Property and Casualty News

The National Weather Service has predicted Hurricane Harvey will make landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, pouring down inches of rain and wreaking havoc with wind speeds up to 115 mph. Victoria’s insurance agents are asking homeowners to prepare for the storm in addition to bracing for its aftermath. Ryan Stahl, who works for Atzenhoffer Insurance Agency, said…

Aug. 25– A Travis County grand jury indicted a public insurance adjuster and charged her with negotiating phony insurance claims after the 2012 hail storms in the Rio Grande Valley, the district attorney’s office announced on Thursday. According to the indictment, Elvia Chandler, 61, submitted 14 claims to insurance companies reporting damages that did not…

Aug. 25– Sunrise-based Sawgrass Mutual Insurance Co. is winding down its insurance operations and apparently headed out of business, according to a consent order made public this week by state insurance regulators. The property and casualty company, created in 2007, had 20,091 policies statewide and 2,612 in the tricounty region at the end of the first…

Aug. 24– JACKSON COUNTY– An indictment alleges a business owner and two employees of a tree-trimming business committed fraud by using a using a false document that claimed they had liability insurance. Scott Walker, owner of Walker’s Tree Service, is charged in a four-count indictment, along with Michelle Renee Diaz and Monnie Villareal. All three are from Moss…

Aug. 24– Factions in a long-running debate over increased litigation that’s driving up costs of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. policies reprised familiar arguments in a public hearing over the company’s proposed 2018 rates Wednesday in North Miami. Citizens CEO Barry Gilway again blamed claims abuses by water damage contractors and their attorneys…

Travis Wayne Wingrove, 29, of Dunbar, allegedly took $26,247 from clients between April 2013 and April 2015 while he worked at Rosemary Skaggs’ State Farm Insurance Agency in East Huntingdon, according to a news release. Jeffrey Lee Ingram, 53, of McCandless,, Allegheny County, allegedly submitted 252 fake Medicare claims and pocketed $88,636 between March and…

Aug. 23– A Vero Beach lawmaker said Wednesday she will again file a bill to repeal Florida’s no-fault car insurance system, but with key differences compared with a Senate bill introduced days ago, setting the stage for the biggest potential change in motorist coverage in almost 50 years. At stake: whether Florida drivers can save up to $1 billion a year by ending…

SOUTH SIOUX CITY| The city of South Sioux City has filed a lawsuit seeking to get insurance companies to pay claims that residents are filing after being displaced from homes that were inundated with controversial odors. The city is asking the court to order two insurance companies to cover tort claims filed by residents over losses related to sewage treated…

A new report indicates collision-avoidance systems equipped on vehicles in the United States have decreased the number of crashes and collisions leading to injuries. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released the findings of its study on Wednesday. For the study, Jessica Cicchino, the institute’s vice president for research, analyzed more than…

Aug. 23– ROCKFORD– A federal grand jury today brought additional felony fraud charges against a Rockford man who is accused of swindling more than 100 clients of more than $800,000 through his insurance-related businesses. His businesses included Surplus Market Solutions, Northern Underwriting Managers Inc. and Northern Illinois Insurance Agency, all…

MICHIGAN- On August 2, President Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan, which makes federal disaster funding available to the areas harmed by severe storms and flooding from June 22 to June 27. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the availability of assistance, which will aid Bay, Gladwin, Isabella and Midland Counties and the…

Aug. 22– A new front has opened in the ongoing battle between repair contractors and the insurance industry, and this time ground zero isn’t South Florida. In 2016, that number had swelled to 19,695. Most of those suits were filed in the Tampa- St. Petersburg region, but the numbers are increasing in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. South Florida…

Aug. 17– Keith Butler is in the business of preparing for disasters, but he was not prepared for what he saw on Aug. 19, 2007. A freight train derailed just south of La Crosse, fueling fears of a hazardous waste spill. Across the river in Minnesota, the situation was even more grim: seven people died and communities were washed away by the floodwaters.

Find your own repair contractor and figure out a way to stretch a reimbursement payment capped at $10,000. State Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier informed the Florida Cabinet on Wednesday that he expects private-market insurers will want to copy the $10,000 limit as well as newly approved requirements for water-damage repair contractors working…

Aug. 16– PLATTSBURGH– A Port Kent native is accused of faking a high-profile plane crash to get the insurance money, along with similar schemes involving another aircraft, a Lamborghini Gallardo and a boat. Theodore R. Wright III, 32, who now lives in Texas and Nevada; and co-conspirators Raymond Fosdick, 41, of Texas and South Carolina; Shane Gordon, 45, of Texas; and…

The company has made a commitment to invest more than $100 M of venture capital in customer-centric solutions that help members:. In addition to these efforts, Nationwide launched Nationwide Ventures in early 2016 to invest in startup companies that are transforming the insurance and financial services industry. Nationwide Ventures has made six…

Citizens unveiled its proposed rate increases in June, and like the last two years, want policyholders in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties to bear the burden for claims abuses the company blames on water restoration contractors and their attorneys in the region. Single-family homeowners in Broward would see their annual premium increase 10.4…

The incident illustrates what many law enforcement agencies say is an increasing problem in Michigan– wheel and tire theft. “a lot of variables,” including how experienced the thieves are, Michigan State Police First Lt. Officials from at least 30 different law enforcement agencies met two weeks ago at State Police headquarters in Lansing to discuss wheel and…

That’s assuming Congress does not show more urgency to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program before it expires on Sept. 30. Those in the insurance and real estate industry are cautiously optimistic the program will be reauthorized in something close to its current form, but with Congress currently in recess and with its recent struggles to agree…

The ringleader in one of the Sacramento area’s largest auto insurance fraud cases was recently sentenced to 10 years in state prison, and detectives are asking the public’s help in finding three suspects who remain at large. A criminal ring led by 30- year-old Michael Charles Young of Sacramento filed an estimated $500,000 in claims with insurance companies…