Insurance Blog

Every autumn, a new batch of college freshmen and their parents wrestle with the same three issues: tuition, nutrition and auto insurance. I can’t do much about the cost of college or the similarity of dorm food to soylent green, but I may be able to clear up a few car insurance questions. If your son

The crude may have stopped spewing from the Deepwater Horizon well, but homeowners insurance and business insurance claims and lawsuits are expected to flow for years and perhaps decades from the disaster. Risk management consulting firm Towers Watson & Co. estimates that commercially-insured losses from the BP spill will total between $4 billion and $6 billion, a fraction

Having lost the battle to block health care reform, the nation’s health insurance giants have retrenched in an effort to reduce how much the revolution is going to cost them. At issue: that nagging requirement that they spend 80 percent of the premiums they collect on the welfare of patients. If they fall short of

Ever wonder what Lindsay Lohan’s wild ride will cost her on her auto insurance and life insurance policies?  The good folks at Insurance Journal sensed that inquiring minds would want to know, so they contacted the Insurance Information Network of California for answers. The IINC crunched the numbers using Lindsay’s Beverly Hills 90210 ZIP code,

Let me make a prediction: Our national addiction to talking on cell phones while driving will inevitably increase our auto insurance rates. What’s more, efforts to limit cell phone use to hands-free devices while driving will have limited impact on either public safety or cheaper car insurance. Allow me to explain. Cognitive psychologists Christopher Chabris

During the past two weeks, I spoke with most of the major insurance organizations regarding the implications for insurance companies of the financial reforms that President Obama signed into law Wednesday. Their mood was far from celebratory but their sense of relief was palpable. Simply put, big insurance dodged a bullet. Let’s look at that

What does life insurance have in common with computer programming? My inner wise guy would probably answer: You can’t understand either one. And while that may be true for many, if not most, Americans, the answer I had in mind was: Both depend on “if/then” scenarios. Anyone who has visited robust insurance comparison sites like

Now the delicate courting dance begins between the Obama administration and health insurance companies like Aetna, Cigna, WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group who fought like trapped ferrets to avoid being dragged to the “Obamacare” prom. The foot-dragging is understandable: These are the same health insurance companies that Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been beating about the

Call me geek but I’m fascinated by car insurance. Insert here your pitying eye-roll, followed in close succession by “Why?” and “Don’t get out much, huh?” But two X factors separate car insurance from life insurance, health insurance and homeowners insurance: motion and emotion. Consider the car insurance underwriters at Progressive, Geico and State Farm.

Q: What do insurance, fire extinguishers and Kenny Rogers albums have in common? A: They’re all things we purchase that we hope we never have to use. On a more serious note, insurance in general, whether in the form of car insurance, health insurance, life insurance or homeowners insurance, is our best hedge against the