March 20, 2014 ConsumerWatch: Is Earthquake Insurance Worth It? Despite the risk of earthquakes, an estimated 10 percent of California homeowners have earthquake insurance. KPIX 5 ConsumerWatch asks if the state’s earthquake insurance fund is healthy. Julie Watts reports.
January 16, 2014 Northridge Earthquake Anniversary: Despite retrofits, are homes any safer now? The 1994 Northridge earthquake — which shook Southern California 20 years ago Friday — caused $20 billion in damage, much of that to buildings. About 82,000 residential and commercial units were affected. Some homes were outright destroyed because they were not bolted to their foundations,…
October 21, 2013 Consumer Watch: Renters Insurance Can Be A Good Buy Julie Watts reports on why it may be worth a few hundred dollars to insure your possessions.
October 3, 2013 More Bay Area Residents Live In Flood Zones Under New FEMA Maps Tens of thousands of homeowners in the Bay Area and across the country are getting a wakeup call. New maps from FEMA show they are now living in flood zones. Mark Kelly reports.
July 11, 2013 Why Pharmacy Refused Drug For Terminal Cancer Patient A Shingle Springs woman says the mail order pharmacy refused to fulfill a prescription to help battle her terminal cancer. When three weeks went by and she says the cancer spread, she called Kurtis. This medicine was prescribed to try and contain the cancer. But…
May 7, 2013 FEMA Announces 2012 Community Resilience Innovation Challenge Recipients Today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA) is pleased to announce the selection of 30 recipients to receive funding under the FEMA 2012 Community Resilience Innovation Challenge program. The program focuses on building local community resilience to man-made and natural disasters, with an emphasis on…
April 2, 2013 Courts toss homeowners’ insurance regulation A judge has thrown out a state regulation that insurers said allows the insurance commissioner to decide on his own what constitutes an unfair business practice — a designation that can carry severe penalties for companies and their agents. Insurers said the court’s decision was…
December 18, 2012 Group says fire survivors need more time Advocacy group slams proposed CC&R changes for rebuilding after fires A proposed CC&R amendment that would require homeowners in a community in Rancho Bernardo to rebuild their homes within two years of a wildfire is getting criticism, not just from some residents but also from…
November 5, 2012 Superstorm spotlights home insurance People whose homes were damaged by superstorm Sandy will soon find out whether or not they have enough and the right kind of insurance to rebuild. In other recent disasters, one-half to two-thirds of homeowners discovered after the fact that they were underinsured, often by…
October 18, 2012 Rebuilding—if you don’t know, ask In 2011, a consumer advocacy group, United Policyholders, reported that at least 75 percent of the homeowners affected by the 2007 wildfires in San Bernardino and Riverside counties were underinsured by nearly a quarter of a million dollars. This amazing reality came after the catastrophic…
September 15, 2012 Two UP advisers score an important legal win for disability policyholders UP advisers and sponsors Daley, Debofsky and Bryant and Pillsbury and Levinson recently scored a victory for disability insurance policyholders in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the issue of how an annual bonus gets factored in when calculating lost income.
August 27, 2012 Can mortgage lenders hold your insurance money hostage? If your home has been seriously damaged or destroyed, your insurance company will release a check made out to both you and your mortgage lender to pay for the necessary repairs. “Lenders have a substantial investment in the property, sometimes more than the homeowner, especially…
August 8, 2012 Consumer Reports Rates Home Insurers Homeowners buy insurance to protect against disaster. But when disaster strikes, your insurer might not live up to your expectations, especially if you have a large claim, according to our survey of 11,250 subscribers who filed claims in the past few years. The greater the…
August 2, 2012 Homeowners offered new earthquake policy options The California Earthquake Authority, hoping to increase the small percentage of people who have quake insurance, has introduced a line of policies called Choice that gives homeowners more coverage and premium options. For example, homeowners can pay a lower premium if they want to cover…
July 26, 2012 Enough’ Insurance is Often Not Enough In the past few weeks, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history claimed two lives, burned nearly 30 square miles and totally destroyed more than 350 homes. Like almost all homeowners everywhere in the United States, nearly everyone who lost their house to this massive…
May 16, 2012 RentSafe: Is it a safe choice for renter’s insurance? About half of American renters don’t have insurance. Some of them probably don’t realize that it’s fairly cheap to buy coverage that’ll protect them if their place catches fire, their stuff gets stolen or even if the dog bites a neighbor. “Renter’s insurance is very…
April 16, 2012 Life insurers settle with regulators and agree to be more pro-active in seeking out beneficiaries The California Department of Insurance and six other states have negotiated a $17 million settlement with Prudential Insurance Co. to speed up payouts to life insurance beneficiaries.The settlement requires Prudential to regularly check the Social Security “Death Master” file to determine whether any of its…
