Mario Cazombo

Money’s picks for the best homeowners insurance in Rhode Island all offer standout coverage. Our list draws from our analysis for the national ranking of the best homeowners insurance providers. Below, we’ve also included other information to help you insure a home in Little Rhody, including coverage that is especially important to Rhode Island homeowners. Key takeaways about homeowners insurance in Rhode Island Rhode Island is a somewhat challenging state in which to afford a home. Its home prices are fairly high but its median income is below that of some of its New England neighbors. That combination can make a home purchase a bigger stretch than in some other states in the region. Here are statistics on those costs: The average home in Rhode Island is worth $496,412, according to real estate experts Zillow. That figure is 3.9 % higher than it was a year ago. Despite relatively high incomes, home costs make Rhode Island a comparatively unaffordable state in which to buy a house, on a par with Maine, Vermont, Colorado and New Mexico. Rhode Island has fairly high property taxes. According to Quicken Loans, the average property tax rate in the state is a middling 1.23%. With the state’s substantial housing prices, though, the average annual tax bill for a Rhode Island home is $2,465. Compared with other states, Rhode Island is quite favorable when it comes to affording homeowners insurance. The average policyholder in the state devotes 1.0% of their income to insuring their property, according to Freddie Mac. That compares with the 2% or more that homeowners in Texas, Florida, Missouri and other states must devote to paying their homeowners insurance bills. How we chose our top picks Money vetted 15 companies after conducting 1,000+ hours of research based on more than 20 data points. Money’s picks for the best homeowners insurance companies in Rhode Island all offer standout coverage and closely mirror the selections in our national ranking of the best homeowners insurance providers. For more on how we select picks, see the methodology below. Our top picks for best homeowners insurance in Rhode Island Here, listed alphabetically, are the top five homeowners insurers in Rhode Island. All offer standout coverage and are included in our national ranking of the best homeowners insurance. AIG Amica Chubb State Farm USAA HIGHLIGHTS Financial rating: A (Excellent) on AM Best Discounts: Undisclosed Bundling options: Undisclosed AIG is known as a luxury insurer that provides comprehensive coverage, from dwelling to cybersecurity insurance, for high-value properties worth up to $100 million. The company scores well above average for customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power U.S. Home Insurance Study. AIG offers guaranteed replacement cost (without any limits, according to the company) for homes valued from $750,000 all the way up to $100 million on an “all-risk” basis — meaning its policy covers all perils except the few specifically excluded. It also offers the option of ultra-high deductibles (up to $100,000). While these could help significantly lower your premium, you’ll of course have to be ready to pay a lot more out of pocket in case of a catastrophic claim. In addition to standard coverage, AIG offers services such as: kidnap, ransom and extortion coverage, landscaping coverage, multinational property coverage and business property coverage. Read our full review of AIG Homeowners Insurance. HIGHLIGHTS Financial rating: A+ (Superior) on AM Best Discounts: Bundling, loyalty, claim-free, autopay, electronic bill, alarm system, detection devices Bundling options: Auto, renters, life, umbrella Amica is known for top-notch service. The company scores well above average for customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power U.S. Home Insurance Study. Nationally, it has fewer complaints lodged with the NAIC than would be expected for an insurer of its size. Another standout aspect of the company when it comes to homeowners insurance is its Contractor Connection database. The resource lists thousands of vetted, licensed and insured contractors and guarantees their work with a five-year warranty. However, Amica rarely offers the cheapest homeowners insurance in price comparisons. This, then, is an insurer best suited to those who value top-of-the-line customer service over cost savings. Read our full review of Amica Homeowners Insurance. HIGHLIGHTS Financial rating: Superior (A++) on AM Best Discounts: Security and safety systems, new or renovated home, gated community, loyalty, claim-free, autopay, electronic bill, alarm system and more. Bundling options: Auto, renters, life, and umbrella Chubb scored well above average for customer satisfaction in the latest J.D. Power U.S. Home Insurance Study, as it customarily does. Also, the insurer’s Masterpiece policy offers unique benefits beyond the standard homeowners insurance policy, such as risk consulting services, coverage against hijacking, home invasions and more. A standout benefit is that policyholders can opt to get a cash settlement up to the policy’s limit if, after damages, they choose not to rebuild the property or opt to rebuild someplace else. Chubb’s also sells private flood insurance, and its policies offer maximum coverage of $15 million, which is notably high even for a private insurer. (By comparison, the federal NFIP program has a $250,000 maximum.) These rare benefits come at a cost. Chubb is widely regarded as one of the most expensive home insurers on the market. If its rates fit your budget, though, it’s an excellent choice. In addition to its consistently fine showings in J.D. Power surveys, the insurer has one of the lowest NAIC complaint indexes of all the insurers we reviewed. HIGHLIGHTS Financial rating: A++ (Superior) on A.M. Best Discounts: Bundling, home security systems, resistant roofing Bundling options: Auto, renters, life State Farm is the largest home insurance company in the United States and offers a wide variety of policies, from life to auto to condo. This range provides ample opportunities for customers to bundle policies in various ways to to earn discounts and simplify paying their insurance bills. One reality to State Farm, though, is that the company only works through captive agents. Its agent network is extensive in size, with local representatives in many communities in Rhode Island. HIGHLIGHTS

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The federal government wants to make it easier for ordinary Americans to use their 401(k) money to invest in private equity, an asset class historically limited to institutional investors. And while several hurdles remain before middle-class Americans are able to invest like Wall Street bigwigs, the move raises a thorny question: Is it safe for regular people to sink their hard-earned nest eggs into these notoriously complex and risky investments? President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month giving the Department of Labor, in conjunction with the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission, 180 days to develop guidance on how to incorporate alternative assets (including cryptocurrency, real estate and private equity) into retirement plans by reevaluating fiduciary guidelines. Fiduciaries — in this case, employers and plan administrators — are legally required to operate in investors’ best financial interest. If they fail to do so, they risk being sued by their customers and sanctioned by regulators. As a result, any wide-ranging changes to 401(k) investing and management tend to be slow and incremental. This push is no exception. Experts say it could take months, if not longer, before workers could see private equity funds in their 401(k)s, given how risk-averse plan administrators and sponsors tend to be. In addition, since executive orders don’t carry the weight of legislation, it’s possible that this initiative could be unwound by the next administration. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know. Is more choice in 401(k)s better? An especially vocal proponent of adding private equity to 401(k)s is the industry itself. (Of note: Private equity contributed heavily to Trump’s reelection campaign, collectively donating more than $200 million, records show.) A recent survey from Empower Retirement, one of the biggest retirement plan providers in the country, found that slightly more than 4 in 10 financial advisors are in favor of letting workers put their retirement savings into private equity. Workers would still have the choice of where to put their 401(k) contributions. But giving ordinary people access to the same kinds of investments as pension funds, university endowments and other big institutions can help level the playing field, according to Empower president and CEO Edmund F. Murphy III. “Expanding access to these markets through defined contribution plans presents a significant opportunity to enhance long-term retirement outcomes,” he said in a news release. Last week, the White House Council of Economic Advisors published research asserting that retirement savers who add private equity to their 401(k)s could see increases of 0.5% to 2.5% in value, depending on their age. It also said including private equity in retirement plans would contribute a total of $35 billion to the U.S. economy. Investors today don’t have as many choices today as they did 30 years ago because the number of public companies in the U.S. has fallen by about 3,000 in that time frame, a drop some blame on the reporting requirements imposed on big companies. In addition, “firms are staying private longer, meaning much of the growth happens before an IPO,” Michael Barczak, vice president of retirement plans at the Carson Group, noted in a recent blog post. Cons of private equity in your 401(k): more risk, higher fees Transparency requirements are the primary way the government protects investors and equips them with the knowledge they need to make smart decisions. Private equity isn’t held to those standards. “There’s not the transparency of a publicly traded company or a fund that’s going to give you quarterly reports,” says Bryan Kuderna, founder of the Kuderna Financial Team. In theory, fewer regulatory requirements are supposed to make private equity faster and more flexible, so companies can deliver outsized returns to investors. But it doesn’t always work out like that. “A lot of these funds don’t outperform the stock market,” says Jeffrey Hooke, a senior lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. In a research paper published earlier this year examining the performance of roughly five dozen funds from big private equity firms, Hooke found that fewer than half managed to beat the market returns by one metric — not exactly a windfall. Hooke and other experts say private equity’s weak performance of late stems from a few factors: the rapid growth of the industry and increased borrowing costs, as well as management fees that are much, much higher than typical 401(k) fees. While mutual funds or exchange-traded funds in a large employer’s 401(k) plan might have fees of around 0.1% to 0.5%, private equity funds often charge north of 2% — “like a 200% increase in fees,” he says. Investors in those funds are on the hook for those fees regardless of the fund’s performance, an arrangement that has led to a phenomenon one recent CNBC article dubbed “zombie funds.” Skeptics of this push also are quick to point out that institutional investors who formerly snapped up private offerings are now offloading those holdings at a rapid rate. This is largely because private equity companies can’t find anyone willing to buy their investments without slashing prices. What’s more, at least some of the assets made available to retail investors would likely be the “leftovers” from pension funds and other big institutional investors. In other words, private equity firms want to sell to ordinary Americans the same assets that sophisticated investors are actively trying to get rid of. “That raises questions about alignment, transparency and product integrity,” ratings agency Moody’s Ratings warned, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Even a small chunk of the $12.2 trillion stashed in 401(k)s would be a big infusion of capital, which could prove tempting for bad actors. As reported by the Journal, Moody’s warned that “some managers may be tempted to compromise” their standards and throw money at dicey companies just so they have investments they can bundle and sell to unwitting 401(k) investors. “I assume this will all be worked out in the industry’s favor, and perhaps to the detriment of those with 401(k) plans,” Hooke