Insurance Claims – Know your rights

[Bubblesitter]

Carlsbad dude,
Why are you defending the insurance industry so much? You aren’t an insurance agent are you?

Selling “peace of mind” is great, but only if you can deliver.

The Bloomberg article was not mentioning some second rate, 3rd tier insurance companies, but big industry heavyweights with sizable market share, Allstate, State farm, etc. They are systematically trying to minimize payouts. They are using every technique to achieve this goal. This happened with the Cedar fires, Katrina and now it will happen with the great 2007 San Diego fires.

You are either an insurance indusry hack or very naive.

Bubblesitter

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

bubblehead,

I am not in the insurance industry. You need to remember the original intent of my posts, which was to provide factual and useful information to those who may need it.

You decided to piggy back my original post on Insurance Company Info. with your anti-insurance company crusade, largely based on personal opinion and an article written by cut and paste authors with years of bad press at their finger tips.

There will always be a few mishandled claims, hopefully much less than 2003. However, this disaster remains very positive so far with the resources we have received from all over the country. I have lived in San Diego all my life and I am proud to see the efforts put out to make us an example of how things can be done right compared to the lessons learned from Katrina.

Most of the insurance representatives (some of which were evacuated or lost homes themselves) are truly good intentioned and will do the right thing. Give it a chance. Nobody needs your negative bulls*** I ask you, what value does it truly add to the readers here? Are you marketing for public adjusters who will run with 15% of their claim dollars? (real estate agents will do twice the work to sell the house for 3%)

Compare our posts. Which is more factually based? Skip the hype and go back to housing bubble commentary…

Done.

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

bubblehead,

I am not in the insurance industry. You need to remember the original intent of my posts, which was to provide factual and useful information to those who may need it.

You decided to piggy back my original post on Insurance Company Info. with your anti-insurance company crusade, largely based on personal opinion and an article written by cut and paste authors with years of bad press at their finger tips.

There will always be a few mishandled claims, hopefully much less than 2003. However, this disaster remains very positive so far with the resources we have received from all over the country. I have lived in San Diego all my life and I am proud to see the efforts put out to make us an example of how things can be done right compared to the lessons learned from Katrina.

Most of the insurance representatives (some of which were evacuated or lost homes themselves) are truly good intentioned and will do the right thing. Give it a chance. Nobody needs your negative bulls*** I ask you, what value does it truly add to the readers here? Are you marketing for public adjusters who will run with 15% of their claim dollars? (real estate agents will do twice the work to sell the house for 3%)

Compare our posts. Which is more factually based? Skip the hype and go back to housing bubble commentary…

Done.

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

bubblehead,

I am not in the insurance industry. You need to remember the original intent of my posts, which was to provide factual and useful information to those who may need it.

You decided to piggy back my original post on Insurance Company Info. with your anti-insurance company crusade, largely based on personal opinion and an article written by cut and paste authors with years of bad press at their finger tips.

There will always be a few mishandled claims, hopefully much less than 2003. However, this disaster remains very positive so far with the resources we have received from all over the country. I have lived in San Diego all my life and I am proud to see the efforts put out to make us an example of how things can be done right compared to the lessons learned from Katrina.

Most of the insurance representatives (some of which were evacuated or lost homes themselves) are truly good intentioned and will do the right thing. Give it a chance. Nobody needs your negative bulls*** I ask you, what value does it truly add to the readers here? Are you marketing for public adjusters who will run with 15% of their claim dollars? (real estate agents will do twice the work to sell the house for 3%)

Compare our posts. Which is more factually based? Skip the hype and go back to housing bubble commentary…

Done.

[Bubblesitter]

I smell a rat. You seem to know more about insurance than the average mountain biker.

I’m sure most in the insurance industry are good, ethical people. As with all companies, I guess your loyalties should be with the owners/shareholders.

I believe insurance companies provide a valuable service. Just don’t say you are providing “peace of mind” and then not deliver

Many of your points above sound strangely like potential talking-points from the insurance industry. I like the one disparaging the Bloomberg authors… “cut and paste authors with years of bad press at their fingertips”. You’ve had time between mountain biking jaunts to research these authors?

Guys out there….always question and stand up for your rights.

Done

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

I smell a rat. You seem to know more about insurance than the average mountain biker.

I’m sure most in the insurance industry are good, ethical people. As with all companies, I guess your loyalties should be with the owners/shareholders.

I believe insurance companies provide a valuable service. Just don’t say you are providing “peace of mind” and then not deliver

Many of your points above sound strangely like potential talking-points from the insurance industry. I like the one disparaging the Bloomberg authors… “cut and paste authors with years of bad press at their fingertips”. You’ve had time between mountain biking jaunts to research these authors?

Guys out there….always question and stand up for your rights.

Done

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

I smell a rat. You seem to know more about insurance than the average mountain biker.

I’m sure most in the insurance industry are good, ethical people. As with all companies, I guess your loyalties should be with the owners/shareholders.

I believe insurance companies provide a valuable service. Just don’t say you are providing “peace of mind” and then not deliver

Many of your points above sound strangely like potential talking-points from the insurance industry. I like the one disparaging the Bloomberg authors… “cut and paste authors with years of bad press at their fingertips”. You’ve had time between mountain biking jaunts to research these authors?

Guys out there….always question and stand up for your rights.

Done

Bubblesitter

[Raybyrnes]

MOuntain Biker sounds organized and extremely professional. More like an attorney who may specialize in this area.

Bubblsitter you sound more like a demogogue. You are on you pulpit sprewing bullshit and find one article to support your assertion about an entire industry. Good luck thinking you have any credibility.

[Raybyrnes]

MOuntain Biker sounds organized and extremely professional. More like an attorney who may specialize in this area.

Bubblsitter you sound more like a demogogue. You are on you pulpit sprewing bullshit and find one article to support your assertion about an entire industry. Good luck thinking you have any credibility.

[Raybyrnes]

MOuntain Biker sounds organized and extremely professional. More like an attorney who may specialize in this area.

Bubblsitter you sound more like a demogogue. You are on you pulpit sprewing bullshit and find one article to support your assertion about an entire industry. Good luck thinking you have any credibility.

[Bubblesitter]

For those of you in the insurance industry, you do usually provide a valuable service. I carry multiple policies, in fact I’m even thinking about adding an umbrella soon. Peace-of-mind is invaluable, however, my faith in your industry has been shaken by some of your industry practices.

The insurance industry has a black-eye from their responses to Katrina, cedar fire, and other large scale disasters. The industry has been able to reap record profits by systematically limiting payouts. Some of these practices are of questionable legality in many states and are at a minimum unethical.

The 2007 San Diego fire is a great opportunity to improve your industry’s reputation. I hope you rise to the occasion. Please do the right thing.

Here’s a cut and paste from the Bloomberg article we referred to. I’m a regular reader of Bloomberg, and I find its business reporting very thorough. I came across this article a couple months back and remember how disturbed and pissed I was after reading it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601203&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI&refer=insurance

Home Insurers’ Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits
By David Dietz and Darrell Preston

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — Julie Tunnell remembers standing in her debris-strewn driveway when the tall man in blue jeans approached. Her northern San Diego tudor-style home had been incinerated a week earlier in the largest wildfire in California history. The blaze in October and November 2003 swept across an area 19 times the size of Manhattan, destroying 2,232 homes and killing 15 people.

Now came another blow. A representative of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest home insurer in the U.S., came to the charred remnants of Tunnell’s home to tell her the company would pay just $220,000 of the estimated $306,000 cost of rebuilding the house.

“It was devastating; I stood there and cried,” says Tunnell, 42, who teaches accounting at San Diego City College. “I felt absolutely abandoned.”

Tunnell joined thousands of people in the U.S. who already knew a secret about the insurance industry: When there’s a disaster, the companies homeowners count on to protect them from financial ruin routinely pay less than what policies promise.

Insurers often pay 30-60 percent of the cost of rebuilding a damaged home — even when carriers assure homeowners they’re fully covered, thousands of complaints with state insurance departments and civil court cases show.

Paying out less to victims of catastrophes has helped produce record profits. In the past 12 years, insurance company net income has soared — even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Highest-Ever Profits

Property-casualty insurers, which cover damage to homes and cars, reported their highest-ever profit of $73 billion last year, up 49 percent from $49 billion in 2005, according to Highline Data LLC, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm that compiles insurance industry data.

The 60 million U.S. homeowners who pay more than $50 billion a year in insurance premiums are often disappointed when they discover insurers won’t pay the full cost of rebuilding their damaged or destroyed homes.

Property insurers systematically deny and reduce their policyholders’ claims, according to court records in California, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Tennessee.

The insurance companies routinely refuse to pay market prices for homes and replacement contents, they use computer programs to cut payouts, they change policy coverage with no clear explanation, they ignore or alter engineering reports, and they sometimes ask their adjusters to lie to customers, court records and interviews with former employees and state regulators show.

`It’s Despicable’

As Mississippi Republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott and thousands of other homeowners have found, insurers make low offers — or refuse to pay at all — and then dare people to fight back.

“It’s despicable not to make good-faith offers to everybody,” says Robert Hunter, who was Texas insurance commissioner from 1993 to 1995 and is now insurance director at the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America.

“Money managers have taken over this whole industry,” Hunter says. “Their eyes are not on people who are hurt but on the bottom line for the next quarter.”

The industry’s drive for profit has overwhelmed its obligation to policyholders, says California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, a Democrat. As California’s insurance commissioner from 2002 to 2006, Garamendi imposed $18.4 million in fines against carriers for mistreating customers.

“There’s a fundamental economic conflict between the customer and the company,” he says. “That is, the company doesn’t want to pay. The first commandment of insurance is, `Thou shalt pay as little and as late as possible.”’

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601203&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI&refer=insurance

[Bubblesitter]

For those of you in the insurance industry, you do usually provide a valuable service. I carry multiple policies, in fact I’m even thinking about adding an umbrella soon. Peace-of-mind is invaluable, however, my faith in your industry has been shaken by some of your industry practices.

The insurance industry has a black-eye from their responses to Katrina, cedar fire, and other large scale disasters. The industry has been able to reap record profits by systematically limiting payouts. Some of these practices are of questionable legality in many states and are at a minimum unethical.

The 2007 San Diego fire is a great opportunity to improve your industry’s reputation. I hope you rise to the occasion. Please do the right thing.

Here’s a cut and paste from the Bloomberg article we referred to. I’m a regular reader of Bloomberg, and I find its business reporting very thorough. I came across this article a couple months back and remember how disturbed and pissed I was after reading it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601203&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI&refer=insurance

Home Insurers’ Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits
By David Dietz and Darrell Preston

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — Julie Tunnell remembers standing in her debris-strewn driveway when the tall man in blue jeans approached. Her northern San Diego tudor-style home had been incinerated a week earlier in the largest wildfire in California history. The blaze in October and November 2003 swept across an area 19 times the size of Manhattan, destroying 2,232 homes and killing 15 people.

Now came another blow. A representative of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest home insurer in the U.S., came to the charred remnants of Tunnell’s home to tell her the company would pay just $220,000 of the estimated $306,000 cost of rebuilding the house.

“It was devastating; I stood there and cried,” says Tunnell, 42, who teaches accounting at San Diego City College. “I felt absolutely abandoned.”

Tunnell joined thousands of people in the U.S. who already knew a secret about the insurance industry: When there’s a disaster, the companies homeowners count on to protect them from financial ruin routinely pay less than what policies promise.

Insurers often pay 30-60 percent of the cost of rebuilding a damaged home — even when carriers assure homeowners they’re fully covered, thousands of complaints with state insurance departments and civil court cases show.

Paying out less to victims of catastrophes has helped produce record profits. In the past 12 years, insurance company net income has soared — even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Highest-Ever Profits

Property-casualty insurers, which cover damage to homes and cars, reported their highest-ever profit of $73 billion last year, up 49 percent from $49 billion in 2005, according to Highline Data LLC, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm that compiles insurance industry data.

The 60 million U.S. homeowners who pay more than $50 billion a year in insurance premiums are often disappointed when they discover insurers won’t pay the full cost of rebuilding their damaged or destroyed homes.

Property insurers systematically deny and reduce their policyholders’ claims, according to court records in California, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Tennessee.

The insurance companies routinely refuse to pay market prices for homes and replacement contents, they use computer programs to cut payouts, they change policy coverage with no clear explanation, they ignore or alter engineering reports, and they sometimes ask their adjusters to lie to customers, court records and interviews with former employees and state regulators show.

`It’s Despicable’

As Mississippi Republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott and thousands of other homeowners have found, insurers make low offers — or refuse to pay at all — and then dare people to fight back.

“It’s despicable not to make good-faith offers to everybody,” says Robert Hunter, who was Texas insurance commissioner from 1993 to 1995 and is now insurance director at the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America.

“Money managers have taken over this whole industry,” Hunter says. “Their eyes are not on people who are hurt but on the bottom line for the next quarter.”

The industry’s drive for profit has overwhelmed its obligation to policyholders, says California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, a Democrat. As California’s insurance commissioner from 2002 to 2006, Garamendi imposed $18.4 million in fines against carriers for mistreating customers.

“There’s a fundamental economic conflict between the customer and the company,” he says. “That is, the company doesn’t want to pay. The first commandment of insurance is, `Thou shalt pay as little and as late as possible.”’

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601203&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI&refer=insurance

[Bubblesitter]

For those of you in the insurance industry, you do usually provide a valuable service. I carry multiple policies, in fact I’m even thinking about adding an umbrella soon. Peace-of-mind is invaluable, however, my faith in your industry has been shaken by some of your industry practices.

The insurance industry has a black-eye from their responses to Katrina, cedar fire, and other large scale disasters. The industry has been able to reap record profits by systematically limiting payouts. Some of these practices are of questionable legality in many states and are at a minimum unethical.

The 2007 San Diego fire is a great opportunity to improve your industry’s reputation. I hope you rise to the occasion. Please do the right thing.

Here’s a cut and paste from the Bloomberg article we referred to. I’m a regular reader of Bloomberg, and I find its business reporting very thorough. I came across this article a couple months back and remember how disturbed and pissed I was after reading it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601203&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI&refer=insurance

Home Insurers’ Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits
By David Dietz and Darrell Preston

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — Julie Tunnell remembers standing in her debris-strewn driveway when the tall man in blue jeans approached. Her northern San Diego tudor-style home had been incinerated a week earlier in the largest wildfire in California history. The blaze in October and November 2003 swept across an area 19 times the size of Manhattan, destroying 2,232 homes and killing 15 people.

Now came another blow. A representative of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest home insurer in the U.S., came to the charred remnants of Tunnell’s home to tell her the company would pay just $220,000 of the estimated $306,000 cost of rebuilding the house.

“It was devastating; I stood there and cried,” says Tunnell, 42, who teaches accounting at San Diego City College. “I felt absolutely abandoned.”

Tunnell joined thousands of people in the U.S. who already knew a secret about the insurance industry: When there’s a disaster, the companies homeowners count on to protect them from financial ruin routinely pay less than what policies promise.

Insurers often pay 30-60 percent of the cost of rebuilding a damaged home — even when carriers assure homeowners they’re fully covered, thousands of complaints with state insurance departments and civil court cases show.

Paying out less to victims of catastrophes has helped produce record profits. In the past 12 years, insurance company net income has soared — even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Highest-Ever Profits

Property-casualty insurers, which cover damage to homes and cars, reported their highest-ever profit of $73 billion last year, up 49 percent from $49 billion in 2005, according to Highline Data LLC, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm that compiles insurance industry data.

The 60 million U.S. homeowners who pay more than $50 billion a year in insurance premiums are often disappointed when they discover insurers won’t pay the full cost of rebuilding their damaged or destroyed homes.

Property insurers systematically deny and reduce their policyholders’ claims, according to court records in California, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Tennessee.

The insurance companies routinely refuse to pay market prices for homes and replacement contents, they use computer programs to cut payouts, they change policy coverage with no clear explanation, they ignore or alter engineering reports, and they sometimes ask their adjusters to lie to customers, court records and interviews with former employees and state regulators show.

`It’s Despicable’

As Mississippi Republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott and thousands of other homeowners have found, insurers make low offers — or refuse to pay at all — and then dare people to fight back.

“It’s despicable not to make good-faith offers to everybody,” says Robert Hunter, who was Texas insurance commissioner from 1993 to 1995 and is now insurance director at the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America.

“Money managers have taken over this whole industry,” Hunter says. “Their eyes are not on people who are hurt but on the bottom line for the next quarter.”

The industry’s drive for profit has overwhelmed its obligation to policyholders, says California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, a Democrat. As California’s insurance commissioner from 2002 to 2006, Garamendi imposed $18.4 million in fines against carriers for mistreating customers.

“There’s a fundamental economic conflict between the customer and the company,” he says. “That is, the company doesn’t want to pay. The first commandment of insurance is, `Thou shalt pay as little and as late as possible.”’

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601203&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI&refer=insurance

[Raybyrnes]

I can appreciate that if you are not more knowlegeable on insurance and read this article, that your opinion would be biased. But this is a one sided article.

Insurance companies do in fact pay 30 to 60% of market value. They do this when policies become outdated and do not have inflation riders on the policies. Therefore people are underpaying premiums. Additionally as many poster readily claim, home values are over inflated anywhere from 5%% to 50% so market value becomes subjective.

It sort of like this. Everyone goes to the banker saying I’m rich I’m rich I’m rich when trying to get a loan. There effort is to get the lowest rate on a loan. That seems reasonable. But then they turn around and say I’m poor, I’m poor, I’m poor, when it is time to pay taxes. Sorry folks you can’t ahve it both ways.

Most people have an unfavorable view of insurance becasue it is a game of risk and many people would rather choose not to think in terms of probability. They also might not have the skills to do so.

When they get a call from an agent to discuss their policies they would rather hang up on them then have the agent tell them where they have difficiencies in their policies. This means paying added premium. Additioanlly most Property and casualty agents are highly encouraged to sell life insurance policies. Property and Casualty provides a conduit to this conversation. Because most people are not adequately insured in the are of Life and Disability they again would rather not discuss this.

It would be Unamerican to be proactive with respect to planning. We rather react to catastrophies then preparing to prevent them. We would rather point fingers then take responsibility.

I have had my challenges with insurance companies. I purchased a renters policy before traveling to Brazil for fear of lost luggage. Unfortunately on the way back the airline lost my luggage. Upon putting in a claim with my renters policy I found out that they cover “theft” of my luggage but would not cover a “Mysterious disappearance” I was later compensated form the airline but I still.

I still choose to defend the industry because their are many abuses and fraud that occurs routinesly against insurance carriers. It just does not make the front cover of the paper.

[Raybyrnes]

I can appreciate that if you are not more knowlegeable on insurance and read this article, that your opinion would be biased. But this is a one sided article.

Insurance companies do in fact pay 30 to 60% of market value. They do this when policies become outdated and do not have inflation riders on the policies. Therefore people are underpaying premiums. Additionally as many poster readily claim, home values are over inflated anywhere from 5%% to 50% so market value becomes subjective.

It sort of like this. Everyone goes to the banker saying I’m rich I’m rich I’m rich when trying to get a loan. There effort is to get the lowest rate on a loan. That seems reasonable. But then they turn around and say I’m poor, I’m poor, I’m poor, when it is time to pay taxes. Sorry folks you can’t ahve it both ways.

Most people have an unfavorable view of insurance becasue it is a game of risk and many people would rather choose not to think in terms of probability. They also might not have the skills to do so.

When they get a call from an agent to discuss their policies they would rather hang up on them then have the agent tell them where they have difficiencies in their policies. This means paying added premium. Additioanlly most Property and casualty agents are highly encouraged to sell life insurance policies. Property and Casualty provides a conduit to this conversation. Because most people are not adequately insured in the are of Life and Disability they again would rather not discuss this.

It would be Unamerican to be proactive with respect to planning. We rather react to catastrophies then preparing to prevent them. We would rather point fingers then take responsibility.

I have had my challenges with insurance companies. I purchased a renters policy before traveling to Brazil for fear of lost luggage. Unfortunately on the way back the airline lost my luggage. Upon putting in a claim with my renters policy I found out that they cover “theft” of my luggage but would not cover a “Mysterious disappearance” I was later compensated form the airline but I still.

I still choose to defend the industry because their are many abuses and fraud that occurs routinesly against insurance carriers. It just does not make the front cover of the paper.

[Author]

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