Most people realize their credit affects their ability to get mortgages, car loans, and other types of debt. However, businesses use personal credit histories in many other ways. Employers use it when considering job applicants. Landlords use it to evaluate prospective tenants. Increasingly, insurance companies are using it to develop an “insurance score,” a number that reflects the quality of a customer’s credit history. The companies’ research has shown that people with good insurance scores tend to submit fewer insurance claims than people with poor credit histories. Because of the predictive value of credit history, many insurers now obtain an applicant’s insurance score during the underwriting process.
While almost everyone would like to save on their auto insurance, it can be a big mistake to be penny-smart, dollar-foolish. The dollar amount you set your comprehensive and collision deductibles at will be one of the most important decisions you make during the purchase of auto insurance. In turn, the deductible amounts you set will be one of the main determining factors in the amount of your monthly premium.
Long before 9/11, insurer stability was an important but overlooked factor in the insurance purchase decision. Now, after 9/11, it can no longer take a back seat to issues like coverage or price. Insurer insolvencies are on the rise as old liabilities such as asbestos come back to haunt some companies, and newer exposures such as corporate scandals, accounting irregularities and toxic mold threaten to keep actuaries busy for years to come. With the above in mind, how does one factor the financial strength of insurance companies in to the buying decision?
What do silica, mercury, arsenic, pyrite, and asbestos have in common? They all are recognized as toxic substances, or contain toxic substances as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Their very presence on a construction site presents a serious exposure for a construction contractor.
Published reports from the U.S. Coast Guard show that boating deaths and injuries increased for the second consecutive year in 2006. Aside from the disturbing trend in boating deaths, the biggest change was actually in the amount of property damage, $43 million in 2006 as compared with $38 million in 2005.
It’s no longer enough to choose an insurance company simply because they offer what appears to be the best coverage or lowest rates. You also have to know the financial security of the company especially in these challenging economic times when even the largest companies might be teetering on the edge of insolvency.
Self-insured retentions (SIR) and deductibles are the two conventional mechanisms insureds use to reduce both premiums and loss ratios in liability policies. Those insureds must strike several careful balances in order to sustain affordable coverage while protecting assets.
As businesses become increasingly reliant on technology to store sensitive information, the incidences of security breaches are becoming more prevalent. Each security breach increases the risk that a lawsuit or regulatory action could financially ruin a company and permanently damage its reputation. The situation is so bad, that some retailers and financial institutions targeted by litigation and regulatory actions are trying to hold their technology vendors accountable so they can transfer some of the fallout.
The first few moments following an auto accident can be an extremely confusing, emotional, and frightening time. As such, it may be difficult to know what accidents need to be reported and what your insurance may require.
Many think of fraud as a non-violent type of crime. In reality, vehicle insurance scams, including the staged traffic accident, are far from non-violent. Aside from costing honest consumers hundreds to thousands of dollars in added insurance premiums, this steadily growing form of fraud has resulted in countless injuries and deaths to the innocent victims of the scams. In fact, data from the NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau) shows that staged traffic accidents have rapidly become a leading source of insurance fraud across the U.S.