Archive for the ‘Insurance’ Category:
Homeowners insurance policies have their limits.
Sometimes life just is not fair. You think you have done everything absolutely right and then circumstances show you everything is turning out wrong. So it is that you get to see the end of hope played out in court cases. You know it should never come to this but, when it comes to people’s lives, there are few real choices if you feel you want justice. You do your best to be reasonable. You offer to settle. But the other side just fights on. It all comes down to willpower. Whoever is strongest will be left standing.
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Homeowners insurance does not cover damage to land.
What happens when the gulf oil comes ashore?
There is a sad fact of life when it comes to dealing with insurance companies. You should read all the small print before you buy a policy and, if you are surprised at how the insurer decides to interpret the policy when you make a claim, you must be ready with an attorney. Telling it as it is: insurance companies like to make a profit. If they have to pay out too many big claims, their profit starts getting small. That gives them an incentive to keep finding new ways to avoid paying out. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, home owners discovered their policies covered storm damage, but limited or excluded claims arising from flooding. The cause of much of the damage was a storm surge where the wind drove the water to higher than usual levels. The issue for the courts was whether the resulting damage was covered as storm damage or excluded as flood damage. The practical reality was that, for the people whose homes were damaged, the precise cause and effect mattered little. They had lost their homes. For the insurance companies, the courts were deciding claims worth billions of dollars. Needless to say, the courts at state and federal levels gave often wildly different interpretations and produced very different results. That is what happens when vast numbers of people line up to sue multiple defendants. Some win. Some lose.
One of the more interesting outcomes of the litigation was the decision of some insurance companies to stop selling policies in the Gulf states. They gave as their reason the increasingly uncertain legal environment. The companies that still write home insurance coverage now have different language. Policyholders hope the law will be on their side. The attorneys acting the the insurance industry remain confident they now have their clients protected.
Over the last few weeks, we have been watching a new slow-motion threat emerge in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon rig operated by BP exploded and, with the pipe broken on the sea bed, crude oil is now pumping out into the water. Oil has already started to come ashore in Louisiana. Residents in the other states are taking out their policies to see what the small print says. So let’s say the average home owner with a property on the coast has a standard home insurance policy, federal flood insurance, hurricane and windstorm coverage, sinkhole coverage, and so on. What will happen when the oil comes? Well, there will be terms allowing claims in the event of an explosion. Unfortunately, the destruction of the rig happened too far away for it to count directly. A court would have to find the explosion was the main cause of the oil coming onshore. Winds and tides play their part in this process. So then we come to the terms allowing claims if the property is damaged by “pollutants”. Crude oil is a natural substance and not a pollutant as defined by insurers. But it is possible that, if it did damage the structure of your property, you would have a claim. Except, most properties are built on the land, not on stilts over the sea. Very few homeowners insurance policies cover damage to the land on which the house stands. The result? Win or lose, a lot of attorneys are going to get rich suing BP.
Homeowners insurance is getting more expensive in Texas.
Tough times for the Commissioner
One of the most important lessons of the last two years is that having regulators in place does not mean having consumer safety. Wherever you look from the failure of the SEC to police the banking industry, to the failure of the FDA to keep food and drugs safe, to the failure of the Minerals Management Service to prevent the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s clear the regulators have been asleep at the wheel of a Toyota car speeding out of control thanks to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It does not matter who you want to blame: the politicians who take the money of business and industry to pay for their expensive election campaigns, the leaders of business and industry who want the maximum profit with no accountability, or the regulators who sit in the middle and hope no one will notice they do nothing. The result has been a catastrophic series of failures. And who gets to pick up the bill? Why taxpayers and consumers, of course. Tax revenues are used to bail out the companies too big to be allowed to fail, and everyone who buys goods and services gets to pay a little more every year in prices to keep the wheels well greased.
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Two cheap auto insurance tips to follow
When buying things, no matter whether it’s a car or a new TV, you want to get the best quality for the lowest price. And when it comes to insuring your vehicle the rule remains the same. And it’s especially important with the recession thinning our wallets and making us count every dollar we spend on everything. When it gets to cutting costs most people think about insurance first. People feel that they are paying too much for insuring their houses, health or cars. And while house insurance can be dropped, insuring your vehicle is mandatory and driving without insurance will cost you a lot. Luckily for those who want to cut their insurance costs, there are ways you can cut down your expenses without dropping off coverage at all. Of course, the effectiveness of these solutions depends on the company you get insurance from and the type of car you drive. But in the end, when using all the tips provided, you will be able to save quite a lot of money and use them for other purposes you need. So here are simple and effective ways of cutting down your costs during recession
Tip 1 – Bundle up insurance policies
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Car insurance – health costs force rise in premiums
Even though the warring parties cannot agree on any policies to reform the healthcare industry, there is some agreement that what we have now is broken. Looking around the world makes for depressing comparisons. As a nation, we pay a higher percentage of our wealth on healthcare, but receive a significantly inferior product. More people die through lack of adequate care in our country. This year, as if to add insult to injury, the insurers have been pushing through major increases in premium rates. Ironically, it was these increases, in part, that allowed President Obama to push the reluctant Democrats into passing the reform bill. Sadly, the signing of the bill into law has not stopped the premium increases. We are all paying more. As a less publicized side effect, these rises in health costs have also been passed on to drivers. The coverage on liability and other policies includes payment for the treatment of anyone injured in a traffic accident. Insurance companies are for-profit. If their costs go up, those costs get passed on to the policyholders.
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Cheap auto insurance is not always the best
For most people, especially car owners, it’s quite evident that having their vehicles insured is a required measure that will save a lot of time and money if something bad happens on the road. In most cases when purchasing a vehicle, especially with a use of auto loan, the insurance policy comes with the car itself as a requirement. But not many of those car owners know that they can simply switch to another provider or modify the policy when its term expires. And that could mean a lot in terms of money.
In fact, there are numerous insurance companies that you can buy insurance from, and their rates differ just as the prices on autos at different dealers. It all boils down to shopping around and defining your insurance needs. There are companies that will offer low rate services, but their customer support will be weak and they won’t process your claims rapidly. Other companies will have great 24/7 services but their rates will bite your wallet hard. In the end, looking for the cheapest offer might be not the best idea and you will have to take other important elements in consideration besides the price. Here are some things to think about when choosing insurance for your vehicle:
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More about Wisconsin Auto Insurance
In another article, we looked at the decision of the Wisconsin state government to double the minimum liability insurance requirement. It had been $25,000 per individual injured and $50,000 for multiple claimants in a single traffic accident. This doubled to $50,000 and $100,000 respectively. There was a general feeling this would push an increasing number of the poor into driving without insurance. And, as was predicted at the time, one of the results of this change in the law has been an increase in the premiums. In some ZIP code areas, the rates have gone up by as much as 40%. This has put a lot more pressure on family budgets around the state.
At the same time this law was going through the state legislature, a second bill was produced which increases the pressure on law enforcement to check whether drivers are carrying valid insurance. This is a logical development. There is little point in making it mandatory to carry liability coverage if there is no effective enforcement. So, as from June 1st, all drivers in Wisconsin must carry proof of a valid insurance policy in their vehicles.
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Keep you cheap auto insurance by avoiding accidents
No distractions, please. I’m driving!
There are many ways in which you can describe some of Big Government’s departments and their campaigns. Feeling polite and well-balanced, you can say some are worth every cent. Then you get others where you cannot help feeling a little insulted. Like this site: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Hey, come on, guys. We are all drivers here and we know how to drive safely. Except, perhaps, we “kinda” forget some basic rules when we get behind the wheel and back out of the driveway. So just how bad is it?
Well, the police are supposed to report the circumstances of all the traffic accidents they attend. This does not always produce a reliable record but, in 2008, the police recorded driver distraction as the main cause in almost 6,000 deaths (that’s about 15% of all the fatal accidents in the US) and more than 500,000 injuries. So just what is distraction for these purposes. The list is what you would expect: More »
More about California Auto Insurance
First, what is the problem with the range of insurance policies on offer from the insurance industry? Why is it necessary for the Department of Insurance to intervene in the market? The answer is simple. California has been hit hard by the recession. Gone are the days when people were proud to live in the “Golden State”. The problem is seen most obviously in the repeated failures of the state to deal with its massive deficit. Now translate this into the millions of people living in the state who cannot find work paying enough money to live on. Their poverty means it is impossible to pay for insurance and eat. Not surprisingly, millions of drivers are on the roads without insurance. In 2008, the Department of Insurance estimated about 18% of Californian drivers were uninsured. Since then, the unemployment rate has doubled.
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Health Insurance Quotes and Financial Planning
The great temptation whenever you start shopping around is to assume you can afford to buy whatever you are looking for. It comes from those long-lost days when credit card companies would write you every month with good news about your borrowing limits. You were tempted into more debt, but it meant never really having to worry about whether you could afford to buy. The additional money would simply be added on to your overall debts.
Now the credit crunch has settled in as your permanent house guest, it’s a good idea to start doing a real set of accounts to keep track of your family’s spending. Why bother, you ask? The number of foreclosed property up and down your streets, the number of business shuttered on Main Street, should give you a clue. People who hope for the best when trying to live beyond their means usually come unstuck. Now’s the time to count the dollars and cents. When you are employed, you know exactly how much money you have coming in every month. When you are self-employed, your income is likely to go up and down, making it more difficult to budget. The best you can do is average the monthly income over the last twelve months. Now let’s list the main headings.
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