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UP in the News
December 17, 2018
As owners of the nearly 18,000 properties destroyed by California’s recent wildfires begin to file insurance claims, many of them will likely find they do not have enough insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding.
Surveys from the research firm Marshall & Swift/Boeckh have found about 60 percent of homeowners nationwide are underinsured by approximately 17 percent of the cost of their home....
As posted at: PBS
December 13, 2018
Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas of California and other Western states now have yet another worry: Insurers have issued an ominous warning that they could be facing a "wildfire deductible" in coming years or, even worse, the prospect of having their home insurance canceled altogether.
The surprising scenario came in part from Aon, the largest insurance broker in the U.S., where...
As posted at: CBS News
December 12, 2018
Millions of dollars in potential losses from the Camp Fire have ruined a small Merced County insurance company, providing another element of uncertainty for homeowners following the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history.
A judge declared Merced Property & Casualty Co. of Atwater insolvent during a brief court hearing Monday afternoon in Merced County Superior Court...
As posted at: The Napa Valley Register
December 12, 2018
Insurance costs already rival last year’s nearly $12 billion in losses from wildfires
This year’s wildfire season is already California’s deadliest and most destructive. On Wednesday, state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said it is also among the costliest in private property losses with claims totaling nearly $10 billion.
The staggering figures come only a year after Californians...
As posted at: John Woolfolk
December 6, 2018
At first, Lucy Reynolds was unnerved by the non-renewal notice from the insurance company two years ago.
Mortgaged homes must have coverage so Reynolds and her husband needed to find a replacement, quick. She was turned down by her neighbor’s carrier and an insurance agent spent a week looking for ways to cover their ranch-style home in the foothills of El Dorado County.
They landed with the...
As posted at: Fresno Bee
November 30, 2018
Keep your old clothes. Give cash to groups that help survivors deal, heal, and rebuild.
People send used clothes. Stuffed animals. Canned goods.
A fine sentiment. But these things are just not very useful and require too much work to sort through and distribute.
If you really want to help survivors of a catastrophe like the Camp Fire in Paradise, the Woolsey Fire in Southern California, or the...
As posted at: Mother Jones
November 27, 2018
As victims of the California wildfires begin to think about rebuilding their homes, advocates and policymakers are warning that natural disasters, made more frequent and destructive because of climate change, could make home insurance unaffordable and force more Americans to rely on government insurance programs that are already strained.
The Camp Fire — the worst wildfire in California’s...
As posted at: PBS
November 21, 2018
Your homeowners' or renters' insurance should cover the repairs. If you don't yet have a policy, here's what to do.
The California Camp Fire has destroyed more than 12,000 homes as of Tuesday morning, and displaced more than 300,000 people. The damage will cost insurers between $7.5 billion and $10 billion, according an estimate risk modeler RMS.
Buying homeowners' insurance in a fire...
As posted at: INC
November 20, 2018
California’s wildfires keep growing bigger, more frequent and more destructive. Of the 20 worst wildfires in state history, four were just last year, giving rise to a record $12.6 billion of insurance claims.
It hasn’t gotten any better this year. The Mendocino Complex Fire in August was the biggest in state history, and the Camp Fire that wiped out the town of Paradise is the deadliest. It had...
As posted at: NY Times
November 19, 2018
It is estimated that there are over 13.5 million homes in California and one-third of those are located in or near areas vulnerable to wildfires. Unfortunately, for those of us who live and work in California, wildfires are an annual occurrence that have, in recent years, become increasingly more devastating and more costly, both in terms of loss of life and damage to property. Following the...
As posted at: Law360