How Fund My Deductible Helps Contractors Legally Collect Deductibles

Fund My Deductible (FMD) is a platform that lets contractors and their sales teams set up customer payment plans for insurance deductibles, so a homeowner can fund the deductible over time instead of paying it all upfront. The stated goal is to keep the deal alive when a high deductible would otherwise stall or kill it, while keeping the contractor compliant. It is aimed at contractors and sales teams in insurance-driven home service work (the site's own context is roofing and storm restoration), and the site advertises a free trial and a roughly 5-minute setup.

The problem FMD is built around

In insurance-funded work, the homeowner still owes the deductible. When that number is large, contractors report losing signed deals because the customer can't or won't pay it in one lump sum. FMD's pitch is blunt: "NEVER LOSE ANOTHER DEAL" and "STOP FINANCING AND START FUNDING TODAY."

The distinction the site draws is between financing and funding. FMD positions itself as a funding tool rather than a lender, which matters because how a deductible is collected is a compliance question, not just a cash-flow one.

How the collection works

FMD describes a three-step process:

1. Register as a contractor — go to fundmydeductible.com, set up your company, and register your sales team.
2. Sign up your customers — set up a custom payment plan, receive an executed funding agreement, and keep all parties informed.
3. Receive and track income — contractor and salesman portals let you monitor income and track performance.

The key mechanism is the custom payment plan plus an executed funding agreement. The customer commits to a schedule rather than a single payment, and the agreement documents it. That paper trail is what FMD sells as the compliance piece — the deductible is still collected, but through a structured, documented plan.

Why the compliance angle matters

Collecting a deductible is legal; how you do it is where contractors get into trouble. FMD leans on third-party validation for this. On its site it cites Steve Badger, during the annual Houghtaling // Badger debate at the Win the Storm Conference, mentioning Fund My Deductible as a tool to help contractors "stay compliant while LEGALLY collecting deductibles." The site also notes John Houghtaling II as a keynote speaker at SRC Summit 2020 and references coverage in roofing-industry media.

If your concern is whether a given collection method is defensible, that endorsement is the signal FMD is selling — not a legal guarantee. Compliance rules vary by state and insurer, so treat the platform as the documentation layer and confirm your specific approach against your own jurisdiction and carrier requirements.

What you actually get

Who this fits, and who should look elsewhere

FMD is a reasonable fit if you are a contractor or sales organization doing insurance-funded work, you regularly lose deals at the deductible stage, and you want a documented payment-plan process with tracking for your team. The free trial and short setup lower the cost of testing it on your own pipeline.

It is a weaker fit if your customers' deductibles are already small enough to pay outright, if you operate outside the insurance-funded model FMD is built for, or if you need a lending product rather than a funding/collection process — FMD explicitly frames itself against financing.

Before committing, verify two things yourself: the current terms of the free trial (the site promotes it but the input does not state duration or limits), and whether the payment-plan structure satisfies the compliance rules in the states and with the carriers you work in.