Help with Sandy insurance claims — via phone
Help with Sandy insurance claims — via phone

People whose homes or businesses were battered by superstorm Sandy have a potentially useful ally in filing insurance claims: their smartphone. Can’t find your policy number, deductible information or other insurance data needed to make a claim? Use your phone to access a carrier’s website…
Wind could blow deductibles higher
Wind could blow deductibles higher

Newsday.com by: Joe Ryan Sandy may not have been a hurricane by the time it slammed into Long Island, but its winds were still powerful enough to trigger higher insurance deductibles that could cost homeowners thousands of dollars. As the tempest swirled toward New York,…
SANDY: Warning on Insurance; Thanks to Sandy, premiums could rise on LI
SANDY: Warning on Insurance; Thanks to Sandy, premiums could rise on LI

www.newsday.com By: Joe Ryan Long after the electricity returns and the gas lines end, last week’s massive storm is likely to take another swipe at Long Islanders by driving up the cost of homeowners insurance, experts say. Private insurance companies are expected to pay out…
Insurance Catch-22; Banks may need to co-endorse checks for repairs
Insurance Catch-22; Banks may need to co-endorse checks for repairs

www.newsday.com By: Joe Ryan For homeowners struggling to rebuild from Sandy, the bureaucratic maze may not end once the insurance settlement check arrives. Consider the plight of Diane Ortiz and George Tranos, whose Amityville home was gutted by a torrent of seawater. Two weeks later,…
Speaking UP Pays
Speaking UP Pays

In “Sandy Victims Cry Foul Over Insurance” a recent piece that included Executive Director Amy Bach, CNN reporter Deborah Feyerick captured the bad and good news. The bad news is the fear and frustration Sandy victims are experiencing when told the damage to their home…
Insurance Companies Continue to Settle With States on Unclaimed Life Insurance Policies – Could One Be Yours?
Insurance Companies Continue to Settle With States on Unclaimed Life Insurance Policies – Could One Be Yours?

Multiple life insurance companies have reached multi-state settlements regarding an industry-wide practice of companies failing to pay death benefits to the beneficiaries of life insurance policies, despite having access to federal records indicating that policyholders had died, or direct confirmation from relatives of the deceased. Instead,…
Christie Administration Takes Action to Protect Storm-Impacted New Jersey Homeowners from Higher Insurance Deductibles
Christie Administration Takes Action to Protect Storm-Impacted New Jersey Homeowners from Higher Insurance Deductibles

Trenton, NJ – Taking action to save homeowners money following Hurricane Sandy, Governor Chris Christie signed Executive Order 107, prohibiting insurance companies from imposing costly hurricane deductibles on New Jersey homeowners. An important part of the recovery of New Jersey will be the influx of…
Governor Cuomo Announces Homeowners Will Not Have To Pay Hurricane Deductibles
Governor Cuomo Announces Homeowners Will Not Have To Pay Hurricane Deductibles

Department of Financial Services Working Closely with Insurers to Speed Response to Homeowners Who Experienced Losses New Yorkers Can Call DFS Disaster Hotline for Help Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York homeowners will not have to pay potentially large hurricane deductibles on…
Coverage drying up? UP water alert
Coverage drying up? UP water alert

As a downpour drenched but did not deter our Giants this week and we watched the East Coast brace for Frankenstorm, it reminded me that it is time to remind our readers that there are now big differences in how property policies cover (and don’t…
Bach to moderate water damage panel at First Party Claims Conference
Bach to moderate water damage panel at First Party Claims Conference

UP Executive Director Amy Bach will be moderating a panel of experts on water damage claims during the First Party Claims Conference in Rhode Island in October. This unique conference brings together experts from both the policyholder and insurer side and is a great place…
San Bruno Emergency Preparedness Day
San Bruno Emergency Preparedness Day

On Saturday, September 29th, 2012 United Policyholders participated in the first annual San Bruno Emergency Preparedness Fair.
Two UP advisers score an important legal win for disability policyholders
Two UP advisers score an important legal win for disability policyholders

UP advisers and sponsors Daley, Debofsky and Bryant and Pillsbury and Levinson recently scored a victory for disability insurance policyholders in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the issue of how an annual bonus gets factored in when calculating lost income.
Tiny words… big $ meaning
Tiny words… big $ meaning

Disability insurance alert Losing your job and income due to a disabling injury or illness is a scary prospect. 3 in 10 workers will become disabled for some period of time before they retire. Yet people often overlook buying the insurance that replaces lost income.…
Life Insurers on the Hot Seat
Life Insurers on the Hot Seat

Retained Asset Accounts (RAAs) were a relatively obscure feature of certain life insurance policies until a bloomberg News series thrust them into the limelight of controversy in the summer of 2010. Since that time UP has been engaged on several fronts in improving conditions related to these accounts for consumers.…
Hard work lies ahead in Colorado
Hard work lies ahead in Colorado

Our Roadmap to Recovery services will be in high demand again in Colorado when this summer’s horrendous wildfires are contained. Just as we did in Boulder in 2010, we’ll be deploying staff and volunteers and partnering with local government and non-profit groups to educate and…
Amicus wins in CA and HI
Amicus wins in CA and HI

After reviewing a brief filed by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and an amicus brief filed by United Policyholders this spring, the California Court of Appeal flatly rejected a lawsuit filed by the Association of California Insurance Companies that tried to overturn regulations designed to reduce…
Disaster preparedness at the local and national level.
Disaster preparedness at the local and national level.

Our Roadmap to Preparedness outreach team has been busy this year spreading our unique and important messages on insurance preparedness at the local level all the way up to the national level. So far in 2012, UP staff has shared our survey results on the…
From Recovery to Reform
From Recovery to Reform

We’re thankful that many people who’ve used our Roadmap to Recovery services over the years have followed through on volunteering with UP. These superstars have gone above and beyond… pitching in on legislative reform efforts, flying out of state to present at a UP workshop…being…