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Consumer Watchdog Saves Policyholders More Than $53 million with 21st Century, USAA, and Liberty Insurance Rate Hike Challenges

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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Consumer Watchdog recently reached settlement in three challenges to double-digit rate hikes requested by 21st Century Insurance Company for its auto policies, United Services Automobile Association (“USAA”) for its homeowners, renters and condo policies, and Liberty Insurance Corporation for its homeowners policies. Consumer Watchdog’s advocacy resulted in a total savings of more than $53 million for California policyholders. The three companies’ newly-approved rates will take effect for all new and renewal policies between November 18, 2024 and February 12, 2025, and will impact over 671,000 policyholders combined. 

According to Consumer Watchdog’s analysis of the rate filings, the companies were overstating projected losses, causing their proposed rates to be excessive by millions of dollars. “Given the current state of the California insurance market, with insurer-created shortages and massive rate increases, it’s important that applications are closely scrutinized,” said Consumer Watchdog Staff Attorney Benjamin Powell. “Consumers’ seat at the table to challenge excessive rates is critical, especially when insurance companies are requesting multiple major rate hikes in the same year.”

In each case, Consumer Watchdog successfully advocated for lower overall rate increases under Prop 103 and prior approval rate regulations, which require insurers to justify all rate changes prior to implementation. 

Company/Line of Insurance

% Overall Rate Increase Requested

% Overall Rate Increase Approved

$ Savings 

Date Approved

Effective Date

21st Century/Auto

18.4 %

15.9 %

11.56 mill

10/2/24

11/18/24

USAA/Homeowners, Renters, Condo Owners

20.2 %

16.8 %

10.37 mill

10/4/24

2/12/25

Liberty Insurance Corp. /Homeowners

29.1 %

16.5 %

31.08 mill

10/2/24

12/10/24

 

In the 21st Century proceeding, the company initially sought a rate increase of 18.4% to its automobile insurance policies. This request followed a prior $29 million dollar rate increase effective January 2024. Consumer Watchdog challenged the rate hike as excessive under Prop 103 and the Department’s ratemaking regulations, specifically challenging 21st Century’s projected losses as being inflated for giving too much weight to recent losses. Additionally, Consumer Watchdog alleged that 21st Century’s method for projecting Bodily Injury and Uninsured Motorist claims would have resulted in excessive rates. Finally, Consumer Watchdog argued that 21st Century was trying to charge consumers for institutional advertising (ads designed to improve the company’s image rather than aimed at selling specific insurance products), in violation of state rules. (Read Petition)  

Consumer Watchdog requested that 21st Century provide further information to substantiate its application, and successfully advocated for a lower rate increase of 15.9%, representing a savings to California policyholders of more than $11.5 million. (Read Stipulation

In the USAA proceeding, the company sought an overall rate increase of 20.2% for its homeowners, condo and renters policies combined, which would have cost California policyholders an overall $53 million. Consumer Watchdog challenged the rate hike as excessive, calling out United Services’ projected losses as being overinflated. Consumer Watchdog also alleged that USAA was in violation of the rules by failing to provide required information to the Department to substantiate its loss projections. Finally, Consumer Watchdog argued that USAA, like 21st Century, had failed to properly exclude expenses for institutional advertising. (Read Petition)  

Consumer Watchdog requested that USAA provide further information in order to substantiate its claims about losses and other information in its application. Consumer Watchdog ultimately achieved a lower rate increase of 16.8%, saving California policyholders a total of more than $10 million. (Read Stipulation)

In the Liberty proceeding, the company sought an overall rate increase of 29.1% for its homeowners insurance policies, at a total cost to California policyholders of over $67 million. Consumer Watchdog argued that the requested rate increase was excessive. As with the 21st Century and USAA filings, Consumer Watchdog argued that Liberty’s trend selections overstated the projected losses, leading to an inflated rate indication. Additionally, Consumer Watchdog challenged Liberty’s claim that only 1% of its advertising expenses were “institutional” in nature. (Read Petition)

Consumer Watchdog sought additional information from Liberty that would support its trend selections and institutional advertising percentage. Through this information exchange Consumer Watchdog convinced the Department that Liberty’s institutional advertising percentage should be 100%, not 1%. 

“Consumers are inundated with ads from insurance groups, with nearly 10% of all television advertising expenses coming from insurers,”[1] said Consumer Watchdog staff attorney Ryan Mellino. “Prop 103 protects consumers from paying for general advertising. If insurers are going to expend billions of dollars in collected premiums on ads, that expenditure must be properly reflected in their rate filings.” 

Consumer Watchdog ultimately agreed that a 16.5% rate increase, reflecting just over half of the 29.1% increase Liberty initially sought, was reasonable, saving policyholders over $31 million. (Read Stipulation)

California’s voter-approved insurance reform law, Proposition 103, requires that insurers open their books and prove they need to raise rates in a process subject to full transparency, in which consumer representatives have the right to review and challenge improper rates and practices. According to the Consumer Federation of America, Prop 103 has saved California motorists over $154 billion since 1989. Consumer Watchdog has saved California consumers over $6 billion over the last 22 years by challenging excessive and unfair auto, home, business, and medical malpractice rates.

For more information about Proposition 103 visit: https://consumerwatchdog.org/prop-103/

[1] Doug Bailey, Insurance industry ads continue to be among top watched, InsuranceNewsNet, Aug. 22, 2022, https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/insurance-industry-ads-continue-to-be-among-top-watched.

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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog

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Novo AI and discovermarket partner to take Embedded Insurance to the next level

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SINGAPORE, Nov. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Novo AI joins forces with discovermarket, a leading embedded insurance platform, to revolutionize the future of digital insurance. This new partnership aims to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of embedded insurance offerings.

What is Embedded Insurance?

This is a type of product that integrates insurance products directly into the purchasing process of non-insurance items in real-time, enabling consumers to get protection seamlessly during the buying process. The insurance policies are suited to their specific needs, at a fraction of the cost of traditional offerings. With technological advancements, embedded insurance is making low-value items insurable in a cost-effective manner and democratizing the insurance landscape.

What Novo AI Brings to the Table?

This collaboration brings together two innovative companies poised to transform the insurance industry. Given the large volumes and low prices of embedded insurance products, it’s essential to streamline operations, automate processes, and maximize efficiency. Novo AI uses generative AI to make them x100 more efficient than before. Key areas of focus include automating claims processing, implementing systematic fraud detection at scale and enhancing customer support.

Novo AI and discovermarket are rolling out a new product to enhance the customer journey: AI-powered policy creation and management. This AI-agent allows discovermarket to offer a tailored, automated experience where customers can create personalized policies and manage them throughout their lifetime. The agent effectively helps customers understand their insurance coverage, the policy exceptions and assists them with claims submissions.

A Word from the Partners

discovermarket’s CEO, Patrick Bühler states: “Our platform offers a marketplace-as-a-service platform where brokers and insurers can design specific coverage directly, which is automatically configured to operate within our system. We are thrilled to be working with Novo AI to enhance this capability. The addition of AI-driven features will enable us to draft better insurance products autonomously, based on existing policy wording. We believe this is the future of hyper-customized insurance.

Novo AI CEO: “We’re very excited with the unique set of challenges that the digital insurance playground offers and to be partnering with a forward-looking partner like discovermarket on this. The sector operates under very different rules than traditional insurance, with a critical need for scalable, low-cost, differentiated solutions, particularly in policy management. This will enable first access to insurance for less privileged pockets of the population, and we’re in a unique position to make it happen.”

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/novo-ai-and-discovermarket-partner-to-take-embedded-insurance-to-the-next-level-302296583.html

SOURCE Novo AI

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Maytronics Announces Patent Settlement With Chasing

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Maytronics, Ltd. (TASE: MTRN) (“Maytronics”), a global leader in the swimming pool industry, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a settlement agreement with Chasing Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. and Chasing Technology (USA), LLC (collectively “Chasing”) resolving claims of patent infringement related to innovative robotic pool cleaning technology covered by Maytronics’ U.S. Patent No. 10,378,229 and European Patent Nos. 2,845,969 and 2,706,170 (“Maytronics’ Patents”).

In October 2023, Maytronics filed a patent infringement complaint against Chasing in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. As a result of the parties’ settlement, that complaint will be dismissed. In exchange for Maytonics dismissing the lawsuit, Chasing will, among other things, cease production and sales of robotic pool cleaners that utilize the technology and innovations described and claimed in Maytronics’ Patents. The remaining terms of the settlement agreement remain confidential.

Franck Sogaard, Maytronics’ Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and President of Americas, EMEA and APAC, said: “We are pleased this matter has been resolved. Maytronics invests considerable time and resources to develop and protect technologies that not only differentiate its products in the market but that define trends in the market. With this settlement, Maytronics re-enforces its commitment to protect its intellectual property and maintain its innovative edge in the global pool cleaning market. This settlement will allow us to focus our full attention on the future by innovating and creating consumer-driven, value-minded, integrated pool products that provide our customers with the perfect pool environment.”

About Maytronics

Maytronics is a global leader in the swimming pool industry, specializing in pool water solutions and offering a wide variety of products such as robotic pool cleaners, pool safety products and water treatment systems. Over the past 40 years, through innovative technology, design and reliability, Maytronics has built its Dolphin pool cleaning robots into a leading global brand. Innovation and creativity are core to Maytronics’ mission and critical to Maytronics’ leadership position and competitive advantage in the market. Consistent with Maytronics’ commitment to leadership through innovation, Maytronics has invested substantial resources in research and development and protection of its intellectual property. Maytronics has developed a global patent portfolio that includes over 100 issued U.S. patents and published patent applications. In addition, Maytronics has numerous international patents protecting its industry-leading innovative technology for pool cleaning robots.  For more information about Maytronics please visit www.maytronics.com

Contact:

Tomer Rubinshtein
Tomer.Rubinshtein@Maytronics.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/maytronics-announces-patent-settlement-with-chasing-302296664.html

SOURCE Maytronics

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Nium and Partior Partner on Real-Time, Cross-Border Payments, Clearing and Settlement

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Nium becomes first fintech to join the blockchain-based network, enabling faster cross-border payments, added market reach, and greater transaction transparency

SINGAPORE, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Nium, the leading global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments, today announced a partnership with Partior, the blockchain-based fintech for clearing and settlement at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2024. The partnership makes Nium the first fintech payment service provider (PSP) on the Partior network. Financial institutions will be able to connect with Nium via Partior for 24×7, transparent, real-time payouts, clearing, and settlement to over 100 markets worldwide. Importantly, the connection will require no additional API integration work, streamlining what historically took months of resource-intensive work.

This new partnership builds on Nium’s recent strategy to connect more networks to its real-time payments’ infrastructure. By joining the Partior network, Nium is extending its connectivity to one of the most innovative networks in the industry. Partior’s blockchain-powered platform effectively resolves longstanding inefficiencies in global payments, such as settlement delays, high costs, and limited transaction transparency. In today’s global landscape, where companies operate around the clock, effective liquidity management is essential for both corporate and financial institutions. This collaboration allows Nium to offer its clients the ability to execute real-time multi-currency payments and Payments versus Payments (PvP) settlements, further simplifying access to its global payments network.

“Nium’s partnership with Partior brings us closer to becoming the most connected payments network globally. By integrating with advanced networks, such as Partior, we are ensuring that financial institutions can quickly and easily access our real-time payments infrastructure without the need for complex technical integrations,” said Alexandra Johnson, Chief Payments Officer at Nium. “Recognizing how resource-constrained financial institutions are, we’re eliminating barriers to using our network and increasing interoperability to deliver on our mission of having seamless and streamlined real-time payments to anyone, anywhere.”

Humphrey Valenbreder, Chief Executive Officer at Partior said, “Partnering with Nium marks a significant step in our journey to further advance the global payments landscape. By combining Partior’s real-time blockchain settlement network with Nium’s vast global reach, we’re empowering financial institutions to break down long-standing barriers. Imagine a world where cross-border payments are instantaneous, transparent, and accessible to all. This is the future we’re building together.”

As part of its continued expansion, Nium’s partnership with Partior enhances its ability to facilitate frictionless global transactions and unlock new services such as intra-day FX swaps, cross-currency repos, programmable enterprise liquidity management, and Just-in-Time multi-bank payments for financial institutions worldwide.

Nium’s growing network, supported by these strategic partnerships, is setting a new standard for how financial institutions can access and benefit from global payments, paving the way for a more efficient and transparent financial ecosystem.

About Nium

Nium, the leading global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments, was founded on the mission to deliver the global payments infrastructure of tomorrow, today. With the onset of the global economy, its payments infrastructure is shaping how banks, fintechs, and businesses everywhere collect, convert, and disburse funds instantly across borders. Its payout network supports 100 currencies and spans 220+ markets, 100 of which in real-time. Funds can be disbursed to accounts, wallets, and cards and collected locally in 40 markets. Nium’s growing card issuance business is already available in 34 countries. Nium holds regulatory licenses and authorizations in more than 40 countries, enabling seamless onboarding, rapid integration, and compliance – independent of geography. The company is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore.

About Partior

Partior, the blockchain-based fintech for clearing and settlement, is redefining the way value moves globally. Founded in 2021, Partior is backed by founding shareholders DBS, J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, and Temasek, and Series B lead investor Peak XV. Partior is addressing the operating inefficiencies experienced by industry players, including settlement delays, limited transaction transparency and high operating costs, and facilitates the movement of liquidity for financial institutions and their customers. Its network offers real-time multi-currency payments, and Payments versus Payments (PvP) settlement. Additionally, it is exploring new services including Intra-day swaps, Delivery versus Payments (DvP) settlement and enterprise solutions.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/nium-and-partior-partner-on-real-time-cross-border-payments-clearing-and-settlement-302296465.html

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