Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Union General Offers California Market for Adult Day Care Centers
Mar 2 2010 // Available to California agents, Union General has an “A+” rated carrier offering coverage for all types of basic daily care facilities for the elderly. The company provides physical/sexual abuse coverage, as...
Restaurant Work Injury Claims Account for 4% of Calif. Workers’ Comp Benefit Payments
Mar 2 2010 // Restaurant workers accounted for 6.1 percent of all California job injury claims, but only 4.1 percent of the state’s workers’ compensation benefit payments from 2000 to 2008, the California Workers’...
Ratings: Western, Hanover (debt), Public Service/Magna Carta, First Hawaii
Mar 2 2010 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength ratings to ‘B++’ (Good) from ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings to “bbb” from “a-” of Western Insurance Company...
California AG Subpoenas Health Plans Over Claims Denials and Rate Hikes
Feb 26 2010 // Los Angeles-Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., who has an ongoing investigation into possibly illegal practices by some California health insurers, has subpoenaed financial records and other documents from...
Calif. Department of Insurance Reducing Licensing Fees 6%
Feb 26 2010 // The California Department of Insurance announced it will be implementing a 6 percent licensing fee rate reduction on July 1, 2010, including the fees paid by more than 300,000 liensed insurance agents, brokers and...
Golden State Mutual Policies To Be Transferred to IA American Life Insurance
Feb 26 2010 // To protect policyholders, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. has entered into a letter of intent with IA American Life Insurance Co. to negotiate a reinsurance agreement to transfer all in-force insurance policies of...
California’s Anthem Blue Cross Charged with 700 State Violations
Feb 23 2010 // A review of 3,000 consumer complaints against Anthem Blue Cross, California’s largest for-profit health insurer, has found over 700 violations of state law during the past four years, state regulators said on...
California Regulator Considering Regs to Alleviate Underinsurance
Feb 22 2010 // The California Department of Insurance is considering proposing new regulations governing standards and training for estimating replacement value on homeowners’ insurance. Among the ideas that was floated at a recent...
Idaho Home Insurance Costs Lowest in Nation
Feb 21 2010 // Idaho homeowner insurance is the least costly in the nation, averaging $422 per year, according to a nationwide survey. This compares to an average $822 countrywide. The Gem State also had among the lowest average rates...
California Evaluates Continuous Coverage Discount
Feb 21 2010 // A California voter initiative that will appear on the June 8, 2010, ballot aimed at rewarding drivers who have had insurance for some time to be eligible for a “persistency discount,” even if they change...
Schinnerer Reduces Real Estate E&O Rates, Expands Coverage in California
Feb 19 2010 // Victor O. Schinnerer & Co., Inc. will decrease rates and expand coverage in the state of California for its real estate errors and omissions program. Beginning April 1, 2010, the following rating changes take effect:...
Zenith Merger Will Make Fairfax 7th Largest Workers’ Comp Writer in Calif.
Feb 19 2010 // Following Zenith National Insurance Corp.’s sell the company to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., Toronto-based Fairfax will be the seventh-largest workers’ compensation insurer in the state, on a pro forma...
Anthem Blue Cross Agrees to Delay Rate Increase
Feb 16 2010 // Anthem Blue Cross has agreed to a Feb. 8 request by California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to delay its individual health insurance rate increase until May 1 to allow an independent actuary to review their rates,...
IRS, States Target Employers’ Use of Independent Contractors
Feb 16 2010 // The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees, The Associated Press has...
Middleton Appointed to Calif. Workers’ Comp Fraud Assessment Commission
Feb 16 2010 // California State Compensation Insurance Fund has announced that Lisa Middleton, senior vice president of internal affairs, was elected chair of the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Assessment Commission. Middleton brings...
Democrats Seize on Wellpoint’s 39% Rate Hike to Renew Reform Effort
Feb 12 2010 // Health insurer WellPoint Inc. defended its rate hike of up to 39 percent for certain California customers as Democrats latched onto the increase to press their case for overhauling the U.S. healthcare system. The...
Iroquois of California Names Mullens Regional Manager
Feb 12 2010 // Iroquois of California based in Sacramento has added a former insurance consultant, marketing manager and agency owner to its staff. Mike Mullens will serve as regional manager in Northern California, bringing more than 17...
WKF&C Agency Names Weddle Senior VP in Southern California
Feb 11 2010 // New York-based WKF&C Agency Inc. has named Becky Weddle senior vice president in the company’s Southern California office in Woodland Hills. She will work closely with the Northern California office to bring the...
California Continues To Evaluate Insurers’ Iranian Investments
Feb 11 2010 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has released a list of 50 companies doing business in the Iranian oil and natural gas, nuclear and defense sectors, and announced that as of March 31, 2010, no investments...
Special Reuters Report: Inside Toyota’s Epic Breakdown
Feb 10 2010 // Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s most dominant and profitable automaker, was not accustomed to outsiders telling it what to do, let alone some obscure bureaucrat from the United States, whose own car industry was on...
