Increase your resiliency in the new year…
Increase your resiliency in the new year…

If you own a home, we suggest putting “make risk reduction improvements” on your New Year’s resolution list. Taking steps to make it less likely that severe weather or a wildfire will damage your home is more important than ever. Insurers have added new coverage…
Call Kurtis: What to do if your home insurance company drops you?
Call Kurtis: What to do if your home insurance company drops you?

The Hartford Insurance is the latest company to say it will stop writing new homeowners’ policies in California starting Feb. 1. It cites challenges in the market, especially with the California fire risk. The industry says it’s struggled to get the Department of Insurance to…
ReCoverCA Owner-Occupied Mitigation (OOM) Grant
ReCoverCA Owner-Occupied Mitigation (OOM) Grant

Grant Alert:  ReCoverCA Owner-Occupied Mitigation (OOM) Grant: Open Learn more here: https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/grants/wildfire-prevention-grants (Scroll down to OOM Grant) 2020 Eligible Counties Include: Butte, Santa Cruz, Solano, Fresno, Los Angeles, Napa, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Sonoma counties. Thank you Brittany Halfhide, ReCoverCA, for sharing this opportunity with our WRAP…
Federal natural catastrophe backstop would increase premiums, reinsurers warn
Federal natural catastrophe backstop would increase premiums, reinsurers warn

Recent Bill INSURE Act has policyholder advocate backing but RAA has concerns The Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) has aired concerns that a federal natural catastrophe reinsurance program, like that mooted in the recently introduced INSURE Act, would add to insurance costs for Americans rather…
Uninsurable Homes Are Climate Change’s Latest Victims In The California and Florida Housing Markets
Uninsurable Homes Are Climate Change’s Latest Victims In The California and Florida Housing Markets

In a world grappling with extreme weather events and shifting insurance trends, the once-assured protection of homeowners’ insurance is becoming a luxury that many can’t afford. The housing markets in climate risk-prone states like California and Florida are facing an unprecedented crisis, as insurers grapple…
The Mood Swings on Insurer Bad-Faith in Oregon: An Analysis of the Oregon Supreme Court Decision in Moody v. Oregon Community Credit Union
The Mood Swings on Insurer Bad-Faith in Oregon: An Analysis of the Oregon Supreme Court Decision in Moody v. Oregon Community Credit Union

The Oregon Supreme Court has long held the legislature did not create a private right of action under the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act (ORS 746.230). Policyholders could bring a tort claim against their insurance company only if the insurer was subject to a standard…
The least affordable housing market in more than a generation is facing another threat: Uninsurable properties
The least affordable housing market in more than a generation is facing another threat: Uninsurable properties

Garret Gray sort of laughs when he tells Fortune about how his house in a Los Angeles canyon was nearly uninsurable. Surrounded by brush, “it’s got a really bad CoreLogic fire score,” he says. And he should know: As the president of CoreLogic’s global insurance…
California should require insurers to cover homeowners who protect property, advocate says
California should require insurers to cover homeowners who protect property, advocate says

Carmen Balber, the executive director of the advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog, said she came to Sacramento recently to pitch legislators and their staff on a plan she hopes will help some Californians keep their property insurance. She wants lawmakers to require that companies sell policies…
Consumer Advocacy Organizations Question Insurance Commissioner Role in Anti-Consumer Legislation
Consumer Advocacy Organizations Question Insurance Commissioner Role in Anti-Consumer Legislation

The CA Dept. of Insurance is sponsoring a bill heavily influenced by life and annuity insurers that undermines what Biden’s Department of Labor has proposed to keep consumers away from unsuitable products Bill being rushed months before deadline harms consumers; no meaningful negotiations despite bill’s…
Winter 2023 Newsletter
Winter 2023 Newsletter

2023 Highlights: Helped enact new Colorado law to expedite post-wildfire insurance payouts 30+ Roadmap to Recovery® events in California, Colorado, Florida and Hawaii (in-person and online workshops, pro bono clinics and Q&A forums, and Survivor-to-Survivor support forums) 75+ Insurance-focused disaster preparedness public presentations 30+ Pro-consumer…
New bill to create $50bn federal backstop for catastrophe reinsurance
New bill to create $50bn federal backstop for catastrophe reinsurance

Democrat Representative Adam Schiff has proposed legislation in the US House of Representatives that would create a $50 billion federal backstop for catastrophe reinsurance. Schiff, a California Congressman who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the US Senate, said the Incorporating National Support for Unprecedented…
APCIA skeptical of legislation proposing a federal catastrophe reinsurance program
APCIA skeptical of legislation proposing a federal catastrophe reinsurance program

A trade body representing America’s insurers has expressed reservations about a new bill seeking to establish a federal catastrophe reinsurance program within the Department of Treasury. According to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), the bill could make coverage even more expensive for “vulnerable…
House Bill Would Create National Reinsurance Program
House Bill Would Create National Reinsurance Program

The U.S. Department of the Treasury would administer a new national reinsurance program under a $350 billion proposal that would also provide grants for risk-mitigation activities and cash payments for low-income Read more here
SCHIFF INTRODUCES BILL TO ENSURE HOMEOWNERS, VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES NOT EXCLUDED FROM CATASTROPHIC COVERAGE
SCHIFF INTRODUCES BILL TO ENSURE HOMEOWNERS, VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES NOT EXCLUDED FROM CATASTROPHIC COVERAGE

Today, Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced the Incorporating National Support for Unprecedented Risks and Emergencies (INSURE) Act to stabilize the home insurance market while ensuring vulnerable communities are not excluded from coverage. This legislation would create a federal catastrophic reinsurance program to insulate consumers from…
New York court to hear critical COVID business insurance case
New York court to hear critical COVID business insurance case

New York’s highest court is set to preside over a restaurant’s COVID-19 business interruption case that could have widespread ramifications for businesses and insurers in the state and further afield should the court veer away from a US-wide trend of insurer pandemic business income victories.…
Coastal homeowners could see up to 99.4% insurance rate increase
Coastal homeowners could see up to 99.4% insurance rate increase

The North Carolina Rate Bureau, an organization that represents insurance companies in the state, has asked the Department of Insurance to increase homeowners’ insurance rates by an average of 42.4%. In beach areas such as Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover, Onslow and Pender counties, however, the…
State Farm to raise homeowners rates in California
State Farm to raise homeowners rates in California

Adjustment driven by “increased costs and risk” State Farm policyholders in California are bracing for higher home insurance premiums after regulators approved a rate increase for the insurance giant this year. The approved 20% adjustment applies to renewed policies and will be effective from March…
KVNF Regional Newscast: January 4, 2023
KVNF Regional Newscast: January 4, 2023

Coloradans can now get thirty percent off the price of electric lawn and garden equipment. A new state law that took effect this week offers a tax credit to equipment retailers if they offer the discount to consumers at the time of purchase. Participating retailers…