DON’T BOTHER…DO BOTHER
DON’T BOTHER…DO BOTHER

When buying rental car insurance: Don’t bother checking the “yes” box and paying for Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) coverage if you’ve got a credit card that offers that same coverage. Most credit cards provide that insurance to their cardholders free of charge as long as…
Do You Need Life Insurance in Retirement?
Do You Need Life Insurance in Retirement?

Life insurance helps protect your spouse and children from poverty in the case of your untimely death. However, once your children become self-sufficient and you and your spouse accumulate significant assets, there’s less of a need to keep paying the premiums for life insurance. Here’s…
Flashpoint: Living with wildfire
Flashpoint: Living with wildfire
Legal issues just beginning for Sandy victims, pro-bono attorney says
Legal issues just beginning for Sandy victims, pro-bono attorney says

Hurricane Sandy is long over, with reconstruction under way in most places, but for many impacted by the storm, problems are still piling up – legal problems, that is. That is why a cadre of pro-bono attorneys has fanned out throughout areas of New Jersey…
FEMA to Buy Out One Home on Old York Road
FEMA to Buy Out One Home on Old York Road

The township is changing its agreement with the NJDEP Blue Acres Program for the purchase and demolition of two homes on Old York Road along the Raritan River Floodway—because only one is now being accepted into the program.This program concerns the buy-out and demolition of…
Businesses pushing to settle claims from Sandy
Businesses pushing to settle claims from Sandy

Linda Schwartz had been running her Mexican restaurant for 29 years when it became a casualty of Hurricane Sandy.Schwartz waited out the storm in her Dennis Township home, confident that she had done what she could to safeguard her Avalon business, Tortilla Flats, by moving…
Group vex: Is one enough?
Group vex: Is one enough?

If you depend on your earned income and want to build yourself a safety net, you can buy long term disability (LTD) insurance that will replace that income if you become ill or injured and unable to work. You can buy it as an individual…
Insuring yourself against water calamity can make your head spin
Insuring yourself against water calamity can make your head spin

On the other side of the country, home after home is rotting, left much the same as the day after Hurricane Sandy landed in 2012. These are the houses of those who never bought flood insurance, which must be purchased separately from regular homeowner’s insurance.…
Flood insurance law hurting Sandy victims
Flood insurance law hurting Sandy victims

A little-known provision in some Long Island homeowners’ flood insurance policies could stymie their claims to collect for superstorm Sandy damage. Advocates and lawyers for property owners say it’s a loophole for insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is based on semantics.…
Why Pharmacy Refused Drug For Terminal Cancer Patient
Why Pharmacy Refused Drug For Terminal Cancer Patient

A Shingle Springs woman says the mail order pharmacy refused to fulfill a prescription to help battle her terminal cancer. When three weeks went by and she says the cancer spread, she called Kurtis. This medicine was prescribed to try and contain the cancer. But…
The Black Forest Fire has attracted insurance pros — for better and worse
The Black Forest Fire has attracted insurance pros — for better and worse

The flier called it a “Town Hall Meeting for Black Forest Fire Residents.” But this wasn’t a town hall in the traditional sense. No elected official or governmental staff member was scheduled to speak. El Paso County officials, in fact, say they had nothing to…
Help is on the way for Waldo victims
Help is on the way for Waldo victims

With the Waldo Canyon Fire having wiped out 345 homes last summer, it appears Colorado Springs and El Paso County are working on ways to help homeowners figure out how to work with their insurance companies and prepare for the next disaster. First, the latter.…
Waldo victims organize their own insurance assistance
Waldo victims organize their own insurance assistance

Colorado Springs Together was envisioned as a clearinghouse for Waldo Canyon Fire victims, a place to turn to for their every need. Except, apparently, insurance advocacy. “What we’ve tried to do is kind of keep a distance, avoid getting in the middle of the policyholder-insurance…
Nearly half of all American adults are uninsured or underinsured
Nearly half of all American adults are uninsured or underinsured

Less than one year before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ACA) will require most Americans to obtain health insurance, a survey has found that 46 percent of U.S. adults – or 84.2 million people – remain uninsured or underinsured. During 2012, 54.6 million…
Will Obamacare save you money on preventive care?
Will Obamacare save you money on preventive care?

Federal health care reform promises to make it easier and more affordable for people to access care. As part of that effort, most health insurance plans now must offer many types of preventive care at no cost to the patient. But confusion remains about what…
Toomey, Menendez clash on flood insurance
Toomey, Menendez clash on flood insurance

WASHINGTON – A debate over the federal flood insurance program sparked cross-river crossfire today, with New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez clashing with Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey over a plan to hold down premiums. Toomey, using procedural rules, blocked a plan to delay federal…
Free insurance workshop next week for Black Forest residents
Free insurance workshop next week for Black Forest residents

El Paso County will host free insurance help workshop next week lead by United Policyholders, a non-profit insurance advocacy group that has given workshops to victims of the Waldo Canyon, High Park and Four Mile Canyon fires. The workshop will be on July 8, and…
Insurance Policyholder Advocate Gets Sandy Grant
Insurance Policyholder Advocate Gets Sandy Grant

More than five months after superstorm Sandy hit the Jersey Shore, some owners of damaged homes, cars and businesses are still waiting for insurance settlements. Last week, a California-based advocacy group for insurance policyholders was awarded a small grant that could help them resolve their…