Security First is another junior giant in the home insurance industry. Since 2005 in Ormond Beach, Florida, Security First has exemplified its domestic background by treating Floridians like family. They strive to uphold family values and integrity through the inevitable. In this review, we’ll reveal how much they hold true to these important ethics.
Let’s get into Security First home insurance. We’ll tell you exactly what kind of coverages and discounts they offer. Plus, we’ll give you the details on their financial stability and tell you just what their customers have to say about their “family” service.
Security First homeowners insurance coverages
Security First is very transparent with their coverages and costs, and that’s what we love to see. They offer a variety of insurance packages to provide optimal coverage for various types of clients such as regular homeowners, renters, condo owners, owners of vacant homes, etc.
Let’s take a look at their homeowners insurance policies. There are 3 major products that Security First offers for homeowners. Their Signature, Premier, and E&S packages are available to their customers according to their needs.
Homeowners Signature: HO-3
Signature home insurance is Security First’s standard HO-3 policy. With this policy, you can get the whole package. This includes coverages A through F for your home and property. Their limits are as follows.
Coverage | Limits |
Dwelling | $200,000 – $1,000,000 |
Other Structures | $4,000 – $700,000 |
Personal Property | $50,000 – $750,000 |
Loss of Use | $20,000 – $100,000 |
Personal Liability | $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, and $500,000 |
Medical Payments | $1,000, $2,500, $3,000, and $5,000 |
Homeowners Premier: HO-5
An exclusive package tailored to more expensive homes in Florida. It contains the same types of coverage as their HO-3 Signature insurance, but the Premier HO-5 home insurance package includes equipment breakdown and service line coverage. It also has higher maximum limits you can set for each coverage.
Coverage | Limits |
Dwelling | $400,000 – $2,000,000 |
Other Structures | $8,000 – $1,400,000 |
Personal Property | $100,000 – $1,500,000 |
Loss of Use | $40,000 – $200,000 |
Personal Liability | $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000 |
Medical Payments | $1,000, $2,500, $3,000, $5,000, and $10,000 |
Excess & Surplus
An E&S policy is offered by Security First as a specialty product to provide coverage for those who are ineligible for a standard homeowners policy. Partnered with Highlander, this E&S coverage includes dwelling coverage with the ability to optionally add other coverages.
Coverage | Limits |
Dwelling | $100,000 – $1,000,000 |
Other Structures | $0 – $700,000 |
Personal Property | $0 – $750,000 |
Loss of Use | $0 – $400,000 |
Personal Liability | $40 – $500,000 |
Medical Payments | $0 – $10,000 |
Aside from two popular home insurance packages, they also offer several other types of property insurance:
- Dwelling Basic: This is the basic named-peril dwelling fire insurance (DF1) program from Security First. It provides flexible optional coverage on top of traditional coverage for your home. This is the “pay for what you need” policy and applies best to unoccupied or foreclosed homes.
- Dwelling Flex: It is their upgraded dwelling fire insurance (DF3), which offers the same amenities and perks as Dwelling Basic. The big difference is, Dwelling Flex is an open-peril policy with replacement cost coverage.
- Renters Insurance: This is Security First’s HO-4 tenant renters policy. It provides personal property protection against unforeseen events, like fire or theft.
- Condominium Insurance: This HO-6 policy covers your personal property from damage when you own a condo.
Security First home insurance optional coverages
Security First has an assembly of endorsements available to upgrade your policy as you see fit. It’s pleasing to see all the add-ons offered to provide a sense of comfort for their customers. These coverages even go to the extent of brandishing physical damage and liability for your golf cart. Keep reading to see their other interesting additional coverages.
Flood insurance
Security First offers flood insurance add-on coverage for their home insurance customers. This add-on takes care of the cost of damage caused by flooding. Unlike the National Flood Insurance Program, Security First allows homeowners to add flood insurance at any time during their policy.
Though the price of this insurance isn’t quite clear, Security First is confident that their optional flood coverage will give you better coverage at a better price than an NFIP policy. The average NFIP policy will cost a Floridian around $650.
Equipment breakdown coverage
There are many things that can damage your appliances, like a sudden power surge. In case a disaster like this causes more damage than your replacement costs can handle, Security First offers equipment breakdown coverage.
For an extra $50 a year, you can add this coverage to your policy. Security First also offers service line coverage for an extra $30. With this $80 bundle, you can worry less about the costs that occur from power or water damage to your service lines and heavy appliances.
Identity theft protection
Security First offers an identity theft protection program for $25 a year. Their Enhanced Identity Theft Protection program includes:
- ID Theft Monitoring and Early Warning System
- Internet Identity Monitoring
- Criminal Identity Theft Monitoring
- Lost Wallet Service
- Postal Junk Mail Reduction Service
- Dedicated Restoration Service
- Identity Fraud Expense: $25,000
Other optional coverages are:
- Dog liability
- Increased replacement cost
- Water backup & sump pump overflow
- Scheduled personal property
- Increased special limits
- Screened enclosure/carport
- Personal liability
Security First homeowners insurance premiums & discounts
Now that you know the massive and inclusive types of coverage Security First offers, let’s look at how much a quality insurance policy would run you.
We’re glad they have a price tool to help you visualize your policy details. The problem is, it was much more difficult to get a straight answer than we would have hoped.
For some reason, the sample addresses we tried were met with errors. We reached a page that told us they couldn’t provide us with a quote based on the information we provided. When we plugged in properties that worked, their tool still told us there was a moratorium in effect for E&S HO3 for the dates we tried.
So while we were unable to get a quote from Security First, online reviews from actual customers generally state their homeowners insurance premiums are affordable. Many people have found the cheapest rates here. Some policyholders complained that premiums went up quite a bit upon renewal, while others were happy that their premiums stayed almost the same for 10+ years.
So, we know that their rates are a little lower than many of their competitors. On top of that, they have plenty of discounts lined up for you to save more. These include:
- Water Leak Detection Credit
- Senior Citizen Credit
- Secured Community Credit
- Actual Cash Value Roof Loss Settlement
- Water Damage Exclusion
- Hurricane Deductible Credit
- Age of Dwelling Credit
- Fire Sprinkler Credit
- Windstorm Loss Mitigation Credit
- Windstorm or Hail Exclusion Credit
- Hardiplank Siding Discount
- Paperless Discount
- Burglar Alarm Credit
- Fire Alarm Credit
Filing a claim with Security First
Security First makes filing a claim sound like such an easy, peaceful, and quick process. They have several claims filing methods available. These include their 24/7 claims number, their online customer portal, and even their app.
Customer reviews about the claim process with Security First are a mixed bag. Since Florida has been hit by multiple hurricanes in the past few years, there are many homeowners who have suffered from hurricanes Ian and Irma. Some of them are very happy with how Security First handled their claims and the payouts. One roofing contractor left a review stating that Security First is a legitimate company and that his company has replaced hundreds of roofs on the homes that are insured with them.
There are also a lot of negative reviews about the claims. Some have complained that they had to wait a year to finally get the payout. Others have complained about poor communication with the company.
So if you have to file a claim with Security First, it might be a good idea to stay on top of it and regularly follow up with them to insure that you get your payouts in a timely manner.
Security First homeowners insurance customer reviews
For a company to aim to be the epitome of family values and home training, you would think they would receive strong backing from their customers. After all, they claim they want their customers to feel like family in the great state of Florida.
On the contrary, at least 2% of market complaints were directed toward Security First in 2022. This included a 10.46 rating on the National Complaint Index, which is very high.
As of March 2023, Security First has earned a 3.8-star rating from 1597 reviews on Google. While there are a lot of positive reviews there, many homeowners have trouble getting in touch with their agents or having basic information communicated to them. Other homeowners recall how they felt backstabbed or left out of the loop by their adjusters.
Security First’s financial strength
Despite their nasty reviews by bonafide customers, their financial leverage isn’t too bad. The BBB accredited Security First in 2012 and now has an A+ rating. They’ve had 29 complaints closed in the last 3 years.
Weiss Ratings gave Security First a C- rating. This means they’re in the lower third of companies that offer fair financial security. Their rating is based on a weak profitability index, an average return on equity, and other factors.
Their partnering company, Highlander, is an A+ rated company by AM Best. Security First, however, is not yet rated by this service.
Security First is a privately-held home insurance company, providing insurance to Florida residents – it was founded in 2005 by U.S. senator Locke Burt whose family was historically involved in the home insurance business. Mr. Burt’s family had an insurance agency in Des Moines more than 100 years ago, their first agency was founded in 1918. Hurricane Katrina prompted him to get into the home insurance business and since the funding of Security First, the company exclusively operates on Floridian soil.
The verdict
We have high hopes for an insurer who talks up their respectability and honor. Security First shines in this category regarding their prime focus: insurance. Their policy options offer a range of coverages for virtually any Floridian homeowner.
Rating companies find them to be between mediocre and excellent, which is decent. Their customer reviews are a mixed bag with many positive and negative reviews. If you want to feel like family from a company, you might want to seek out another.