September 5, 2019 Long after the wildfires, paperwork and worry Having to become an expert on insurance is one of the many surprising and not so pleasant aspects of the “new normal” after a wildfire takes your home. I know more about insurance now than I ever thought I would. Learning that your home insurance…
September 4, 2019 Diagnosis Debt: Medical bills and paperwork mix-ups, what you can do to help your case CLEVELAND — Our on-going series “Diagnosis: Debt” delves into the problems you’re having with medical costs piling up. How many times have you gotten a medical bill, then received an insurance statement, but the two don’t match up? For one Solon man, his paperwork mix-up…
September 4, 2019 North Bay Fire Victims Face Dire Deadline Ahead of Anniversary Weeks ahead of the North Bay wildfires’ two-year anniversary, families are bracing for a financial shock. Several homeowners told NBC Bay Area their property insurance providers will stop paying for temporary living expenses, even if their new homes aren’t ready for move-in. The Sonoma and…
August 30, 2019 After wildfires, hundreds of thousands of Californians can’t get insurance An estimated 350,000 California home and business owners are unable to get property and casualty insurance after last year’s devastating wildfires. As the threat of mega-fires grows across the state, California’s insurance commissioner predicts the situation will get worse. Consumers say insurers are “holding us…
August 29, 2019 Column: California’s fire insurance market reaches a crisis Steve Nielsen would not normally have considered himself a resident of California’s wildfire zone. But that ended in October 2017, when a fire swept through Coffey Park, his suburban Santa Rosa neighborhood, destroying his home and those of about 1,200 neighbors. Since then, Nielsen, 54,…
August 28, 2019 THE PROTECTION GAP: Monitoring and addressing the extent to which US homes are under/uninsured: A national imperative In early August, 2019 at a national meeting of insurance regulators and stakeholders from across the country, United Policyholders helped set the stage for the important conversation that needs to be happening about the increasingly large gap between disaster recovery costs and the amount of…
August 28, 2019 UP offers solutions to California’s home insurance crisis The problem: Generally speaking, insurance companies want to sell insurance. But they also want to be profitable. Sometimes they will stop selling insurance in a region or to a group of customers they deem too risky. They do this as a business strategy to improve profitability. …
August 27, 2019 Nearly 350,000 California Homeowners in Fire Prone Areas Dropped by Insurers Click Here to Listen to Amy Bach on KQED Forum 8/26/19 Between 2015 and 2018, insurance companies dropped nearly 350,000 California homeowners in high-risk fire areas. This insurance coverage data, recently released by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office, does not reflect how many people…
August 23, 2019 California homeowners are facing an “insurance crisis” Wildfires are a growing concern for residents living in fire-prone areas and now keeping insurance to protect their belongings is becoming a crisis. The California Department of Insurance found a six-percent increase in the number of customers dropped by their insurance companies. In zip codes…
August 21, 2019 After 2017 fires, more Sonoma County homeowners turn to state for insurance coverage Homeowners are finding it more difficult to obtain insurance to cover their homes in wildfire-prone areas of California, especially in high-risk regions such as communities in the Sierra Nevada, according to a report released Tuesday by the state insurance department. Insurers declined to renew 167,570…
August 19, 2019 Insurance Companies Are Paying Cops To Investigate Their Own Customers A cozy alliance between insurers and law enforcement has turned the justice system into the industry’s hired gun and left innocent customers facing prison. When police showed up at Harry Schmidt’s home on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, he thought they were there to help. He…
August 13, 2019 5 things to do if you’ve been dropped by your home insurer The value of home insurance cannot be understated. For most people, a home is their single biggest investment or asset. Nearly everything one owns — clothes, electronics, important documents and much more — dwells inside the home, and home insurance provides a way to safeguard…
August 12, 2019 Residents still trying to understand Camp Fire contamination at standing homes PARADISE — A stale chemical smell hangs in Lisa Kasza’s garage in lower Paradise. Piles of toys, books and other possessions covered in a thin layer of dust wait to be thrown out. Nine months ago, the Camp Fire burned all the trees, bushes and…
July 26, 2019 Homeowner insurance dilemma may turn into a full blown crisis SANTA ROSA, CA – Consumer advocates say a homeowners insurance crunch may soon become a homeowners insurance crisis as customers face huge rate increases or out-and-out cancellations. Experts say the major reasons homeowner policies get giant rate hikes or out-and-out cancellations is that their homes…
July 22, 2019 Survivors of different California wildfires give advice CHICO — People who lost their homes in wildfires drove several hours from Santa Rosa and Redwood Valley to share their lessons about dealing with insurance with Camp Fire survivors on Thursday night. The event was part of an ongoing series of in-person and online…
July 18, 2019 How do you know if you need life insurance? Life insurance, known as a “death benefit,” can help with any unpaid debt, funeral costs, and give loved ones some financial security after you pass away. How do you know if you need to purchase life insurance? And what do you look for in finding…
July 17, 2019 Bach Talk: Your Money or Your Life (Insurance) As with all types of insurance, you have choices to make when shopping for life insurance. If you’re in the market for life insurance, rates are the lowest they’ve been in 20 years. That is probably because fewer and fewer employers offer it as an employee…
July 16, 2019 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…
