“Over the last several years, Islanders have faced a shrinking pool of insurance companies willing to insure their homes. Many who received letters of "non-renewal" had paid their premiums to the same company for years and never filed a claim. Others whose insurers remained in the market saw their premiums double in a few years' time.”
One Cape cod resident, Paula Aschettino, decided to take matters into her own hands and formed a group called Citizens For Homeowners Insurance Reform. The group has swelled its membership to 950 people. In a recent forum Aschettino commented on the reasons for premium increases:
“Most insurers lay the blame for soaring premiums on their increasing costs for reinsurance, the insurance they buy to cover their own losses. Hoping to offset their reinsurance costs and set aside money for future claims, insurers are raising premiums for homeowners - or pulling out of some coastal area markets altogether.”
My first question to those individuals who decided to live on the coast would be: Don’t you know that where you live is more prone to hurricanes and tropical storms and because of that insurance premiums can go up? It just so happens that they are living through the aftermath of some of the most active storm seasons in many years.
Am I being too harsh? Tell me what you think about this topic?
Harsh? Yes. Uninformed? Yes. I've spent the past 3.5 years working on this issue. After you've spent as much time studying the problem as I have, I'd love to have a discussion with you-untill then I suggest you stop writing about something you obviously don't know anything about.
The insurance industry sponsored legislation in 2004 to lift the premium caps in the MA Fair Plan's large share territories-then set about non-renewing thousands and thousands of coastal homeowners who had no choice but the UnFair Plan for coverage, turning coastal areas into "large share" territories.
This is a very cleverly crafted crises orchestrated by the insurance industry.
For the record-I didn't decide to move to Cape Cod, I'm a 12th generation native Cape Codder. I'm a licensed insurance broker and a CPCU - the insurance industry is guilty of collusion and price fixing based on hurricane modeling data they refuse to disclose for public scutiny. At least one of the hurricane modeling companies (A.I.R) is owned by the insurance industry. The other hurricane modeling company, RMS, is owned by DMGT, a newpaper and information group owned by a conglomerated based in Bermuda which is probably a reinsurance company...
If you're interested I have the UnFair Plan's latest 3,200 page rate filing on a CD with critical hurricane modeling data "redacted".
The insurance industry is more corrupt than Eron-After 28 years of working in the insurance industry I am horrified at the actions of the MA Fair Plan and other homeowner carriers and the lack of regulatory agencies to protect consumers.
- Jane Logan, CPCU
harborsidejl@hotmail.com
Posted by: Jane Logan, CPCU | May 6, 2007 6:32 AM | Permalink to Comment