Latest Policyholder Headlines

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

Nationwide Welcomes Penn. Regulators’ Approval of Harleysville Deal

Apr 18 2012 // Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. welcomed Pennsylvania regulators’ approval this week of the insurer’s proposed merger with Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co.Regulatory approval from Pennsylvania, where...

Private U.S. P/C Insurers’ Income Fell to $19.1B in 2011: ISO, PCI

Apr 17 2012 // A new analysis shows that while the private U.S. property/casualty insurers suffered deteriorating results in 2011, they still ended the year with a strong and improved fourth-quarter.Private U.S. P/C insurers’ net...

No Push Back on Allstate Rates by Texas Insurance Regulators

Mar 22 2012 // Homeowner insurance rate hikes filed in Texas by Allstate Insurance in December 2011 have passed muster with Texas insurance regulators.The company made a rate adjustment of 5.7 percent statewide for Allstate Texas Lloyds...

Payout of Louisiana Citizens Insurance Judgment Blocked Again

Mar 19 2012 // A state appeals court has blocked policyholders of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. from collecting more than $100 million for the company’s failure to handle claims quickly enough following the 2005...

Florida’s Citizens Assessment Rate to Change Under New Law

Mar 12 2012 // Florida lawmakers have approved a bill that reduces the assessment rate of the state-run property insurer to give policyholders more time to retire deficits. The bill would also reduce the financial pressure on the...

Argenia Offers Wrap Around Policy for Florida Citizens Policyholders

Mar 8 2012 // Arkansas-based surplus lines broker Argenia has created a new Florida program designed to cover the reduction of coverage under Citizens Property Insurance Corp. homeowners policies.The program provides high enough...

Natural Catastrophe Insurance Payouts Accelerate

Mar 5 2012 // Natural catastrophe-related insurance claims payouts to U.S. P/C policyholders grew seven-fold as a share of total claims payouts between 1960 and 2010. The trend has accelerated over the past two decades, with hurricanes...

California Commissioner Jones Announces Settlement for Earthquake Policyholders

Feb 28 2012 // The California Department of Insurance has settled a noncompliance action against GeoVera Insurance Co. following a 2010 investigation into consumer complaints concerning GeoVera’s underwriting practices. GeoVera...

Florida May Change Citizens’ Policyholder Assessments

Feb 28 2012 // Funding for the Florida’s state-run property insurer is likely to change as state lawmakers are looking to access the insurer’s total assessment base quicker and give it more time to collect funds in the event...

Lawyers for Citizens’ Customers Reject Settlement

Feb 27 2012 // A nearly $103 million offer by Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort to settle claims disputes was rejected on Feb. 24 by lawyers representing the policyholders, who objected to several pieces of the proposal,...

Louisiana Citizens Board Offers $103M to Settle Lawsuit

Feb 24 2012 // Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort is offering nearly $103 million to settle disputes over its handling of claims after hurricanes Katrina and Rita more than six years ago.The governing board of the...

Is Common Law Bad Faith Dying in Texas?

Feb 20 2012 // When a carrier is sued for denying a claim, it is usual for policyholders to raise claims of bad faith. For decades now, policyholders have frequently pled both common law (i.e., law created by cases) and statutory (i.e.,...

California Lawmaker Introduces Claim Information Control Bill Over Insolvent Insurers

Feb 17 2012 // A California lawmaker on Friday introduced a bill to give greater control of claim information held by insolvent companies over to policyholders.Assemblyman Curt Hagman said he introduced Assembly Bill 1734 to provide...

Pennsylvania Insurance Department to Liquidate First Sealord Surety

Feb 13 2012 // The Pennsylvania Insurance Department Commissioner Michael Consedine announced last week that the Commonwealth Court has approved the department’s petition to liquidate First Sealord Surety Insurance.First Sealord, a...

Louisiana Citizens Offers to Settle Katrina-Rita Suit for $80M

Feb 13 2012 // Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort has offered to settle a dispute over slow handling of hurricane claims from 2005 for up to $80 million, with no more than $25 million of that for attorneys’ fees —...

Lawsuit: Payment Denied For Seniors’ Home Care

Feb 10 2012 // A lawsuit contends that a health insurer ran a scheme to avoid paying in-home care claims from what could be thousands of California’s elderly residents.Senior Health Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania, or SHIP, had a...

Texas High Court Reaffirms Bar Against Policyholder Negligence Claims

Feb 1 2012 // In a decision that workers’ compensation experts say is good for Texas employees and employers alike, the Supreme Court of Texas issued a unanimous opinion on January 27, 2012, that bars negligence claims against...

Nationwide Calls Harleysville Deal ‘Fair and Compelling’

Jan 25 2012 // Nationwide is brushing off Liberty Mutual’s allegation that Nationwide’s pending acquisition of Harleysville Mutual would unfairly benefit subsidiary Harleysville Group’s stock shareholders at the expense...

Report: Liberty Mutual Failed in Bid to Buy Harleysville

Jan 23 2012 // It turns out there was another player in last year’s merger deal between Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co.According to a news report, Liberty Mutual also made an offer last...

Oklahoma Commissioner Disappointed in MLR Waiver Denial

Jan 23 2012 // Oklahoma’s top insurance regulator believes the medical insurance market is headed for “disruption” as a result of the medical loss ratio (MLR) component of federal health insurance reform.After...