STATE FARM'S HEAD ON A PLATTER
What Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor wanted the Easter Bunny to bring him.
South Mississippi Living 4/07

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Helping Big Insurance See Red

by Ana Maria


As I read these articles this morning, the connection between and injustice of these two pieces really got to me. The woman deliberately applied for and received a duplicate check for property lost in Louisiana during Katrina. She was found guilty of “felony of theft of public money”. She had already gotten and cashed the first check.

On the other hand, insurance companies like Allstate and State Farm “strike it rich” with their industry-wide post-Katrina strategy in which companies “pulled back aggressively from areas susceptible to expensive storms. It did not renew many homeowners' policies. And it dramatically increased its own insurance, or reinsurance.

Of course, part of their “pull back” strategy also included deliberately denying legitimate wind claims on the home owner’s insurance policies for American families and businesses that Katrina had substantially damaged or destroyed. When these companies denied the wind claims, that also meant that the companies took themselves off the hook for the cost of living expenses for which we pay on our homeowner policies. You know, housing and the like.

When the insurance companies wrongly denied these wind claims thus weaseling out of their obligation to pay the cost of living expenses for these tens of thousands of families here in Mississippi alone, the families relied on Uncle Sam for their cost of living costs. To my way of thinking, these companies committed . . . now what was it that the woman was convicted of . . . “felony of theft of public money”. The woman deliberately had the government send her an additional $2,000 check. She got three years probation and had to pay the money back.

Isn’t that what Big Insurance has done? Hasn’t Big Insurance sent the American taxpayer a bill for cost of living expenses that the insurance companies should have paid for? Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) often recites 40,000 as the number of FEMA trailers here in Mississippi.
In south Mississippi at one point we had 40,000 people living in FEMA trailers, we're grateful for every one of them. But those trailers were delivered by a friend of the president by the name of Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Miss., down to the Gulf Coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap, and plug it in, $16,000.
Since folks had been living in tents—and it is hot as blazes down here, the trailers were a welcomed reprieve—even if they have since been shown to be formaldehyde-filled. Get it? The insurance companies’ deliberate failure to certify policyholders’ wind claims had American families living in tents in the hot-as-Hades sun, then in formaldehyde-filled trailers where many thousands of families continue to reside because of the housing crisis.

This crisis—along with the rest of the economic crisis throughout the Katrina-ravaged region—is caused because of a responsibility crisis. Many insurance companies have exhibited this industry-wide epidemic of shirking its financial responsibilities.

If our society finds guilty a woman who wrongfully bilked the government of $2,000 requiring her to repay the money and to be on probation for three years, what would be an appropriate sentence for corporations that deliberately bilked the federal government of billions of dollars in federal disaster aid to the Katrina region?

If the industry had responsibly paid for wind-related damages and the related cost-of-living expenses associated with those damages, the federal flood insurance program would not be swimming in Katrina-related red ink. And this red ink is the industry’s main talking point for opposing Taylor’s Multiple Peril Insurance legislation.

The audacity of Big Insurance to bilk us of our tax dollars and then turn around and use that red ink as the reason to oppose the Multiple Peril Insurance legislation! Kind of has us seeing red, doesn’t it?

When I have an abundance of something, sharing it always makes me feel fabulously. Yes, ma’am and yes, sir! Generosity is key. With this abundance of red, we can share the wealth . . . through a bit of political hell raising.

All we need to do is email or call our U.S. Senators to let them know that we support Taylor’s Multiple Peril Insurance legislation. If we’ve already called, then send an email. The more we do this, the more political momentum we build for the bill. The more political momentum we generate, the more likely the bill will pass the U.S. Senate. The quicker we do this, the quicker we graciously assist Big Insurance in “seeing red” for themselves. Maybe those millions and millions of dollars in raises and bonuses that the two-fisted greedy gutted insurance execs received will have to be returned to the U.S. Treasury. Isn't that what the woman had to do? She had to return the bonus she gave to herself? That seems like fair play to me.

And that’s the way we spread our generosity of seeing red to Big Insurance while passing the Multiple Peril Insurance legislation to protect our families and businesses. It feel good to be generous inside the political arena!

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Allstate strikes it rich with post-Katrina strategy

Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — When a series of killer hurricanes walloped the Gulf Coast in 2005, Allstate tried to make sure it never again would see a quarterly loss as large as that $1.5 billion setback.

The Northbrook-based insurer pulled back aggressively from areas susceptible to expensive storms. It did not renew many homeowners' policies. And it dramatically increased its own insurance, or reinsurance.

Two years later, despite the continuing risk of a consumer and regulatory backlash, the strategy is paying off big despite substantial consumer criticism. Allstate is on a pace to exceed last year's record annual profit of $5 billion as it gets set to report third-quarter results on Wednesday.

The shift has made Allstate more an auto insurer. Automobile insurance now accounts for more than double its revenue from homeowners.

WTSP-TV (CBS, Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg) originally published here on October 15, 2007.


(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Home Insurers Canceling in East



James and Ann Gray, who live 12 miles from the shore, have lost their homeowners’ insurance. Photo: Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Published: October 16, 2007

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Oct. 15 — It is 1,200 miles from the coastline where Hurricane Katrina touched land two years ago to the neat colonial-style home here where James Gray, a retired public relations consultant, and his wife, Ann, live. But this summer, Katrina reached them, too, in the form of a cancellation letter from their home-insurance company.

The letter said that “hurricane events over the past two years” had forced the company to limit its exposure to further losses; and that because the Grays’ home on Long Island was near the Atlantic Ocean — it is 12 miles from the coast and has been touched by rampaging waters only once, when the upstairs bathtub overflowed — their 30-year-old policy was “nonrenewed,” or canceled.

The Grays signed with a new company, but their case attracted the attention of consumer advocates and, in turn, the New York insurance commissioner, Eric R. Dinallo.

Mr. Dinallo’s sharp rebuke last month of the Grays’ company, Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company, reflected a shift in how public officials view a new reality in the homeowners’ insurance business, advocates say.

In the last three years, more than three million homeowners have received letters like the Grays’ as insurance companies, determined to avoid another $40 billion Katrina bill, have essentially begun to redraw the outline of the eastern United States somewhere west of the Appalachian Trail.

Public officials in Southern states from Florida to Texas have been fighting insurance carriers for years over rising rates and withdrawal of services, but officials in the Northeast have only recently joined the fray.

Companies including Allstate, State Farm and Liberty Mutual have “nonrenewed” policies not only in hurricane-battered places like Florida and Louisiana, but in New York and other Northern states that have not seen hurricanes in years. Since last year, those three companies and others have turned down all new homeowners’ insurance business in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts and the eight downstate counties of New York.

An independent insurance agents’ group puts the Grays among about 50,000 residents of the New York metropolitan area — and about one million homeowners in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states — whose policies have been canceled since 2004. While most homeowners have been able to find coverage with other major insurers, or with smaller companies, in most cases it is at higher rates and with larger deductibles.

The companies say they are obliged to avoid undue risks where they see them, and to remain solvent. “Considering what happened between 2003 and 2005,” said Robert P. Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry lobbying group, “and considering that the best meteorological minds are telling us that for the next 15 to 20 years hurricane activity will be heavier than normal, if we didn’t do something to reduce our exposure, we’d be out of business.”

In response to a growing torrent of complaints, state officials and lawmakers have lately begun to push back, if gingerly, against the industry, which they see as overreacting to the hurricane threat in the Northeast. “My concern is that this situation is being manipulated by the insurance companies in order for them to get higher rates,” said State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, who calls the cancellation of policies in his eastern Long Island district “more than a problem — it is a crisis.”

Mr. Dinallo, the commissioner, has focused his attention on the law: It was a single line in the Liberty Mutual letter sent to the Grays that prompted him to issue his rebuke. The line noted that one consideration in dropping their policy was that they did not have car insurance with the company.

That, Mr. Dinallo said, is illegal. Predicating one policy on another, or so-called “tie-in business,” is a violation of state insurance law, he said. Liberty Mutual said the tie-in was a secondary issue, but in response to Mr. Dinallo’s warning, Liberty Mutual, State Farm and the largest insurer in the state, Allstate, agreed to stop the practice.

Earlier this year, Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, also challenged insurers’ tactics, subpoenaing records from nine insurance companies that were requiring homeowners to install storm shutters if they wanted to keep their policies. “The insurers are making record profits,” Mr. Blumenthal said in an interview, “and the dire predictions of disastrous hurricanes, fortunately, have been very wrong — fortunately for everyone, including the insurers.”

Meanwhile, heated public hearings were held this year in the Rhode Island General Assembly about the lack of homeowners’ insurance in coastal areas, which include most of the state.

In Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, lawmakers and regulators this year proposed requiring all insurance companies doing business in the states to set aside billions of dollars to help defray losses from future catastrophic storms.

At a public hearing of the New York Senate Insurance Committee last Tuesday, Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. said the retreat of major home insurers had hurt the housing market. (Home insurance is required by all banks that make home loans.)

“We have people who cannot buy a house because they can’t find insurance,” he said.

Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a California-based consumer advocacy group, has watched the situation in the East with both professional and personal interest, since the policy on her parents’ Long Island home was recently canceled. Crisis or not, she said, the pattern is familiar.

“Wide-scale nonrenewal has been the knee-jerk reaction of the big insurance companies after every major disaster: hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires,” she said.

Florida set the pattern for states in picking up the risk shed by major carriers. Its state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the insurance pool for those unable to find home insurance anywhere else, has become the state’s largest homeowners’ insurer, with 1.3 million policies.

But Massachusetts, last hit by a moderate hurricane in 1991, has also found itself in the insurance business. Its high-risk pool has doubled in size in the last five years, reaching 200,000 policies this year, which makes it the largest single homeowners’ insurance carrier in the state. On Cape Cod, 44 percent of homeowners are covered by the plan.

In New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, the number of people covered by state insurance pools has remained relatively low. The New York plan, known as the New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association, carries about 70,000 policies, most for homes in coastal areas; this year, officials said, the state pool was expecting 10,000 more.

To some extent, insurance brokers in the New York metropolitan area have closed the gap left by the major carriers by finding policies with subprime insurers, also known as the excess and surplus market. Figures provided by the Excess Line Association of New York, a group representing those insurers, show that 7,689 such policies were sold last year, and almost as many, 7,456, in the first seven months of 2007.

Robert J. Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, said the extent of the retreat by major insurers “will depend a lot on what happens this year, hurricane-wise.”

Insurance companies have condensed their projections of risk, he said.

“They used to project 20 years in the future, but now it is more like 4 or 5,” Mr. Hunter said, a practice that has driven the current pull-back along the Northeast coast, where a big hurricane is overdue, according to computer analysis.

Mr. Hartwig, of the Insurance Institute, said it was more complicated than that. “What insurers are worried about is not just a hurricane in New York, but hurricanes in New York and Florida at the same time,” he said.

Betty Clark, a retired waitress living on a fixed income in a modest house where she raised her children in Eastham, Mass., on Cape Cod, said she had no idea how the tussle between insurance companies and public officials would play out. But after years of paying $742 a year, her home insurance doubled last year, to $1,440, which she would not be able to afford if not for some help from her children.

“I’ve never made a claim in all these years,” she said by telephone. “And yet, here it’s possible I’ll lose my home,” she said.

And not to a hurricane, she added.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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FEMA will provide $1.14 M for gas lines



Posted on Tue, Oct. 16, 2007

WAVELAND -- STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Mississippi's two U.S. senators said Monday that Waveland will receive $1.14 million from the federal government to help replace gas lines and distribution equipment damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Waveland gas lines were damaged by saltwater corrosion and uprooted trees. Federal money will pay for pressure testing of the high-pressure main line; repair and capping of existing branches off the main line; re-establishment of easements; and installation of a high-density polyethylene main line, service lines and termination caps, according to a press release.

Mayor Tommy Longo said the funding announcement is good news for a gas line project that is "already about 98 percent complete." The lines will provide natural gas service to hundreds of homes and businesses throughout the city, although a precise number was not available late Monday afternoon.

However, he said, "Many of our homes and almost all of our commercial businesses have some form of gas service. It was our goal for our residents to have heat in their homes this winter, and it looks like we're going to be able to do that."

The money is coming from FEMA, said Republican Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott.

"Our citizens and their cities and counties have worked so hard to rebuild, but federal assistance is still needed," Cochran said in a news release Monday. "Without essential utilities and infrastructure, cities like Waveland cannot completely regain the quality of life and business it once had."


© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com


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Monday, October 15, 2007

Insurance Execs: Two Fisted Greedy Gutted Goons

by Ana Maria

Insurance execs' pay up dramatically , the article’s title read. Brazenly flaunting their ability to fleece the American people, these two fisted greedy gutted people ought to be hung out to dry for their deliberately irresponsible behavior to the American policyholders and taxpayers.

Two fisted greedy gutted goons.

I’ve heard the phrase used to describe a zealously gluttonous individual. The phrase refers to someone who fails to use the common sense born to those with the socially acceptable moral compass found most often in people reared with traditional manners of please, thank you, yes, sir and no ma’am. I’m definitely from the old school in that department.

I remember my ire in one statewide campaign in which I was working. Responsible for providing the meals to volunteers at headquarters during the final four days of the campaign, I dubbed myself Food Goddess. Determined NOT to have one more meal of pizza, the menu I put out a week ahead of time included food from the area’s various ethnic restaurants.

Pizza is the standard campaign fare. By the end of the season, campaign volunteers and staff are sick of it. So, I was determined NOT to have one more meal of pizza. To my thinking, I could encourage MORE hours of volunteer time if the food coming in was a veritable feast. And a feast it was. Log before the weekend arrived, I posted the menu all over the HUGE headquarters. Why? That’s simple: to entice volunteers to schedule more time during the final push to victory.

I met my youthful greedy gutted wonders moments after announcing meal time. Oh my GAWD! The young guys piled high on their plates tons of food! I was aghast when I realized that their ill-mannered behavior had left very little for the more elderly volunteers among our many hundred volunteers. The next meal—merely hours away, I fixed their little you-know-whats.

First, I personally went to each of the elderly volunteers and whispered to them “dinner’s ready” as I winked and told them to go fill up their plates. Once each of them had their meals, then I announced mealtime for the rest of the volunteers. When the greedy gutted wonders returned to the line eager to exhibit another round of gluttony, I told them they could take ONE of anything and that was it!

You gotta picture this. I’m a rather petite woman. The young men were . . . not. They were huge, comparatively speaking. When they objected, I gave them a piece of my mind. This was free food donated to the campaign for ALL the volunteers. Their behavior was atrocious and I’m sure that their parents had taught them better manners than they had demonstrated. That as long as I was in charge of the food—and I was definitely IN CHARGE—they would follow the rules or not be fed.

I stood watch over the next few meals and guess what? These greedy gluttonous guys (yes, they were all late teen and early 20 year old guys) exhibited perfectly acceptable manners. Not only had I demonstrated that I was not tolerating bad behavior, but my rather public and strong admonition of their behavior apparently gave others permission to keep them in line as well. Group psychology in action, I suppose.

So, when I read yet another article of the greedy gutted goons that sit at the top of the insurance industry’s corporate ladder raking off millions and millions of dollars that should have gone to pay out Katrina survivors’ legitimate wind related claims, I thought of my time in Virginia. (By the way, with great team work and a fabulous candidate, Mark Warner, we won that governor's race in 2001!)

The way I see it matching up is like this.

The multiple peril legislation that Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) successfully shepherded through the House of Representatives last month does for the insurance industry what I did for the volunteers. The legislation makes the insurance playing field even. How? Glad you asked!

The insurance execs exhibit the same gluttonous behavior as the greedy gutted young ones in the campaign. To reign in the insurance execs requires making the playing field even. That is exactly what the Multiple Peril Legislation does. Like bullies at a buffet table, Big Insurance with its greedy gutted goons think it can take what it wants and leave the crumbs for the rest of us. If they leave us hungry, they don’t care. The greedy gutted goons care about themselves only.

Look at the latest evidence.

Insurance companies have raised rates, dropped thousands of policyholders and, in some cases, even stopped writing new business in the region, generally on the grounds that they must cut their potential losses from future storms.

But there is little sign the belt-tightening extends to top executives at those firms, when measured by pay. * * *

At State Farm, which announced in February it was dropping homeowner coverage for some 2,600 policyholders in Mobile and Baldwin counties, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward Rust Jr. collected about $11.7 million in salary and bonus last year - more than double the $5.5 million he received in 2004. Other top executives shared in the wealth. Michael Tipsord, the company's chief financial officer, made almost $5 million last year, compared with $1.1 million in 2004.

At Alfa Insurance Corp., which is dropping wind coverage for 4,600 coastal policyholders in Alabama, President and CEO Jerry Newby's compensation package last year totaled about $1.7 million, up by more than one-quarter since 2004. For chief executives at California-based Fire Insurance Exchange and Texas-based USAA, two other leading writers of homeowner policies in the state, the percentage increases in compensation during the 2004-06 time frame were about 75 and 150 percent, respectively.
To feed our hunger for sane insurance rates and for a single policy that covers both wind and flood damage—you know, one policy with one adjuster who will issue one check to cover damage from both wind and flood, Congress overwhelmingly passed with wonderful bi-partisan support the Multiple Peril Insurance legislation that Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) authored. This legislation will take away the bullying ability of Big Insurance’s greedy gutted goons.

Bloomberg News ran a superb article on how Big Insurance has been cherry picking their policyholders all over this country from California to the Gulf Coast to New York. When those policyholders file claims, Big Insurance again take out its bullying tactics to cherry pick who it will pay and who will be left holding the bag. No more!

With the Big Insurance Bullies, we can stand up for ourselves and declare cherry picking season is over. Now, it’s Senate season. It’s time for us to turn up the heat on the U.S. Senate to generate support to introduce and pass Taylor’s multiple peril legislation.

Yeah, boy, it’s political hell raising time again! Today, let’s contact our two U.S. Senators with a simple message to protect American families and businesses from the bullying tactics of Big Insurance. Better for us to raise a little hell now while we have the golden opportunity to make a difference before the next wave the industry’s bullying tactics. Passing the Multiple Peril Insurance legislation stops Big Insurance from continuing its greedy gutted behavior at our expense. Informing our U.S. Senators of our position on this legislation is how we get the ball rolling so we can achieve in the Senate the same glorious victory we achieve in the House of Representatives.


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Chicago Real Estate Investors Deliver Win-Win for Katrina Victims

Local Chicago Real Estate Investors fund new construction housing for Katrina victims in Mississippi. Fifty-plus houses will be built for families that are part of the 17,000 people awaiting homes in FEMA trailers. Springboard Real Estate Investor Academy partnered with a Florida developer to make this a reality.

Lombard, IL. (PRWEB) October 14, 2007 -- The Springboard Academy and Ryan Real Estate joined forces to provide housing to some of the 17,000 people waiting in FEMA trailers for a place to call "home."

The two sister companies, Real Estate education academy and brokerage firm, researched numerous development opportunities in the Gulfport area over the last six months to be certain that they were providing quality construction and good neighborhoods for the people. The project they rolled out provides four bedroom, two bath custom built homes for under $165,000. "We have been looking for a way to get involved with helping those in need in the GoZone and felt like this was a win for both our investors and the people in Mississippi," says Doug Crowe, founder of Springboard Academy and host of his own talk radio show on WLS.

The development project takes advantage of the Mississippi incentive program including up to $40,000 in cash incentives for investors and 50 percent bonus depreciation. In exchange for these incentives, the investor agrees to rent out the house for a minimum of five years. "We have examined over 51 distinct investment opportunities over the past 18 months," commented Colleen Herrera, Ryan Real Estate's broker-owner. "Of all of these projects this one had the most appealing incentives for the average investor along with providing desperately needed quality housing."

Construction of the homes that are being funded by local investors are slated to begin in the next 30 days and completed within 90 days. "This will give the families a wonderful start to the New Year in their new homes," added Crowe. "For the investor, there is a distinctly short window of opportunity to invest in an area that has beaten the bubble. With over 15 percent appreciation, huge demand, limited supply and eight new casinos going in, the area is nothing short of spectacular. With the Mississippi incentives, it makes the project a home run," quipped Crowe.

Springboard Academy, founded in 2001, is an alternative to late night infomercials and books and CD programs for serious Real Estate Investors. For more information, call 630-889-9900 or visit www.springboardcorp.com.

Originally published here on October 14,2007.

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Saturday, October 13, 2007

Insurance post's campaign support at issue

By ANITA LEE
calee@sunherald.com

-- State insurance commissioner candidates Gary Anderson, a Democrat, and Sen. Mike Chaney, a Republican, both pledged to eschew insurance-industry contributions for their campaigns, but Chaney's position has shifted since pre-primary days.


"I will not take money from big insurance companies," Chaney said in a recent telephone interview. "I have not taken money from big insurance companies. I have taken money from insurance agents and from smaller insurance companies that are domiciled in the state.

"The agents are not the problem. The problem in the industry are the big insurance companies. I'm not in their pocket and I'm not in the pocket of personal-injury lawyers."

Anderson's primary defeat of outgoing Commissioner George Dale, the nation's longest-serving commissioner with 32 years in office, underscored the public's dissatisfaction with a public official who accepts contributions from the industry he is charged with regulating. But Dale has said insurance companies and agents are the constituency most active and interested in the outcome of the commissioner's race.

Anderson told the Sun Herald he's beholden to no one and raised his money "the old-fashioned way," $100 here, $20 there. What he did not mention was the boost his campaign received before the primary when Oxford attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs contributed $250,000 to Mississippians for Fair Elections. The group gave the money to Murphy Putnam Media in Alexandria, Va., for Dale attack ads.

The contribution is not listed on Anderson's campaign reports because it is considered an "independent expenditure," according to the Secretary of State's Office, and did not go through his campaign.

"I had nothing to do with it," Anderson said. "He (Scruggs) coordinated nothing with me. I didn't even know what was happening until it happened and I saw it running on TV." In fact, Anderson was surprised at the end of the ad to see an outdated photo of himself from his race four years earlier for state treasurer.

Anderson far outpaced Chaney as a fundraiser through the primary period, but Chaney has almost caught up. On reports filed late Wednesday, Anderson listed a total of $394,930 in contributions, compared with $367,467 for Chaney. Anderson's contributions include a $100,000 loan to himself and numerous donations from attorneys who represent policyholders in insurance disputes. Anderson said attorneys who represent insurance companies also contributed.

Chaney received contributions from insurance agents, brokers and companies, plus insurance adjusting firms.

Anderson said he has focused on who funds the commissioner's race because it is the No. 1 issue for voters. Chaney said Anderson can't focus on the issues because he lacks experience, noting Anderson has skipped forums Chaney attended to talk insurance. Anderson said the two have appeared together at an event sponsored by the Stennis Institute of Government and that he missed at least one forum because of a scheduling conflict.


About the job
Only 11 states and the Virgin Islands elect insurance commissioners. They are appointed in other states. Florida was the most recent state to begin appointing commissioners; California went from an appointed to an elected commissioner 20 years ago. The states with elected commissioners: California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Washington.

- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS


© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com


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Best of A.M. in the Morning! October 9 - 13

by Ana Maria

Blog Entries
Hey, Toledo Blade, you first 10.12.07
Hypocrisy and Independence in Mississippi’s Insurance
Commissioner Race 10.11.07
Not Buying Bush's Buyout Plan 10.10.07
Inconvenience and Truth 10.9.07

News entries
$1.3B spent on debris removal FEMA money moves slowly Clarion Ledger 10.13.07
Insurance execs' pay up dramatically Sun Herald 10.12.07

Taylor: ‘No federal buy-outs’ Sea Coast Echo 10.11.07
Insurance relief can only come from state Herald Online 10.11.07

Chaney Pockets Industry Money By Thousands According to Financial Disclosure Report 10.10.07
Gov't May Buy Thousands of Miss. Homes Associated Press 10.10.07

Ire in Gulf over buyout plan Christian Science Monitor 10.9.07
Hancock officials oppose buyout Sun Herald 10.9.07
Taylor says no federal funding for coastal buyouts Sun Herald 10.9.07

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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$1.3B spent on debris removal FEMA money moves slowly



# FEMA reports $2.3 billion obligated for Coast recovery efforts


By Natalie Chandler
natalie.chandler@clarionledger.com


Two years after Hurricane Katrina flattened the Gulf Coast, more than $1.23 billion has been spent repairing structures and removing debris, latest recovery figures compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency show.

A total of $2.3 billion has been obligated for recovery efforts.

Some Coast leaders are frustrated by the pace of recovery from the Aug. 29, 2005, storm and cite multiple layers of bureaucracy for delays in getting needed funds. Federal and state agencies responsible for the money said auditing procedures, cost re-estimates and insufficient documents are factors.

FEMA pays 100 percent for all recovery projects eligible for reimbursements. They include debris removal and repairing or replacing public buildings, utilities, recreational facilities, roads and bridges and other projects. FEMA obligates the money, while the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency distributes it.

Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo said, "We've had a hell of a time getting the check." A year and a half after FEMA agreed to fully finance the replacement of two fire trucks, the agency said it would pay half the costs instead, he said.

"We are appealing it, but we had to float $2 million that we didn't have," Longo said.

FEMA also has denied Harrison County officials more than $11 million for debris removal services. It questioned rates the county paid.

Tim Holleman, an attorney for the county, said he believes FEMA will pay the bill. The state has asked FEMA to do the same.

Responding to questions, FEMA spokesman Brent McMahan wrote, "It is not unusual for final payments for estimated project work sheets to be less than originally estimated. This can occur when the final expenditures come in less than the original or altered estimates. It can occur when some expenditures are claimed by the local applicant but not substantiated by documentation."

Coast communities have problems presenting documents required for expenses, such as proof of insurance policies and "complete and accurate documentation of all disaster-related costs," he wrote.

Projects must be completed before final payments are made. Audits must be finalized before reimbursement, and projects costing more than $1 million must undergo additional reviews at the federal level, officials said.

MEMA has hired additional help to move the process along, agency spokeswoman Ashley Roth said.




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Friday, October 12, 2007

Insurance execs' pay up dramatically

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NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

The hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 are long gone, but they left a lasting gouge on the property insurance market along the Gulf Coast. Insurance companies have raised rates, dropped thousands of policyholders and, in some cases, even stopped writing new business in the region, generally on the grounds that they must cut their potential losses from future storms.

But there is little sign the belt-tightening extends to top executives at those firms, when measured by pay. Since Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004 many industry leaders have enjoyed handsome boosts in compensation, according to public records reviewed by The Press-Register of Mobile. The companies defend their pay practices, offering a variety of reasons for the increases, such as strong corporate performance and pay scales at similarly sized firms.

At State Farm, which announced in February it was dropping homeowner coverage for some 2,600 policyholders in Mobile and Baldwin counties, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward Rust Jr. collected about $11.7 million in salary and bonus last year - more than double the $5.5 million he received in 2004. Other top executives shared in the wealth. Michael Tipsord, the company's chief financial officer, made almost $5 million last year, compared with $1.1 million in 2004.

At Alfa Insurance Corp., which is dropping wind coverage for 4,600 coastal policyholders in Alabama, President and CEO Jerry Newby's compensation package last year totaled about $1.7 million, up by more than one-quarter since 2004. For chief executives at California-based Fire Insurance Exchange and Texas-based USAA, two other leading writers of homeowner policies in the state, the percentage increases in compensation during the 2004-06 time frame were about 75 and 150 percent, respectively.

The Press-Register obtained the numbers from the Nebraska Department of Insurance, which requires all insurers licensed in the state to report the total compensation of their 10 highest-paid executives each year. Of the leading homeowner-insurance providers in Alabama, the Nebraska agency lacked complete records for only one, the Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford.

At State Farm, which was Alabama's leading property insurer last year with almost 30 percent of the market, compensation "has been very modest compared to companies of our size," spokesman Phil Supple said. While the Illinois-based insurance giant ranked 22nd last year on Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 companies in the United States, Rust's compensation placed 124th, Supple said.

He also saw no connection between State Farm's executive pay scale and its efforts to limit exposure to future hurricane losses.

"That, in a way, is what's called good business," he said on the latter subject. "You need to make sure that you don't overextend your company and harm its financial strength."

Echoing that argument was Dave Rickey, a spokesman for Alfa, whose headquarters are in Montgomery. "We're always looking at the risk ahead, not necessarily what's happened in past years," Rickey said. He did not know all the factors behind the jump in Newby's compensation. About one-third came from salary and bonus increases; the remainder resulted from a boost in "all other compensation," according to Alfa's latest filing with the Nebraska insurance department. That category may include everything from stock options to long-term disability reimbursement, Rickey said.

One industry critic saw the growing pay packages as evidence of an industry awash in cash.

"They're making so much money, they've got to spend it somewhere," said Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, an advocacy group. "Why not spend it on themselves?"

In a study released early this year, Hunter concluded the property and casualty insurers garnered record profits of about $60 billion last year. At the same time, in a continuation of a trend dating to the late 1980s, claims payouts by the top 10 insurers fell to 52 percent of total premium revenue, the report estimated.

One partial exception to the trend of skyrocketing executive pay was Illinois-based Allstate Insurance Co., which has taken steps to drop between 9,500 and 10,000 homeowner policies in Alabama, according to the state insurance department. Chief Executive Edward Liddy's total compensation fell by almost one-third between 2004 and 2006. Still, his pay package, including stock options, last year amounted to about $20.1 million.

That figure, which comes from the company's filing with the Nebraska insurance department, is almost $4 million lower than Allstate reported in a proxy statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year. Company spokeswoman Laura Strykowski could not explain the discrepancy. Liddy stepped down as Allstate's CEO at the end of last year, while keeping the chairman's post.

Of the nine other Allstate executives listed in the latest Nebraska report, seven had seen their compensation rise since 2004, sometimes significantly. For Robert Pike, executive vice president and secretary, last year's total added up to $11.1 million, well more than twice what he had earned two years earlier.

Allstate ties executive compensation to performance, Strykowski said. "With a superior year of performance in '06, Allstate's executives were paid superior levels of compensation," she said.

© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com


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