Creak! Crackle! Pop! Does insurance cover fallen tree branches?
Creak! Crackle! Pop! Does insurance cover fallen tree branches?

Are you hearing unexpected cracking sounds from outside? Texas tree branches have been crashing under the weight of ice. If one falls on your house or car, use these tips: Take photos of the damage before you move the tree, make repairs, or take other…
Insurance denied: More Coloradans can’t get homeowner’s insurance because of wildfire risk
Insurance denied: More Coloradans can’t get homeowner’s insurance because of wildfire risk

More and more Colorado homeowners across the state are being denied homeowners insurance because of wildfire risk. Now, the state insurance commissioner, state lawmakers, and homeowners are working together on a solution, as the insurance industry issues a warning. Colorado homeowners being denied insurance On…
Paradise rolls out new wildfire prevention standards available to all California homes
Paradise rolls out new wildfire prevention standards available to all California homes

A Paradise home received the state’s first Wildfire Prepared Home designation, kicking off a new program meant to reduce the damage from wildfires. The newly-constructed home is tucked in the burn scar of the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history, on a road…
Paradise home becomes first in the U.S. to be designated a ‘wildfire-prepared home’
Paradise home becomes first in the U.S. to be designated a ‘wildfire-prepared home’

The designation is certified by the Insurance Institute for Home and Business Safety and provides proof that a homeowner has taken scientifically proven steps to mitigate risk for total loss in a fire. PARADISE, Calif. —As the town of Paradise continues the long rebuilding process…
Wildfires Likely to Boost California Surplus Lines Homeowners Share; FAIR Plan Expansion Questioned
Wildfires Likely to Boost California Surplus Lines Homeowners Share; FAIR Plan Expansion Questioned

Wildfires Likely to Boost California Surplus Lines Homeowners Share; FAIR Plan Expansion Questioned Premium volume from homeowners polices written by California’s surplus lines industry, although still small, has doubled over the past four years, seemingly pushed by an increase in wildfires in the state. Some…
Gov. Newsom signs law requiring home insurers give policyholders more time before cancellations
Gov. Newsom signs law requiring home insurers give policyholders more time before cancellations

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed legislation into law that makes insurers give homeowners longer advance notice before canceling their policies. The law increases the minimum time notification for homeowner policy nonrenewals from 45 days to 75 days. However, the change does not go into…
Car insurance roulette: You could pay more because you’re a woman regardless of driving record
Car insurance roulette: You could pay more because you’re a woman regardless of driving record

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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…
Gender can no longer be used to calculate auto insurance rates in California and other states
Gender can no longer be used to calculate auto insurance rates in California and other states

As rates go higher, insurers have other ways to calculate risk, including the monitoring of driving behavior. California has become the seventh state to ban auto insurers from using gender as a factor for calculating the rates customers pay. But as regulators push the industry…
Third Lava Lawsuit Filed Against Lloyd’s of London
Third Lava Lawsuit Filed Against Lloyd’s of London

Two homes are consumed by the massive flow and a third is threatened as the lava advances downslope. PC: Paradise Helicopters/ExtremeExposure/Bruce Omori Another lava lawsuit has been filed against Lloyd’s of London, according to Hawai‘i Attorney Jeffrey Foster, who is representing Susie Osborne, the founder…
Volcano Watch: Many forms of sulfur are found on Kilauea Volcano
Volcano Watch: Many forms of sulfur are found on Kilauea Volcano

For many Hawaii residents, interactions with Kilauea Volcano’s eruptions is through vog — a hazy mixture of sulfur dioxide gas and sulfate particles. However, sulfur on Kilauea is not limited to vog components. Sulfur is an exceptional element in that its atoms have a range…
Regulators and the Predictive Modeling Challenge
Regulators and the Predictive Modeling Challenge

Big data, predictive models, neural networks — the world of insurance pricing is changing fast, as any actuary can attest. It falls to the regulators — some of them actuaries — to figure out how get the old rules to apply to this new world.…
Postfires reconstruction hums along in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park
Postfires reconstruction hums along in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park

This story originally appeared on PressDemocrat.com. The morning sun had risen nearly to the top of three burned trees when Samuel Garcia began framing the wall for a new home in Coffey Park. The mustachioed Garcia, wearing a soft-brimmed hat and suspenders that held up…
Mandatory arbitration, common foe of car buyers, bank customers and porn stars, under attack
Mandatory arbitration, common foe of car buyers, bank customers and porn stars, under attack

Mandatory arbitration, common foe of car buyers, bank customers and porn stars, under attack By L.M. Sixel March 22, 2018 0 Photo: SCOTT MCINTYRE, STR / NYT IMAGE 1 OF 5 Some auto dealers are opting out of mandatory arbitration, finding that the courts offer…
FEMA Expands Flood Reinsurance Program with Private Reinsurers for 2018
FEMA Expands Flood Reinsurance Program with Private Reinsurers for 2018

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has completed a reinsurance placement with 28 private reinsurers to help the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) recover losses it may have to pay in 2018. Expanding on its first private reinsurance placement last year of $1.042 billion, the…
Florida Supreme Court Ruling to Have Big Impact on Duty to Defend Construction Cases
Florida Supreme Court Ruling to Have Big Impact on Duty to Defend Construction Cases

A recent case out of the Florida Supreme Court will likely have a big impact on the duty of insurers to defend Florida construction cases. The case, Altman Contractors, Inc. v. Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company arises out of a declaratory judgment action filed…
Flood insurance reforms split Congress, and Louisiana lawmakers, as Dec. 8 expiration looms
Flood insurance reforms split Congress, and Louisiana lawmakers, as Dec. 8 expiration looms