Fire risk leaves Tuolumne County residents scrambling to find affordable insurance
Fire risk leaves Tuolumne County residents scrambling to find affordable insurance

Ronda Davish enjoys living in Cedar Ridge, a neighborhood about 15 miles northeast of Sonora. And yet after 19 years spent in the quiet foothills of the Stanislaus National Forest, Davish worries that her skyrocketing homeowner’s insurance rates will force her to find a new…
Debris and ash cleared, rebuilding starts for homes destroyed in Woolsey Fire
Debris and ash cleared, rebuilding starts for homes destroyed in Woolsey Fire

Work to remove ash and debris from last year’s destructive Hill and Woolsey fires has wrapped up, clearing the way for many homeowners to start to rebuild, officials said Wednesday. Calling it a monumental milestone, state and local officials were in Agoura Hills to talk…
Earthquake insurance: Is it worth it?
Earthquake insurance: Is it worth it?

Glenn Pomeroy, head of the California Earthquake Authority, spent the weekend in Ridgecrest, near the epicenter of Friday’s 7.1-magnitude quake and its day-earlier, 6.4-magnitude baby brother. “Driving around, you could clearly see there had been a disaster,” he told me. “Streetlights were blinking, stores were…
What Californians Need To Know To Financially Prepare For ‘The Big One’
What Californians Need To Know To Financially Prepare For ‘The Big One’

It’s an unnerving time to be in California. With two large earthquakes hitting Southern California within 34 hours, along with thousands of aftershocks, it feels like the big one is right around the corner – literally. In fact, the US Geological Society is predicting a…
Dropped by your home insurer? What to do…
Dropped by your home insurer? What to do…

In some parts of the country, home insurance is not as available and affordable as in the past, so UP is working hard to help consumers shop for asset protection. Avoid wasting energy being angry or scared when your insurer “breaks up” with you… Don’t…
Insurance Companies Say They’re Not Allowed to Plan for the ‘New Normal’ of Intense Wildfires
Insurance Companies Say They’re Not Allowed to Plan for the ‘New Normal’ of Intense Wildfires

Insurance companies says state regulators aren’t letting them plan for climate change and the so-called “new normal” of intense wildfires. They warn of price spikes and more people being denied coverage. Regulators worry the industry’s models aren’t credible, and could be manipulated to overcharge consumers.…
Can California avoid a third year of fire catastrophe? Here’s what’s been fixed — and what hasn’t
Can California avoid a third year of fire catastrophe? Here’s what’s been fixed — and what hasn’t

All signs point to another busy fire year in California. Already, a heat wave this month triggered hundreds of wildfires. They were mostly small burns, but they thrived off a healthy crop of brush nourished by the wet winter. As the state’s hills and valleys…
Why Safer Cars Don’t Lead To Cheaper Car Insurance … Yet
Why Safer Cars Don’t Lead To Cheaper Car Insurance … Yet

Many new cars sold today can take preemptive action to help prevent crashes — hitting the brakes before a collision, steering around obstacles or alerting drivers to hazards in their blind spots. Those safety features — collectively known as advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS —…
Check UP: Volunteer Project – Helping homeowners review their insurance policies
Check UP: Volunteer Project – Helping homeowners review their insurance policies

On June 14, 2019, in Napa, United Policyholders hosted a community event called Check UP to help homeowners get prepared for wildfire season.  At Check UP, homeowners could bring a copy of their insurance policy and have an expert volunteer review the policy with them. …
Options are few for storm-ravaged homes with insufficient insurance
Options are few for storm-ravaged homes with insufficient insurance

With the Atlantic hurricane season underway, homeowners should be aware that inadequate insurance coverage can make recovering from a bad situation even worse. Whether damage from a storm comes from wind or water, homeowners whose coverage is insufficient have discovered the hard way that it…
After the storm: Is your home under-insured?
After the storm: Is your home under-insured?

As North Texans grapple with damage claims following a weekend storm, estimates say 60% of homes don’t have enough coverage for full replacement. DALLAS — If there is one good thing to come out of the Sunday storms, it’s that all that damage might make…
A powerful disaster recovery model: Insurance Support Groups
A powerful disaster recovery model: Insurance Support Groups

Helping wildfire survivors form support groups by insurance company has been part of the United Policyholders’ menu of services since our beginning.  We’ve seen time and again how communicating with others who are navigating similar policy language, company rules, and adjuster personalities helps people overcome…
Advocacy and Action Update, Spring 2019
Advocacy and Action Update, Spring 2019

UP is continuing to advocate for policyholders and disaster survivors in the media, legislature, and other public policy forums. UP Executive Director Amy Bach had an impactful Spring: Providing expert testimony to the newly created California Governor’s Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Recovery; fighting against illegal…
Insurance commissioner asks insurers to extend benefits for 2017 fire survivors
Insurance commissioner asks insurers to extend benefits for 2017 fire survivors

State insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is seeking help from the industry he regulates for survivors of the Wine Country wildfires who are still struggling to rebuild their homes. After meeting in Santa Rosa on Tuesday night with city officials and block captains from neighborhoods ravaged…
California Wildfire Recovery: A Tale of Two Counties
California Wildfire Recovery: A Tale of Two Counties

NPQ has written before about how disasters tend to exacerbate existing economic inequality. Now, from Sara Viner of High Country News comes a story about California wildfires that reinforces this message. Examining two recent major California fires—the 2015 Valley Fire and the 2017 North Bay…
Car insurance roulette: You could pay more because you’re a woman regardless of driving record
Car insurance roulette: You could pay more because you’re a woman regardless of driving record

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Full and fair insurance payouts foster safe and sound construction
Full and fair insurance payouts foster safe and sound construction

As anyone who has been involved in a major construction project will tell you, construction supervision is critical.  Contractor overhead and profit is what pays for that supervision, and it is a necessary expense of any project that involves multiple trades that have to be…
California’s Fires Hit Rich and Poor Communities. Guess Which Ones Are Recovering Faster.
California’s Fires Hit Rich and Poor Communities. Guess Which Ones Are Recovering Faster.

Fires are indiscriminate. Recovery isn’t. On the afternoon of September 12, 2015, the Valley Fire erupted near the outskirts of Cobb, California, an unincorporated community shadowed by Cobb Mountain in the Northern Interior of California. The fire grew so rapidly that it trapped the first…