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Insurance & Hurricanes
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7/5/2006 10:37:00 AM | Investigating insurers 
=(0) Three insurance companies in Louisiana are to have a market behavior audit from the Louisiana Department of Insurance. The companies, Allstate, St. Paul Travelers, and Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., were the subjects of many customer complaints following last year's hurricanes. The Department allowed for that increase but is chec...
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6/30/2006 1:50:00 AM | Citizens ordered to disclose settlements =(0) Citizens Property Insurance in Florida has been ordered to disclose the terms of settlements it has been making with litigants outside of a class action suit that is ongoing. The company is fighting portions of claims relating to the hurricanes of 2004, but has begun quietly settling with individual policyholders. A judge has ruled that t...
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6/21/2006 1:09:00 AM | Florida Releases Its Annual 'Top-10 Fraud List' =(0) The "Top 10 Fraud List" released each June by the Florida Department of Financial Services outlines the largest cases of fraud successfully prosecuted in the state that year. The release coincides with the state Insurance Fraud Prevention Week. This year's honorees include a doctor who overprescribed pain medications, resulting in some de...
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6/16/2006 6:57:00 AM | Lawsuit accuses insurer of hiding fees =(0) A class-action lawsuit against Nationwide Insurance has been launched in Ohio. The suit alleges that Nationwide collected excessive fees for its term life insurance policies and did not make adequate disclosures of this to its customers. Those who paid in installments, as opposed to annually, were charged more than the "maximum" premium accord...
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6/14/2006 3:01:00 AM | New York Teachers Union Settles Retirement Probe =(0) A New York State teachers' union has settled with the NY Attorney General over claims it encouraged its members to invest in annuities that had high fees, and received payment from the insurance company ING for doing so. The union will pay costs of the investigation, disclose its endorsement deals, hire independent advisors for its members to ...
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6/14/2006 2:27:00 AM | Pension funds sue companies, cite backdated stock options =(0) Pension funds worldwide have begun suing individual companies over the dubious practice of backdating stock options. While not entirely illegal, the practice must be fully disclosed and accounted for, and in many cases under investigation, the backdating is suspected to be illegal. About forty US companies are now under scrutiny in this newest corp...
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6/9/2006 5:36:00 AM | US state accuses ING units of fraud =(0) The State of New Hampshire has accused two subsidiaries of the ING Group of fraud and improper trading with regard to mutual fund trades in the state retirement plan. The company allegedly engaged in "market timing" practices which serve to enrich the traders but have a negative effect on the value of the funds. Other accusations are fail...
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6/3/2006 6:51:00 AM | $3M suit blames hurricane plan =(0) A Long Beach, Mississippi woman is suing the Port of Gulfport, State Port Authority, Mississippi Development Corp. and several companies involved in shipping, because a cargo container allegedly washed up and destroyed her house during Hurricane Katrina. The plaintiff says the risks were known because of events during previous hurricanes and t...
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6/3/2006 1:51:00 AM | Allstate settles lawsuit brought by minorities =(0) Allstate has settled a class-action lawsuit first filed in Texas by six members of minority groups who claimed Allstate's pricing policy was discriminatory. Allstate used information from credit reports on consumers to establish risk, and the claim was that since minorities are often low-income, they have poorer credit scores, therefore the pr...
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6/1/2006 12:08:00 PM | Class Action Suit Filed in New Orleans Against 15 Homeowners ... =(0) Many homeowners' Hurricane Katrina insurance suits in the greater New Orleans area have been consolidated into a class-action lawsuit against fifteen companies. Issues of complaint include the wind-water-flood decisions, arbitrary rulings on waterlines and other evidence, and failure to advise policyholders of risks and the availability of flo...
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6/1/2006 7:04:00 AM | Bill raises stakes in insurance delays =(0) A new law, now working its way through the Louisiana legislature, would increase penalties to insurance companies who do not pay claims on time. Companies are supposed to pay within 30 days once the claim is legally established. The penalty for late payment now is 25% of damages owed but the new law raises it to 50% and includes the possibilit...
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5/31/2006 1:44:00 AM | Judge denies extension for 'ineligible' evacuees =(0) More than 2000 hurricane evacuees will immediately lose housing assistance, as a request for a restraining order against FEMA was denied. However the judge did urge FEMA to expedite review procedures. The restraining order had been requested to give families more time, until a class action lawsuit against FEMA could be heard. The next he...
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5/30/2006 8:39:00 AM | Coughing up smoker's rates for children =(0) A class action lawsuit is in the works after a father in Ohio discovered that he is paying a "smoker's rate" for his childrens' life insurance policies. The company sued is AXA Equitable Life Insurance. Some in the industry say it is a common practice since companies do not know which children will grow up to be smokers. Besides higher pr...
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· FEMA's Defense - Fort Worth Star Telegram
5/27/2006 2:47:00 AM | FEMA defends itself from lawsuit =(0) In response to a class action lawsuit by hurricane evacuees claiming inadequate housing aid, FEMA defended itself mostly by citing procedural issues: FEMA states it is shielded from the suit by "sovereign immunity" which bars lawsuits against government agencies; FEMA states plaintiffs do not have the standing to file the suit and that th...
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5/27/2006 1:07:00 AM | Windstorm insurance rates set to increase =(0) The Texas Windstorm Association (Windpool) will be allowed to raise its rates 3.1% for home policies and 8% for businesses according to a decision by Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin. The increase is substantially less than the association had requested. The Windstorm Association expects as much as a 60% increase in participants ...
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5/26/2006 4:25:00 AM | 243 policyholders sue Nationwide =(0) A group of 243 policyholders are suing Nationwide Insurance in a lawsuit similar to those against State Farm and Allstate. Portions, or all, of their damage claims from Hurricane Katrina were denied on the basis of "storm surge" damage which is considered flooding, as opposed to "wind" damage, which was covered. The plaintiffs claim that it was the...
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5/26/2006 3:44:00 AM | Hercules ordered to revise payments =(0) A judge has ordered chemical company Hercules Inc. to recalculate retirement benefits for some retired pensioners. This is part of a class-action lawsuit against the company by retirees who claim it illegally changed the interest rate used in some calculations of lump sum payment benefits owed. The remainder of the lawsuit has yet to be t...
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5/25/2006 5:55:00 PM | 26 Indicted For FEMA Fraud =(0) Twenty-six central Florida residents have been indicted for FEMA fraud. They allegedly defrauded FEMA of $150,000 in bogus claims, as the hurricanes they claimed damage for (Katrina and Rita) did not even hit central Florida. They allegedly took advantage of a special process designed to get funds to victims as quickly as possible, and now fac...
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5/25/2006 10:54:00 AM | Judge rules against State Farm in suit over flood exclusions =(0) State Farm has lost a round in a lawsuit over hurricane damage in Mississippi. A judge ruled that the wording in State Farm's policy was "ambiguous" and "unenforceable" because it contained some contradictions - for example, coverage due to wind damage would be denied if the wind acted together with an excluded event such as tidal surge. ...
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5/25/2006 5:20:00 AM | Official hopes Katrina made need for flood coverage clear =(0) An official from the Insurance Information Institute strongly urges homeowners to consider purchasing flood insurance. In the US, homeowner's insurance purchased through insurance companies does not cover floods; you can get flood coverage through FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for your home (whether owned or rented) and business.&n...
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