Untied Policyholders works to level the playing field by advocating for strong legal protections for policyholders and by promoting insurance consumer interests in public policy matters.  Below are some of the letters written to protect and consumer interests.

2011

Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act
This measure will help avert a looming crisis by making earthquake insurance an affordable, viable option for California homeowners.  For more information visit the website: http://www.earthquakerecovery.com/

Insurance: life: disability: discretionary clauses
This bill pertains to life insurance, disability insurance and disability income protection policies. It prohibits insurers engaging in the unfair practice of inserting language in their products that give themselves authority to override a treating doctor’s views and interpret their own policy terms as to whether or not an insured is entitled to benefits.

Life insurance: retained-asset account
This bill pertains to life insurance policies that have a “retained asset account” feature.  This bill makes it so consumers must affirmatively choose to have life insurance benefits placed in a retained asset account. Absent that affirmative choice, benefits will be paid in the traditional lump sum manner to the beneficiary.

Health care coverage: rate approval
This bill would give California’s Insurance Commissioner authority to effectively regulate health insurance rates in our state. The recent enormous rate increases that have been announced by some insurers and HMOs and put into place by others are proof positive that the Commissioner needs additional tools to maintain order in the health insurance marketplace and protect individuals and businesses from excessive (or inadequate) rates.

Annuity sales to seniors
This bill would strengthen legal protections for California senior citizens with regard to sales of annuity products. Annuity sales fraud on seniors has been rampant in recent years. The products are complicated and sales representatives take advantage of aging consumers who chronically worry about having sufficient assets to cover their future living expenses. This bill makes straightforward, pragmatic improvements to California law that should decrease the number of unsuitable annuity products sold to seniors and make it easier for seniors to understand the terms of annuities.

2010

Insurance: life settlements
As it now reads, this bill will undermine important legal protections for consumers – particularly seniors - related to life settlement products and sales. In addition, the bill interferes with the rulemaking process and detailed set of proposed regulations that was issued by the Department of Insurance

Regulations: small businesses
This bill will make it even easier for trade associations to block and delay important consumer protections that state agencies try to implement through the administrative law process. The effect will be to make it even more difficult for budget-challenged state agencies to protect the public. Trade associations have ample means under current state law to challenge regulations.

Property insurance: residential disclosure
This measure will shorten and simplify the California Residential Property Insurance Disclosure form that insurance carriers must periodically send to their California customers. The bill will make it more likely that property owners will read this form and get a clearer understanding of their insurance options and coverage.

California Earthquake Authority: mitigation officer
Creating the position of Chief Mitigation Officer to efficiently and effectively implement programs will help Californians mitigate their property against seismic risks. One of the CEA’s important statutory duties is to help California homeowners take steps to make their homes more resistant to quake damage. However, the Authority’s mitigation-related outreach and support activities have been uneven in recent years. This is largely because it has very limited staffing resources. Allowing the CEA to employ a Chief Mitigation Officer will help it do a better job of fulfilling this important statutory duty.

Insurance: commissioner: powers and duties: complaints
One of the most important functions of the California Department of Insurance is to protect consumers against unfair claims handling practices by the insurers under their regulatory jurisdiction. The Department is mandated under California law to fully investigate consumer complaints. Investigating consumer complaints is one of the key tools the Department uses to monitor the insurance marketplace and identify unlawful conduct by insurers. This bill will severely hinder the CDI’s ability to do its job and is fundamentally unsound. Limiting the CDI’s capacity to investigate consumer complaints is asking them to turn a blind eye to evidence uncovered during an investigation.

Disability Reform
This bill pertains to life insurance, disability insurance or disability income protection policies, and would prohibit insurers engaging in the unfair practice of inserting language in their products that give themselves authority to override a treating doctor’s views and interpret their own policy terms as to whether or not an insured is entitled to benefits.

Catastrophe Obligation and Guarantee Act
The Catastrophe Obligation Guarantee Act, will allow the CEA to manage this risk more efficiently. By allowing the CEA to substitute a portion of its high-cost reinsurance with an ability to borrow money in the private debt markets – after an event, and backed by a federal guarantee – the CEA will be able to lower consumer costs by approximately 35% - saving consumers nearly $1 billion over the next 5 years, and lower deductibles by at least 50% - making the insurance far more likely to cover claims that will arise from the more likely earthquakes we expect to experience.
This bill was also introducted to the the United States Senate the prievious year.

2009

California Earthquake Authority: employees
The California Earthquake Authority should operate efficiently and effectively, but the current statutory 25 employee ceiling is not realistic. The CEA’s statutory duties include helping California homeowners take steps to make their homes more resistant to quake damage. However, the Authority’s mitigation-related outreach and support activities have been uneven in recent years. This is largely because it has ongoing financial challenges and very limited staffing resources. These factors make it hard to keep mitigation a high priority. Allowing the CEA to employ a Chief Mitigation Officer will help it do a better job of fulfilling this important statutory duty.

Property taxation: transfer of base year value: disaster relief
This measure makes good economic and public policy sense and will benefit California homeowners who lose a home in a natural disaster.  The post disaster process of tallying up losses, negotiating mortgage obligations, reconstructing plans, getting reliable contractor estimates and collecting insurance benefits take far longer than most people anticipate. Buying instead of rebuilding often emerges as the best option for a disaster victim…but often not until years have passed since the event that destroyed their home. As economic conditions and property values shift, disaster survivors need the flexibility this bill provides.

Electronic transactions: exceptions
There are myriad technological reasons why people sometimes do not get email messages that are intended for them. These include spam and junk mail filters, connection and mailbox problems. Allowing insurance contracts to be non-renewed, cancelled or otherwise unenforceable on the basis of email notices alleged to have been sent is unsound.

2008

Insurance Rate Oversight
The bill would eliminate crucial consumer protections of Proposition 103 and dismantle the voter approved system of insurance rate oversight that was established by Proposition 103 and prevent refunds when insurers illegally overcharge customers. It will result in higher insurance rates for auto, homeowner and business insurance policyholders in California. 

Insurance: agents and broker
California law must ensure that the public is adequately protected by drivers with insurance regardless of whether the driver procured the insurance from a direct writer, a captive agent or an independent broker. This bill would eliminate this protection for drivers and the public. It instead creates a vague test for insurance coverage that is based on the label of the person selling a policy. Even if the insured never met his or her broker, bought coverage through one phone call, and doesn’t know his or her name, the proposed new law would make that producer a “broker” and any errors they make become the insureds problem, not the insurance company’s problem.

Annuity sales disclosures
This bill is detrimental to seniors because it conflicts with existing California statutory disclosures and consumer protections. It is imperative that consumers know as much as possible about these confusing and heavily marketed products before purchasing an annuity. In its current form, this bill will limit a consumer’s ability and right to know while at the same time negating the industry’s obligation to educate consumers in all but the most limited of circumstances.