Loophole--Claim Denied!

An emotional fight continues over billions of dollars in losses along the Gulf Coast. Many homeowners, believing that their insurance would cover damage from hurricanes, have found their claims denied when providers concluded that water damage from floods--not high winds--was primarily at fault for losses. Attorneys for the claimants have also countered that insurance agents were given free reign to interpret policies too broadly for their customers, who are now suffering.

Insurance is now a major concern for almost every adult American, and the only thing that seems to be expanding faster than the price is the appearance of loopholes and exclusions. Most of us never read the pages of fine print that accompany our homeowner, automobile, and health insurance policies, and even if we do read them--well, they are more than a little difficult to understand.

If you haven't recently purchased insurance, or have never purchased it before, you may be in for a surprise. Like finding that your credit score may factor as heavily now as your driving record when a compnay sets your auto insurance premium.

Even more surprises can await you when you file a claim. Like relatives of ours whose homeowner's claim for damage to electronic devices from a lightning strike was denied because the bolt hit the ground before hitting their house. Wouldn't you like to know these things can count against you before the score is tallied?

That's where we hope this blog can be of service. Our mission, beginning tonight, is to collect information about loopholes, exclusions, tricks, and omissions that make insurance companies money at the expense of the insured. It's not about getting the companies as it is about helping all of us purchase insurance with greater understanding, avoid bad deals, and introduce more accountability for those bad apples that are consciously out to get us.

We're looking for your experiences, appropriately documented, that we can then share with the rest of our readers. Caveat emptor!