A Disaster Damaged Your Home? How to File a Successful Insurance Claim
A Disaster Damaged Your Home? How to File a Successful Insurance Claim

The TV commercials make it look so easy: You experience a disaster and, like magic, your insurance company swoops in and solves all your problems. Unfortunately, say consumer advocates, it rarely works that way in real life. Instead, if a disaster such as a fire,…
What does my credit rating have to do with my driving?
What does my credit rating have to do with my driving?

Most auto-insurance companies use your consumer credit rating as a significant factor in determining what rate to charge you.Who knew?Maybe you. But two-thirds of customers didn’t know, according to a Government Accountability Office survey. Spokesman Mike Barry of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade…
Homeowners Insurance and Common Natural Disasters
Homeowners Insurance and Common Natural Disasters

No matter where you live in the United States, there’s a good chance you’ll have to deal with one or more natural disasters or severe weather events. After all, every part of the country experiences at least one peril or another—in some cases, it’s hurricanes…
ServiceMaster and Water Damage Claims
ServiceMaster and Water Damage Claims

Couple Recalls ‘Leaky Toilet Nightmare’What started out as a leaky toilet turned into a local couple’s worst nightmare. They got into a battle with their insurance company and are now suing.It is a case their attorney says could affect hundreds of thousands of homeowners.Ora Tamir…
5 ways to cut medical bills long before you stick out your tongue and say “ah”
5 ways to cut medical bills long before you stick out your tongue and say “ah”

Medical costs can still be confusing and startling. But as transparency becomes the norm, we should be able to get a price quote before undergoing a medical procedure, know the amount our health insurance will cover, and even solicit a package price from the hospital.…
Springs renter hopes flooding nightmare can become lesson for others
Springs renter hopes flooding nightmare can become lesson for others

Annaleen DeHaan came home to a nightmare Monday evening. Her home on the east side of Colorado Springs was devastated by floodwater. “My mom calls me and is like, ‘So, the house flooded. I have a foot of mud and water,’” DeHaan said. “I kind…
Retirees Stung by ‘Universal Life’ Cost
Retirees Stung by ‘Universal Life’ Cost

By LESLIE SCISM, The Wall Street Journal Updated Aug. 9, 2015 10:02 p.m.Retired high-school teacher Nicholas Vertullo long felt confident that his wife, Grace, wouldn’t have to pinch pennies after he died. Nearly three decades ago, he bought a $238,000 life-insurance policy, and later bought…
Things are looking UP – Advocacy and Action UPdate
Things are looking UP – Advocacy and Action UPdate

UP aids in landmark ruling for Pennsylvania policyholders The main purpose of liability insurance is to defend, protect and cover you if you get the scary and expensive news that you’ve been named in a lawsuit. The vast majority of lawsuits get resolved through settlements, not…
BACH TALK: Annuity “Whack-a-Mole”
BACH TALK: Annuity “Whack-a-Mole”

It seems like every time you turn around, insurers are peddling a new type of super-complicated annuity whose internal levers and formulae make it virtually impossible that the buyer will collect the promised benefits in their lifetime: Equity-indexed annuities, Medically Underwritten Annuities, Contingent Deferred Annuities…the list goes…
Friends in high places – Congratulations Sallie Clark!
Friends in high places – Congratulations Sallie Clark!

If you follow UP’s work, you know that the relationships we build with public officials in disaster areas are an essential part of how our small staff serves so many consumers far from our base in San Francisco.  El Paso (Colorado) County Commissioner Sallie Clark…
Guess who’s turning 50?
Guess who’s turning 50?

Medicare, the program that remains essential for many American’s health and lifestyles, turns 50 this month. On the positive side, pressure is mounting to amend the absurd rule that prevents the program from negotiating prescription drug prices with drug companies. On the negative side, consumers…
Class sues State Farm for manipulating homeowners with water damage
Class sues State Farm for manipulating homeowners with water damage

Insurer directed claimants to repair services it had under contract to hold down costs, class action states. A putative class action accuses State Farm Insurance, the nation’s largest property insurer, of willfully directing homeowners to substandard water damage repair services, bolstering the company’s bottom line…
Bach Talk: In praise of contingency fees
Bach Talk: In praise of contingency fees

With surprising (and sad) frequency, United Policyholders hears from senior citizen victims of unfair insurance practices. And as hard as it is for me to understand businesses and people that intentionally take advantage of the elderly – let alone those who lose their homes in…
Insurance issues arising from disasters bring little regulatory change to Colorado
Insurance issues arising from disasters bring little regulatory change to Colorado

The Colorado Division of Insurance, the regulatory agency charged with protecting consumers, has emerged from years of wildfires and floods with few tools to help it track market health in the state, and remains relatively powerless. Colorado residents are more or less where they were…
Discretionary Clauses in ERISA Health and Disability Plans—Are They Still Viable?
Discretionary Clauses in ERISA Health and Disability Plans—Are They Still Viable?

(for Bloomberg BNA)Following the Supreme Court’s issuance of Firestone Tire & Rubber Company v. Bruch in 1989, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan administrators, including insurers that underwrite health, life and disability insurance plans subject to ERISA, have been able to insulate their decisions…
Manitou takes a step to move city hall out of harm’s way
Manitou takes a step to move city hall out of harm’s way

Manitou Springs officials are trying to land a $25 million federal grant to move City Hall operations to a new building.Built in the laste 1800s, the exisiting facility is in a flood plain, the city’s flood recovery manager Shelley Cobau said Monday.A draft of the…
BOPs Are Like Hospital Gowns – They Don’t Cover You Fully
BOPs Are Like Hospital Gowns – They Don’t Cover You Fully

Businessowners Policies, traditionally referred to simply as “BOPs,” were introduced in 1976 and significantly revised in 1987. The BOP evolved gradually from the 1987 revisions to include risk classification and business sizes (sales and square footage) not contemplated in the original or “first revision” editions…
Insurance nightmare continues for Mountain Shadows family
Insurance nightmare continues for Mountain Shadows family

Three years after the Waldo Canyon Fire, many homeowners still struggle with their insurance claims. Paul and Jennifer Macomber have been at odds with their insurance company, American Family Insurance, since the fire started in June 2012. Their home in Mountain Shadows wasn’t a total…