Insurance firms drop Berkeley Hills homeowners, citing wildfire risk
Insurance firms drop Berkeley Hills homeowners, citing wildfire risk

Marina Sadler thinks about fire safety “like every day, 12 times a day.” It’s not unfounded paranoia. Sadler lives in what’s called the “wildland-urban interface,” where the narrow residential roads of the Berkeley Hills wind through fire-prone brush and practically spill into Tilden Park. The…
How to File an Insurance Claim After a Hurricane
How to File an Insurance Claim After a Hurricane

When a major hurricane is approaching the main concern for anyone in its path should be the personal safety of everyone in your family. Once the winds and rains have passed the next step is often planning a path for recovery. And that path usually…
Long after the wildfires, paperwork and worry
Long after the wildfires, paperwork and worry

Having to become an expert on insurance is one of the many surprising and not so pleasant aspects of the “new normal” after a wildfire takes your home. I know more about insurance now than I ever thought I would. Learning that your home insurance…
After wildfires, hundreds of thousands of Californians can’t get insurance
After wildfires, hundreds of thousands of Californians can’t get insurance

An estimated 350,000 California home and business owners are unable to get property and casualty insurance after last year’s devastating wildfires. As the threat of mega-fires grows across the state, California’s insurance commissioner predicts the situation will get worse. Consumers say insurers are “holding us…
Column: California’s fire insurance market reaches a crisis
Column: California’s fire insurance market reaches a crisis

Steve Nielsen would not normally have considered himself a resident of California’s wildfire zone. But that ended in October 2017, when a fire swept through Coffey Park, his suburban Santa Rosa neighborhood, destroying his home and those of about 1,200 neighbors. Since then, Nielsen, 54,…
UP offers solutions to California’s home insurance crisis
UP offers solutions to California’s home insurance crisis

The problem: Generally speaking, insurance companies want to sell insurance. But they also want to be profitable.  Sometimes they will stop selling insurance in a region or to a group of customers they deem too risky.  They do this as a business strategy to improve profitability. …
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…
Survivors of different California wildfires give advice
Survivors of different California wildfires give advice

CHICO — People who lost their homes in wildfires drove several hours from Santa Rosa and Redwood Valley to share their lessons about dealing with insurance with Camp Fire survivors on Thursday night. The event was part of an ongoing series of in-person and online…
Earthquake insurance: Is it worth it?
Earthquake insurance: Is it worth it?

Glenn Pomeroy, head of the California Earthquake Authority, spent the weekend in Ridgecrest, near the epicenter of Friday’s 7.1-magnitude quake and its day-earlier, 6.4-magnitude baby brother. “Driving around, you could clearly see there had been a disaster,” he told me. “Streetlights were blinking, stores were…
What Californians Need To Know To Financially Prepare For ‘The Big One’
What Californians Need To Know To Financially Prepare For ‘The Big One’

It’s an unnerving time to be in California. With two large earthquakes hitting Southern California within 34 hours, along with thousands of aftershocks, it feels like the big one is right around the corner – literally. In fact, the US Geological Society is predicting a…
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…
Insurance Companies Say They’re Not Allowed to Plan for the ‘New Normal’ of Intense Wildfires
Insurance Companies Say They’re Not Allowed to Plan for the ‘New Normal’ of Intense Wildfires

Insurance companies says state regulators aren’t letting them plan for climate change and the so-called “new normal” of intense wildfires. They warn of price spikes and more people being denied coverage. Regulators worry the industry’s models aren’t credible, and could be manipulated to overcharge consumers.…
Can California avoid a third year of fire catastrophe? Here’s what’s been fixed — and what hasn’t
Can California avoid a third year of fire catastrophe? Here’s what’s been fixed — and what hasn’t

All signs point to another busy fire year in California. Already, a heat wave this month triggered hundreds of wildfires. They were mostly small burns, but they thrived off a healthy crop of brush nourished by the wet winter. As the state’s hills and valleys…
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 —…
Check UP: Volunteer Project – Helping homeowners review their insurance policies
Check UP: Volunteer Project – Helping homeowners review their insurance policies

On June 14, 2019, in Napa, United Policyholders hosted a community event called Check UP to help homeowners get prepared for wildfire season.  At Check UP, homeowners could bring a copy of their insurance policy and have an expert volunteer review the policy with them. …
After the storm: Is your home under-insured?
After the storm: Is your home under-insured?

As North Texans grapple with damage claims following a weekend storm, estimates say 60% of homes don’t have enough coverage for full replacement. DALLAS — If there is one good thing to come out of the Sunday storms, it’s that all that damage might make…
A powerful disaster recovery model: Insurance Support Groups
A powerful disaster recovery model: Insurance Support Groups

Helping wildfire survivors form support groups by insurance company has been part of the United Policyholders’ menu of services since our beginning.  We’ve seen time and again how communicating with others who are navigating similar policy language, company rules, and adjuster personalities helps people overcome…
Insurance commissioner asks insurers to extend benefits for 2017 fire survivors
Insurance commissioner asks insurers to extend benefits for 2017 fire survivors

State insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is seeking help from the industry he regulates for survivors of the Wine Country wildfires who are still struggling to rebuild their homes. After meeting in Santa Rosa on Tuesday night with city officials and block captains from neighborhoods ravaged…