homeowners insurance

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Missouri Enacts 2 New Insurance Laws

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

State Farm Requesting Changes on Texas Homeowners Coverage

September 16th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance, insurance news, rate watch

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

Alfa Raises Homeowners Insurance Rates in Alabama

September 9th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance, insurance news

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

Irene-induced Losses Shouldn’t Prompt Insurance Rate Hike

August 30th, 2011 by Iris | 1 Comment | Filed in flood insurance, homeowners insurance, hurricane insurance

Reuters reported yesterday that while the official total for insured losses caused by Hurricane Irene are not yet official or complete the catastrophe modeling company AIR Worldwide is estimating $3 to $6 billion…and while those are big numbers, they’re actually lower than what was anticipated.

Before Irene actually made landfall, many insurance industry analysts were expecting the losses to meet or exceed $10 billion, but once the storm actually arrived it became clear that the damage was much less than expected.

AIR, whose estimate extends to onshore U.S. properties, is the corporation that makes the software that insurers use to model – or predict – exposure to disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. On Monday, insurance shares rallied much more significantly than the rest of the market, and it is believed that this is based on investors being relieved that payouts would not be as extensive as predicted.

Even with better-than-expected numbers, however, Hurricane Irene is being considered a “worst case scenario” by some analysts, especially for Allstate Corp. and Travelers Companies, Inc, which may have just had some or all of their third-quarter earnings literally washed away. Nevertheless, this should not prompt any kind of industry-wide insurance rate increases.

Of the areas affected, millions were still without power and suffering from heavy flooding even late yesterday, especially in suburban New Jersey and rural Vermont. Adding up those losses will take some time, as will sorting out how many of those affected individuals and businesses had government-backed flood insurance.

On the up-side, insured losses in the Carolinas are estimated at a ‘mere’ $200 million.

Tags: flood insurance, Hurricane Irene, insured losses

Eqecat Says East Coast Quake Losses Under $100 Million

August 23rd, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in earthquake insurance, homeowners insurance

While the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Virginia, earlier today, and shook up the entire east coast of the United States was a very loud reminder that people in California aren’t the only ones who need earthquake insurance, the catastrophe modeling company Eqecat says it actually caused less than $100 million in insured losses.

According to Eqecat, insurance losses were minimized because the earthquake was relatively weak. Had it had a magnitude of 7 rather than just under 6, the insured losses would have been more than 20 times greater, is says.

Eqecat’s models are used in the insurance industry in order to assess risk, predict losses and plan coverage. Representatives of the company said its data suggests that in the affected areas, minor damage is more likely than any significant structural damage.

After years of insurance coverage prices going down, disastrous earthquakes around the world have literally rocked the insurance industry. Prices began to increase after the March temblor in Japan caused tens of billions of dollars in insured losses and much more than that in economic losses.

Tags: earthquake insurance, homeowners insurance

Trumann, Arkansas Bans Bully Breeds

July 29th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance, pet insurance

It’s long been that case that if you own certain kinds of dogs, you’ll be hard pressed to find homeowners insurance, but if you live in Trumann, Arkansas, you may find that your favorite pet has been banned from living in the city limits at all.

Members of the City Council of Trumann recently approved an ordinance keeping American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and a few other breeds from living in the city, though pet owners who already own such dogs have sixty days to register them if they want to keep their animals.

Unregistered animals must leave the city, or face being taken into city custody for possible euthanization after eleven days.

In interview with local news station KAIT-TV, Trumann’s mayor, Sheila Walters, said that several adults had been attacked by bully breeds over the last few years, and that as a result, the city feels it needs more control over the people who own such animals.

It should be noted that the vast majority of pit bull terriers and other bully breeds are perfectly safe around people, as long as they’re adequately trained, while those animals trained for dog fighting (the source of the name “pit bull”) pose a higher risk of dog-on-dog aggression.

Tags: Arkansas, dogs, homeowners insurance