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In these tough economic times, many corporations are eliminating regular vision care coverage from their benefits plans, and offering their employees membership in VSP – the vision service plan – instead. This video talks about VSP, how it works, and why eye care is important.
Tags: friday filmstrips, health insurance, video, vision care, vsp
State Farm Insurance’s catastrophe determination petition, made in response to wildfires that have been charring much of the state all month, has been denied by the Texas Department of Insurance.
According to the insurance department, the denial was based on information provided in the September 12 request made by State Farm, in which the insurance company asked for a catastrophe determination because of a large number of destructive wildfires which had occurred in several counties, including Anderson, Bastrop, Bexar, Caldwell, Camp, Cass, Colorado, Fayette, Gregg, Grimes, Harrison, Henderson, Hill, Houston, Hunt, Leon, Limestone, Marion, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Palo Pinto, Red River, Rusk, Smith, Tarrant, Travis, Upshur, Van Zandt, Walker, Waller, and Williamson between September 4th and September 12th of this year.
According to the department, the declaration of a major natural disaster or weather-related catastrophe for extended claims processing time is not warranted at this time, and that all claims stemming from the fires must be processed in accordance with the deadlines defined by the Texas Insurance Code.
Tags: fires, State Farm, texas
Whether you’re a college student yourself or the parent of a kid in college, it’s important to understand college health plans - the insurance available to university students – even if you don’t think you’ll need it.
This video explains it all.
Enjoy.
Two new insurance laws went into effect last Friday in Missouri, both of which provide stronger protection for homeowners in the the Show-Me state.
The first law, Senate Bill 101, bars exterior repair contractors, like roofing and siding companies, from offering to cover a prospective client’s insurance deductible in order to make a sale, and also prohibits such companies from negotiating with insurance companies on an insured homeowner’s behalf.
The other law, Senate Bill 132, allows insurance companies to legally set up mobile service centers in storm-damaged areas, to make it easier for affected policyholders to file claims. Under the terms of this law, counties, cities, and other political subdivisions may not restrict insurers from establishing temporary operations. Previously, there were cases where cities and other municipalities wanted new business licenses before mobile service centers were allowed to operate after a weather-related disaster.
Tags: homeowners insurance, insurance, Missouri, storm damage
Stae Farm Insurance filed a notice requesting a rate hike averaging 10 percent across the state in Texas homeowners insurance rates, but company officials were quick to announce that with new and larger discounts, homeowners are likely to see effective increases of only 1.4 percent.
Earlier this week, the Dallas Morning News also reported another proposal from State Farm, shifting the deductible on homeowners coverage to 1 percent of the home’s insured value rather than the current schedule of flat-rate deductibles that can be as low as $500.
Representatives of State Farm explained that the new deductibles reflect the increased cost to repair homes after claim-worthy damage.
The requested start-date for these changes is October 15th for new customers and December 1st for those who are already State Farm customers.
A recently established Texas law mandates that the state insurance commissioner completes a review of such requests within thirty days.
Tags: homeowners insurance, rate watch, State Farm, texas
We wanted to take a moment and remind everyone that September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. Do you have life insurance coverage? If you don’t, and believe that you don’t need it, please watch this video, and consider changing your mind:
Tags: friday filmstrips, life insurance, Life Insurance Awareness Month, video
Alabama homeowners, especially those with landlord and farm policies, will be seeing insurance rates that are about 20% higher if their coverage is through Alfa Mutual Group.
According to the Alabama state actuary, Charles Angell, this increase is not designed to account for losses caused by a spate of tornadoes which struck the state last April. In fact, he says, all insurers in Alabama will be able to offset only a fraction of such losses via upcoming rate requests.
Nevertheless, according to Alfa spokesperson Jeff Helms, the increase in the severity and frequency of such storms is putting pressure on insurance rates.
Alfa is an affiliate of the Alabama Farmers Federation, and the new, higher rates actually went into effect on September 1st.
Charles Angell insists that his calculations support the rate hike.
Tags: Alabama, Alfa Insurance, homeowners insurance, rate hikes
