Commercial Insurance Associates

Insurer GEICO has agreed to pay $6 million to settle claims by auto damage claims adjusters who allege the insurer failed to pay them for all hours they worked.
The settlement affects 806 adjusters countrywide who worked for GEICO from 2020 to 2023. Each will receive an average net payment of $4819.17, after attorneys’ fees, administrative costs and other deductions.

Most U.S. homeowners don’t know the policy covering their home doesn’t cover flooding. The biggest findings in the survey out this week shows that 56% of respondents were unaware that flood damage is excluded from a standard homeowners policy.

Since 2019, home insurance rates in the U.S. have surged 37.8% to roughly $2,478 per year, according to new data published by LendingTree. That is noticeably faster than the overall 24% increase in the consumer price index recorded during that same time period.

After a year that saw auto insurance costs increase 24%, rates are expected to grow more slowly this year. The amount to insure a vehicle in 2024 is projected to increase 7%.

Self-driving vehicle companies from Tesla Inc. to General Motors Co.’s Cruise are racing to start making money with their technology, outrunning efforts by regulators and Congress to write rules of the road for robot-driven vehicles. Proposed legislation to create a national framework of rules to govern autonomous vehicles remains stalled in Congress, despite the industry’s lobbying. That has left autonomous vehicle companies free to deploy robotaxis or self-driving trucks in some states, such as Arizona and Texas, but not in others.

A 2012 law had directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an agency of the Department of Transportation, to implement safety rules requiring car manufacturers to install a warning to drivers if an unbuckled passenger is sitting in a rear seat. The agency had three years to act.
The rear seat belt reminder requirement is now scheduled to start moving through the cumbersome regulatory process in January, but a final rule could be years away. The agency in the past has repeatedly blown past deadlines, including those promised in federal court.

If you have rental reimbursement coverage, your auto insurance provider will cover the cost of a rental car or public transportation expenses while your vehicle is being repaired due to a covered loss. Auto insurance will not cover a rental car unless you have rental reimbursement coverage and if there’s damage to your personal car as a result of something covered by your collision coverage and comprehensive insurance.

Two key groups that offer automobile safety ratings are yanking their top endorsements from some Tesla vehicles because the company has stopped using radar on its safety systems.
Consumer Reports pulled its “Top Pick” status for Tesla’s Model 3 and Y vehicles built after April 27, while the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety plans to remove the vehicles’ “Top Safety Pick Plus” designation.
The U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is no longer giving the Models 3 and Y check marks on its website for having forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and emergency brake support.

The U.S. government’s fight to choke off ransom payments collected by hackers hit a major snag following news that Colonial Pipeline Co. paid a hefty sum to hackers who for several days this week effectively shut down the country’s largest fuel pipeline and created gas shortages along the East Coast.
The decision went against FBI and Treasury Department warnings that such payouts will only spread pain down the line by encouraging more hacking, raising questions around the ethics of paying the ransoms.

The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Co. that caused gasoline shortages along the U.S. East Coast also sparked a debate about whether cyber insurance helps protect against marauders — or attracts them.
Some cyber-security experts say hackers target companies that have coverage, because they know the firms can pay ransoms. But others believe the blame is misplaced and that insurers, if anything, have raised the bar on cybersecurity.

The proportion of businesses targeted by cyber criminals in the past year increased from 38% to 43%, with over a quarter of those targeted (28%) experiencing five attacks or more, according to the Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2021.

Those attacks are pushing many firms to the brink, with one in six businesses attacked (17%) saying the financial impact materially threatened the company’s future.