| ALL STAR Vacation Homes Awarded AAA Three Diamond Status
KISSIMMEE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Guests of Central Florida's ALL STAR Vacation Homes will be pleased to learn that the AAA organization has certified many homes as Three Diamond properties, the highest possible rating in the vacation home category. In order to achieve AAA Three Diamond status, ALL STAR Vacation Homes had to undergo a rigorous evaluation based on member expectations, physical property attributes, amenities, and level of comfort provided. The approved ALL STAR-managed homes are in several communities, including Formosa Gardens and Acadia Estates, whose spacious private pool homes range from three to seven bedrooms, as well as the resort-style properties in both Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills. The same AAA approval was also granted to several properties in the new Vista Cay community, located adjacent to the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center on International Drive.
First Floridian drops 40000
First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Co. is in the process of notifying thousands of Floridians that their homeowners policies will not be renewed, the most recent insurer to significantly reduce its business in Florida. Around 40,000 of the 97,000 policyholders covered by First Floridian, a subsidiary of The Travelers Cos. Inc. (NYSE: TRV, $52.79), have been slated to be dropped, according to people familiar with the company's plans. .
Martin owners want to be able to upgrade if mobile homes destroyed
PORT SALERNO -- After Bob McPherson lost his double-wide mobile home to hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, his insurance company provided a maximum $40,000 toward the $130,000 replacement structure. The company then dropped McPherson's insurance altogether, and the 77-year-old retiree signed on with Citizens, which is considered Florida's "insurance of last resort." The $1,700 annual premium on the three-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home's $95,000 coverage includes a $5,000 deductible, leaving him to come up with the balance if the structure is lost to a storm. .
Insurance Law Fuels Confusion
Bill Bartram is one of more than 38,000 residents in Florida who are receiving notices from Nationwide Insurance that their homeowners policies will not be renewed. Like others, Bartram, a retired cop from Washington, D.C., who has lived in his Bradenton home for the past 28 years, thought recently passed legislation protected him from receiving such a notice. He was wrong. Actually, the law states that once insurance companies submit rate-reduction filings with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation - as Nationwide and others have done - then those companies can deliver nonrenewal notices to customers. Still, Bartram thinks someone's not keeping his word. "From what (Gov. Charlie) Crist's office said, if they (companies) sell insurance in Florida, they're going to have to continue to offer coverage," says Bartram, who has been with Nationwide for 25 years and also has automobile and life insurance with the company.
Insurance company offers option for the 'well to do' and their ...
He hadn't been in the market for a new insurance company until he got his bill from State Farm Florida Insurance Co.
The price to insure Richard Halpern's home, on the Loxahatchee River in Tequesta, was set to rise to $28,000 from $9,000 the year before. And that was with a $5,000 credit Halpern received for being a good customer.
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State orders insurer to cut rates further
VERO BEACH Cincinnati Insurance Co.'s proposal to roll back their homeowners property insurance coverage by 3.2 percent statewide was rejected by officials with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, who instructed the company to instead decrease rates by 31.3 percent. "They will have to make a new filing with us," said agency spokesman Bob Lotane on Wednesday. "The simplest way to put it is, they are going to have to get their math right." .
Crist renews rates assault
TALLAHASSEE With homeowners still feeling the pinch of high insurance premiums despite the Legislature's promises in January to cut rates, Gov. Charlie Crist made a rare, personal appeal to legislators on Monday to not lose sight of the state's property insurance crisis.
At a Senate Banking and Insurance Committee packed with insurance industry lobbyists, Crist touted a bill that could send more business to Florida's state-run insurance company.
It was the first time a governor has testified at a legislative hearing in nearly a decade; in 1998, Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles spoke to a committee headed by then-state Sen. Charlie Crist. The issue then was how the state intended to spend a major lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies.
Monday's meeting came to a brief but heated standoff between Crist and insurance lobbyists.
Nationwide Rates Set To Rise
31--TALLAHASSEE -- Arbitrators have overruled the state and will allow Nationwide Insurance to raise homeowners' premiums by an average of 54 percent. The increase by the Tampa Bay area's second-largest insurer applies to hurricane and nonhurricane coverage, though the amount will vary by location. Nationwide spokesman Eric Hardgrove said the company will implement the increase "as soon as possible." Nationwide, which has 240,000 policyholders in Florida and 42,005 in the Tampa Bay area, sought a 71 percent rate increase in July, but regulators rejected it. The company then filed for arbitration and won the case during hearings earlier this month. The ruling was released Friday. Under the original 71 percent average request, increases for the Tampa Bay area varied widely. Hillsborough County was projected to be 49.8 percent; Pinellas, 134.6 percent; Pasco, 73.7 percent; and Polk, 43.7 percent.
Del Webb's Sun City Peachtree in Atlanta Keeps Up with the ...
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Even as companies struggle to keep up with today's YouTube generation, another audience segment is evolving quickly and creating an equally dramatic need for a strategic shift. As Baby Boomers move into the 55+ category, they are also moving past the "senior citizen" terminology and the Florida retirement stereotype. As Del Webb, the active adult brand of Pulte Homes, prepares for the opening of Sun City Peachtree, an active adult community in the Atlanta area, the company is sharing insights into its philosophy for meeting the demands of a population aging with attitude. Aging with attitude: Last year, the first wave of Baby Boomers hit the 60 mark. The number of people age 55 and better in the United States will grow from 69 million to 97 million by 2020.
Aid for low-income Martin residents may be on way
STUART Displaced mobile home residents in Martin County might benefit from a proposed housing development just one of the ways officials are trying to help. As part of final negotiations next week on plans for a Hobe Sound project known as Atlantic Ridge Preserve, Commissioner Lee Weberman is asking the developer to contribute to the beginnings of a low- income housing fund. It's the latest effort by county officials to find help for low-income residents who are being pushed out of their mobile homes. .
Reader Views: Is attention to veterans' health care sufficient?
I find it heart-breaking to see a political party that has consistently hidden its incompetence from political spotlights behind the troops with unending patriotic hyperbole all the while cynically chopping the VA budget. A budget that was hardly adequate has been decimated. Are there plans to investigate the budget cuts? None that I have heard. Plans to investigate the "privatization" which led to these revelations? Hmm. I am certain that the commanding general of Walter Reed Hospital was following orders. Who gave him these orders? Any plans to investigate that? The events at Walter Reed are consistent with this administration's other policies. Will that connection be investigated? .
Legislation to Protect Health Insurance Benefits for Motorcyclists ...
U.S. Congressmen Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) have introduced bipartisan legislation to stop insurance companies from denying payments for injuries incurred while participating in certain legal recreational and transportation activities, such as motorcycling and riding all-terrain vehicles (ATV). Identical legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Russ Feingold (D-WI).
The legislation (H.R. 1076, S. 616) would close a loophole created by the Department of Health and Human Services' regulations implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. As written and implemented, the regulations provide that an employer may not refuse health care coverage to an employee on the basis of participation in recreational activities, but may deny health care benefits if the employee is injured while participating in these activities.
NeoStem Names Renowned National Security Adviser, Author and News ...
NEW YORK-(Business Wire)-March 30, 2007 - NeoStem, Inc. (OTCBB:NEOI), the first company to specialize in the collection, processing and storage of stem cells from healthy adult donors for personal use in times of critical medical need, today announced that Dr. Neil C. Livingstone has joined the Company's Advisory Board. .
Clerical error causes flood of pain for couple
VERNON TWP. -- On a good day, when the leaves are off the trees and the conditions are right, Alan and Barbara Edgeworth can see a short stretch of the Shiawassee River from their home near Durand. But the river is no threat to their property on higher ground on Geeck Road. It certainly isn't in a flood zone, the Edgeworths say. Yet now, after 23 years there, they are being forced to pay for flood insurance -- because of an apparent clerical error they haven't been able to rectify. And it's left them feeling like they're up a creek without a paddle. "There are five houses one way, six houses the other way and three across the street stretched out over a ways," Barbara Edgeworth said. "I am the only one (deemed to be on a flood plain)." .
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