News & Resources

Following the traumatic events of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Congress created a risk-sharing program known as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. This law will expire at the end of December 2014 and provides for federal backup for insurance coverage, eliminating the situation where many terrorism-related risks could not be insured because of their high premium price, causing insurers and reinsurers to decline to offer policies.

Thanks to the combined pressure of the Securities and Exchange Commission, insurance regulators from Florida and four other states, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and consumers, Assurant Inc. recently shared sales data for its force-placed insurance line. The company said it had collected $90 million in premiums from two of the four states that have questioned force-placed rates.

When it comes to health insurance, there are a few terms that can give just about anyone hives. The first, of course, is “pre-existing condition.” There may not be one resident of Florida who does not know someone who has fought a claim denial over a pre-existing condition.

Neil Armstrong’s widow committed her astronaut husband’s ashes to the Atlantic Ocean this week, in many ways bringing an era to a close. Men who walked on the moon are still alive — Buzz Aldrin, for example — but the first man to do so is gone. It is an odd feeling for those of us who remember that first step in August 1969.

The death of Neil Armstrong late last month seems to have reignited interest in the space program and the lives of the Apollo astronauts. Tributes to Armstrong always included the grainy footage of his first step on the moon, and some recalled the entire Apollo 11 mission, from liftoff in Florida to splash-down and quarantine. Armstrong’s achievements may well inspire a whole new generation of explorers.

Congress recently approved an extension for the National Flood Insurance Program. Rather than expiring this past July, the program will run through 2017. Florida residents welcomed that decision, particularly since hurricane season was underway, and they did not want to be left without the needed property insurance should any hurricane damage their homes.

Insurance companies are very careful about what they cover and what they exclude. With homeowners policies, for example, outbuildings may not be covered. If you have a shed or a playhouse, you would need to purchase additional coverage for that. Medical malpractice insurance does not cover illegal acts; if the physician is accused of assault, for example, the insurance company will not pay for the doctor’s defense attorney and will not pay any damages awarded to the victim.

At the time of his death, Trayvon Martin was staying with his father’s girlfriend in a townhouse near Orlando, Florida. He was on his way back from the store, inside the gated townhouse development, when he was shot and killed by a community resident who was also the neighborhood watch coordinator. The case has been controversial from the beginning.

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.