Diagnosis Debt: Medical bills and paperwork mix-ups, what you can do to help your case
Diagnosis Debt: Medical bills and paperwork mix-ups, what you can do to help your case

CLEVELAND — Our on-going series “Diagnosis: Debt” delves into the problems you’re having with medical costs piling up. How many times have you gotten a medical bill, then received an insurance statement, but the two don’t match up? For one Solon man, his paperwork mix-up…
North Bay Fire Victims Face Dire Deadline Ahead of Anniversary
North Bay Fire Victims Face Dire Deadline Ahead of Anniversary

Weeks ahead of the North Bay wildfires’ two-year anniversary, families are bracing for a financial shock. Several homeowners told NBC Bay Area their property insurance providers will stop paying for temporary living expenses, even if their new homes aren’t ready for move-in. The Sonoma and…
Nearly 350,000 California Homeowners in Fire Prone Areas Dropped by Insurers
Nearly 350,000 California Homeowners in Fire Prone Areas Dropped by Insurers

Click Here to Listen to Amy Bach on KQED Forum 8/26/19 Between 2015 and 2018, insurance companies dropped nearly 350,000 California homeowners in high-risk fire areas. This insurance coverage data, recently released by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office, does not reflect how many people…
California homeowners are facing an “insurance crisis”
California homeowners are facing an “insurance crisis”

Wildfires are a growing concern for residents living in fire-prone areas and now keeping insurance to protect their belongings is becoming a crisis. The California Department of Insurance found a six-percent increase in the number of customers dropped by their insurance companies. In zip codes…
Insurance Companies Are Paying Cops To Investigate Their Own Customers
Insurance Companies Are Paying Cops To Investigate Their Own Customers

A cozy alliance between insurers and law enforcement has turned the justice system into the industry’s hired gun and left innocent customers facing prison. When police showed up at Harry Schmidt’s home on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, he thought they were there to help. He…
Residents still trying to understand Camp Fire contamination at standing homes
Residents still trying to understand Camp Fire contamination at standing homes

PARADISE — A stale chemical smell hangs in Lisa Kasza’s garage in lower Paradise. Piles of toys, books and other possessions covered in a thin layer of dust wait to be thrown out. Nine months ago, the Camp Fire burned all the trees, bushes and…
Homeowner insurance dilemma may turn into a full blown crisis
Homeowner insurance dilemma may turn into a full blown crisis

SANTA ROSA, CA – Consumer advocates say a homeowners insurance crunch may soon become a homeowners insurance crisis as customers face huge rate increases or out-and-out cancellations. Experts say the major reasons homeowner policies get giant rate hikes or out-and-out cancellations is that their homes…
Bach Talk: Your Money or Your Life (Insurance)
Bach Talk: Your Money or Your Life (Insurance)

  As with all types of insurance, you have choices to make when shopping for life insurance. If you’re in the market for life insurance, rates are the lowest they’ve been in 20 years. That is probably because fewer and fewer employers offer it as an employee…
Dropped by your home insurer? What to do…
Dropped by your home insurer? What to do…

In some parts of the country, home insurance is not as available and affordable as in the past, so UP is working hard to help consumers shop for asset protection. Avoid wasting energy being angry or scared when your insurer “breaks up” with you… Don’t…
Why Safer Cars Don’t Lead To Cheaper Car Insurance … Yet
Why Safer Cars Don’t Lead To Cheaper Car Insurance … Yet

Many new cars sold today can take preemptive action to help prevent crashes — hitting the brakes before a collision, steering around obstacles or alerting drivers to hazards in their blind spots. Those safety features — collectively known as advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS —…
Options are few for storm-ravaged homes with insufficient insurance
Options are few for storm-ravaged homes with insufficient insurance

With the Atlantic hurricane season underway, homeowners should be aware that inadequate insurance coverage can make recovering from a bad situation even worse. Whether damage from a storm comes from wind or water, homeowners whose coverage is insufficient have discovered the hard way that it…
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara Holds Malibu Town Hall
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara Holds Malibu Town Hall

Even six months after the Woolsey Fire, some fire victims are still having difficulties collecting what they’re owed by their insurers; that includes residents with partial damage to their homes as well as those experiencing total losses. To help smooth the way, California’s top insurance…
Shaking Your Assets?
Shaking Your Assets?

If you own property in an area that’s prone to earthquakes, chances are your insurance excludes coverage for repairs and rebuilding due to quake damage. Insurance companies carved out coverage for this risk decades ago, and you have to shop and pay to add it…
Minding the Protection Gap
Minding the Protection Gap

Ever since my own home burned down in the 2003 Cedar Fire, I have worked to understand why so many people think they have a fully insured home, only to later learn they do not. This is a particularly troubling and stubborn problem because it…
Wildfire Took Your Home? Don’t Count on Insurance Rebuilding It
Wildfire Took Your Home? Don’t Count on Insurance Rebuilding It

Own a home? No doubt you’ve insured it. Very sensible of you. But if that home were, say, burned to the ground, then your insurance company probably wouldn’t cover the cost of rebuilding it. Don’t feel too bad, though. It’s only partly your fault. Two-thirds…
UP presentation to state regulators on Disasters and Insurance – Marketplace Gaps and Fillers
UP presentation to state regulators on Disasters and Insurance – Marketplace Gaps and Fillers

In this Power Point, UP Co-Founder Amy Bach and Professor Peter Kochenburger, (U.Conn Law) presented points to state regulators on the topic of insurance gaps that surface after disasters, and products to fill those gaps that may or should be available in the marketplace. November,…
Explaining to Homeowners Reconstruction Costs Versus Other Valuations
Explaining to Homeowners Reconstruction Costs Versus Other Valuations

The source of this article is a business that provides services to the insurance industry. According to a recent CoreLogic Natural Hazard Press Release, the 2018 Camp and Woolsey Wildfires in California caused devastating losses between $15 and $19 billon. Because a home is most…
North Bay floods alert businesses to uncover the quirks of their insurance coverage
North Bay floods alert businesses to uncover the quirks of their insurance coverage

As North Bay business owners directly impacted by last month’s floods push through massive recovery efforts, they’re also having to deal with the fact that part of their business insurance coverage is useless. That part of the coverage is called business interruption insurance, part of…