Posted by Benji Riggins on July 31, 2009 under Interesting Info | 
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Posted by Benji Riggins on July 28, 2009 under Saving money |
The U.S. government launched a $1 billion cash incentive program on Friday to stimulate auto sales by getting consumers to part with gas guzzling cars and trucks and buy more fuel efficient vehicles.
The program, which offers up to $4,500, will be overseen by the Transportation Department.
Dealers and manufacturers are offering additional incentives, including matching funds in some cases, to help boost sales.
Congress approved the program to help the U.S. auto industry after handing out billions of dollars in bailouts and the bankruptcies of General Motors Corp and Chrysler Group.
Efficiency terms established by the Transportation Department are narrow enough to help GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co sell their bread-and-butter pickups and sport utilities, even though passenger cars as a class get better gas mileage and give off fewer carbon emissions.
Overseas automakers like Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co dominate sales of fuel-efficient passenger cars in the United States.
Trade-ins must get no more than 18 miles per gallon, they must be drivable and no more than 25 years old. No model later than 2001 will qualify. Trade-in vehicles must also meet specific ownership and insurance criteria.
The government estimates the program will help finance up to 220,000 new car purchases, or about 12 per dealer in the United States. The program is not expected to boost manufacturing output unless it is extended beyond $1 billion.
Congress has not ruled out additional funding if the program is successful.
Posted by Benji Riggins on July 24, 2009 under Insurance News |
Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin wants North Carolinian homeowners to be aware of a class-action settlement with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. for which he estimates some 304,995 consumers across the state may qualify.
The settlement is between Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and affiliated companies and homeowner policyholders who say they were not paid enough for claims submitted from 1996 to March 20, 2009.
The lawsuit alleges Nationwide underpaid policyholders by not including general contractors’ overhead and profit when paying certain claims involving damage to a building or other structures.
Nationwide maintains that it properly resolved and settled homeowner’s claims but agreed to settle the suit to avoid the cost and distractions of prolonged litigation.
Eligible consumers must submit their claim form by Aug. 26 to receive a potion of the settlement. Potentially eligible consumers should have received notice of the class-action lawsuit by mail.
Goodwin said those who think they were affected should visit the settlement’s Web site at www.alexanderclassactionsettlement.com to submit a claim. All claims must be submitted by Aug. 26.
The Nationwide companies involved are: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co., AMCO Insurance Co., Allied Property and Casualty Insurance Co., Depositors Insurance Co., National Casualty Co., Nationwide Insurance Company of America, Nationwide Affinity Insurance Company of America, Nationwide Property and Casualty Insurance Co., Nationwide Lloyds, Nationwide Insurance Company of Florida, Nationwide Indemnity Co., Scottsdale Indemnity Co., Scottsdale Surplus Lines Insurance Co. and Scottsdale Insurance Co.
Posted by Benji Riggins on July 15, 2009 under Insurance News |
North Carolina is ordering auto insurers to roll back their rates to 2006 levels and send up to $50 million in refunds to about 1 million policyholders in a settlement announced today by Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin.
The settlement does away with a rate increase of 9.4 percent implemented in 2008 and denies insurance companies’ 2009 request for an additional 1.4 percent rate increase. It further decreases rates another five percent.
The settlement with the industry’s rating organization, the North Carolina Rate Bureau, will go into effect on Nov. 1, and the rates are retroactive to Jan. 1.
Under the settlement, the NCRB may not file changes to auto rates until 2011, which means that the maximum allowable auto rates are locked in until Oct. 1, 2011 at the earliest.
According to Goodwin, the deal saves North Carolina policyholders an estimated $545 million over this time period.
“I’m thrilled that North Carolina drivers will see a decrease in their auto insurance rates,” said Goodwin. “Drivers will not only see lower rates, but many will also receive refund checks beginning in mid-2010 that may together total more than $50 million. In this economy, every dollar counts, and I am committed to protecting consumers through fair ratemaking.”
The refunds stem from a dispute between the state insurance department and the NCRB over rates ordered in 2008. During the appeals process, the NCRB implemented an interim 9.4 percent rate increase that went into effect on Jan.1 of this year. In cases where insurance companies charged policyholders more than the rates determined by this settlement, insurance companies are required by statute to refund the difference between the rates charged and the settled rates, with interest.
With this rate rollback, the effect is that rates will have been capped for the five year period spanning from 2006 through 2011, according to Goodwin.
Posted by Benji Riggins on July 1, 2009 under Insurance News |
Plans to cope with a storm that causes havoc along the coast could leave insurers and homeowners across the state — even those from inland communities such as Greensboro — between a rock and a hard place.
The rock: North Carolina’s current system for insuring coastal homes is driving insurers out of state, potentially making insurance more expensive and harder to find.
The hard place: Plans to make sure coastal problems don’t get out of hand could end up costing property owners who live nowhere near the coast extra premiums in the event of a disaster.
Caught in between: Companies such as Greensboro-based Alliance Mutual Insurance Co., which has 20,000 customers in the state and could find itself under water either way.
“The smaller the company, the more likely it is they could be driven out of business,” said Bob White, president and CEO of Alliance Mutual. His company insures a fraction of 1 percent of all the claims that could be paid.
Getting a home or business insured along North Carolina’s coast can be expensive. When a property owner can’t get a policy from a private company they can participate in the state’s Beach Plan, a “market of last resort.”
But insurers fear a massive hurricane or series of big storms could deplete the plan’s reserve. In that case, each company that does business in the state would be asked to pay a share of the losses based on how much business it does here.
“We can’t predict what our portion of the loss might be,” White said.
That unpredictable liability could cause problems even for those who don’t live near the beach.
Last year, Farmers Insurance announced it would no longer write homeowner’s policies in North Carolina. Company officials confirmed this week that it was because of the open-end liability from the Beach Plan.
Nationwide, which is still writing policies in the state, said it will no longer insure mobile homes here.
“What we’re trying to do is take prudent action on the items that we can control,” said company spokesman Joe Case.
With fewer companies willing to write policies, homeowners could see their premiums go up even if they live nowhere near the beach.
To prevent what Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin described as “a homeowners insurance availability crisis across North Carolina,” a House committee has begun writing a law to restructure the Beach Plan.
The legislation would remake the plan from the ground up, changing everything from how annual surpluses are handled to its name. It is complex and deals with much more than recouping losses in the event of a major storm. However, the part most relevant to inland homeowners is a proposed limit on the amount insurers would have to repay the Beach Plan in the event of a catastrophe.
If the plan’s reserves were wiped out, insurers would be on the hook for at least $1 billion. After that, insurers could add a surcharge to every homeowner’s policy. That surcharge could be up to 10 percent of the homeowner’s annual policy cost per year and it could last until the losses were recouped.
Nationwide officials said they thought the average surcharge in such an event would be $60 per year.
But White of Alliance Mutual said that new buffer may not be enough for companies like his.
“It creates a huge cost to us that we then would have to pass on to our policy holders,” he said. “It’s really a double-whammy for policy holders across the board.”
White said he would like to see the cap insurers would have to pay on their own lowered below $1 billion.
Other things could also be done to encourage people at the coast to incur less risk and to encourage private companies to write more coverage.
“We want a bill where the surcharge only happens in the worst-case scenario,” said Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat. His committee is due to keep working on the matter in the coming weeks, he said.
