It’s a story told increasingly frequently over the last couple of years: California homeowners are left scrambling after being dropped by their longtime insurance carriers.

The impact of continually worsening wildfires and drought in the Golden State – as well as billions of dollars worth of insurance claims – have led to policy non-renewals for tens of thousands of homeowners. 

According to the California Department of Insurance report, 2019 saw a 31% increase in non-renewals by insurance companies statewide, including a 61% increase in ZIP codes having an area with moderate to very high fire risk and a 203% increase in the top 10 counties with the highest exposure of homes in high to very high fire risk. 

Additionally, homeowners with wildfire risk often pay higher premiums than those without wildfire risk and

At Delta, the surcharge is one of several new requirements for unvaccinated workers. Starting immediately, those employees will have to wear masks indoors. In about two weeks, they will be subjected to weekly coronavirus tests. Then, on Sept. 30, unvaccinated employees will lose protections intended to cover pay for work missed while having to quarantine.

The airline, which is based in Atlanta, its biggest hub, has a lot of employees in a state with a relatively low vaccination rate. Just over half of Georgia’s adult population is fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Delta’s decision not to require the vaccine may also help it to avoid criticism from Georgia’s conservative lawmakers, who have punished it in the past. In 2018, the state legislature voted to repeal a tax break on jet fuel after Delta ended a discount for members of the National Rifle

Cyber insurance buyers that don’t have necessary risk mitigation security controls in place could face higher rates, nonrenewals or declines by insurers, Amwins Group Inc. said in a report Wednesday.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based wholesaler said on top of increasing rates and more restrictive terms, the lack of multi-factor authentication among policyholders is proving to be a “challenge” when securing cyber liability coverage.

“Moving forward, the market will require insureds to demonstrate they have the necessary risk mitigation security controls in place, such as multi-factor authentication on remote access, email and/or privileged IT accounts as well as backups in the cloud (or otherwise segregated from the network),” Amwins said in its Q2/Q3 2021 State of the Market report.

Ransomware, an issue most often triggered by lenient security controls, has been the biggest claims driver over the past year in both frequency and severity, Amwins said.

“Currently, we are seeing underwriters

A federal appeals court overturned lower court rulings Wednesday and agreed with insurers that COVID-19 business interruption cases could be heard in federal district courts rather than state courts.

The divided precedential ruling by the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which concerned insurance disputes over COVID-19-related closures of various Pennsylvania and New Jersey restaurants, did not address coverage issues, but marks another win for insurers in the swathe of litigation in state and federal courts over pandemic-related losses

While court decisions have varied depending on policy wordings and other issues, federal courts have generally issued rulings that are consistently more favorable to insurers than state courts.

The appeal involved three cases: Dianoia’s Eatery LLC, dba Dianoia’s and Pizzeria Davide v. Motorists Mutual Insurance Co.; Umami Pittsburgh LLC dba Umami v. Motorists Commercial Mutual Insurance Co.; and Mark Daniel Hospitality LLC, dba INC v. Amguard Insurance Co.

(Reuters) — Insurers are quietly gearing up for a potential ten-fold increase in sales to the booming $17.6 billion-a-year cannabis industry as Congress inches closer to legalizing pot at the federal level.

While 36 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for medical or recreational use, insurance for growers, testing labs and retailers is being held in check largely by strict federal laws that criminalize pot alongside heroin, methamphetamine and LSD.

U.S. legal cannabis sales jumped 45% last year and are expected to hit $41 billion in 2026.

But the industry only wrote about $250 million in policies last year, insurance agents estimated for Reuters, with a handful of insurers offering limited property and liability coverage.

Businesses also need coverage for crops and theft, along with larger payout limits, according to more than a dozen insurers, brokers, agents, lawyers and cannabis business owners interviewed by Reuters.

As

TALLAHASSEE — State regulators took a hard line on a property insurance company that wants to raise rates by an average of 36 percent on more than 64,000 homeowners policies, the company’s second big rate hike in a year.

During a Friday morning hearing, regulators grilled executives from Southern Fidelity Insurance Co., based in Tallahassee, questioning the company’s methodology, viability and reasons for wanting to raise some homeowners’ rates by more than $3,000.

“We made it very clear that we’re concerned about the rating methodology this company has used for years,” said Susanne Murphy, deputy insurance commissioner for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

Regulators made no decision Friday about whether to approve the increases. The company has more than 8,200 policies across Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and more than 11,100 across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.

Southern Fidelity imposed the increases on July 1, less than

Climate-driven events are prompting changes in commercial property insurance policy wordings and tighter terms and conditions as insurers try to manage an increase in the frequency and severity of natural catastrophe losses, brokers say. 

How policies define change in temperature and how deductibles and limits are applied are some of the areas where commercial property policyholders are seeing changes, they say. 

Global insured natural catastrophe losses totaled $40 billion in the first half of 2021, according to a report published last week by Swiss Re Institute, part of Swiss Re Ltd. 

Winter storm Uri, which hit swaths of the United States in February, caused estimated insured losses of $15 billion, the highest ever recorded for this peril in the U.S., and accounted for about 38% of all estimated insured losses from natural catastrophes in the first half of the year, Swiss Re said. 

Weather-related events — not just one-off events

A federal court has dismissed COVID-19 business interruption litigation filed by the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team against a Chubb Ltd. unit, ruling the team had not supported its claim that the virus caused direct physical loss or damage.

Under California law, “a direct physical loss contemplates an actual change in insured property,” said Wednesday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in The Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. v. Federal Insurance Co.

The Lakers alleged in litigation filed against Chubb unit Federal Insurance in March that COVID-19’s presence at the Staples Center and the surrounding transportation stations physically altered the property. 

These “are merely legal conclusions couched as factual allegations,” the four-page ruling said in dismissing the case. “The Lakers failed to allege any facts to support its conclusion that the presence of COVID-19 constituted a ‘direct physical loss or damage.’”

The Lakers’ all-risk policy did not include

There are many things that we have to think about when we are just planning to start our business and also in maintaining it to keep it alive and running. Joining the business industry is an everyday cutthroat competition. You must do everything to survive and continue to have your customers and supporters. Owners think about lowering their price, having promo deals, discount days, sale days, and even gimmicks like hiring celebrities for endorsements and commercials. 

It is the things that business owners do to protect their respective businesses, they make a partnership with other businesses. Another way to protect your business, not against other competitors but against any future financial loss, is to have it insured through the best and most suitable business insurance plan for it. As beginning entrepreneurs, you may ask yourselves what is business insurance and how is having one beneficial for your business? 

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