High rates of under-insurance making rebuild difficult
High rates of under-insurance making rebuild difficult

The problem emerges after every wildfire in California PARADISE — Nearly 11 months after the Camp Fire razed Amy McFarland’s neighborhood, two of her neighbors’ new homes look ready for move-in. She’d like to be a part of the rebuild of the town. But her…
North Bay fire survivors face financial hardship as insurers stop paying their monthly living expenses
North Bay fire survivors face financial hardship as insurers stop paying their monthly living expenses

Since retiring from her law practice, Robin Gabbert feels like she’s had a full-time job trying to rebuild after the devastating 2017 North Bay wildfires. Gabbert and her husband, Con Jager, are like thousands of other fire survivors who will not finish building new homes…
Deadlines and Decisions: Two-Year Anniversary Bulletin for 2017 North Bay Fire impacted households
Deadlines and Decisions: Two-Year Anniversary Bulletin for 2017 North Bay Fire impacted households

Home insurance policies typically limit the amount of time you have to collect all available replacement cost and loss of use/ALE benefits and to file a lawsuit. Your insurance company is legally required to provide you with written notice 60 days before any deadline or benefit expiration they want…
WRAP UP: The Wildfire Risk Reduction and Asset Protection Project
WRAP UP: The Wildfire Risk Reduction and Asset Protection Project

Above, R to L:  After his insurer threatened to drop him, a Moraga, CA homeowner contacted his local Fire Dept. for help. UP’s Amy Bach rode along with local fire officials as they inspected and prescribed steps to reduce risk and retain his coverage.  If…
Wildfires breed home insurance woes, even far from flames
Wildfires breed home insurance woes, even far from flames

BERKELEY, Calif. KGO) — With all the wildfires in California these past few years, homeowners have begun dealing with unprecedented difficulties with their insurance companies. And we’re not talking only about areas that burned. When Sue Von Baeyer of Berkeley received the letter from Allstate…
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…