December 10, 2012 Is Your Homeowners Insurance Falling Short? The Cleanup From Superstorm Sandy Has Been an Exercise in Frustration for Homeowners. Here’s How to Maximize Insurance Payouts—and Reduce the Hassle of Filing a Claim. Click here to read the whole article online.
December 6, 2012 Sandy Victims Should Winterize Their Homes Coverage Can Exclude Frozen & Burst Pipes, If Precautions Aren’t Taken With winter’s freezing temperatures rapidly approaching, insurance experts are advising victims of Hurricane Sandy to act now to winterize their homes to avoid further damage that won’t be covered by their homeowners policies. Many…
December 5, 2012 Sandy’s Crash Course on Hurricane Deductibles An insurance industry that has taken its lumps from hurricanes has come to treat them differently. Today, homeowners insurance often comes with special and potentially steeper deductibles that kick in when claims are related to the punishing storms. Superstorm Sandy recently raised awareness about hurricane…
December 1, 2012 Wind could blow deductibles higher Newsday.com by: Joe Ryan Sandy may not have been a hurricane by the time it slammed into Long Island, but its winds were still powerful enough to trigger higher insurance deductibles that could cost homeowners thousands of dollars. As the tempest swirled toward New York,…
December 1, 2012 SANDY: Warning on Insurance; Thanks to Sandy, premiums could rise on LI www.newsday.com By: Joe Ryan Long after the electricity returns and the gas lines end, last week’s massive storm is likely to take another swipe at Long Islanders by driving up the cost of homeowners insurance, experts say. Private insurance companies are expected to pay out…
December 1, 2012 Insurance Catch-22; Banks may need to co-endorse checks for repairs www.newsday.com By: Joe Ryan For homeowners struggling to rebuild from Sandy, the bureaucratic maze may not end once the insurance settlement check arrives. Consider the plight of Diane Ortiz and George Tranos, whose Amityville home was gutted by a torrent of seawater. Two weeks later,…
November 28, 2012 Sandy’s victims find flood insurance coverage wanting As their sodden couches and carpets rot at the curb, Long Islanders are coming to a grim realization: Flood insurance only covers a fraction of what it will cost to replace furniture ravaged by the storm. While most flood policies do cover dining sets, televisions,…
November 27, 2012 Sandy victims cry foul over insurance Superstorm Sandy victims say they’ve been denied insurance. Should they be getting payouts? CNN’s Deb Feyerick reports.
November 14, 2012 Driver Protection or Loss of Choice? NY SUM Debate Awaits Approval When the New York Legislature passed amendment S. 7787/ A. 10784 in June, there were both cheers and jeers. It’s now the center of a debate between those who believe it’s protection for drivers and others who think it’s a loss of choice for consumers.…
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…
November 2, 2012 A 12-step plan for your Sandy insurance claim Some consumers will be shocked to learn that superstorm Sandy devastated not only cities, coastal areas and transit systems — but their pocketbooks, too. “A lot of people are going to have a rude wake-up call after this storm and realize that flood damage isn’t…
November 2, 2012 Christie Administration Takes Action to Protect Storm-Impacted New Jersey Homeowners from Higher Insurance Deductibles Trenton, NJ – Taking action to save homeowners money following Hurricane Sandy, Governor Chris Christie signed Executive Order 107, prohibiting insurance companies from imposing costly hurricane deductibles on New Jersey homeowners. An important part of the recovery of New Jersey will be the influx of…
November 2, 2012 Governor Cuomo Announces Homeowners Will Not Have To Pay Hurricane Deductibles Department of Financial Services Working Closely with Insurers to Speed Response to Homeowners Who Experienced Losses New Yorkers Can Call DFS Disaster Hotline for Help Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York homeowners will not have to pay potentially large hurricane deductibles on…
November 1, 2012 The overlooked benefits of renters insurance The storm damage is still be tallied up from Sandy, but lot of New York residents will have to cover their losses themselves. That’s because most households in New York city rent — nearly 70 percent — and renter’s insurance isn’t a very popular product.…
October 29, 2012 Storms push insurance rates sky-high Insurers say they’re tired of rolling the dice with Mother Nature and losing, but critics say rate increases have gone too far. Homeowners insurance premiums are soaring in Minnesota, and consumers can expect more rate shocks ahead as insurance companies wager that a run of…
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.
September 11, 2012 When it comes to home insurance, read the fine print Andi O’Conor has twice lost a home to fire: The first time she was 12, the second time was two years ago. It was Labor Day. She was kayaking hundreds of miles away, when a friend told her about a wildfire near O’Conor’s home on…