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Insurance Coverage

Earthquake Deductible Buyback in California

A few facts about earthquake insurance: Fact I:  Most residential insurance policies do not cover earthquake damage – a separate earthquake policy is required. Without earthquake insurance to help you cover the costs of repairs and other expenses that come with catastrophic damage, you will pay out-of-pocket to fix your home, to replace your personal property, and to live and eat elsewhere. Fact II:  Most earthquake insurance policies feature a high deductible, which makes this type of insurance useful if the entire home is destroyed, but not useful if the home is merely damaged. Rates depend on location and the… Read More »Earthquake Deductible Buyback in California

Laws Regarding the Recording of Phone Calls

Many businesses and other organizations record their phone calls so that they can document business transactions, train their employees, and improve customer service. It is extremely important to seek legal advice from an attorney if you are considering recording telephone calls or oral communication between parties. This article is not meant to serve as legal advice. However, we want to remind that there are federal and state laws regarding this practice. Florida, for example, is a “two-party consent” state, which requires that all parties of a conversation must give consent when one party wants to record a phone conversation. This includes the… Read More »Laws Regarding the Recording of Phone Calls

Top 10 States Vehicle Theft List

The National Insurance Crime Bureau reported 2011 is on track for another consecutive year of declining vehicle thefts, but California still dominates the top 10 list for areas highest auto theft rates. Seven of the top 10 areas were in California, mostly in the central and northern portion of the state. The report is a reflection of vehicle thefts on a per capita basis, and the authors of the report note that an area with a much smaller population and a moderate number of thefts can, and often does, have a higher theft rate than an area with a much… Read More »Top 10 States Vehicle Theft List

Home Foreclosure Prevention Program in R.I.

Only about one-third of the more than $79 million available from a federal foreclosure prevention program in Rhode Island has been spent to help struggling homeowners. Some states have spent a far lower percentage of their Hardest Hit Fund allocations than Rhode Island. Andrea Risotto, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, said that as of the end of May, states had drawn almost $1 billion from the $7.6 billion available to help homeowners make their mortgage payments. As of the end of last month, about $650 million of the total — or about 9 percent — had actually been spent, she said,… Read More »Home Foreclosure Prevention Program in R.I.

California – New Auto Insurance Rates Now Available

Our new California Auto Product delivers more than just rating changes…  In addition to providing a wider range of pricing tiers, we have made other changes to our Auto Product to become the total account solution for your small business customers. We’ve introduced a 10% account credit on Auto when there is an in force Spectrum policy (includes property only policies) – reinforcing our desire to become the total account solution. Only available in California! We have lowered the threshold for schedule rating from 10 vehicles to 1 – providing greater pricing flexibility when warranted. Automatic reporting proof of coverage… Read More »California – New Auto Insurance Rates Now Available

Customer of Size Policy

A woman suing Southwest Airlines Co. over its policy regarding overweight passengers says she’s not interested in the airline’s money. Back in spring of 2011, miss T. allegedly was told that she would have to buy a second seat to board a SW  flight, according to her website. T. alleges she was “humiliated and harassed” by a gate agent who asked for her weight and clothing size before determining that she was too big for a single seat. In her blog T. said she offered to demonstrate that she could fit in a single seat, but reportedly was denied the… Read More »Customer of Size Policy

New Insurance Markets

OneBeacon forms group to focus on small to medium commercial business – OBPG will write business through select managing general agents, managing general underwriters and program administrators, the Minnetonka, Minn.-based insurer said. Dan Beaudette, previously senior vp at Arch Insurance Group Inc., was named president of OBPG. In addition to Beaudette, three other Arch veterans have joined OBPG. Greg Deville was named senior vp and chief underwriting office, Randy Worth was named senior vp and Bryan Wakefield was named claims vp of the new business. The team will be based in Denver. *** QBE North America expands employment practices liability… Read More »New Insurance Markets

Insuring Cloud Computing

While cloud computing may seem vague and confusing, the National Institute of Standards and Technologies recently completed a working definition for the term after years of work and 15 drafts. So what is Cloud Computing? According to the official NIST definition, “cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”, with the following 5 characteristics: • On-demand self-service • Broad network access • Resource pooling • Rapid… Read More »Insuring Cloud Computing

Public Servant Wins Compensation Over Work Trip Sex Injury

An Australian public worker has won the workers comp. claim hearing, for the injury she got having sex in a motel during the business trip, according to ABC News. Now the federal government should pay not only the money spent on her treatment, but also cover the legal costs. The woman, whose name was not released, sued her employer back in 2007,  for the denied workers compensation claim for the injury done by a glass light fixture that fell off the wall above a bed as she was having sex. In addition, as she said later, after the injury she… Read More »Public Servant Wins Compensation Over Work Trip Sex Injury

Wedding Insurance Claims

Wedding insurance has become even more essential for any family looking to protect itself against vendor and venue mishaps – close to home or far away – from lost deposits to missing flowers. Vendor and venue problems are the most frequent causes of wedding day mishaps that result in insurance claims. Wedding insurance experts at Travelers Insurance recently analyzed the company’s wedding insurance claims from 2011 and found that a total of 31 percent of all wedding claims were the result of problems associated with vendors and venues. The most common vendor- and venue-related problems include the facility or vendor going… Read More »Wedding Insurance Claims