Homeowners in high fire-risk areas are upset over soaring insurance rates
Homeowners in high fire-risk areas are upset over soaring insurance rates

Soaring insurance rates may accomplish what the Telegraph fire failed to do: drive the Stoffan family from their home of 10 years. The Stoffans’ Northern California house survived the 2008 blaze, which destroyed 30 homes and 100 other structures as it charred 53 square miles…
Price Optimization: Pennsylvania is the Latest State to Prohibit the Practice While the NAIC Works Towards a Final White Paper
Price Optimization: Pennsylvania is the Latest State to Prohibit the Practice While the NAIC Works Towards a Final White Paper

Published August 27, 2015, by Susan Stryker “Price optimization,” a long-established economic concept, generally refers to the application of mathematical techniques using data to address pricing at a more granular level. Price optimization in property and casualty insurance ratemaking, or what has been referred to…
Give it back? Homeowners who got Hurricane Sandy repair funds may have to repay ‘Build It Back’ money
Give it back? Homeowners who got Hurricane Sandy repair funds may have to repay ‘Build It Back’ money

Sandy-ravaged homeowners who got “Build It Back” funds for repairs might have to repay the money because of Draconian HUD rules — even though federal bungling is what drove many to the program in the first place. As many as 3,000 homeowners — one-third of…
How much credit affects your home insurance rate may surprise you
How much credit affects your home insurance rate may surprise you

Credit is playing an increasingly important economic role in Americans’ lives these days, and according to a recent study, your credit history can be a major factor in what you pay for home insurance. For the second year in a row, a Quadrant Information Services…
Statement of California Health Advocates and United Policyholders
Statement of California Health Advocates and United Policyholders

Public Hearing: Minnesota Department of Commerce – Long-Term Care – Rate Increases and Policyholder Protections In late August, 2015, the Minnesota Department of Commerce convened a hearing to assist the Department’s fact-finding effort on long-term care insurance industry issues. The hearing provided consumers, insurance companies, and other…
A Disaster Damaged Your Home? How to File a Successful Insurance Claim
A Disaster Damaged Your Home? How to File a Successful Insurance Claim

The TV commercials make it look so easy: You experience a disaster and, like magic, your insurance company swoops in and solves all your problems. Unfortunately, say consumer advocates, it rarely works that way in real life. Instead, if a disaster such as a fire,…
What does my credit rating have to do with my driving?
What does my credit rating have to do with my driving?

Most auto-insurance companies use your consumer credit rating as a significant factor in determining what rate to charge you.Who knew?Maybe you. But two-thirds of customers didn’t know, according to a Government Accountability Office survey. Spokesman Mike Barry of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade…
ServiceMaster and Water Damage Claims
ServiceMaster and Water Damage Claims

Couple Recalls ‘Leaky Toilet Nightmare’What started out as a leaky toilet turned into a local couple’s worst nightmare. They got into a battle with their insurance company and are now suing.It is a case their attorney says could affect hundreds of thousands of homeowners.Ora Tamir…
Homeowners Insurance and Common Natural Disasters
Homeowners Insurance and Common Natural Disasters

No matter where you live in the United States, there’s a good chance you’ll have to deal with one or more natural disasters or severe weather events. After all, every part of the country experiences at least one peril or another—in some cases, it’s hurricanes…
5 ways to cut medical bills long before you stick out your tongue and say “ah”
5 ways to cut medical bills long before you stick out your tongue and say “ah”

Medical costs can still be confusing and startling. But as transparency becomes the norm, we should be able to get a price quote before undergoing a medical procedure, know the amount our health insurance will cover, and even solicit a package price from the hospital.…
Springs renter hopes flooding nightmare can become lesson for others
Springs renter hopes flooding nightmare can become lesson for others

Annaleen DeHaan came home to a nightmare Monday evening. Her home on the east side of Colorado Springs was devastated by floodwater. “My mom calls me and is like, ‘So, the house flooded. I have a foot of mud and water,’” DeHaan said. “I kind…
BACH TALK: Annuity “Whack-a-Mole”
BACH TALK: Annuity “Whack-a-Mole”

It seems like every time you turn around, insurers are peddling a new type of super-complicated annuity whose internal levers and formulae make it virtually impossible that the buyer will collect the promised benefits in their lifetime: Equity-indexed annuities, Medically Underwritten Annuities, Contingent Deferred Annuities…the list goes…
Friends in high places – Congratulations Sallie Clark!
Friends in high places – Congratulations Sallie Clark!

If you follow UP’s work, you know that the relationships we build with public officials in disaster areas are an essential part of how our small staff serves so many consumers far from our base in San Francisco.  El Paso (Colorado) County Commissioner Sallie Clark…
Guess who’s turning 50?
Guess who’s turning 50?

Medicare, the program that remains essential for many American’s health and lifestyles, turns 50 this month. On the positive side, pressure is mounting to amend the absurd rule that prevents the program from negotiating prescription drug prices with drug companies. On the negative side, consumers…
Class sues State Farm for manipulating homeowners with water damage
Class sues State Farm for manipulating homeowners with water damage

Insurer directed claimants to repair services it had under contract to hold down costs, class action states. A putative class action accuses State Farm Insurance, the nation’s largest property insurer, of willfully directing homeowners to substandard water damage repair services, bolstering the company’s bottom line…
Bach Talk: In praise of contingency fees
Bach Talk: In praise of contingency fees

With surprising (and sad) frequency, United Policyholders hears from senior citizen victims of unfair insurance practices. And as hard as it is for me to understand businesses and people that intentionally take advantage of the elderly – let alone those who lose their homes in…
Insurance issues arising from disasters bring little regulatory change to Colorado
Insurance issues arising from disasters bring little regulatory change to Colorado

The Colorado Division of Insurance, the regulatory agency charged with protecting consumers, has emerged from years of wildfires and floods with few tools to help it track market health in the state, and remains relatively powerless. Colorado residents are more or less where they were…
Manitou takes a step to move city hall out of harm’s way
Manitou takes a step to move city hall out of harm’s way

Manitou Springs officials are trying to land a $25 million federal grant to move City Hall operations to a new building.Built in the laste 1800s, the exisiting facility is in a flood plain, the city’s flood recovery manager Shelley Cobau said Monday.A draft of the…