Most commercial insurance rates trended modestly higher in 2019 and increases are expected to accelerate some in 2020. Rate increases of up to 10% will not be uncommon even for well managed business exposures with low...

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Even though the number of employees age 55 and older has doubled since 2000, workers compensation claims have been declining. Why? That question led to some surprising answers in the National Council on Compensation...

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Knowledge is power, and understanding the risks to your workers and your profits is the first step to protecting your business. AMERICAN INSURANCE represents Liberty Mutual who has just published their 2018 Liberty...

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You need to know this .... Questions of liability follow every incident that hurts someone or damages their property. For a variety of reasons, the general person's understanding of what constitutes ”legal liability” is...

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Chances are roughly one in eight that a driver is uninsured, according to new estimates from the Insurance Research Council (IRC). After a seven year decline from a high of 14.9 percent in 2003, the countrywide...

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The perfect storm? Record hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, mudslides and wildfires coupled with already rising costs for medical injury claims, auto repairs with new tech, distracted driving – all are converging in 2018...

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We printed this Q&A column in the June 10, 2017 edition of The Lewiston Tribune. Q. Before I buy a new home, how can I find out if it had any serious claims? - A. Before you buy a home a little detective work can...

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Auto injury claim costs per insured vehicle have continued to increase across the United States according to a new study from the Insurance Research Council (IRC). Long-term reductions in highway injuries and fatalities...

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Your odds of hitting a deer, an elk or a moose are twice as high during the 4th quarter months of October, November and December as in the other nine months of the year. U.S. drivers are just as likely to have a claim...

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A study of 2013 statistics shows 4,585 workers were killed on the job in the United States, and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, resulting in a loss of 150 workers each day from hazardous working...

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About 65 percent of on-the-job deaths of truck drivers in 2012 were the result of a motor vehicle crash. More than a third of the drivers who died were not wearing a seat belt. This troubling fact has the National...

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Bedeviled by sagging bank accounts and burdensome mortgages, some cash-strapped building owners try to burn their way out of debt. Lighting up spilled gasoline or interior gas lines seems like an easy gambit. One flick...

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Can we keep drunk drivers off the road? Must they kill someone with their car after being arrested 10, 20 even 30 plus times for driving drunk before we find the answer. The answer may be a technology that has been...

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The cost of homeowners insurance claims has been increasing at twice the rate of inflation. This is according to a new report from the Insurance Research Council (IRC). Despite significant declines in recent years, the...

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Improved vehicle designs bring down death rates (IIHS). The chances of dying in a crash in a late-model vehicle have fallen by more than a third in three years, the latest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)...

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Safeco Insurance introduced an innovative Wildfire Defense Program to help protect policyholder properties threatened by active wildfires. A recent fire in Washington state, called the Carlton Complex fire, and another...

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How many drivers are uninsured? Across the United States, the estimated percentage of uninsured motorists trended down in 2010, 2011 and 2012, according to new estimates from the Insurance Research Council (IRC). In...

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Five small cars, all 2014 models, earn an acceptable rating in crash tests by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety. Two earn marginal and four earn poor ratings for occupant protection in a small overlap crash in...

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Idaho is one of 16 states now listed with the highest risk for earthquakes. Is your state on the list? The newly updated national seismic hazards maps from the US Geological Survey (USGS) show an increased earthquake...

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Which models of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossover utility vehicles (CUVs) were top theft targets? The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released a new report that examines thefts of SUVs and CUVs reported...

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Motor vehicle crashes in the US had an $871 billion economic and societal impact, according to a new study by the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The study,...

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Insured losses top $1.5 billion so far. Near-record snowfall and prolonged extreme cold throughout many parts of the United States, have resulted in insured losses from winter storms of more than $1.5 billion thus far,...

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Insurance claims resulting from hailstorm damage increased 84 percent in 2012 from their 2010 level according to a National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) report. See top 5 states for hail damage below. In 2010, there...

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Nope – not texting or distracted driving. Day or night, the leading cause of auto accidents is...driving while tired, according to a study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. The 100-car...

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Following two of the worst years of natural catastrophic events in the history in the United States, overall customer satisfaction with the property claims experience remains high, according to the J.D. Power and...

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There was a sharp 26.7% overall rise in "questionable claims" (QC) in 2012 reported to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). QCs went from 91,797 in 2010 to 116,268 in 2012-a new record. In 2011, the total was 100,...

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The cost of homeowners insurance claims has been rising rapidly! The combined effects of rising claim severity and increases in claim frequency were found in the study released by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) on...

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Renting a dorm room, an apartment or a rental house may be your first experience with being out on your own. After a fire or a theft, there are some common misconceptions about who is responsible for your premises and...

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The rumble of thunder, the crack of lightening, the rush of windstorm, the clatter of hail stones - thunderstorms can bring devastation to your property and your autos in a flash. How does your own insurance respond to...

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At least 28 people were killed following a prolonged stretch of severe weather in central and eastern U.S. states, which included a violent derecho - a fast-moving, long-lived cluster of intense thunderstorms - that...

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Dog bite claims continue to grow in numbers and cost which increases premiums for all Homeowners Insurance. In fact, from 2003 to 2011, the cost of the average dog bite claim increased by 53.4 percent. Dog bites...

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Which personal property items were the top insurance claims in 2011? Jewelry losses were the big ticket items in value and volume for property insurance claims made in 2011 according to Enservio's annual Contents Claims...

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Corvettes...we love to look at them and thieves love to steal them! The Chevrolet Corvette holds the title as America's oldest, continuously produced sports car. According to a National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB)...

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For the first time in history, crop insurance indemnities to farmers and ranchers has exceeded $10.08 billion to cover agricultural losses, reports ProgramBusiness.com. This underscores last year's high crop values and...

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Ever wonder what a cruise ship costs? The grounding of the Carnival Corp. cruise ship Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy with more than 4,000 passengers and 1,100 crew aboard, may cost insurers more than 400 million...

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2011 set a new record of 12 separate billion+ dollar US weather/climate disasters according to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The aggregate damage total is estimated to be approximately $52 billion. This...

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Widespread flooding this fall in the eastern US has created a pool of more than 15,000 vehicles damaged by flood waters. The National Insurance Crime Bureau is warning consumers to beware of undisclosed flood damaged...

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Now at the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, like the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it is a day that lives on in infamy for a new generation of Americans. But 9/11 was different in the sense that...

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An initiative to build a "weather-ready" nation is being launched by the National Weather Service, in response to the nine separate natural disasters the US has experienced so far in 2011. The latest event to surpass...

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Before your "wild hog" drives his new motorcycle make sure he takes Idaho's STAR Training - it could save his life! Motorcycle riding has become more popular in recent years, appealing to a new group of enthusiasts...

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Hot Wheels-the list of the 10 most stolen vehicles in the United States was released today by The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). Nationally, for the first time since 2002, thieves preferred domestic makes over...

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After just six months, 2011 is already the most expensive catastrophe year for the insurance industry on record, according to a ProgramBusiness.com story taken from The Guardian. Through June 30th, 2011 is worse than...

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April period witnessed the largest tornado outbreak in world history. May period includes two of the costliest tornadoes ever recorded. Yes, it was really THAT bad - 3 times the average of losses for the 20 year period...

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What household appliance causes more than 1,000 residential fires per month in the US? The answer... your clothes dryer! They are a modern marvel and an indispensable convenience. We use them constantly and they work...

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Five separate severe weather outbreaks in April will result in combined insured losses in excess of $4 billion, according to Aon Benfield report. The first outbreak, from April 3-5, triggered around 1,500 storm reports...

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Organized Scams Defraud Consumers and Insurers Alike, Costing Billions of Dollars Annually If you have been involved in an auto accident that just didn't feel right, it might not have been an accident at all. More and...

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Toyota was found "not guilty" by a New York jury in the 2005 unintended acceleration case brought by Dr. Amir Sitafalwalla. The case had prompted a massive recall of 8 million vehicles, a cascade of similar product...

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On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City caught fire taking the lives of 146 people. This tragedy led to the beginnings of workers compensation insurance and ushered in a new era of workplace...

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Global supply chain disruptions for thousands of multinational companies that rely on Japanese manufacturers for goods and services, as well as for sales, will be significant and last up to several months predicts Marsh...

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If you lived in the shadow of a nuclear power plant would you have any insurance to cover your loss due to a nuclear accident? As events unfold at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the devastating...

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Based on currently available information, the estimates of insured property losses from Japan's earthquake are between $15 billion and $35 billion USD according to AIR Worldwide, a pioneer in catastrophe modeling...

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The cost of natural disasters can be counted in many different ways - loss of life, overall economic loss both public and private, insured and uninsured property loss, loss of business revenue, etc. No matter how you...

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Insurers and reinsurers worldwide have the financial strength to pay the claims that will emerge from Japan's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami but these events, coupled with the severe quakes that...

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Red light cameras saved 159 lives in 2004-08 in 14 of the biggest US cities, a new analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows. Had cameras been operating during that period in all large cities, a total...

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Should you pay a fee for emergency response services following an accident? A resounding three out of four adults said "no" when recently surveyed by telephone in a Harris Interactive poll. The majority surveyed believe...

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Every business owner will be impacted by the troubles brewing in workers compensation insurance. Among the top trends identified to watch are - medical costs continue to rise, injured employees are staying out of work...

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U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a final rule aimed at decreasing occupant ejections in passenger vehicles. The new U.S. Department of Transportation standard, which will help reduce the number...

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Answers to questions about wind damage to your home, fences, tree removal and liability to others. The recent windstorm of November 16th brought us a storm of more than 50 phone calls regarding wind damage claims. The...

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If you have a health claim denied in Idaho you have the right to the have the decision independently reviewed. This independent review process was instituted as part of Idaho's Health Carrier External Review Act (Title...

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Higher auto insurance rates for New Yorkers is blamed on rampant fraud by unscrupulous medical providers. Health care costs for automobile accident victims in New York increased 42 percent faster than overall medical...

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During an economic downturn people are more likely to commit insurance fraud than they are in normal times. That was the opinion of more than three quarters (76%) of consumers in a survey released by Accenture, a global...

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