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Originally published: Oct 23, 2025 | Updated: Aug 15, 2025 Having to file a claim with an insurance company can feel like a stressful process. Filing with your own carrier can yield you a response within a few days, while filing a claim with another party’s carrier after a non-at-fault accident may take weeks to be reimbursed. So how long will your auto insurance claim take? What can you expect during the process? And what can you do to speed up the process? If you’re asking these questions, you’re in the right place. We’ve got answers! Since 1922, Berry Insurance has been helping Massachusetts residents navigate the auto insurance claims process. We know exactly what to expect and how you can help make the process quicker. A claim can take anywhere from a few days to a few months to even years to resolve depending on the severity. Here’s a basic timeline on what you can expect to happen and what will affect the length of time your claim takes to be resolved. Table of contents: How long do insurance claims take in Massachusetts? What is the timeline of an insurance claim? What could delay the insurance claims process? What can I do to speed up the insurance claims process? How long do insurance claims take in Massachusetts? While many insurance companies will strive to resolve your claim as quickly as possible, typically within 30 days, there is no statute in Massachusetts that dictates time limits for claims settlement. According to the state, the only explanation about time limits is that “insurance companies are required by law to pay all claims in a prompt and reasonable amount of time.” That being said, here is a quick timeline on what you can expect with your claim. What is the timeline of an insurance claim? Adjuster Assigned Once you report your claim, an adjuster is assigned right away; but may take 24-48 hours to reach out to you. The adjuster is an employee of your insurance company, and is responsible for reviewing all of the claim notes, determining who is at fault, and keeping you up to speed on how the claim is progressing. Should anything happen in between the time of your accident and when you hear from your adjuster, keep notes or contact your insurance agent. For example, if you’ve got a rental, if your car has been moved, or if you’ve received any correspondence from the other party or their insurance company. Likewise, if you do not hear from your adjuster, or are not happy with how your claim is being handled, be sure to reach out to your insurance agent right away. The insurance agency is usually not updated by the insurance company on how the claim progresses, so if something is delayed, we may not know at the same time you do. Choosing an Autobody Repair Shop If your vehicle needs repairs, you are free to bring your vehicle to an autobody shop of choice. Your autobody shop may give you an estimate of the repairs before you receive the appraisal from the insurance company. Just be sure they do not begin work until the insurance company has had a chance to assess your damages themselves. Appraiser Assigned If there are damages to your vehicle, the adjuster will assign an appraiser. The appraiser is typically not an employee of your insurance company, so they are able to give an unbiased opinion of the damages. The appraiser will reach out to you to schedule an appointment to view your vehicle and assess the damages. This cane be done at whatever location is convenient to you – your home, work or at whatever autobody shop you choose. Estimate Completed The appraiser is typically assessing several vehicles in a day, so it may take a few days to get their estimate to your insurance company for review. Be sure to get the appraiser’s contact information so you can request a copy of the estimate if you don’t hear in a few days. Claim Check Issued Once your adjuster has received the appraisal of damages, it could take them anywhere from a day up to a week to issue the claim check. This is due to the adjuster needing to review the claim notes to determine fault and approve the appraisal amount. Additional Repairs Needed Once your autobody shop begins repairs, it is very likely they could find additional damages that could not be seen during the initial visual inspection. At this point the autobody shop would request a “supplement” to your insurance company. This is simply a statement of additional damages to have the repairs authorized and paid. Reimbursement For Deductible The insurance company will withhold your deductible from your claim check. If you were not at fault in the accident, the insurance company will “subrogate” with the other party to be reimbursed. This simply means that your insurance company will submit a request to the other insurance company for reimbursement of the claim amount. Once they are reimbursed, they will release your deductible payment to you. The subrogation process happens behind the scenes and can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to resolve. What could delay the insurance claims process? Unfortunately, there are many things that can slow down your insurance claims process and prevent you from getting your claim paid in a timely manner. Some of these are preventable, but some are dependent upon the circumstances. Incorrect Policy Information If there is anything incorrect on your Massachusetts auto insurance policy, your insurance company could deny your claim. One of the most important things you can do is make sure your policy is always up to date with accurate information. Delay in Claim Reporting If you delay reporting your claim, or you choose to handle your claim outside insurance and then later try to report it, you could prevent your insurance company from being able to handle your claim adequately. (Keep in mind, if your accident resulted in any injuries, deaths or damages worth $1,000 or more, you are required to file a Massachusetts Crash Report within 5 days of the accident.) Wrong Contact Details If you do not provide all the correct contact information for yourself or any of the other parties it could delay your claim. Be sure to get all the correct names, phones, emails and policy details for all parties involved and clearly communicate them to your adjuster. A simple way to ensure you have all the accurate information is by taking pictures of license plates, registrations and licenses. If you get a phone number, call it before you leave the accident to make sure that it is the correct number for the other party. Responsiveness It is imperative that you return calls from your adjuster and the appraiser as soon as possible. We know you’re busy, but the longer your wait to return calls, the longer your claim will take to be resolved. Adjuster Workloads We’re going to be honest here – insurance claims adjusters are overworked. They handle many claims in a day and they are easily backlogged. We’re not making excuses by any means, but we want to be realistic here. If your claim is not moving along as quickly as you’d like, don’t wait. Contact your insurance agent immediately to let them know what’s happening and have them help get things moving for you. Direct Writers If you file your claim with the other party, and that party is insured with a direct writing insurance company, you will likely experience a significant delay in your insurance claim. The fact of the matter is, we’ve seen these insurance companies claim that they are “unable to contact” their client for a response or to determine fault. This could go on for weeks, even months. This is another situation where you want to reach out to your insurance agent to see if they can help speed up the process. Complex Accidents If your accident involved multiple vehicles, or involved expenses in addition to vehicle repair, such as medical injuries, car seats, rental cars, etc. you should expect your claim to take longer to resolve. Any time a claim is more complex it means there is more paperwork to review and more back and forth that has to happen. Weather If a significant weather event contributed to your accident, and may other people in the same area were impacted by the weather, you may see a delay. Many times insurance companies will outsource appraisers from other regions of the U.S. when weather-related claims create unusually high workloads. These high workloads can result in longer timeframes for case files to be reviewed and resolved. Total Loss If your vehicle is declared a total loss there will be additional paperwork and steps to be completed. The insurance company typically will take possession of the vehicle and you’ll need to sign the title over and cancel the plates. State Laws If there are injuries involved, there could be litigation involved. For example, in Massachusetts you have three years to file a lawsuit for personal injury or property damage. What can I do to speed up the insurance claims process? While there are many things that can hang up your insurance claims process, there are thankfully several areas where you can help speed up the process! Report Your Claim Right Away Report your claim to your insurance agent as soon as possible. Keeping your insurance agent informed of the claim and what is happening will allow them to stay on top of things with the insurance company so nothing falls through the cracks. (Remember: if you don’t have the right information you need, contact your insurance agent to help you get it.) Sign a Direction to Pay If you’ve brought your vehicle to an auto body shop to await repairs, signing a “direction to pay” (authorizing the insurance company to issue the check right to the shop) could help speed up the scheduling of repairs with the shop. Be Responsive Make sure you stay on top of phone calls and emails from the insurance company adjuster, appraiser and insurance agent. Responding to any messages immediately will help get your claim resolved quicker. Keep Detailed and Thorough Records Make notes on any phone calls you have, keep receipts of repairs or rentals. Take pictures at the accident and send them to the adjuster. The more detailed documentation you have, the quicker your adjuster can come to a resolution. What do I do now? If you’re in the middle of an auto insurance claim, the number one thing you can do right now is contact your insurance agent. They can get you an updated status on where your claim stands, how long to expect until it’s resolved, and what you can do in the meantime to help speed things up. We realize that you might be afraid to come across as annoying by consistently checking in, but trust us when we say, you aren’t. That is what we’re here for! We never like to have our clients deal with the stress of an auto insurance claim, but at Berry Insurance, we take pride in helping you navigate your claim. We’ll do everything in our power to get things resolved quickly and painlessly and we’ll fight to get your claim fully covered. For more information on the auto insurance claims process, check out our Massachusetts Auto Claims FAQ.

Originally published: May 2, 2023 | Updated: May 29, 2025 No matter how many times you check your blind spots or ensure you’re under the speed limit, there is always one factor no driver can entirely prepare for: other drivers. Even the safest of drivers can quickly find themselves in a whirlwind of confusion after being involved in a car accident, especially when you were not the driver that caused the accident.

Typically insurance can feel overwhelming with the sheer number of coverage options for us to choose from. But what if your options are instead limited due to high risk exposures? Then you likely will need to know all about non-admitted insurance carriers.

Are you running a business in Massachusetts or planning on opening your doors soon? Already feeling overwhelmed with expenses and are stressed about having to add insurance to the list? We understand the pressure! As business owners, it’s our job to ensure we protect every asset - in order for our company and clientele to be safely covered in the event of a claim. At Berry Insurance, we help to insure a number of businesses in diverse industries across Massachusetts and beyond! So whether you’re selling cupcakes in Springfield or knick knacks down the Cape, our agency can help you! Plus as a business owner ourselves, we deal with the complexities of business insurance daily. Below we’ll discuss what you can expect to pay for multiple types of business insurance (including general liability, auto, and workers’ compensation), what determines cost, and additional coverages you should know about. Table of contents: How much does business insurance cost? What factors influence the cost of business insurance? How much can I expect to pay for my Massachusetts business insurance? What insurance coverage does my business need? How much does business insurance cost? While a lot goes into determining the cost of insuring your business, it’s important to know the range you can expect to pay. Here are the cost ranges for the main types of business insurance coverage: Business owners policy (BOP): Comprising general liability and property insurance, annual premiums range from $233 for a home-based business to $80,000 for larger businesses with higher risk operations. Commercial auto: Annual premiums for commercial auto insurance can range from $1,500 for a private passenger vehicle to $40,000 for a larger company with many work vehicles. Workers compensation: Premiums for workers compensation policies can range from $282 for a basic nanny policy, for instance, to $100,000 or more for large corporations with higher-risk operations. What factors influence the cost of business insurance? Property insurance: Property insurance covers the actual structure of your business’ building and its contents, as well as the exterior features such as fencing, or signage. Premiums for property coverage are typically based on replacement value or actual cash value and take into account the location, cost to rebuild, building construction, type of materials, sprinklers, alarm systems, distance to the coast, and the limits and deductibles you select. General liability: General liability covers costs arising from claims against businesses resulting from their operations, such as property damage, physical injury, and personal injury, including libel and slander. Premiums for liability coverage are typically based on sales for the year, payroll, square foot of the premises or even average number of guests/attendees at the business, and the limits and deductibles you select. Commercial auto: Commercial or business auto insurance covers the cost of bodily damage or property damage caused by vehicles as well as physical damage of your own vehicles, just like personal car insurance does, but for commercially owned vehicles. Premiums for this type of policy are based on the number of vehicles owned by the company, the cost of the vehicles, where they are garaged, business operations, coverages inclusions, limits, and driver history. Workers compensation: Workers compensation covers wage replacement and medical payments to employees injured while performing job-related duties and protects companies from liability against employee claims. The cost of this coverage is usually based on the number of employees in the company, estimated yearly payrolls, and job duties/business operations, and the limits you select. How much can I expect to pay for my Massachusetts business insurance? While the cost of business insurance will vary greatly between companies, let’s look at a few realistic scenarios of what insurance could cost business owners. Small businesses, such as a singular residential house cleaner with no employees, no property, and no commercial vehicles, may only need to pay around $500 a year for business insurance; as they’d only require general liability coverage. If we instead take a larger business, such as an HVAC contractor. If the contractor has property limits of $60,000, general liability limits at $1M/$2M, a $625,000 payroll, and 10 vehicles they may pay around $60,000 per year for their business insurance coverage. Even larger corporations with more employees, vehicles, equipment, or higher risk (like a mechanical engineering company) could expect to pay around $250,000 each year. What insurance coverage does my business need? Above, we talked about the most common types of business insurance that nearly every business needs to buy, but there are more types. Depending on the specifics of your business, you may need one or more of the following more specialty coverages. These types of coverage typically will require you to spend additional money to get them - check out the links below for more information on the cost of coverages you’re interested in. Professional liability insurance: Also known as errors and omissions insurance, professional liability protects certain types of professionals from costs associated with accusations of negligence. Business umbrella insurance: Business umbrella insurance provides excess coverage on business liability insurance in the case of a lawsuit exceeding policy limits. Cyber and identity theft insurance: This insurance covers costs associated with a cyber attack or data breach. This includes malicious actions such as hacking, viruses, phishing, denial of service (DoS) ransomware, malware and more; but also data losses from incidents such as computer glitches, power surges, and accidental deletions. Flood insurance: For businesses at risk of floods, flood insurance provides coverage from damages caused by floods. Pollution insurance: Pollution insurance covers costs related to pollution caused by a business’ operations. Bonds: Commercial bonds are required in certain industries to protect the business and its customers from specific risks. Having one or more of these insurance policies would increase the amount you spend on insurance for your business. Protect your business with a comprehensive business insurance policy: We know your business is important to you, so it is crucial you protect it. While the combination of business insurance policies you need can sometimes be pricey, it’s worth the protection against even more costly incidents that can put you out of business. As I’m sure you can tell, the cost of business insurance can vary greatly depending on a variety of factors. The best way to know what you will need to pay is by reaching out to your agent or carrier. An agent, like our agents at Berry, can help you create a custom policy to protect your business without breaking the bank. Don’t have an agent or carrier yet? Check out this article about what to look for when selecting an agency or company.

Let’s be real - the only thing more annoying than having to file an insurance claim, is waiting for it to be paid out!

Perhaps you live in the city, where public transportation is in abundance. Or maybe you live on a college campus and don’t have access to a car. If this sounds like you, it’s likely at one point or another you’ve found yourself in a situation where you need access to a vehicle.