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Well, I've got good news and bad news for you, Linda. The good news is that there are a huge number of independent agents in California. The bad news is that homeowners and personal auto insurance have higher rates in some parts of CA than virtually anywhere else in the US. That means that you are almost certainly going to be paying more than you are now unless you're moving from an urban area into a rural area (i.e. going from NYC to a ranger station in Death Valley). If you're going into one of the fault zones, be prepared for a shock since the rates for any sort of earthquake insurance are tied directly into hurricane insurance in Florida and the Gulf - and you should know how bad that was last year. There were also some major changes in other aspects of the industry that raised rates even more, so get ready.
I did some more research on the website that you linked in your initial post, and there's a lot of negative feedback on some of the agents that it referred over. That doesn't necessarily mean that the website is bad, just that the service of the agents who sign up for it isn't up to par. A friend of mine has a client who gets leads from this site and then passes them off to all the rookies in his office to work off of with some very mixed results. The agent is apparently very frustrated with the whole system.
As far as your move goes, let your current agent know what's going on. First, he can probably arrange for a temporary policy for your new CA home, and it's possible that he may be able to write a permanent policy for you, although there are a bunch of reasons that he might not be able to (the most important of which is that he may not be licensed to do so). However, there are ways to transfer your current homeowners coverage to the new home without having to rewrite it until it expires naturally. Almost all policies have this sort of provision built in.
The second most important reason to tell your agent that you're moving is that he may know another agent in the area. If he works for a captive carrier (State Farm, Allstate, Farmers, etc.) where he can only work with his employing carrier, he'll have a ready network of referrals for you and there should be little or no disruption. If he's an independent agent, then he'll still probably know some folks from the various conventions that those guys go to.
As far as your husbands car goes, you don't need to worry about it until the current coverage expires. They'll probably attach a rider showing the new location where it's garaged, and they might charge you extra to make up the difference in the rates between whereever you are in CA and whereever you are now, but there's no real reason to cancel the coverage unless your current carrier can't write in California for some reason. Even in that scenario, there are still stopgap measures that they should offer up to make sure that you don't have to arrange for an immediate replacement.
Let me know if you need anything else or if there's anything else I can do to help!
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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