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Hoping someone familiar with accidental life insurance from the claims side may read this. My mother passed away earlier this week while at home in bed. While this was unexpected her health isn't great so it was deemed natural causes, no autopsy was done, she was sent straight to a funeral home. I just arrived in town last night from across the country and am now being told some new information from an in home health aid that makes me strongly suspect that a pacemaker she had installed some months prior may have been malfunctioning. Its possible the pacemaker had nothing to do with it but if it did turn out that either it failed to act when it should've, or actively harmed her, would a medical device failure like that take her death from "natural causes" to "accidental" as far as life insurance is concerned? I tried calling the insurance company and basically got a non-answer indicating there's no way to know until a claim is actually filed. The problem is if I want to have an autopsy done it'll need to be paid for out of pocket to the tune of thousands of dollars, and quick, so it'd be nice to know if it even matters.
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Jun 14, 2019 17:06
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Elem7 posted:Hoping someone familiar with accidental life insurance from the claims side may read this. If the difference in payout is significant (at least >50k to be worth actually pursuing) you should consult a lawyer and see what they think. It looks like it could at best go either way in a case like this, even if the pacemaker was at fault. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-10th-circuit/1181199.html quote:The cause of Logan's death was not immediately determined. The original death certificate did not identify a cause of death and indicated an autopsy was pending. After conducting an autopsy, the pathologist concluded, in relevant part, “the cause of death was apparent pacemaker failure in this 5-year-old boy who was pacemaker dependent following repair of his congenital heart disease.”
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Jun 14, 2019 17:15
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Looks like that case pretty open and shut as far as the courts were concerned, those people probably spent a bunch of money on lawyers for no reason which is what I'm afraid of. The policy is significant, but wouldn't radically alter my life, I suppose the emotional aspect of having it pay out and my mom having been able to leave me something after her death would be the most important thing after her financial struggles(having chronic illness's is hard).
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Jun 14, 2019 17:40
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CelestialScribe posted:- Do people usually get long-term disability and life insurance through their employer? Hello, I'm receiving benefits from an LTD plan I got through my employer. Those benefits are governed under something called ERISA law in the US. When they stopped my benefits, while I was able to get them reinstated with the help on an ERISA lawyer, my options for legal recourse were greatly limited under ERISA. I would strongly recommend not relying only on an employer provided LTD policy that would be governed under ERISA. I would be in a much better place today if I had purchased my own policy independently.
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Jun 14, 2019 17:45
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Elem7 posted:Looks like that case pretty open and shut as far as the courts were concerned, those people probably spent a bunch of money on lawyers for no reason which is what I'm afraid of. The policy is significant, but wouldn't radically alter my life, I suppose the emotional aspect of having it pay out and my mom having been able to leave me something after her death would be the most important thing after her financial struggles(having chronic illness's is hard). You could bring the written policy to a well-reviewed law firm, and see if they are willing to take your case (assuming the device faulted) on a contingency basis where they only get paid if you win the accidental claim. If they say no way to a contingency fee structure, I would take that to mean I'm probably not gonna win even if the device was faulty. It seems like it might depend a lot on the exact wording of your policy.
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Jun 14, 2019 17:48
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Elem7 posted:Hoping someone familiar with accidental life insurance from the claims side may read this. Alternatively you can take the normal life insurance payout and pursue a product liability claim, but you'll likely need to request an autopsy (possibly privately/at your own cost). I wouldn't recommend this avenue unless you're very certain (eg there's a history of failure of this device, etc.). I'm sorry for your loss, losing a parent really blows.
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Jun 16, 2019 14:29
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Are all car insurance companies equally bad? My premium to renew with Progressive went up for no reason and I'm looking for sage goon recommendations. In Texas btw.
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Jul 18, 2019 00:48
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redsniper posted:Are all car insurance companies equally bad? Go with a big name company. The products are very similar.
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Jul 18, 2019 01:35
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redsniper posted:Are all car insurance companies equally bad? Everyone is Texas is probably going to have their rates go up in the next year or so. You can thank the auto dealers lobby and the legislature.
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Jul 18, 2019 12:05
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Yeah I was afraid it might just be a blanket increase like that. loving bullshit. Oh well.
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Jul 18, 2019 17:02
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LongDarkNight posted:You can thank the auto dealers lobby and the legislature. I would love to have more background on this
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Jul 18, 2019 17:45
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How does the validation part of a renter’s insurance claim even work? Backstory: I got GGGCed despite having the guns in a safe, they just took the safe too. Normally I would have bolted it down but I was still in the process of moving in and I wasn’t sure where I wanted to keep the safe long-term. My renter’s insurance covers it with a cap of $2,500, which is enough. They didn’t request serials ahead of time, just after the fact, so I’ve got all but one of those at this point and just need to add them to the claim and the police report. One of the guns is out of production, and there’s not really any equivalent from the manufacturer currently in production (CZ-85 without Firing Pin Block if anyone knows what that is). I mentioned it was out of production, the adjuster just said to find the new version, that they weren’t going to make me only be reimbursed for the cost of a used one. What I didn’t realize is that that they don’t make anything equivalent, not even their $4k world-class competition guns have one of the features. So basically the cheapest closest equivalent I can find would be a $800 gun with $200 of custom smithing, closest equivalent without any smithing (but still missing one critical feature) is $1300-1400. The thing is that when this thing ended production, as best as I can tell it MSRPed at $615. Clearly their prices have gone up quite a bit since then overall, but I’m worried that the insurance company is going to “check my work” by looking at used prices or inflation-adjusted MSRP or something and decide I’m trying to screw them when the fact is that the cheapest way to get something equivalent new seriously would be over 150% of what it originally sold for, and if the goal is to get as close as possible without paying for custom work, it would be 200% of what it originally sold for and still wouldn’t have one of the most important (to me) features. Sorry if I’m not making sense, I’m shaken, haven’t been sleeping, and need to see a doctor about getting some meds refilled but haven’t really been remembering that since the break-in.
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Jul 18, 2019 18:20
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Hed posted:I would love to have more background on this Texas HB 3420 https://www.iiat.org/advocacy/governmental-affairs/legislative-issues quote:Some companies have amended their personal auto policies to make the PAP excess coverage over any other insurance. Auto dealers are often required by the manufacturers to provide loaner cars and their policies are excess policies. When this occurs, the consumer is stuck between the dealer and their own policy, both denying coverage. This bill would require PAP to provide primary liability insurance for temporary vehicle. That second to last line is misleading. Basically the auto dealers don't want to use the insurance on their loaner fleet and pushed this legislation to make all the carriers handle damages under liability. This means no deductible so no skin in the game for them or the customer*. I don't know for certain but I think this will lead to more claim expenses and carriers will raise rates. I hope the people of Texas enjoy paying more so that dealerships can make more money.
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Jul 19, 2019 02:17
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22 Eargesplitten posted:How does the validation part of a renter’s insurance claim even work? It's really going to depend on the carrier but I would talk to a 3rd party that has no interest either way (a gun shop broker, etc.) for what they objectively consider to be an "equivalent" and site pricing from there if they won't accept used listings for whatever reason. The CZ-75 Shadow 85 combat style, which has the aforementioned "no firing pin block" feature resells for about $850-$1000: https://www.gunbroker.com/Item/821628263 https://czcustom.com/products/cz-75-sp01-shadow-9mm-91154-black-cz-custom-exclusive.html
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Jul 19, 2019 02:46
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Thanks. I'm glad that my rambling phone-post made some sense at least.
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Jul 22, 2019 02:41
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Is there likely any reputable property insurance companies that offer me less than State Farm? My Mom has a car nobody’s touched for five years and collects dust. She’s blind and I never learned to drive, and the only time anyone moves it will be when someone hauls it away. My Mom is paying for some bundled ‘comprehensive’ plan because she gets a discount for home and auto combined so it costs less compared to home on it’s own. To me, this means she’s paying too much for home because you shouldn’t be paying less to get more coverage unless the industry is gouging you. As I will never be a car owner, where should I look to not get punished for that? Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Jul 23, 2019 |
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Jul 23, 2019 05:40
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Liberty Mutual got bought by Safeco while we had them as condo insurance. I wonder if that had anything to do with them really, really bungling our flood claim. See below (thread). https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1153733164717625344 Anyone seen anything go this wrong with them before? Will getting their attention on twitter do anything? If the answer is yes, hit like on it I guess so that they notice, but I have a feeling that the answer is no.
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Jul 23, 2019 19:50
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Dumb Lowtax posted:Liberty Mutual got bought by Safeco while we had them as condo insurance. I wonder if that had anything to do with them really, really bungling our flood claim. See below (thread). Was it a covered claim? Why did you move back in? I feel like we're missing a LOT of details here. Craptacular! posted:Is there likely any reputable property insurance companies that offer me less than State Farm? Call a independent broker and bid it around. There are a lot of companies out there that are just as solvent as State Farm.
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Jul 23, 2019 21:32
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H110Hawk posted:Was it a covered claim? Why did you move back in? I feel like we're missing a LOT of details here. They said it was covered and never issued a formal denial, but then they stalled it for over a year and eventually said we're not getting anything. We moved back in because they stopped our temporary housing extensions, before we actually even got a repair. That's a twitter thread, you can expand out the multiple posts and then there's the details. Here https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1153733164717625344 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1153733171130712064 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1153769444675444736 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1153769486140317696 edit: fixed a typo in one, which changed the link Happy Thread fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jul 23, 2019 |
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Jul 23, 2019 21:43
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Call your insurance commission. You can’t “soft” deny something if the party is making a claim. They have to write down their reasons why it isn’t a covered loss and cite the policy language in question.
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Jul 23, 2019 21:58
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Our PA says that complaints to the insurance commissioner are like bad yelp reviews, in that they were taken seriously by companies up until a couple years ago but now they don't give a drat, and the commissioner has zero power of enforcement. Is there any truth to that?
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Jul 23, 2019 22:05
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More info:Dumb Lowtax posted:I think so too but our effort to document everything is tough because we used a public adjuster (PA) to represent us in our fight. That seemed like a good move back before we won relocation. So it was on them to document everything, they'd need to be heavily involved if we sue, and they just... don't seem interested* unless they get subpoena'd. If our PA isn't spearheading the case themselves then I feel like insurance could just claim totally unchallenged that everything was the fault of our PA for miscommunicating in some way we weren't privy to. Dumb Lowtax posted:My wife's parents paid for this condo for some kind of real estate speculation and we're just kind of stuck in the middle, but my wife's got the mortgage in her name. It's not paid down all the way, no. We couldn't even afford rent on our own anywhere else in LA (no incomes right now), so we're stuck here. It's been 2 months so far
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Jul 23, 2019 22:06
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Dumb Lowtax posted:More info: Did you call contractors to give you written estimates on repairs? Did you submit those to your insurance? What did they say? Did you take an adversarial stance with your own insurance company for a covered claim where subrogation to recover costs was likely? It feels like you hired a public adjuster for an open and shut repair and it's mucked up everything, and in that time you've never fired that adjuster. Liberty Mutual / Safeco aren't tiny fly by night companies that offer deep discounts on insurance. In theory there are contractors who specialize in dealing with them and can write an estimate exactly how they like to see it. Companies like ServPro basically exist to submit claims to insurance companies. If you think you've been wronged and have taken actual steps to do this in a normal way (including perhaps throwing yourself at their feet and begging forgiveness for bringing in a PA on a simple claim) then talk to a real hired-and-paid attorney. Generally once you use the magical phrase "represented by an attorney" to an insurance company they are going to clam the gently caress up and 100% of communications will go from your adjuster, via their attorney, to your attorney, to you. If you hired one and they breached contract with you, talk to an attorney about suing them as well. I'm not an insurance professional.
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Jul 23, 2019 23:47
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H110Hawk posted:Did you call contractors to give you written estimates on repairs? Did you submit those to your insurance? What did they say? We got a written estimate from a contractor before we hired the PA, though I don't know if he does them to Safeco's specifications. Then, the PA did another quote (pretty much in agreement). The PA says Safeco themselves gave an itemized quote for roughly the same amount, which seems important and I think there's a similar fourth quote that happened too as different people came by. According to the PA, the insurance's final stance was just "forget about the quotes (including Safeco's own), you already have enough money" because the condo association paid something, and we should take it up with the condo association if we want more. I have a forwarded e-mail also tried to twist the PA's words to say that we were already capable of funding the repair using the amount the condo association paid us (he apparently told them we could order the repair to begin if that was necessary to move the process along, no mention of funding). That same e-mail is where he denied us any further housing extensions, claiming that we should have already begun the repair as early as our PA's "admission" and it should be done by now. Ignoring that our insurance contract covers relocation for up to 24 months if needed, and that "needed" obviously applies given the state of the place shown in my video above. H110Hawk posted:where subrogation to recover costs was likely As far as I know the insurance company made no attempt at all to subrogate to the real culprit (the owner of the unit above mine). That seems silly of them, but then again so does their decision to stall our case for 1.5 years over not wanting to pay out ~10-20k on top of what our HOA paid, while needlessly eating the cost of probably $150k+ in rent during our relocation. I don't know in what universe that would be a sound business decision. H110Hawk posted:Did you take an adversarial stance with your own insurance company for a covered claim where subrogation to recover costs was likely? It feels like you hired a public adjuster for an open and shut repair and it's mucked up everything, and in that time you've never fired that adjuster. I did not take an adversarial stance -- until the insurance company refused relocation shortly after the incident. We simply could not deal with that. I don't know how you could blame us for that choice, though. Two cats and two people living in an active construction zone, and I work from home, and debris (a marble sheet) already fell down in the middle of the night and would have killed our cats if they had been crawling around there at the time. We also would have been completely missing a kitchen (including sink, oven, fridge and microwave) for the entire repair and claim negotiation (a very long time, evidently) and don't live near any food. And would have to step over debris and a missing floor to get to our intact rooms, much like we are right now. Their claim that anything with a bathroom is habitable seemed preposterous (what if it's literally only a bathroom?) not to even mention occupancy load. I stand by my decision to hire a PA since it got us relocated immediately (after the PA helped us send an affadavit letter) as opposed to the hardline stance insurance took with us over the phone. I do not think I brought a PA into a "simple" claim because it was not simple for those reasons. At the end of the day, it's 1.5 years after a flood incident and insurance stalled for that long and then tried to "soft deny", which seems like breach of contract, in addition to what our contract says about relocation. Like I said in my big quote above, I'm not so sure we have a case that a lawyer would care about considering we can't afford to pay a lawyer up front. They'd require that, right? Happy Thread fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jul 24, 2019 |
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Jul 24, 2019 00:50
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Apologies if this is the wrong thread. I was in an accident the other day and recieved a negligent driving ticket. I've always heard the old saying that if you rear end someone, it's your fault, full stop. While I'm not arguing that, my insurance agent is saying it might be worth it to fight it in court. I really don't want to pay a lawyer unnecessarily so I'm here to ask you. I was about six cars back in the right turn lane at in intersection. The right turn signal is one if those where the light stays red but a green arrow lights below it. The first few cars turned right, the car in front of me goes with the flow of traffic as do I. He gets roughly two thirds of the way through the intersection and comes to a full and sudden stop. He did not give the officer a reason for stopping. I tried to avoid him but ended up catching his rear bumper with my right front fender and tire. The light was still green arrow when I got out of the car. Also, there was a witness who corroborated my story but the officer didn't put any of her information in the report. While neither of us think that fighting the ticket will affect the fault of the accident, my agent thinks that it might be worth it, premium-wise, to fight the ticket. Thanks in advance for any advice. Edit: not my agent but the adjuster's supervisor. ncumbered_by_idgits fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jul 31, 2019 |
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Jul 31, 2019 23:18
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ncumbered_by_idgits posted:Apologies if this is the wrong thread. You want to ask a traffic lawyer in your area. Traffic laws vary tremendously by state, and your ability to fight tickets varies tremendously by city/county/jurisdiction. You can usually get a free consultation.
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Jul 31, 2019 23:24
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Sounds like all sorts of situations that I see where a driver making a right turn saves a pedestrian's life by not running them down during a sudden crossing attempt, and when they stop, the car behind is caught off guard and often angrily honks as if asking them to run over the pedestrian. Is the "didn't give the officer a reason for stopping" code for "I don't think the cops know about the pedestrian", or do you really guarantee that there was no pedestrian trying to cross?
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Jul 31, 2019 23:24
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Dumb Lowtax posted:Sounds like all sorts of situations that I see where a driver making a right turn saves a pedestrian's life by not running them down during a sudden crossing attempt, and when they stop, the car behind is caught off guard and often angrily honks as if asking them to run over the pedestrian. Is the "didn't give the officer a reason for stopping" code for "I don't think the cops know about the pedestrian", or do you really guarantee that there was no pedestrian trying to cross? 100% no pedestrian There was no legitimate reason to stop. I failed to mention the man was elderly. Very elderly.
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Jul 31, 2019 23:32
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The ticket and the claim are separate issues from a premium perspective. Even if you get the court to waive the ticket, your insurance carrier will have an at fault accident on your record. If you’re not reporting this to your insurance company at all and settling out of pocket then it might be worth fighting the ticket. Some carriers won’t double surcharge you so you’ll get hit once for the at fault accident and not again for the ticket but YMMV. Unfortunately that situation sounds like 100% your fault. Your agent might say differently because they want to keep your business but I doubt an adjuster would. Virtue fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Aug 1, 2019 |
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Aug 1, 2019 03:51
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ncumbered_by_idgits posted:100% no pedestrian Tell the adjuster you suspect fraud. gently caress people too old to drive who keep driving.
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Aug 1, 2019 04:18
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It doesn't matter if they stopped for nothing. You still have to be able to stop in time to not hit the person in front of you. If I were your claim rep I'd tell you it's 100% your fault regardless if they stopped for another car, a dog, or nothing at all. I handled auto claims for a few years. Whether or not you got a ticket wouldn't change my mind. You still rear ended a stopped or slowing car.
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Aug 1, 2019 04:47
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sheri posted:It doesn't matter if they stopped for nothing. You still have to be able to stop in time to not hit the person in front of you. Sheri has it right. I’ve been in auto claims for waaaay too long and this scenario plays out every day. Most carriers won’t hit you for the accident and the ticket as two separate events increasing your premium as they occurred on the same day. Most of them actually only use one event (the worst from a premium increase perspective) per day so I’ve seen people with multiple accidents in one day and they’re effectively getting a free pass on one or more of them. While you may get the ticket pleaded down or dismissed via traffic court, if your insurance company is already aware of the accident then all you are doing is potentially reducing the cost of the ticket. If you hire a traffic lawyer to that end your actual total cost might be higher, depending on their fee and how much the ticket is. It sounds like you should just bite the bullet.
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Aug 1, 2019 12:17
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big crush on Chad OMG posted:Sheri has it right. I’ve been in auto claims for waaaay too long and this scenario plays out every day. That's the answer I was looking for, thanks.
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Aug 1, 2019 18:12
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Hi thread, Last Tuesday my dad's garage caught fire and took my BMW E46 and Aprilia Tuono with it. Thankfully I had comprehensive insurance (AAA) on both of them, and filed a claim. I received a form-ish letter from my adjuster outlining what I needed to do, as well as two e-forms of the DMV title transfer paperwork from me to them. She asked me to e-sign the forms for both vehicles, as well as mail her the keys and pink slip. I feel kind of weird signing over both vehicles before I have even been given any payout numbers/estimates/etc, is this stupid? Is this just to make sure I'm not going to buy them back thus changing my payout or something? Should I wait until the final number is decided before signing over/mailing any pinks? Thanks for any tips. I've never made a claim in my life so I'm trying not to get in over my head.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:56
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I wouldn't sign anything over until we came to an agreed upon payout.
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Aug 3, 2019 01:44
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agreed. Aaa is a legit company so they’re probably just trying to expedite the salvage sale, but that’s to their benefit, not yours.
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Aug 3, 2019 17:39
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The Royal Nonesuch posted:Hi thread, No, you're well within your rights to hold out signing over until after your cars are inspected. Generally fires are OTLs (obvious total losses) and full estimates will very likely not be done (would need photos/video showing extent of damage to your dad's garage and your car/bike- if it was minor and you are looking at smoke damage definitely hold out- the worst you'll need is interior/instrument replacement, at best it's going to be a detailing and/or some upholstery replacement. If you have the husk of both vehicles left, then yeah, I'd probably personally recommend signing them over unless you know some who would pay over their salvage value damaged frames. Fire claims (yours sounds fine, you were keeping your vehicles parked in a garage and I'm 99% sure your dad called the fire department) sometimes require a bit more investigation (it isn't a theft burn total so you should be ok). If your car and bike are smoldering frames, you should go ahead and sign it over in order to not prolong the process- you'll still be presented with a total loss settlement and the ability to negotiate (somewhat- you'll likely have to do your own research- I believe AAA uses JD Power, so be ready with same year/make/model vehicles), but I usually don't handle motorcycles, so I'm not sure how the process works. Likely comparable vehicles with averaged miles compared to your vehicle plus any aftermarket parts, plus titling and registration fees (pro-rated) minus any deductible.
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Aug 27, 2019 02:52
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This is my tweet, please engage the hell out of it so they see the numbers, because I am so pissed off at what mainstream insurance companies get away with. https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174054297702731776 My representative told me he had like 4 other clients that were currently getting stiffed by Liberty Mutual, after Safeco acquired them. I posted here earlier about those stories. The thread: https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174054300013645826 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174054301489983488
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Sep 17, 2019 21:22
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To be fair he clearly meant August 27th because that’s a Tuesday and May 27th isn’t a Tuesday. Odds are he hasn’t taken a vacation since May and just forgot to change the month the second time, but go off sis
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Sep 17, 2019 23:36
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I had said something about that too by the time you posted. First tweet here: https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174108482930266117 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174108485463633920 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174108487434952704 https://twitter.com/Monogrammaton/status/1174110110240497669
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Sep 18, 2019 01:04
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