of business and uh you could have issues with you know your

suppliers because of natural disasters. Uh, of course in Florida getting getting

good qualified employees seems to be more and more of a a challenge. Of

course, in our industry, young people don’t seem to be interested one iota in

the insurance business, which is kind of a shame because I don’t believe they understand what what the insurance

business is. I know when I grew up, we had I spent a lot of time with my

grandparents. There’d be someone coming to the door, white shirt, tie, and my

grandmother would pay them a dollar, a dollar a month for some kind of

insurance. And when I grew up, I thought that the insurance industry, that’s what

the insurance industry was. You know, little did I know about mandatory

workers comp. building insurance when you have a lean holder, a mortgage company, and

automobile insurance, all the things that were mandated by law or are lenders that require

people to have it. When I figured out about all this requirement, I said,

“Well, it seems like the what we what people in the industry have to do is convince people to do min with them

versus somebody else.” And uh I have uh I I have thoroughly enjoyed

uh my career as I said earlier but you know and it’s uh

you know to make to do it right and help people uh because you help people you

help indirectly help yourself business. Well that’s what I noticed. Yeah that’s what I noticed about you is how much fun

you’re having with it. Folks, we’re talking with Eddie Xarin from the Xarin Insurance Agency in Pensacola, Florida.

Uh you can subscribe on our podcasts and we send out our podcasts every week. Um

uh our Newsmax episodes, our radio station episodes, and individual interviews like we’re doing here today

with Eddie. Eddie is um is is what I appreciate in the insurance business,

someone who’s lived through the chapters. you know, we’re in we’re we’re he sits against a backdrop of affordable

insurance just in Florida alone where carriers are leaving the state, some are coming back into the state. The politics

behind that we don’t even have time to talk about today. Um but it’s a major

issue. Another major issue which we were looking at uh that we’re not going to have time to talk about today is the

roofing scams and all of the um uh the plentiful lawsuits that are out there

against these roofers that come in on the tale of a hurricane or windstorm. Uh

a a story unto itself that uh states by state need to have been addressing.

Again, it’s why I wanted to nationalize an insurance program so that the application of the law would be treated

more seriously on a federal level uh for all carriers, all insureds, all agents

nationwide. And um uh but uh Eddie uh uh in in the last 5 minutes or so, throw in

a plug of your agency, the anything else you’re you’re selling for insurance

you’d like us to to know about. We’ll have you back for another episode to talk about the issue duour as as the

in industry evolves. Anything you’d like to add? Well, we are all right. We are the

largest family-owned independent agency in Pensacola. As far as I know, all the

other larger independent agents have sold out to national companies. Some of

them sold out more than one time. And of course these national companies

they they run these businesses. We run our own business. We make our own

decisions. And uh it it my the officers in my in our

corporation are me and my my son-in-law and my and my son.

And uh we have employees been here for 20 years. And uh but we uh we specialize

in uh contractor insurance, condominium association insurance,

uh commercial properties, homeowners, uh we have the carriers

that we can we can shop. So instead of calling like a nationwide agent and we

don’t even have any exclusive nationwide agents anymore to get to get one

auto quote for example we can give you six including Geico Travelers

Park for Nationwide auto owners I mean great great companies and the prices

depending on the risk do vary and sometimes and sometimes they don’t vary, but you know, at least you when you get

more than one opinion about the subject, you you have a better understanding of where you know where you are. But uh

automobile insurance is is going down. But I remember when I insured two cars

back in the uh 70s for full coverage was $250 a year. Yeah,

$250 now would may make one monthly

payment on your auto insurance. That sounds right.

Yeah, boy. The times they have changed, but um the prices went up, but um you

can ask anybody. It’s sluggish the way they’re handling claims, the claim process in general. It’s turned out to

be um uh reported that it is not it’s

been a a stain on the insurance industry, at least in Florida, uh was

the sluggish claim process, but not with Eddie Xarin at the Xarin Insurance Agency in Pensacola, folks. One of the

things you like about, you know, people buy people, right? I mean, we we kind of want a certain association with people.

And Eddie has um gone out of his way to make sure you know what he’s doing, why

he’s doing it, and um he actions speak louder than words. He’ll be there in

your time of need with his team of some 30 plus people on the Xarin Insurance

Agency. uh your website address your website address Eddie

uh zared insurance agency.com or they can call your agency office at

850438-9169.

We’re just going to have to have you back to get into some of the other issues as uh storm events occur over the

next months and years ahead. Let’s bring Eddie back for a a spot check on what’s

going on in the um in the weather conditions or the the perils that have

been affecting people in certain regions of the country and not other areas. Eddie Xarin, thank you for being with us

today. Any final word? Uh thank you for having me, Jean. I’ve enjoyed it. I can I can ramble on about

the insurance industry for days. I mean it’s you’re in good company.

Yeah, we sure could. Some people say, um, I’d rather watch paint dry. Yeah.

Well, wait. Well, my response has always been, well, wait till the crisis hits and you’re

looking for a serious answer in a timely way. Let’s see. Let’s see how much

patience. You You’ll have patience then to listen for the right answer. Eddie, thank you for being Thank you for being

with us today, my friend. Thank you, Jay, so much for having me. And and thank you ladies and gentlemen

for joining me on another iss another episode of Gene Valentino’s Grassroots Truth Cast. Eddie Xarin, the Xarin

Insurance Agency, Beverly Parkway. Uh that’s Z ah RN.com

and and check him out and give him a call. If you have trouble finding it, you can contact us through

genevalentino.com and the website here to which you have subscribed. We’d love to have you as our

subscriber as well. And we will make sure absent anything else we we get you

in touch with the Xarin Insurance Agency. Thank you again, Eddie. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for

another episode on Gene Valentino’s Grassroots Truthcast. See you soon. Hi

friends, Jean Valentino from My Pillow. You know, this past year has been one of the hardest in My Pillow’s history. It’s

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