Insurers should pay for their own mistakes
Insurers should pay for their own mistakes

Consumer Watchdogs Want Insurers To Rein In Surge Costs NU Online News Service, April 22, 8:52 a.m. EDT Consumer watchdogs are urging a closer look at insurers’ estimation of post-catastrophe material and labor price increases, citing a study questioning demand surge figures used to set…
My View: HB 1171 is simply a gift to insurers
My View: HB 1171 is simply a gift to insurers

My View In the strongest possible terms, we urge Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the home insurance deregulation bill, SB2036/HB1171. This bill is an invitation for insurers to game the Florida regulatory system and abuse consumers. No price can be too high, no discrimination can…
Public Interest Groups Ask California Supreme Court to Rehear Case on Consumer Protection Law
Public Interest Groups Ask California Supreme Court to Rehear Case on Consumer Protection Law

Groups Want Reversal on Ruling That Companies Can Continue Illegal Practices Until Someone Gets Hurt SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In an extraordinary request made late yesterday, eight public interest organizations asked the California Supreme Court to scrap its recent decision barring consumers…
Veto Anti-Consumer Property Insurance Rates Bill
Veto Anti-Consumer Property Insurance Rates Bill

Not one Floridian has been spared from the challenges of these tough economic times. Yet a bill that would allow a select few, big property insurance companies to sneak unrestrained, unregulated and unrelenting rate hikes on unsuspecting consumers will arrive at Governor Crist’s desk over…
Allstate selling policies again along Alabama coast through lightly regulated company
Allstate selling policies again along Alabama coast through lightly regulated company

Allstate Corp., which has been dropping wind coverage from home insurance policies in Mobile and Baldwin counties, began in April to sell homeowner policies through a new unit called North Light Specialty Insurance Co. Because North Light is a lightly regulated surplus lines company, it…
Is AARP Looking Out for You? Auto and Homeowners Insurance
Is AARP Looking Out for You? Auto and Homeowners Insurance

The way insurance companies barrage you with television ads promising to save you money, you might think they were paying you instead of the other way around. In the case of the GEICO googly eyes or actor Dennis Haysbert hawking Allstate policies, at least it’s…
Natural Disaster Insurance: Do You Need It?
Natural Disaster Insurance: Do You Need It?

With the news media filled with stories lately about natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes and wildfires, many consumers may be wondering when to purchase additional insurance to protect their homes from Mother Nature. My husband and I certainly have been concerned with the topic since…
New company could help Allstate keep agents and other business
New company could help Allstate keep agents and other business

Besides giving Allstate Corp. more control over prices, North Light Specialty Insurance Co. could help the parent company retain its agents and other insurance business. Unlike an independent insurance agent, who can sell policies from a number of different companies, Allstate employs what are called…
Southland homeowners at risk for mudslides have trouble finding insurance
Southland homeowners at risk for mudslides have trouble finding insurance

Some residents of areas burned by the Station fire are buying flood policies on top of fire and earthquake plans, hoping that at least one will accept mudslide damage claims. Charred slopes in the foothills towering above William Johnson’s La Cañada Flintridge home are now…
Three of the four largest homeowners insurance companies in the state are raising their rates
Three of the four largest homeowners insurance companies in the state are raising their rates

Three of Alabama’s four largest home insurers are raising rates, although State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., the state’s largest, is giving coastal residents something of a break. No. 1 State Farm, No. 2 Alfa Mutual group and No. 4 Farmers Insurance Group — the…
Tips on flood insurance
Tips on flood insurance

Contact your insurance agent to determine what exactly your current homeowner insurance policies cover and whether they’re up to date, then assess whether flood insurance is necessary. If you need flood insurance, act fast. Policies usually go into effect 30 days after purchase, and the…
Why Earthquake Insurance Is Tough Sell, Even In Bay Area
Why Earthquake Insurance Is Tough Sell, Even In Bay Area

Bill Clingan was around when the Loma Prieta earthquake sucker-punched the Bay Area 20 years ago. His Walnut Creek home suffered no damage, which is why he feels comfortable today not having earthquake insurance. “It’s very expensive. Deductibles are high. It’s just not worth it,”…
’08 Wildfire Victims Insured with AIG Get $$$ Help from CDI and UP
’08 Wildfire Victims Insured with AIG Get $$$ Help from CDI and UP

Survivors to receive an average $100,000 to $125,000 in Additional Coverage Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner today announced that the California Department of Insurance CDI) has secured between $37 million and $46 million in additional coverage from AIG for Sayre Fire survivors in Sylmar. Commissioner Poizner…
California AIG Sylmar Wildfire Survivors To Receive Additional Coverage
California AIG Sylmar Wildfire Survivors To Receive Additional Coverage

The California Department of Insurance CDI) has secured between $37 million and $46 million in additional coverage from AIG for Sayre Fire survivors in Sylmar. Commissioner Poizner was joined by Los Angeles City Councilmember Richard Alarcón; Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders and a…
Disappearing Disability Insurance Fails Family
Disappearing Disability Insurance Fails Family

There’s no question that Jay Thompson is disabled. Three years, at age 44, he developed ALS — Lou Gehrig’s disease. Now he lays immobilized in a hospital bed. So the question is: What happened to his disability insurance? “We believed that it would take care…
Fire Insurance Explained
Fire Insurance Explained

With stories ranging from “My insurance company is just being too good to be true” to “I’ve been with my insurance company for 21 years, never made a claim, just lost my house, and now they’ve cancelled me,” about 50 Jesusita and Tea fire survivors…
For a Yorba Linda family, fighting fire with paperwork
For a Yorba Linda family, fighting fire with paperwork

The wildfire survivor profiled in this Orange County Register article has been attending United Policyholders’ Roadmap to Recovery meetings and was pictured in our spring newsletter receiving her copy of the Disaster Recovery Handbook and Household Inventory Guide. Readers mourned and complained when we ended…
Four Things You Should Know About Your Fire Insurance Claim
Four Things You Should Know About Your Fire Insurance Claim

California’s burning, again; the flames north of Los Angeles, also known as the Station Fire, have already killed two people, and are threatening tens of thousands of homes, causing the governor to declare a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Monterey counties. So of…