Lessons Learned in Superstorm Sandy’s Aftermath

by Charles Nguyen , Online Auto Insurance Articles Team 

Category: State 
Friday, June 7, 2013 2:34 pm

Tropical Storm Andrea is speeding up the Eastern Seaboard, forecast to bear down on New Jersey and New York today and stay into the weekend.
But Andrea’s heavy rains will strike a very different New England region than the one that, just over seven months ago, was devastated by what would become the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history: Superstorm Sandy.
Unprepared, Then in the Dark
“We weren’t prepared for this, you know. Nobody was prepared for it,” Tom Carbone, who runs a Staten Island-based agency, told A.M. Best TV, which released a five-minute retrospective this week on the disaster, what it was like for insurers in its aftermath and its lasting impact on the insurance industry.
“On Staten Island, I think there were a lot of people that didn’t believe this hurricane was going to be as big as it was,” Carbone said.
Sandy’s unexpected intensity for New York and New Jersey residents was likely the result of something that isn’t obvious to the common person: the link between population density and storm damage.
And even as Sandy waned, those left in its wake faced bigger problems of initial cleanup and rebuilding—in the dark.
“When you have a storm of this magnitude hitting some of the most densely populated states in the U.S., it sets into motion all kinds of incredible chain reactions impacting, for instance, not only the power outages, the transportation disruptions but, from an insurance perspective, getting all these adjusters out into the field,” Michael Barry, vice president of media relations for the Insurance Information Institute (III), said in the segment.
Many insurance agencies faced a surge of claims without the common amenities of Internet and electricity. In New Jersey’s Ocean City, William McMahon said his agency dealt with those basic hurdles in stride.
“When the disaster actually hit, you have all this technology, this technology that was advanced so you were able to handle stuff,” he said. “And we went back to the basic: Here’s a piece of paper, put the name on there, and we’d hand it to someone else and they would take the claim.”
Carbone said he worked around the clock to work on claims from residents who lost almost everything they had to Sandy.
“By the grace of God, I guess, I took as much as I can do every day and went home exhausted,” he said.
For claims adjusters, Sandy presented some of the same, simple logistical problems. Michael Rotolo, an executive general adjuster with William Kramer Associates, said that maneuvering storm-damaged areas to get to claim sites was a significant setback.
“I think in some of the other hurricanes, down south in Texas and Florida, it wasn’t quite as hard to navigate the roads,” he said. “Here we had a lot of trees down and it was very hard to get around.”
Saltwater made efforts even more difficult, according to Rotolo.
“We had a lot of equipment that was under saltwater that had to be removed, replaced, repaired and electrical, of course, is the most affected by that,” he said. “It’s just a shortage of manpower, shortage of materials. It was very difficult to get things done.”
The III’s New York City offices were closed as Sandy flooded much of the downtown area. As the storm dissipated on Oct. 31, Loretta Worters, an III spokeswoman, said insurers were still blocked off from many impacted parts of the city.
“There’s a lot of pumping out of water because there are still a lot of electrical safety issues,” she told Online Auto Insurance immediately after the storm. “Once it’s safe enough to go in, insurers will start gathering claims information.”
An Industry Weathers the Storm
The full cost came into fuller view once claims data began rolling in, with Superstorm Sandy ultimately racking up the third-highest amount in insured losses out of natural disasters in U.S. history. The III’s latest estimate puts losses from Sandy-related claims at nearly $20 billion, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
But the industry is proud of its response to Sandy, according to Barry, pointing to New Jersey and New York regulators reporting high rates of claim settlements after the catastrophe.
Sandy cut such a wide swath through the northeastern U.S. that car claims stretched across more than a dozen states from Maryland to Maine. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reported in February a total of 250,500 vehicle claims generated by Sandy, with nearly 60 percent of those claims coming from New York. New Jersey car coverage claims made up almost 24 percent of total vehicle claims, and just over 3 percent were Connecticut-based.
Claims work was expedited by several efforts from lawmakers: federal mediators and programs swooped into New Jersey to begin handling claim disputes; regulatory administrators shortened required response times to claims; and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo authorized out-of-state licensesfor claims adjusters. By the six-month anniversary of Sandy, New York reported that a vast majority of its claims had been closed.
“That’s quite an accomplishment given the magnitude of the event,” Barry told A.M Best.
Insurers are also pitching in their part, with some enforcing forgiveness programs for Sandy-related claims like New Jersey-based Plymouth Rock Assurance, which said that it will not count such claims against a policyholder when re-pricing them for coverage.
“We’ve had the privilege of calling New Jersey our home for over 20 years,” the insurer said in a statement about its program. “We’ve felt Sandy’s devastation firsthand, and we know the last thing New Jersey needs to worry about right now is increased rates because of Sandy-related car insurance claims.”
A relatively calm year of disasters in 2012 helped the industry build capital to weather losses from the storm, with “not so much as a single insurance company [going] out of business as a result of Sandy,” A.M. Best reported.
Industry Faces Forecast of Active Hurricane Season
But that sunny news doesn’t mean smooth sailing ahead for the industry. An “active Atlantic hurricane season” is on the horizon, according to the National Weather Service.
New Jersey and New York residents are already under familiarly wet conditions as Tropical Storm Andrea makes her move through several states.
But other types of disasters are already hitting the industry hard early in the year, with tornadoes in Oklahoma last month reportedly causing hundreds of millions in damage.
Despite that, according to A.M. Best, the insurance industry “seems ready” to handle the predicted active hurricane season.
A briefing from A.M. Best, a firm offering industry news and analysis, showed that catastrophe-related losses from a survey of U.S. insurers in the first quarter of 2013 trailed the same period in 2012 by $1.2 billion.
With the NWS predicting three to six major hurricanes for the rest of the year, that extra billion or so could prove handy.

Top Auto Insurers Laugh It Up with Advertisement Campaigns

by Charles Nguyen , Online Auto Insurance Articles Team 

Category: Companies  
Friday, June 21, 2013 8:00 am

In a case study released two years ago, J.D. Power and Associates explored a question — when did personal auto insurance become a laughing matter? — and found the answer in an arena of quirky oddballs: an apron-adorned, wide-eyed woman named Flo; a tuxedoed man called Mayhem with near-guaranteed misfortunes; and an Australian-accented gecko who can count cavemen as his compatriots.
What’s changed in those two years? Nothing, except that arena’s gotten bigger.
Online Auto Insurance (OAI) takes a snapshot of major insurers in its latest study, breaking down everything from how each insurer’s market share has grown or shrunk to advertising expenditures over recent years.
And don’t forget to come ringside to watch the fight for your auto insurance policy in this OAI infographic.
In this article post, we’ll review what (and who) the industry’s big players are using in their advertising campaigns as car insurers fight over a piece of the $174.5-billion pie (that was the total premium volume in the U.S. last year).
In Safe Hands, Allstate Adds Mayhem
If you want to make the argument that splitting a brand isn’t advisable, don’t take that talk to Allstate, which has long held the second-biggest market share in the American car insurance industry.
Allstate has shown two television campaigns with two very different attitudes.
First, they turned to an actor named Dennis Haysbert, better known as President David Palmer (boss to the Kiefer Sutherland-played super agent Jack Bauer in “24”) and Robert De Niro’s getaway driver in “Heat.”
Haysbert’s low-toned voice fit well with Allstate’s “In Good Hands” segments promising neighborly help in tough situations.
Then Allstate went the other way, relying on the antics from Deans Winters in its “Mayhem” series.
Throughout Winters’s extensive history, the actor has played a range of roles from Tina Fey’s bummy, beeper-selling ex-boyfriend on “30 Rock” to an Irish punk behind prison walls on “Oz.” Allstate took as many liberties as it could with that range, throwing him off of roofs, crowning him leader of the Trojan Army, and making him wear pink stunner shades.
Winters and his characters were offputting. And that was the key to consumers buying insurance to ward off “mayhem” that could strike at any time.
But this major insurer is looking in the rear view at a fast-approaching GEICO, which reports say sold more car insurance premiums than Allstate in the first quarter of 2013. This rare shift in the car insurance landscape can teach Allstate a valuable lesson in advertising: celebrities work a lot, but animals work all the time.
GEICO Lives in Animal House
The craziness of the frat house full of misfits in “Animal House” is an apt description for how GEICO has handled its huge stable of characters that front its ad campaigns.
Let’s start with the GEICO gecko, a longrunning staple with an Australian accent that most of today’s TV watchers can recognize better than Mister T.
Maybe it’s nostalgia with the gecko’s success, but GEICO has stuck to its animals-as-characters motif with Maxwell the Pig, who’s flown on planes, ridden jet skis, and tried to wiggle his way out of tickets. Maxwell has even graced the Super Bowl (aka nirvana for advertisers), partnering with former NFL quarterback Phil Simms for some pre-game entertainment last year.
It’s that cross-promotion that sets GEICO apart from many others in the industry. Whether it’s putting a pig with Phil Simms or using the Pillsbury Doughboy, Eddie Money, and Dikembe Mutombo in ads about happiness, GEICO’s campaigns are as diverse as they are memorable, even if they are a bit nonsensical.
State Farm Catches Sports Craze
But GEICO isn’t the only insurer to catch a cross-promotion craze with the wide world of sports.
The nation’s largest car insurer, State Farm, employed some big names in the sports world for a few ad series, coining the “discount double-check” phrase with Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers andbirthing a twin for Clippers’ Chris Paul.
Sports again headlined for State Farm in a few single-commercial stints, bringing LeBron James to a lawn for some poppin’ and breakin’ and a Memphis Grizzlies mascot to a burglarize a home.
When State Farm did go outside of the sports world for its ads, it tried to stay funny. The “Magic Jingle” ads played on the insurer’s slogan, and even William Shatner joined in on the funny in his own State Farm ad.
In Campaign, Progressive Trades Flo for Suckers
Flo has been a mother to us all.
The red-lipsticked lady is everywhere, even a spot on Advertising Week’s “Walk of Fame” on Madison Avenue.
She made sure we put more in our piggybank.
She introduced us to Progressive’s Snapshot. When that didn’t work, she tried doing the same with Flobot.
But the woman who was in more than 80 commercials for Progressive is sharing the spotlight for the insurer’s promotion of Snapshot, its flagship usage-based program. So who’s she sharing it with?
Some rate suckers.
Progressive CEO Glenn Renwick said last year that Snapshot would see “exciting” changes in its Snapshot ad campaign this year, and Rate Suckers is certainly a change.
Progressive has relied before on the overly friendly Flo to pitch the Snapshot program, which uses an in-car device to record safe driving habits and reward them with lower premiums. But now, the insurer is turning to “Rate Suckers,” a campaign pitting good drivers (you) against bad drivers (everyone else), with your only possible repellent being the Snapshot program.
A Serious Side for Nationwide
But not all insurance ads are a laughing matter.
Nationwide took Progressive’s advice from Flo and added a woman’s touch to a campaign that debuted during last year’s Summer Olympics: famed pretty woman/stepmom/runaway bride Julia Roberts takes the mic for a smooth-voiced invite to “join the nation.” The soothing heart-warmer of an ad went light on the funny, opting for selling points of community and belonging.
But Nationwide wasn’t done there, tightening its tie for another serious turn in a partnership with acclaimed TV show “Mad Men.” The season-long sponsorship of the series delves into the company’s own decades-long history of slogans that eventually led to the current saying we’ve heard many times over: “Nationwide is on your side.”
Nationwide is also dipping its toe in cross-promotional waters, enlisting policyholder DeMarcus Ware (better known as the Dallas Cowboys’ bearish pass rusher and seven-time Pro Bowler) to front radio, digital, and print ads.
In an edging-on-corny statement from Nationwide, Ware said : “I’ve spent my entire professional career trying to break through protection. Now I’m looking forward to reversing that role by helping Cowboys fans understand how they can better protect the things that matter most to them through Nationwide Insurance.”
A Human Side for Liberty Mutual
Advertisers battled during last year’s Summer Olympics, and so did the ads themselves. That means Julia Roberts went heads-up with Paul Giamatti in the battle of promotional campaigns for insurers.
Unlike Julia, Giamatti (of “Sideways” fame) went a bit funnier in the “Humans” campaign, which highlighted the many mishaps that occur (and that insurance may cover) because of simple human error.
Although air conditioners dropped on cars or ketchup bottles splattered on blouses are slap-worthy offenses, there’s nothing like the reassuring voice of John Adams to sooth the nerves.
Farmers Group Hits its Funny Bone
In a tribute to the complexities of American capitalism, one of the largest insurance groups in the U.S. doesn’t even carry the name that is most common in households. With Farmers and 21st Century under its masthead, Zurich Insurance Group had the fifth-largest premium volume in 2012 and held that spot for years now.
Their weapons? A man we know best as Spider Man’s surly newspaper editor with a Hitler mustache and a real bespectacled man who actually has a mustache.
Both J.K. Simmons and that other guy hit plenty of funny bones with their sketches, the former for Farmers and the latter for 21st Century.
A side note: J.K. Simmons and Dean Winters (Allstate’s Mayhem character) worked together on HBO’s prison drama “Oz,” playing inmates Vern Schillinger and Ryan O’Reily, respectively. Their relationship can be described as a lot of murderous intent — the same can probably be said for insurance ads.

The Heat is On for Car Thefts During Summertime

The Heat is On for Car Thefts During Summertime

by Charles Nguyen , Online Auto Insurance Articles Team
Category: Auto Insurance
Friday, July 12, 2013 3:19 pm

Seasons brings their own special sets of concerns for drivers who worry about stolen cars.
In wintertime, it’s engines left running and “puffer” thefts.
At the height of summer, drivers should be wary of car thefts in general. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), July and August show the highest number of stolen cars compared to other months of the year.
And with July also being National Vehicle Theft Prevention Month, we at Online Auto Insurance (OAI) present the following updates and tips for policyholders who want to protect themselves against theft and what to do if a car has already been swiped.
Preliminary Car Theft Numbers Show Increase
This year’s month of awareness and prevention might be especially relevant, given that the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) recently reported preliminary nationwide theft figures that show an uptick in the number of stolen vehicles. It’s the first increase in years.
Drivers in the Golden State should be especially wary. The increase, as in most years, is concentrated in California, which has outpaced other states by far as a paradise for thieves: lots of cities, lots of land, and lots of cars to steal.
Adding to the problem, NICB spokesperson Frank Scafidi told OAI, are hard financial times that have hit law enforcement departments across the state.
Groups fighting car thefts in other states are also sounding the alarm. Michigan’s Help Eliminate Auto Thefts (H.E.A.T.) issued an advisory last month about the changing nature of car thefts.
With anti-theft technology taking a firmer hold on new car models, according to H.E.A.T., thieves are reverting to a tried-and-true crime: the carjacking.
Drivers should be aware of possible carjackings in parking lots and gas stations where the many instances of the crime occur, Terri Miller, executive director for H.E.A.T., told OAI.
Thieves Target More Than Just the Car Itself
But it’s not just the car itself that you could find gone.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) warns motorists that “thieves want parts and valuable items too.”
Popular targets include pricey parts like catalytic converters.
“Radios and wheel covers aren’t the only popular stolen vehicle parts thieves take,” DOT said on a theft prevention website. “They want whatever sells, from the mandated labeled parts to those that aren’t. Among some of the most popular parts or items left in vehicles are: engine, transmission, air bags, radios, GPS units, iPods, laptops, and purses.”
The Highway Loss Data Institute recently ranked the Ford F-250 as the vehicle model generating the most insurance theft claims, with some of the claims involving equipment nicked from the truck bed of F-250s.
Larger vehicle models, like sports utility and crossover utility vehicles, are also targets of thieves who steal their tailgates, according to another NICB report released this year.
Awareness, Insurance Tips After Theft
If you’re the unfortunate victim of a car theft, hopefully you have comprehensive coverage to protect you against the loss.
The Insurance Information Institute (III) estimates that more than 3 out of every 4 drivers has the valuable (yet optional) type of insurance coverage, which is considered useful because it protects against so many unlucky incidents that could befall your vehicle; theft is one of those incidents.
The NHTSA offered this what-to-do guide for those who find their car gone:
–File a stolen car report with police immediately, which will usually entail providing investigators: the license plate number, make, model and color of the car, vehicle identification number and “any identifying characteristics.”
–Within 24 hours, contact your insurer about the theft.
–Although only a little above half of stolen cars ultimately recovered, according to the NHTSA, the agency also says that those lucky enough to find their vehicle again after theft should contact their police department and insurer immediately.
Prevention Tips Against Theft
Building off of a prevention checklist from the NHTSA, OAI presents some of these obvious don’ts that every driver should heed:
–DO NOT leave your key, or any extra keys in or on your car.
–DO NOT leave any windows open.
–DO NOT park in dark areas.
–DO NOT leave valuables in the car, especially in open view.
–DO NOT leave your car while the engine is running.
–DO NOT leave your car without basic protection like a car alarm or immobilizing device.
Those tips might seem obvious, but the NHTSA reports that more than 4 out of every 10 stolen cars are because of simple driver errors like those listed above.
So don’t think that car thieves will simply overlook those simple mistakes — those mistakes are just the in that they’re looking for to nab your car.

Used Cars and Auto Insurance: Things to Consider before Making a Purchase

by Charles Nguyen , Online Auto Insurance Articles Team
Category: Buy 
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 3:27 pm

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, used car prices remain relatively high, but the good news is prices may be coming down. In its latest guide on the used car industry, the monthly average price of used cars up to eight years in age dropped 2.1 percent in May, which is its largest monthly drop since October.
The reasons: “favorable credit conditions, relatively stable gasoline prices, rising consumer confidence, and rising home prices,” according to the June guide.
But before making a purchase, there are some considerations to make about how you’ll cover that used car with appropriate auto insurance.
How Much Is the Car Worth?
The first question to ask: How valuable is that used car? This will be an important factor in making your auto insurance decisions.
You should use resources like Kelley Blue Book to find out, since insurers will look at the actual cash value of the car—not necessarily the price you paid for it. And in some cases, insurers won’t even stick to the Blue Book price.
Let’s remember a steadfast rule in insurance: the more valuable your car is, the pricier your coverage is going to be. The reasoning: an insurer risks pricier replacements or repairs on a more valuable vehicle.
Do You Need That Coverage?
The value of your car will help determine your premium, but it’ll also help you figure out which coverage types to include in a policy.
Unlike most new car purchases, with a used car you’ll have options on whether to include comprehensive and collision coverage. These coverages help pay for repairs to your own car. Collision protects you financially when your vehicle has been damaged in situations such as single-car crashes, or multicar crashes that you caused. Comprehensive protects against a number of other-than-collision cases, like theft, vandalism, and fire.
If the value of that used car is rock bottom, you might consider dropping the extra comprehensive coverage purchase, since protecting it against theft and vandalism might not be worth it. (Who wants to steal or key an old beater?)
In the instance of collision coverage, an older car valued at a low price might preclude you from purchasing that additional protection. You need to weigh how much it would cost to replace the car against how much you’ll be paying in premiums.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, collision and/or comprehensive coverage might not be cost-effective if the car is worth less than 10 times the annual premium.
What Will Your Deductible Be?
Your deductible is an amount you select before buying your coverage that you’ll have to pay before the insurer will start covering repairs. Selecting a higher deductible will lower the premium you pay for coverage, but that also means you’ll have to pay more out of pocket after an accident if you want your coverage to kick in.
So, again, consider the value of the car. If the used car is low in value and you can pass over repairs after an accident, consider a high deductible for lower premium rates or even ditching the coverage altogether.
A prime example: If an old used beater of a car is valued at $1,000, you probably shouldn’t buy collision coverage with a deductible of $500, since that means the policy will only provide $500 worth of coverage.
But if you have a high-value used car that you’ll want to repair right when a crash occurs, you’ll want to consider the low deductible. Sure, that means higher insurance premiums, but it also means that you’ll pay an affordable deductible before the insurer begins paying for the rest.
When shopping coverage, see how much comp and collision cost at different deductible levels, and weigh for yourself whether the extra risk of out-of-pocket costs is worth it.
Is That Really the Final Price?
Remember that you can still net a few discounts on coverage, whether you’re driving a new or used car, if you take a driver education course or have certain safety features for the vehicle. So those are options to consider if the final premium price tag is too high and you want to knock it down a little.
Is That Car Safe?
More important than how a used car looks or how to insure it may be finding out where it comes from. You don’t have to trust sweet-talk from your dealer and/or seller on this one. You can find free and easy-to-use tools online to do your investigating for you.
Carfax, AutoCheck, and VINCheck all offer background check services for free. Those services all reference title information from the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS), a government database storing backgrounds of vehicles.
All you’ll need is the car’s vehicle identification number, and the report will return information on whether or not the car has a history that involves it being flooded, salvaged, and/or totaled.

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Answers To Your Auto Insurance Questions

It is commonly believed that understanding the intricacies of car insurance is hard. Learning more destroys confusion like anything in life.

You should review all after-market equipment you intend to install on your car with your insurance agent, so that you can be sure it gets covered properly. You may put out $1,000 for a fancy stereo system for your car, but if the car is stolen, your insurance is only going to reimburse you for the $30 value they add to your car's actual function.

The majority of people think car insurance rates for young drivers will drastically decrease as soon as they turn twenty-five. The reality is that after the driver has reached the age of 18, the rate starts gradually dropping.

To save money on insurance, ride public transportation or ride with co-workers. Driving less is one great way to show responsibility as a consumer and impress your insurance company. Many providers also offer discounts for commuting.

Instead of spreading out your car insurance payments, pay it yearly or every six months. On average, your car insurance provider could be adding $3 to $5 to your bill. This may seem insignificant, but this can drain your wallet. You also do not need another monthly bill. This is good incentive to lower the number of payments.

Make certain that property damage liability coverage is included in your policy. If you cause property damage in an accident, this type of coverage will protect your assets. The majority of states in the U.S. requires this liability. Although you must invest money, it will be worth the cost if you get in an accident.

Trade in your sports car for something more insurance friendly. Sports cars are going to cost you a lot more to insure. Purchase a car that is more low-profile. When it comes to insurance, larger motors cost more to insure. Sports cars are a hot target for thieves, and this can drive up your premiums significantly.

Maintaining a good driving record is key to getting the best insurance premiums possible. A car accident can bump up your rates faster than anything else. Always drive within your own capacity and stay away from dangerous conditions. For example, if you have a hard time seeing the road late at night, avoid driving during this time.

Every tip that was mentioned in this article can certainly be useful for most of the people out there. Take the tips here, and use them with whatever type of car insurance you are needing. You can get the amount of coverage that makes you feel secure along with a price that is affordable by using the information from this article.