News & Resources

Our last two posts have talked about a situation outside of Florida involving a conflict between a county and a state insurance authority. The county tried to establish a fund to help defray the medical costs of the victims of an accident at a county park. The insurance authority put a stop to the plan. It’s not the kind of insurance authority we’re used to thinking about, though. This isn’t the regulatory body; this is the division of the government that writes the government’s policies for property insurance, auto insurance, business insurance and so forth.

We’re taking a brief break from Florida’s insurance woes. The sinkhole issue is being hotly debated by legislators and newspaper editorial staffs. The solvency of Citizens is at risk. Coastal communities will be paying exorbitant rates for homeowner insurance if something doesn’t change soon…. We’re heading north to look at a problem that’s arisen between a county government and its insurer.

While the Florida General Assembly continues its debate over sinkhole coverage, rate increases and property insurance coverage in general — not to mention changing the name of Citizens Insurance to Taxpayer-Funded Property Insurance Corporation — a group of community leaders are trying to figure out a way to help the victims of an accident in a county park.

We’re continuing our discussion of job loss insurance. It’s a different kind of coverage from homeowner insurance or auto insurance in terms of benefit triggers and maximum payments. Florida home buyers would come upon it when working with a mortgage lender, homebuilder or developer. The insurance will pay the mortgage if the borrower loses his job.

When you think about insurance for your home, you usually think about your property insurance and maybe mortgage insurance. (Mortgage insurance protects the lender if you die or become disabled.) In Florida, you’ll probably think about flood insurance, too. But would it ever occur to you to buy job loss, or “unintended unemployment,” insurance?

We’re taking a brief detour from Florida’s insurance woes today. We noticed a brief news article about an insurance company that’s taking full advantage of new technology while offering coverage to countries that have no insurance industry to speak of. The article talked about the insurance sale, but not claims payment, though, so we’ll leave that to speculation.

A host of life insurance companies announced recently that they are expanding their e-underwriting services to more states. The insurers hope that e-underwriting will speed up the process for term-life applicants enough to motivate even more consumers to purchase the coverage. In our last post, we talked about the service in general. This post is devoted to offering consumers a few things to think about before they go down the e-underwriting road.

The Internet is making serious inroads into the life insurance business, especially when it comes to term-life policies. Florida is just one of the many states where insurers are expanding their e-underwriting processes. It’s certainly faster, but consumers need to keep a few things in mind before they rush to the web.

In our last post, we were talking about the “Restoration of Legal Rights for Claimants under Holocaust-Era Insurance Policies Act of 2011” introduced by Florida’s senior U.S. Senator, Bill Nelson. Holocaust survivors groups have sought this kind of relief for years. The issue, of course, is denied and delayed life insurance payments from Holocaust-era policies. The last post covered the basic provisions of the bill.

Florida’s senior U.S. Senator introduced the “Restoration of Legal Rights for Claimants under Holocaust-Era Insurance Policies Act of 2011” last week, answering the call of survivors groups all over the country. As noted previously in our blog, Holocaust survivors, their families and the families of victims of the Holocaust have long sought payment on life insurance policies purchased during the war. They claim insurers have failed to live up to their obligations by delaying or denying claims.