Latest Policyholder Headlines

All the headlines from our Policyholder Topic Page, ordered by recency.

The Coverage Conundrum in Chinese Drywall Claims

Sep 21 2009 // The Latest Mass Tort Unless you live in Florida or Louisiana, or regularly read the Insurance Journal, you may only now be hearing about the latest mass tort craze: Chinese-Manufactured Drywall (often simply referred to as...

Florida’s Newly-Formed Ascendant to Rescue First Commercial Policies

Sep 21 2009 // The new company will use independent agents and brokers for sales. Florida officials announced that a new Miami-based insurance company will pick up the insurance for about 15,000 of the policyholders now with First...

Florida’s Newly-Formed Ascendant to Rescue First Commercial Policies

Sep 21 2009 // The new company will use independent agents and brokers for sales. Florida officials announced that a new Miami-based insurance company will pick up the insurance for about 15,000 of the policyholders now with First...

Iowa’s Farm Bureau Mutual Plans to Convert to Stock P/C Insurer

Sep 17 2009 // The board of Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. in West Des Moines, Iowa, has approved a plan to reorganize into a mutual holding company structure. The plan is subject to approvals by the Iowa Insurance Commissioner and the...

Citizens to Pay Class Action Attorneys, Rather than Post Appeal Bond

Sep 7 2009 // Louisiana Citizens Property Corporation avoided what Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon had called a potential disaster when it negotiated an agreement to pay a group of attorneys in a class action lawsuit $6 million in...

New Insurer Ascendant to Rescue First Commercial Insureds, Jobs in Florida

Sep 4 2009 // Florida officials announced that a new Miami-based insurance company will pick up the insurance for about 15,000 of the policyholders now with bankrupt First Commercial Insurance Co., which is in liquidation. Florida CFO...

Some State-Run Property Insurance Plans in Precarious Financial Situation

Sep 4 2009 // As the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season enters its peak period, the finances of a number of residual market property plans in hurricane-exposed states are on shaky ground. The credit crunch and prolonged economic downturn...

California’s Workers’ Comp Fund Offers Aid

Sep 3 2009 // California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund announced Tuesday that it will extend credit to policyholders who have suffered a financial loss or business disruption caused by several wildfires that are ravaging...

Some Texas Windstorm Policyholders Must Buy Flood Coverage

Sep 1 2009 // Some property owners in Texas coastal counties that seek wind insurance coverage from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association will be required to buy flood insurance equal to at least 90 percent of the property’s...

Missouri Sues Arkansas Insurer

Aug 31 2009 // Missouri insurance regulators have gone to court to stop an Arkansas-based life insurance company from illegally changing the terms of its cancer insurance policies, the Missouri Department of Insurance announced. The DOI...

Travelers Offers Network and Information Security Offense Coverage

Aug 27 2009 // Travelers Bond & Financial Products is now offering Network and Information Security Offense coverage endorsements on its Wrap+ policies. These endorsements are available for eligible policyholders in targeted private...

North Carolina Governor Signs Beach Plan Insurance Reform Bill Into Law

Aug 27 2009 // North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue has signed into law legislation to shore-up the state’s backup coastal insurer and reduce the liability of private insurers should a major catastrophe strike the state. House Bill...

Florida, Georgia Insurer First Commercial to Be Liquidated

Aug 26 2009 // Miami-based First Commercial Insurance Co. and its subsidiary have been declared insolvent and ordered liquidated about six weeks after being placed under state control. All policies written by FCIC and its subsidiary,...

Citizens to Pay Class Action Attorneys, Rather than Post Appeal Bond

Aug 25 2009 // Louisiana Citizens Property Corporation will now pay a group of attorneys in a class action lawsuit $6 million in order to go forward with the appeal of a $95 million award against the state backed insurer of last resort...

Michigan Insurers Balk As Democrats Advance ‘Bad Faith’ Legislation

Aug 19 2009 // Michigan insurance companies say that so-called “bad faith” bills approved by the House Insurance Committee today are unnecessary and will open the floodgates for lawsuits against them, eventually costing...

Louisiana Citizens: Lower Assessment Fee but No Rate Hike, Yet

Aug 17 2009 // The governing board of Louisiana’s state-backed property insurance firm on Aug. 13 approved a reduction in a fee imposed on policyholders, money that goes to pay off debt incurred because of Hurricane Katrina...

USAA to Lower Homeowners Rates for Most Policyholders in Texas

Aug 14 2009 // San Antonio, Texas-based USAA has announced it has filed a plan with the Texas Department of Insurance to reduce its homeowners insurance rates in the state by an average of 6 percent. The reduction will equate to an...

North Carolina Senate Approves Beach Plan Insurance Reform Bill

Aug 6 2009 // A bill to rescue North Carolina’s coastal insurance plan handily passed the state Senate on Wednesday by a 42-5 vote, the same day it won approval from a Senate committee. Because the Senate version differs from the...

Arkansas Details Obligations for P/C Insurance Providers

Aug 6 2009 // The Arkansas Insurance Department has posted directives on its Web site that detail compliance requirements for property casualty insurance providers in that state. The insurance department noted that while Arkansas state...

North Carolina House, Senate Agree on Beach Plan Insurance Bill

Aug 6 2009 // The North Carolina General Assembly has approved a bill to reform the state’s coastal insurance system that caps private insurers’ liability for any funding shortfall in the state-backed Beach Plan, reduces...