When you buy auto insurance or homeowners insurance, you generally purchase two types of coverage: coverage for loss of or damage to property and coverage for injuries to third parties. If a tree falls on your roof, your insurance reimburses you for the repairs. If a party guest breaks his arm in a fall near your backyard pool, your insurance reimburses him for his medical costs.
While cynics would say that regulators are closing the barn door long after the horses have bolted, the idea of recognizing beforehand that a bank or investment house or insurance company is too big to fail — that is, too big for us to allow it to fail — offers the rest of us some comfort. Had standards been in place in 2008, perhaps the financial meltdown would be only a worst-case scenario and not a painful memory.
It may surprise some to know that the global financial crisis of 2008 was not the first time the expression “too big to fail” was used. The phrase has, however, become synonymous with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the near collapse of American International Group Inc. and the near implosion of the stock market. So much so, in fact, that insurance companies and financial institutions will do just about anything not to be labeled as too big to fail.
Back in May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2012 hurricane season would feature nine to 15 named storms, with four to eight of them becoming hurricanes. One to three of those hurricanes, NOAA said, will become “major” hurricanes, marked by winds of 111 mph at the very least. Overall, the agency said there was a 70 percent chance the season would be “near normal,” as forecast.
First, a quick correction to our last post: We stated that one college retains 80 percent of tuition if the student leaves after the first week of classes. That college actually refunds 80 percent of tuition.
College students and their families have substantial amounts of money invested in their college education. Unfortunately, sometimes a student has to drop classes and withdraw from school during a semester because of unforeseen injury or illness. In most circumstances, colleges and universities will not refund the tuition — or will only refund a portion of it — for the classes not completed.
Four families have something awful in common: Each lost a loved one to suicide. Those loved ones were all veterans who had recently separated from the service, and their families believe they all suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder when they died. The families were surprised when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential denied the life insurance claims — they knew that the government carried life insurance for service members, so why would these claims fail?
We are continuing our discussion of a federal lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential. The insureds in the suit were veterans of the Armed Forces who committed suicice. Their families believe their suicides were the result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They also believe that the VA and Prudential should have paid on the veterans’ life insurance policies. The VA and Prudential disagree.
We have been talking about life insurance and the Armed Forces. A group of four families has taken the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential Financial Inc. to court over payment of life insurance benefits. The defendants say the deceased family members, all former active duty military, were not covered because they did not complete the appropriate paperwork.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, four families of military veterans claim that the Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential Insurance owes them restitution. While we often — perhaps too often — come across complaints that an insurer has failed to pay a life insurance claim, there is more red tape to this case than to most. And there is red tape that Florida’s military families should know about.
