In an effort to cope with the changing times, a number of property insurance firms have made adjustments to their operations, including American Integrity Insurance Co. The firm recently launched a vacant home policy aimed at Florida customers whose policies have been terminated due to relocation. The huge number of relocating households resulted in record cancellations of policies and most insurance firms are privy to the detrimental impact this could have on their operations and on the housing market in general.

The introduction of American Integrity's vacant home policy has been welcomed by most homeowners, particularly those who plan on moving to another place and are in the process of selling their houses. Before the introduction of the company's policy, insurance coverage for vacant or empty houses is not offered by standard homeowners insurance companies in the state. The only option then was to look for specialty firms that often charge higher fees and premiums

According to American Integrity, the introduction of the new policy will fill a void in the Florida home insurance market. This will remove property owners' worries that the properties they are trying to sell will be left with no coverage at all. The company adds that the new policy will protect those properties that are left vacant while buyers are being sought. The introduction of the vacant house coverage is the company's way of adapting to changes in the housing market brought about by the huge supplies of foreclosures.

American Integrity Insurance is one of several homeowners insurance companies operating in Florida. It provides coverage for more than 90,000 Florida homeowners, including owners of manufactured houses. The latest addition to its range of services is considered fitting in a time when homeownership and economic uncertainties are prevalent in the region.

Homeowners Insurance Companies Adjust to Holder Relocations is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

This is because the Insurance Department of the state has recently approved a 39% rise in long term insurance premiums offered by MetLife. Elderly residents who have policies for this type of insurance are facing a yearly payment that is almost double of what they used to pay. According to most of them, this could prove to be impossible to fulfill.

The premiums, which are meant to cover in-home assistance and nursing home care, have reportedly been rising in the past few years, but the recent jump is the highest so far for state holders. There have also been reports that insurer John Hancock is also planning to increase its rates by around 40%.

According to insurance industry analysts, just like the problem with providing cheap home insurance, long term providers are finding it hard to get returns that will allow them to pay for holders' nursing home care. On average, semi-private rooms in nursing homes in the state can cost as much as $79,000 every year.

Insurance firms' lack of earnings is partly attributed by analysts to the low rates of interest and the companies' miscalculation of the number of policyholders expected to drop their coverage prior to collecting. On the part of the policyholders, majority of them have stated that dropping their policies will mean losing everything they have put into them, which in most cases, are equivalent to lifetime savings.

The problem has widespread implications for the lives of senior citizens. In a research conducted by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, it has been found that around one third of Americans who will turn 65 this year will require at least 90 days of nursing home services.

In addition, the Kaiser Foundation has revealed in a report published in 2009 that over 10 million U.S. residents will require long-term medical services and care and the figure is expected to rise further. Analysts have stated that for senior Americans, it seems that finding cheap home insurance is not the only problem facing them in these difficult times.

Finding Cheap Home Insurance Is Not the Only Problem for Seniors is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

According to department officials, they are hoping that the document will aid renters and property owners find the coverage they really need with a minimum amount of fuss. The guide offers premium comparisons for policies offered by various insurance firms for a certain type of property. It touches upon all types and all available policies and how each can help protect a property owner's home. Issues like reporting losses, filing complaints at the department and handling provider-related disputes are also discussed in the report.

The said department encourages residents of New York to get hold of the guide as it will allow them to learn what constitutes a home insurance policy. According to them, homeowners and tenants should be aware that home insurance services do not include earthquake or flood coverage. The various methods by which deductibles are determined are also discussed in the document.

As an example, the guide reveals that some deductibles are determined using dollar values, while others are based on homes' replacement values or coverage amount. Meanwhile, some areas in the coast will require mandatory deductibles for hurricanes that can range from 1% to 5%. The range is usually determined by the insurance firm, wind speed or storm category.

Department officials have advised residential property owners and home renters to get in touch with their insurance service providers and discuss their needs so that their policies can be adjusted appropriately. They also remind people seeking insurance to read the guide, examine their policies and analyze how such services work.

The guide published by the department is meant to save renters and residential property owners from time and money-related problems. It also aims to prevent people looking for home insurance services from committing common mistakes encountered by those who do not know what exactly the service is for.

Guide for People Seeking Home Insurance Services Released in New York is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

Homeowners who live in counties like Sarasota and Manatee who have Citizens Property policies not including catastrophic coverage like hurricanes and sinkholes will be provided with a rate lowered by 3.4%. This is despite the fact that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has recently approved a 10.3% increase for property policies statewide and an increase of 9.2% for mobile property policies.

Citizens Property reportedly requested for a 9.7% rate increase. However, state insurance regulators approved rates that are higher than what the firm had requested because, according to them, they used a different method of calculating the needed rate. They added that the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund was not included in regulators' calculation of new rates.

Meanwhile, mobile home insurance rates among Citizens Property clients in Sarasota and Manatee will also enjoy certain amounts of savings. The firm has revealed that policy rates for mobile properties will decline by 14%, excluding catastrophic coverage. The 14% decline will cover the coastal areas of Manatee, while non-coastal Manatee areas, and the whole Sarasota County region, will be given a 17.3% decrease in their mobile property policies.

Citizens has over 23,000 policyholders in the county of Manatee and over 54,000 policyholders in the county of Sarasota. According to the insurance firm, the request for increase was due to rising sinkhole claims and other property risk factors. Insurance industry observers have stated that the increased rates are needed to allow Citizens, a state-backed provider, to avoid any competition with private insurance firms and to allow the firm to be self-sufficient.

Insurance experts have also added that the 10% rise in rates granted by regulators will greatly help the program, but sooner or later, further increases will be needed to keep the program going. Meanwhile, residents in covered counties are thankful that they were given some breathing space in the form of lower mobile home insurance and regular property insurance rates.

Mobile Home Insurance Rates Will Decrease for Citizens Clients is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

According to the charges made by the homeowners living in the Station fire area, Farmers Insurance denied payouts and in some cases, minimized claim payouts for damages caused by the fire and by the ash and soot that came from the blaze. The damages sought by the plaintiffs were unspecified. A spokesman from the insurance firm has stated that Farmers' legal unit is currently reviewing the lawsuit.

The Station blaze started on August 26, 2009 at the Angeles Crest Highway and continued on for over a month. It consumed 89 residential properties and forest land estimated to be totaling 160,000 acres. It also caused the death of two firefighters from Los Angeles County. The fire produced ash cloud that covered communities in the county's foothills and produced a smoke-filled smell among houses and cars for several weeks.

One of the plaintiffs in the case against the home insurance company, a resident of Palm Drive, reported that her residence was covered in ash and smoke while the fire rages on. After the fire was put under control, she revealed that her swimming pool had ash for months.

Every time rain or wind passes through the area, ash would accumulate in her pool and in her yard. She also stated that an assessor from Farmers Insurance visited her home to take samples and later informed her that the damage only amounted to $600, which means that she did not meet the deductible minimum of $1,000.

Some of the homeowners who filed the lawsuit have complained that other residents living in the foothills, including those who live even further from the area of fire, were able to receive claim payouts. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have added that the home insurance company is deliberately denying the claims in the hope that the homeowners will end up getting discouraged and will just give up.

Lawsuit Filed Against Home Insurance Company by LA Homeowners is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

Allied World was said to purchase back five million shares at a price of $50 per share. The firm made the purchase from several investment funds that serve as affiliates of Goldman Sachs, including GS Capital Partners. The buy-back offered a discount of 0.5%. A spokesperson from Allied has asserted that the buy back was in no way related to the recent financial rules reform.

The recent change in financial regulations restricts proprietary trading among banks and also sets limit on hedge fund investment and private equity size. This led to speculations as to who among the lender banks will get out of the business of proprietary trading to comply with the latest financial rules change. Some analysts speculated that Goldman will likely reduce its private equity position over time, instead of spinning out its various units, including GS Capital Partners.

According to home insurance provider Allied World, the buy back represented outstanding shares of 9.4%, leaving the Goldman affiliate with over three million non voting stocks, which represent 7.2% of outstanding shares. According to officials, the current repurchase is a separate deal from the repurchase initiative worth $500 million authorized by the Allied board last May 2010.

Allied World, best known as a provider of casualty, specialty and property insurance and reinsurance, has denied that the decision has something to do with recent reforms in financial industry regulations.

In a buyback situation, a company can purchase its own stocks back through cash distribution to shareholders in exchange for part of the outstanding equity. The company then has the option to keep the stocks and wait for the right time to make a re-issue, keep them as treasury shares or retires the stocks completely.

The decision of home insurance company Allied World Assurance Holdings Ltd. to repurchase $250 million worth of its shares may provide benefits to the company in the long run. For now, the company is said to be satisfied with how things turned out financially.

Home Insurance Firm Bought Stocks Back From Founding Shareholders is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

House Insurance Cancellations to Be Prevented by Bill in Louisiana is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

Cheap Home Insurance and Consumer Rights Are Top Concerns is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

Home Insurance Companies in California Take Notice is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.

The bill would allow home insurers to increase their premiums throughout the state by a total average of 33 percent over the next 3 years. The increase rate limit is 5 percent for the first year, 10 percent for the following year and 15 percent for the third year. The premiums can increase in certain areas by more than the average rate statewide.

According to supporters of the bill, the increase in rates would attract more insurance firms to write house insurance policies throughout the state and strengthen the Florida real estate insurance market. It would also increase the ability of insurers to pay claims in case a major hurricane hits the state again.

Opponents of the bill, however, argued that home insurance rates already shot up in Florida after the hurricanes in 2004 and in 2005 and that homeowners cannot afford further rate increases.

Bill Newton, head of the Florida Consumer Action Network, asked legislators not to pass the bill because they already passed previously a 10-percent yearly increase requested by the home insurance companies.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist and Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw also opposed the bill. State senators who did not vote for the bill were Ronda Storms, Alex Villalobos, Joe Negron and Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Fasano.

FCAN head Newton expressed his concerns about the fact that all Democrats on the insurance committee passed the legislation and other insurance bills.

Previously, the state Senate passed a property insurance legislation that allow insurers to pass certain coverage costs to homeowners, such as backup coverage costs and inflation-related costs.

According to Senator Garrett Richter, the bill was designed to address the cost drivers that are making insurers insolvent. Over the past year, the state of Florida has taken over three home insurers because of their financial difficulties, including one insurer providing workers compensation coverage.

The past few years also saw some major insurers like State Farm threatening to stop writing home insurance policies in Florida if their requests for substantial rate increases were rejected. The approval of the rate increases over the past weeks is expected to appease major home insurance companies, according to some supporters of the bill.

Home Insurance Companies in Florida Got Rate Hike Requests is a post from InsuranceWay.com - Find Your Way through the Home Insurance Jungle.