InsuranceRise

  Tyler Perry is speaking out against insurance companies amid devastating Los Angeles wildfires. The movie producer took to Instagram Sunday to voice his dissatisfaction with insurance providers who have canceled plans in the state as wildfires become more common. "Does anyone else find it appalling that insurance companies can take billions of dollars out of communities for years and then, all of a sudden, be allowed to cancel millions of policies for the very people they became rich on?" Perry wrote. As California has become more wildfire-prone, insurers have fled the state making it more difficult for homeowners to safeguard their properties. Mandy Moore addresses backlash after sharing in laws' GoFundMe amid LA fires Commenting on the changes, Perry wrote: "Watching a daughter use a garden hose to try and protect her 90-year-old parents' home because their insurance was canceled was just gut-wrenchi...

  BENGALURU, Jan 15 (Reuters) - India's HDFC Life Insurance (HDFL.NS) Reported a 14% rise in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by growth in the sales of retail insurance p The company, the first major Indian life insurer to report its quarterly results, said profit rose to 4.15 billion rupees ($48.05 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, with net premium income growing 10%. HDFC Life's claims paid during the Dec-quarter dropped 7% year-on-year. Insurance penetration has historically been low in India, but rising financial awareness and accelerated demand for cover - especially for life and health insurance - after the COVID-19 pandemic has led to higher policy sales. The company's value of new business (VNB), or expected profit from new policies - one of the key metrics for insurers - rose 14% year-on-year to 25.86 billion rupees in the nine months to Dec. 31. New Business Premiums from retail policies rose 24% in the period, driven by a 15% rise in...

  The California FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, had just $377 million available last week to pay claims that could reach billions, officials said. It’s too soon to know how the Los Angeles fires will change life in California, but it may heavily depend on the answer to a single question: Will a once-obscure insurance program run out of money? That program, the California FAIR Plan, was created by state lawmakers in 1968 to cover people who couldn’t get standard home insurance for various reasons. But as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and intense, causing commercial insurance companies to pull back from the state, the rapidly growing FAIR Plan has become the linchpin holding together California’s increasingly fragile insurance market. Because of the fires that started last week, that linchpin may be about to break, with consequences that would reverberate throughout California’s economy. As of last Friday, the FAIR Plan had just $377 milli...

  In 2023, three of California’s major home insurance companies denied claims at a higher rate than what was seen in other parts of the U.S., a new report found. Questions have swirled about the home insurance industry - or lack thereof - in California in the wake of wildfires that have destroyed more than 12,000 structures across Los Angeles. The blazes continue to rage as crews work to contain them. People who have lost homes are reporting they didnt have insurance after many companies stopped offering home insurance policies in the state. A Los Angeles Times report on three of the largest home insurance companies in California and found that affiliates of Farmers Insurance, based in Los Angeles, denied approximately 50 percent of its claims, according to the survey. A pair of USAA affiliates declined 48 percent of the claims made in 2023, and Allstate Insurance — based in Illinois — denied 46 percent of the claims made that year. All were denied before the recent wildfires. ...

  January 13 - With some 55% of the world’s GDP either moderately or heavily dependent on nature, according to PwC , much more finance needs to flow away from activities that harm nature towards activities that support it. Indeed, the U.N. Environment Programme estimates    that annual investments in nature-based solutions (NbS) need to increase from $200 billion to $542 billion by 2030 to tackle the planet’s climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises. One important channel could be voluntary carbon markets, with the World Economic Forum saying it could be worth between $5 billion and $30 billion per year by 2030, with perhaps two thirds of this channelled into nature-based solutions. However, in the last three years, only 1.2% of the annual cost-effective potential of NbS has been unlocked by the voluntary carbon market, the WEF says. One sector that could be key for expanding the voluntary carbon market and other forms of nature finance is the insurance...

  Imagine this: you need shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. If you choose to go through insurance, the “list price” is $27,000. But when you request to pay in cash, you’re offered a nearly $22,000 discount, so you only end up paying about $5,700. This happened to my brother a few months ago in Austin, Texas. While it was an enormous relief for him, it raises several deeply troubling questions: 1) Why are there so many vastly different “prices” for medical care for the same medical procedure? 2) How often does this happen, and could you be eligible for such a discount? 3) Why does it seem like having health insurance sometimes isn’t actually saving us any money? The purpose of any insurance - whether car insurance, life insurance, or homeowner’s or renter’s insurance - is to reduce our risk from a large loss. In exchange for this, we are willing to part with a certain small loss, which is the monthly premium, which is paid to the insurance company. However, already we c...