Windstorm Insurance

Position

News

• As insurers face health care law requirements, customers face cancellations
  Sep 8, 2010 — The Dallas Morning News
  The plans available range from a $2,500 deductible with $1,025 monthly premium to a $7,000 deductible with a $662 monthly premium.
• Official says Texas budget cuts could gut insurance regulation
  Sep 3, 2010 — The Dallas Morning News
  The other would have the agency monitor the business plans of companies to make sure they are following them.
• Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas, Bill Teeter column
  Aug 24, 2010 — Waco Tribune-Herald
  ...employee health to try to curtail costs. They include fitness programs, health screenings and smoking cessation, she said. Despite rising costs, H-E-B will not stop supplying health care benefits to its employees, she said. At Bird-Kultgen Ford, insurance premiums have remained steady for the past three years, company president Peter Kultgen said. Still, it costs $170,000 a year for the dealership to insure its employees. The reform has the Kultgen management's...
• BRIEF
  Aug 19, 2010 — Houston Chronicle
  If he takes no action during that time, the increase automatically can take effect. For anything higher, the commissioner has 60 days to act. TWIA residential policies average around $1,220, per year, according to the association.
• Dallas-area homeowners insurance rates vary widely, analysis finds
  Aug 18, 2010 — The Dallas Morning News
  In Duncanville and Richardson, State Farm listed the same policy for $1,851. State Farm, with about 29 percent of the market, is the largest home insurer in Texas. That isn't really much of a choice," he said. "Our position is that it is better for the consumer to have more options.
• 2010 Golf TDI has style and efficiency
  Aug 13, 2010 — Newsday
  This fancy transmission has a conventional automatic shifting system, coupled with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters that allow for lowering or raising the gears manually. It comes in handy when merging onto fast moving traffic or making quick lane changes. The Golf completes the sporty ride with a suspension that hits the sweet spot. The TDI already comes loaded with extras, so I recommend keeping it simple. Like any other Golf, this TDI isn't for everyone.
• Texas Insurance Department working to fix problems in workers' comp division
  Jul 16, 2010 — Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  Workers' compensation also has no methodology for assessing fines. As a result, auditors had no way to judge whether fines were applied consistently. The department has started to address its problems by keeping an accurate inventory of cases. Enforcement team leaders will also conduct case reviews to verify that cases are making progress.
• Windstorm insurer to settle some Ike cases
  Jul 15, 2010 — Houston Chronicle
  ...windstorm insurer at the center of thousands of Hurricane-Ike related lawsuits has agreed to settle a chunk of them. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association will pay out an estimated $189 million to policyholders whose homes were razed to the slab nearly two years ago. That figure assumes all of about 2,400 slab claims against the insurer are resolved under the proposed settlements, said policyholder attorney Steve Mostyn. Individual policyholders that have attorneys...
• Citing higher medical costs, State Farm to raise auto insurance rates by an average 2 percent
  Jul 14, 2010 — The Dallas Morning News
  Farm is raising auto insurance rates an average 2 percent next month for the nearly 3 million drivers it insures in Texas, citing rising medical costs as the primary factor. The company's largest auto insurance subsidiary, State Farm Mutual, has notified the Texas Department of Insurance that the rate hike will be effective on renewals and new customers as of Aug. 16. State Farm County Mutual, another subsidiary that primarily insures higher-risk drivers, will increase rates an...
• Insurance offers slice of $189 million
  Jul 14, 2010 — The Beaumont Enterprise
  ...wantto accept a slice of a $189 million "mass settlement" with the state windstorm insurance pool, attorney Steve Mostyn said. "It's an offer, but it's substantially more than what was paid on those cases," Mostyn said. Mostyn said the attorneys were able to counter the insurance industry's argument of whether damage was caused by water or wind by using weather modeling and weather experts. Mostyn's law firm is working about 5,000 Ike lawsuits mainly in the Houston and...