Insurance Claims – Know your rights

[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 They do this when policies become outdated and do not have inflation riders on the policies.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.

[Bubblesitter]

Raybyrnes,
You have some good points, there is probably quite a bit of fraud losses in the insurance industry. Many folks are under-insured

You can’t deny that a key goal of every insurance company during a disaster is to minimize payouts. It sounds like in recent years they have become more zealous in this goal.

Anyhow, I’m just hoping that folks hit by this terrible San Diego fire question and challenge their insurance companies. They need to complain if needed directly to the California insurance commissioner. http://www.insurance.ca.gov/

The insurance companies need to do a better job at delivering on their promise of “peace-of-mind”. These San diego fires are a great opportunity to improve the industry’s image.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Raybyrnes,
You have some good points, there is probably quite a bit of fraud losses in the insurance industry. Many folks are under-insured

You can’t deny that a key goal of every insurance company during a disaster is to minimize payouts. It sounds like in recent years they have become more zealous in this goal.

Anyhow, I’m just hoping that folks hit by this terrible San Diego fire question and challenge their insurance companies. They need to complain if needed directly to the California insurance commissioner. http://www.insurance.ca.gov/

The insurance companies need to do a better job at delivering on their promise of “peace-of-mind”. These San diego fires are a great opportunity to improve the industry’s image.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Raybyrnes,
You have some good points, there is probably quite a bit of fraud losses in the insurance industry. Many folks are under-insured

You can’t deny that a key goal of every insurance company during a disaster is to minimize payouts. It sounds like in recent years they have become more zealous in this goal.

Anyhow, I’m just hoping that folks hit by this terrible San Diego fire question and challenge their insurance companies. They need to complain if needed directly to the California insurance commissioner. http://www.insurance.ca.gov/

The insurance companies need to do a better job at delivering on their promise of “peace-of-mind”. These San diego fires are a great opportunity to improve the industry’s image.

Bubblesitter

[Raybyrnes]

“You can’t deny that a key goal of every insurance company during a disaster is to minimize payouts.”

The goal of all organizations is to maximise profitability and return value to shareholders.

This means adhering to sound underwriting practices that reduce their exposure on the front end. By collecting enough premiums insurance companies are able to provide long term peice of mind and get policy owners back to where they were before.

To accomplish this means that they often times having to deny claims that fall outside standard deviations and require owners to produce necessary documentation.

There are two side to the insurance industry. To grow profits they must aquire policyhoders. If policy owners lose faith in a company or begin to believe that insurers are not delivering on their promise they will lose policyholders. When insurers forget this premise they don’t have to worry about payouts because they will not have any customers.

Unfortunately it is an adjuster who has to bring people back to the reality that while the landscaping cost a fortune it was only covered up to the policy limits. By doing thisw they are able to provide a far greater net value to all of their constituents. It is a utilitarian principal. Greatest good for greatest number of people. Not perfect but all we got.

[Raybyrnes]

“You can’t deny that a key goal of every insurance company during a disaster is to minimize payouts.”

The goal of all organizations is to maximise profitability and return value to shareholders.

This means adhering to sound underwriting practices that reduce their exposure on the front end. By collecting enough premiums insurance companies are able to provide long term peice of mind and get policy owners back to where they were before.

To accomplish this means that they often times having to deny claims that fall outside standard deviations and require owners to produce necessary documentation.

There are two side to the insurance industry. To grow profits they must aquire policyhoders. If policy owners lose faith in a company or begin to believe that insurers are not delivering on their promise they will lose policyholders. When insurers forget this premise they don’t have to worry about payouts because they will not have any customers.

Unfortunately it is an adjuster who has to bring people back to the reality that while the landscaping cost a fortune it was only covered up to the policy limits. By doing thisw they are able to provide a far greater net value to all of their constituents. It is a utilitarian principal. Greatest good for greatest number of people. Not perfect but all we got.

[Raybyrnes]

“You can’t deny that a key goal of every insurance company during a disaster is to minimize payouts.”

The goal of all organizations is to maximise profitability and return value to shareholders.

This means adhering to sound underwriting practices that reduce their exposure on the front end. By collecting enough premiums insurance companies are able to provide long term peice of mind and get policy owners back to where they were before.

To accomplish this means that they often times having to deny claims that fall outside standard deviations and require owners to produce necessary documentation.

There are two side to the insurance industry. To grow profits they must aquire policyhoders. If policy owners lose faith in a company or begin to believe that insurers are not delivering on their promise they will lose policyholders. When insurers forget this premise they don’t have to worry about payouts because they will not have any customers.

Unfortunately it is an adjuster who has to bring people back to the reality that while the landscaping cost a fortune it was only covered up to the policy limits. By doing thisw they are able to provide a far greater net value to all of their constituents. It is a utilitarian principal. Greatest good for greatest number of people. Not perfect but all we got.

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

Some very good points by Raybyrnes on the fraud issue.

Difficult to gauge but some experts say up to 15-20% of P&C indemnity dollars paid, are on straight fraud or the more common “padded” type claims (legitimate loss but inflated by fraud.) Of course, we all pay for this, as it is built into the actuarial calculations.

I am sorry to hear of your property loss on the Brazil trip Raybyrnes. Most would have simply claimed theft to get the coverage but you obviously have more integrity than that. I plan on going to Chile on a snowboarding trip next summer, so this is a valuable tip for me. I’ll have to make sure I get good travel insurance if available.

Do not under estimate the value of insurance. The general rule of thumb is that it should coverall all major tangible assets and your liability coverage should be equal or greater than your overall personal net worth.

I did not want this thread to become a debate about how good or bad insurance companies are, but wanted this to remain focused on general tips for those that are now dealing with their insurance companies for maybe the first time in their lives. I was hoping for more relevant and useful info, especially from the industry insiders.

Our fellow San Diegans who have lost everything need to make careful choices and know all the benefits they have coming to them. I think that insurance companies are more likely to overlook benefits not claimed but available and due to their customers, than to “systematically” reduce their payouts.

Here is a relevant article published in TIME “this week,” since we are still in cut and paste mode.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1675261,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-nation

Stay safe out there.

-CMB

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

Some very good points by Raybyrnes on the fraud issue.

Difficult to gauge but some experts say up to 15-20% of P&C indemnity dollars paid, are on straight fraud or the more common “padded” type claims (legitimate loss but inflated by fraud.) Of course, we all pay for this, as it is built into the actuarial calculations.

I am sorry to hear of your property loss on the Brazil trip Raybyrnes. Most would have simply claimed theft to get the coverage but you obviously have more integrity than that. I plan on going to Chile on a snowboarding trip next summer, so this is a valuable tip for me. I’ll have to make sure I get good travel insurance if available.

Do not under estimate the value of insurance. The general rule of thumb is that it should coverall all major tangible assets and your liability coverage should be equal or greater than your overall personal net worth.

I did not want this thread to become a debate about how good or bad insurance companies are, but wanted this to remain focused on general tips for those that are now dealing with their insurance companies for maybe the first time in their lives. I was hoping for more relevant and useful info, especially from the industry insiders.

Our fellow San Diegans who have lost everything need to make careful choices and know all the benefits they have coming to them. I think that insurance companies are more likely to overlook benefits not claimed but available and due to their customers, than to “systematically” reduce their payouts.

Here is a relevant article published in TIME “this week,” since we are still in cut and paste mode.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1675261,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-nation

Stay safe out there.

-CMB

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

Some very good points by Raybyrnes on the fraud issue.

Difficult to gauge but some experts say up to 15-20% of P&C indemnity dollars paid, are on straight fraud or the more common “padded” type claims (legitimate loss but inflated by fraud.) Of course, we all pay for this, as it is built into the actuarial calculations.

I am sorry to hear of your property loss on the Brazil trip Raybyrnes. Most would have simply claimed theft to get the coverage but you obviously have more integrity than that. I plan on going to Chile on a snowboarding trip next summer, so this is a valuable tip for me. I’ll have to make sure I get good travel insurance if available.

Do not under estimate the value of insurance. The general rule of thumb is that it should coverall all major tangible assets and your liability coverage should be equal or greater than your overall personal net worth.

I did not want this thread to become a debate about how good or bad insurance companies are, but wanted this to remain focused on general tips for those that are now dealing with their insurance companies for maybe the first time in their lives. I was hoping for more relevant and useful info, especially from the industry insiders.

Our fellow San Diegans who have lost everything need to make careful choices and know all the benefits they have coming to them. I think that insurance companies are more likely to overlook benefits not claimed but available and due to their customers, than to “systematically” reduce their payouts.

Here is a relevant article published in TIME “this week,” since we are still in cut and paste mode.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1675261,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-nation

Stay safe out there.

-CMB

[Raybyrnes]

CarlsbadMtnBiker

Tip for you. Pay for you ticket on American Express and contact them about the travel insurance. Think that it is fairly reasonable when compared to buying it at the airport. Especially if your gear is expensive.

For others on the board who have made recent purchases and have lsot their gear. Start checking your credit card policies to see if they might cover some of your losses.

I helped a friend move on sunday and question why he would pay cash for a Flat screen TV as opposed to using his credit card. I asked jokingly at the time if he ever considered the fact that with the credit card his NEW TV would be covered in the event his place burned down. He thought about thatfor aminute. Wonder what he would do if he was in that same situation again.

[Raybyrnes]

CarlsbadMtnBiker

Tip for you. Pay for you ticket on American Express and contact them about the travel insurance. Think that it is fairly reasonable when compared to buying it at the airport. Especially if your gear is expensive.

For others on the board who have made recent purchases and have lsot their gear. Start checking your credit card policies to see if they might cover some of your losses.

I helped a friend move on sunday and question why he would pay cash for a Flat screen TV as opposed to using his credit card. I asked jokingly at the time if he ever considered the fact that with the credit card his NEW TV would be covered in the event his place burned down. He thought about thatfor aminute. Wonder what he would do if he was in that same situation again.

[Raybyrnes]

CarlsbadMtnBiker

Tip for you. Pay for you ticket on American Express and contact them about the travel insurance. Think that it is fairly reasonable when compared to buying it at the airport. Especially if your gear is expensive.

For others on the board who have made recent purchases and have lsot their gear. Start checking your credit card policies to see if they might cover some of your losses.

I helped a friend move on sunday and question why he would pay cash for a Flat screen TV as opposed to using his credit card. I asked jokingly at the time if he ever considered the fact that with the credit card his NEW TV would be covered in the event his place burned down. He thought about thatfor aminute. Wonder what he would do if he was in that same situation again.

[Bubblesitter]

Resurrecting an old thread, as we start to approach fire season in San Diego in next few months.

Good heated discussion. CarlsbadMtnBiker is a good guy.

Only point is……

MAKE SURE YOU ARE ADEQUATELY COVERED. REVIEW YOUR POLICIES. YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST ADVOCATE.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Resurrecting an old thread, as we start to approach fire season in San Diego in next few months.

Good heated discussion. CarlsbadMtnBiker is a good guy.

Only point is……

MAKE SURE YOU ARE ADEQUATELY COVERED. REVIEW YOUR POLICIES. YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST ADVOCATE.

Bubblesitter

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