Consumer Reports Rates Home Insurers
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…
Enough’ Insurance is Often Not Enough
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…
Wildfire Relief Donations Distributed
Wildfire Relief Donations Distributed

Today the Austin Community Foundation is awarding more than $830,000 in grant money from the Central Texas Wildfire Fund. The money was donated by people from across the country and raised through the “Fire Relief” concert held last October. Nine organizations are receiving between $2,000…
RentSafe: Is it a safe choice for renter’s insurance?
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…
A Terrific Texas Tool
A Terrific Texas Tool

The quality of your insurance policy really does matter, but figuring out which company sells better protection is tricky. Ads are often misleading, and most insurance companies don’t show you a copy of their policy until after you’ve bought it. Then…good luck reading the fine…
Sharp Disagreement At NAIC Session On Readability Of Consumer Information
Sharp Disagreement At NAIC Session On Readability Of Consumer Information

Industry representatives sharply disagreed with two law professors who argued personal lines policies should be posted online where they would be readily available to consumers who wanted to look at them prior to signing onto them. Spokesmen for the American Insurance Association and the National…
Vanishing Act: Your Home Insurance Coverage is Disappearing
Vanishing Act: Your Home Insurance Coverage is Disappearing

There’s a disturbing nationwide trend of insurance companies chipping away at coverage for homeowners, says Amy Bach, executive director of the nonprofit United Policyholders consumer group. She says she’s disturbed by what she sees as policies becoming less adequate. “We have been working on a…
5 lies home insurance agents tell
5 lies home insurance agents tell

Sometimes insurance agents tell you what they think you want to hear in order to sell a home insurance policy and secure a commission. When misfortunes occur, homeowners who count on insurance to carry them through tough times sometimes get an unpleasant surprise: They don’t…
Nine tips for buying auto insurance online
Nine tips for buying auto insurance online

Just as more consumers are gravitating toward shopping sites like Amazon.com and Zappos.com, more auto insurance consumers are shopping online than ever before. According to a 2011 study by J.D. Power and Associates, 54 percent of auto insurance shoppers are getting quotes online. That’s up…
Tornadoes: Extreme Weather Revs Up Insurance Costs
Tornadoes: Extreme Weather Revs Up Insurance Costs

In the wake of more than 245 tornadoes that slammed into parts of North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and other southern states last weekend, leaving 45 people dead and leveling hundreds of homes, insurance companies have been flooded with thousands of claims, which ultimately could mean…
Got Insurance? Enough? You Sure?
Got Insurance? Enough? You Sure?

Many U.S. homeowners haven’t insured their homes against earthquakes and other disasters, but the devastating losses in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan may cause people to give their insurance policies another look. As well they should. Earthquakes have occurred in…
Will Americans pay attention to earthquake insurance now?
Will Americans pay attention to earthquake insurance now?

The advice can’t get any simpler than this: “People who live near fault lines should have earthquake insurance,” says Amy Bach, executive director of the United Policyholders consumer organization. Will the disaster in Japan be the crisis that compels Americans in quake-prone areas to pay…
Apps for Taking Inventory at Home
Apps for Taking Inventory at Home

By FARHAD MANJOO, The New York TimesHONESTLY, I didn’t set out to be a hoarder. It’s just that I’m a tech reviewer, and sometimes that amounts to the same thing. Technology companies are always sending me gadgets to evaluate; it’s my job to catalog everything…
Are you insured for the Big One?
Are you insured for the Big One?

Just 12% of homes in the state with fire insurance also have earthquake coverage, according to the California Earthquake Authority. Here’s what consumers shopping for coverage need to know. Reporting from Sacramento— The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan will cost insurance companies billions…
Forged MetLife “Checks” Show Retained-Asset Account Risks
Forged MetLife “Checks” Show Retained-Asset Account Risks

After her mother died, Jasmine Williams was assured by MetLife Inc. that her $101,819 in life insurance benefits were safe and was sent what the company called a guaranteed money market “checkbook” in 2002. The next year, Williams, then 19, told New York-based MetLife that…
Accidental Death Becomes Suicide When Insurers Dodge Payouts
Accidental Death Becomes Suicide When Insurers Dodge Payouts

Jane Pierce spent nine years struggling alongside her husband, Todd, as he fought cancer in his sinus cavity. The treatments were working. Then, in July 2009, Todd died in a fiery car crash. He was 46. That was the beginning of a whole new battle…
Determining the Right Coverage
Determining the Right Coverage

Patrick Rodgers, the Philadelphia homeowner with the “foreclosure” case against Wells Fargo Home Mortgage that made him a national celebrity, declared victory last week. To settle his claim under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, he says, Wells Fargo WFC) agreed to reverse thousands of…
A Health Insurance Insider Offers Words of Advice
A Health Insurance Insider Offers Words of Advice

WENDELL POTTER is a 20-year health insurance veteran who served in top public relations jobs at such firms as Cigna and Humana. Now a senior analyst at the Center for Public Integrity, Mr. Potter has written “Deadly Spin,” a tell-all about practices of the health…