Archive for October, 2010

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California Legislature FINALLY Passes 2010-2011 Budget

October 11th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in insurance news, workers compensation insurance

Californians will be relieved to know that their state Legislature has finally approved a new budget for it’s 2010-2011 fiscal year, passing it a hundred days after its deadline. The new budged includes projects that will save CalPERS $100 billion though part of that plan involves rolling back pension benefits that were approved eleven years ago. Other reforms to the state’s pension system are also included.

Governor Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the budget, though he can – and may – line-item veto individual spending items.

Especially grateful for the announcement of the new deal was the Division of Workers’ Compensation, which recently announced that the payment of benefits to some workers would have to end because there was no more money.

Even though the budget has been passed, it’s still coming under criticism for it’s optimistic revenue projections, which includes more federal money than most people believe the state will actually receive. In addition, the budget doesn’t solve the problem of the California deficit; it merely shifts spending to the following fiscal year.

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Friday Filmstrips: Hurricane Insurance

October 8th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in friday filmstrips, hurricane insurance, insurance specialists

The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season is mostly over, but experts at the National Hurricane Center say that Florida and the Caribbean are not yet out of the woods. For this week’s Friday Filmstrip, then, we’re offering this video about hurricane insurance and flooding.

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2010 Hurricane Season, Not Much Landfall, But Still Active

October 7th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in flood insurance, insurance news

Reuters is reporting today that even though there’ve been a lot of hurricanes in the Atlantic this season, the lack of any major landfalls will make most people consider it a quiet year.

Before the season began on June 1st, many hurricane forecasters had predicted a high likelihood that a major hurricane would make landfall on somewhere along the east coast of the United States, but this has not happened, and with less than a month left in the season, and the most active part winding down, the chance of any major impact on the mainland of the United States or any of its “energy interests” in the Gulf of Mexico are even less probable.

Bill Read, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center told Reuters, “If you just use (U.S.) landfall as a criteria and did not pay attention to the numbers, you’d think this was a really quiet year.” He continued, “A couple of relatively minor impacts and some flooding and that’s what we’d have to show for it.”

Read also said that this year would still be classified as yet another exceptionally busy season, it’s just that the U.S. lucked out.

The closest the U.S. had to a major landfall was Hurricane Earl, the Category 4 storm that hovered about 100 miles off of North Carolina and southern New England in September, Read said, adding, “That’s a relatively narrow escape if you look at it from the global perspective.” He also reminds us that there were a significant number of flood and mudslide deaths in Mexico and Central America due to hurricanes.

In an average season, there are about ten named storms, of which six become hurricanes. This year, there have been fifteen named storms so far, including Otto, which began forming as a subtropical storm over the Western Atlantic yesterday. Otto poses no immediate threat to land.

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California Insurers Get Incentives to Go Green

October 6th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance, insurance news

California insurance companies now have new reasons to go green. A new law, AB 1011, which was authored by Insurance Commissioner candidate Assemblyman Dave Jones, was signed into force by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The new law will require the California Department of Insurance to gather information about insurance companies work toward green investments and reduction of greenhouse gasses as part of their community development investments. The information will then be shared with the public via the Department of Insurance website.

To sweeten the pot a bit, insurance companies that make demonstrable efforts go green may be eligible for a tax credit for “…qualified investments in low- and moderate-income urban and rural communities.”

Specifically, the bill states, “It is the intent of the Legislature to provide an incentive in the form of California tax credits to attract much needed additional private capital investments that would not otherwise be available to CDFIs without the benefit of such incentive. It is the expectation of the Legislature that CDFIs will leverage these new investment dollars for the direct benefit of economically disadvantaged communities and low-income people in California.”

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University of Nevada, Reno to Expand Earthquake Research Center

October 5th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in earthquake insurance, homeowners insurance, insurance news

If insurance against earthquakes is a concern of yours, you’ll be interested to know about a new $12.2 million federal grant that was given to the University of Nevada, Reno, in order to make their earthquake research center the largest quake simulation facility in the nation, more than doubling its size. The new Shake Table Laboratory, which will comprise some 23,000 square feet, will allow researchers to conduct seismic tests on models of bridges and buildings that are much larger than any that have been tested before.

For the last twenty-five years, earthquake research has been conducted at the lab using four shake tables, which simulate the effect of seismic waves moving through layers of soil beneath building foundations, in order to gauge how different structures respond to that sort of stress. The expansion will allow the housing of five 50-ton-capacity shake tables.

Ian Buckle, the director of the Large-Scale Structures Lab at the test facility, explained, “This will be a quantum jump in the range and complexity of experiments that can be undertaken in both new and existing laboratories, with advances in state-of-the-art earthquake engineering that are not currently possible.” He added, “Safer buildings, bridges and more resilient communities will be the end result.”

Buckle also said that the total combined area of the new and existing facilities at the university’s Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research will be greater than 30,000 square feet. Construction is expected to begin this month, with a projection completion date of Fall, 2013, and a cost of $18 million.

The $12.2 million grant is part of $50 million in grants that the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology awarded this week to build new scientific research facilities across the country.

According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Lock, “Strengthening research and development in the United States is critical to our ability to create jobs and remain competitive. These construction grants will help the U.S. produce world-leading research in science and technology that will advance our economic growth and international competitiveness.”

Source: The Insurance Journal

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Schwarzenegger Signs New Insurance Disclosure Bill into Law

October 4th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance, insurance facts, insurance news

Last Friday in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB2022, which establishes new guidelines for homeowners insurance disclosures, into law. It will go into effect on July 1st of next year.

Specifically, the new law changes the mandatory language of the California Residential Property Insurance Disclosure, in order to make the description of types of homeowners insurance easier for consumers to understand at the time of purchase. It will also revise and clarify the California Residential Property Insurance Bill of Rights.

Under the old law, residential property insurance policies do not become effective unless a copy of the California Residential Property Insurance Disclosure, which defines types of coverage (such as actual cash value vs. guaranteed replacement cost), is provided to the named insured. As well, existing law also required that the Disclosure be accompanied by the California Residential Property Insurance Bill of Rights.

Steve Poizner, the California Insurance Commissioner, is all for the changes, believing that misunderstandings about insurance coverage have resulted in inadequately covered homeowners, especially after recent major wildfires. “Existing disclosures are nearly two decades old, and reflect a market that has changed dramatically,” he said. “Consumers have many difficult choices to make when buying homeowners insurance, but they have to know what those choices are, and have reliable information to base their decision on. AB 2022 and [the] new regulations will give consumers greater confidence on both of those fronts.”

The bill that goes into effect next July specifies the language that must be provided to anyone shopping for homeowners insurance policies, and provides a checklist of the different variables in coverage. In addition to the new disclosure, the Department of Insurance is also creating new regulations to help calculate more accurate estimates of what it might cost to completely rebuild a home. Such estimates are currently not subject to any regulation.

Poizner added, “When I took office, I promised I would address the problem of underinsurance, and I am going to fulfill that promise.”

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Friday Filmstrips: Buying Individual Health Insurance

October 1st, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health insurance, insurance specialists

Many of us are lucky enough to have corporate health insurance, but there are also people who are self-employed, or work for small companies that don’t offer health plans. David from CT is one of them, and thanks to him (and YouTube) we offer his tips on buying individual health insurance for this week’s Friday Filmstrip.

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