Insurance Hour

When you've been in an accident, your first instinct is often to call for help — an ambulance, the police, or your insurance company. But for many Californians, the next phone call is to a personal injury attorney, often one they've seen on TV or a billboard promising big settlements.

In a recent Insurance Hour episode, host Karl Susman sat down with seasoned attorney Dennis Beaver — a civil litigator and long-time consumer advocate — to discuss the hidden pitfalls that await unsuspecting clients in the world of personal injury claims.

What began as a conversation about car accidents evolved into a masterclass on how consumers can protect themselves from "billboard law firms," misleading advertisements, and questionable legal practices that could leave them financially and emotionally stranded.

Here's what every Californian should know before signing that retainer agreement.

Beaver began practicing law in the mid-1970s, long before personal injury ads flooded daytime TV. Back then, cases were often settled fairly, and lawyers earned their fees through negotiation and trial work — not high-volume advertising.

Today, things look different.

"It's a multi-billion-dollar business," Beaver said. "When you see these ads on television, they don't come cheap. And many of those firms are mills — personal injury mills. They sign up anybody, everybody."

According to Beaver, these firms often operate more like assembly lines than law offices. After a car accident, a potential client may call one of those catchy phone numbers — "Call 1-800-I'll-Sue-For-You" — and within hours, an "investigator" (often not even a lawyer) arrives with a retainer agreement ready to sign.

Once the paperwork is signed, clients are often referred to a network of chiropractors and clinics aligned with the law firm. These providers begin treatment immediately — sometimes before police reports or liability determinations are complete.

The goal? Max out the client's medical payments coverage (MedPay), often around $10,000.

Beaver warns that this rush to treatment can leave clients exposed:

"They'll send you to doctors you don't need. They run up bills before anyone has even confirmed who's at fault. And if it turns out the accident was your fault — goodbye. They cut you loose."

In those cases, the client is left holding the bag — with thousands in unpaid medical bills and no legal support.

Susman was incredulous:

"Wait — they can just abandon the client?"

Beaver's response was blun ...

When we think of earthquake insurance, most of us picture complicated claims, long waits, and uncertain payouts. But what if disaster recovery could be instant, transparent, and based on objective data — no adjusters, no paperwork, no gray areas?

That's the revolutionary idea behind Jumpstart, a California-based insurtech founded by Kate Stillwell, a structural engineer turned entrepreneur. In a recent Insurance Hour episode, host Karl Susman sat down with Stillwell to discuss how her company is using parametric insurance to transform disaster recovery — and even built an earthquake simulator to show people what it feels like when the ground really starts to move.

What began as an engineer's curiosity has grown into one of the most innovative insurance products on the West Coast — one that could redefine how we respond to natural disasters in an era of climate change and rising catastrophe losses.

Stillwell's journey to founding Jumpstart began in an unexpected place — the world of structural engineering.

"I worked with architects to design the skeletons of buildings and make sure they were safe in earthquakes," she explained. "But I realized safe buildings were only one piece of the puzzle. For true recovery, we also need money flowing quickly back into the system."

That insight led Stillwell to explore how financial systems — not just physical structures — determine the speed of disaster recovery. Her research led her to a concept used primarily in developing countries at the time: parametric insurance.

"When I discovered it," she said, "I thought, this is what we need. Why don't we have parametric insurance for individuals, especially for earthquakes?"

If farmers in Africa could receive automatic payments after droughts, Stillwell reasoned, Californians could do the same after earthquakes. And with that, Jumpstart was born.

In traditional insurance, you file a claim after a loss, an adjuster assesses the damage, and eventually you receive a payment — if the loss qualifies.

Parametric insurance flips that process on its head.

At its core, parametric insurance pays out automatically when a predefined parameter — such as earthquake magnitude or wind speed — crosses a certain threshold.

As Stillwell put it:

"It's an automatic lump-sum payment triggered by a data point. There are no claims adjusters, no arbitration — it either is or it isn't."

In Jumpstart's c ...

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Be sure to subscribe to catch our ride on the Jumpstart Shaker and interview with founder and CEO Kate Stillwell. #insurance #insuranceindustry #insurancematters #news #really #earthquake #earthquakes

In an age where insurance headlines often center on cancellations, premium hikes, and disappearing carriers, one voice continues to remind Californians of something fundamental: insurance, at its core, is a contract of protection.

In a recent episode of Insurance Hour, host and independent broker Karl Susman unpacked the maze of modern coverage — from homeowners and auto insurance to the evolving world of health and long-term care. His message was clear: consumers and professionals alike need to understand what their policy actually says, not just what they think it covers.

This educational deep dive offers clarity amid the confusion, exploring what Susman calls "the real insurance education gap."

Susman began the conversation by addressing a trend he sees daily: policyholders assuming their insurance works one way, only to discover too late that it doesn't.

"Insurance is not one-size-fits-all," Susman explained. "It's customized, it's contractual, and it's only as good as what's written on that page."

He emphasized that many consumers buy policies based solely on price — a risky strategy in today's market. With rates rising and coverage shrinking, comparing policies only by premium can lead to dangerous misunderstandings.

"The cheapest policy is cheap for a reason," he said. "It may exclude water damage, wind damage, or limit your roof coverage. That fine print is where your real protection lives."

One of Susman's strongest insights centered on the slow but steady erosion of what used to be called "comprehensive" coverage.

In both homeowners and auto insurance, the term has become more of a marketing shorthand than a guarantee. Comprehensive once implied broad protection against nearly all perils — today, it often means "coverage for everything except what's excluded," and those exclusions keep expanding.

"When I started in this business, policies were broader," Susman said. "Now, every few years, we see new limitations — especially in property insurance. Carriers have rewritten policies to protect themselves against climate exposure and litigation risk."

For example, some modern homeowners policies exclude smoke damage unless it's tied to a direct wildfire event. Others cap water loss payouts, or exclude older roofs altogether.

This narrowing of coverage, Susman warned, demands a new level of vigilance from policyholders — and transparency from insurers.

California's insurance crisis has been building for years — and now, the state's top leaders are finally racing against the clock to fix it.

As ABC 10 News Sacramento reported on May 13, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a bold move to accelerate long-awaited insurance reforms — introducing what he calls a "trailer bill" to the state budget that would force faster rate approvals and help stabilize California's collapsing homeowners insurance market.

"December? I don't think we have that much time," Newsom said during a press conference. "We need to move. We need to stabilize this market. We need to send the right signals."

For millions of homeowners across the state — many of whom have already been dropped by their insurers or seen premiums double — this could mark the first tangible step toward relief.

California's insurance market has been under strain for years, but the last two have pushed it to the edge.

"Over the past two years, the majority of California's biggest homeowners insurance companies — and many of the smaller ones — have paused or limited business in the state," reported ABC 10's Becca Habegger.

The reasons are well-documented:

• Wildfire risk that's grown more severe and unpredictable.

• Inflation driving up the cost to rebuild homes.

• Reinsurance costs that have tripled for many carriers.

• And decades-old regulations that restrict insurers from using modern risk models.

As a result, tens of thousands of Californians have been forced to turn to the California FAIR Plan, the state's last-resort fire insurance program. Premiums there can be two or three times higher than traditional coverage — and the plan only covers fire and smoke damage, not theft, liability, or water damage.

"We've been canceled by our homeowners insurance at least five times, possibly six," one retiree told ABC 10. "My payment has doubled, and I'm not making any more money."

For many, the crisis is more than financial — it's existential.

"I want to be able to afford to live here for a long time," said another homeowner.

California's insurance market has been under pressure for years, but in early 2024, a surprising headline broke through the political noise: Governor Gavin Newsom is fast-tracking reform.

During a budget press conference that mostly focused on fiscal policy, Newsom made unexpected — and encouraging — remarks about California's homeowners insurance crisis. His comments, later analyzed by insurance expert Karl Susman on The Insurance Hour, signaled a shift from cautious observation to direct executive action.

For millions of homeowners struggling with canceled policies, rate increases, and FAIR Plan enrollment, this could be the most significant turning point in decades.

California's home insurance market has been deteriorating since the mid-2010s, when back-to-back wildfire seasons produced record-breaking losses. By 2023, most major carriers — including State Farm, Allstate, and Farmers — had either paused new business or withdrawn from high-risk zones entirely.

That left thousands of homeowners scrambling for coverage under the California FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort.

But as Susman noted, the FAIR Plan was never meant to be a permanent solution. "It's a safety net," he explained. "And when a safety net becomes the whole system, you have a crisis."

The Department of Insurance and Commissioner Ricardo Lara have been working since 2023 on a framework to stabilize the market — the Sustainable Insurance Strategy — but progress has been slow. Newsom's announcement effectively puts the effort on a fast track.

Governor Newsom's comments were unusually direct for an issue often buried in bureaucracy. In his own words:

"We did an executive order about a year ago, and we're trying to reconcile 30 years where there hasn't been much reform in this space. We're mindful of voter-approved constraints. We're mindful of the burdens placed on our FAIR Plan. But we need to stabilize this market. We need to send the right signals. We need to move."

The reference to voter-approved constraints points directly to Proposition 103, the 1988 law that requires insurance companies to seek prior approval for rate increases and limits the use of forward-looking catastrophe modeling.

Under Prop 103, insurers must base rates on historical losses, not predicted risks — a formula that made sense in the 1980s but no longer aligns with California's climate realities.

As wildfires grow larger and reinsura ...

In this episode of "Insurance Hour," host Karl Susman explores innovative insurance solutions with special guest Valkyrie Holmes, co-founder of Faura. Faura is a pioneering company that uses data analytics to help homeowners and insurance agencies mitigate risks associated with natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes. The platform allows users to conduct property assessments using their smartphones to evaluate risk factors and improve resilience. This technology is especially beneficial in areas prone to natural disasters and helps in obtaining better insurance policies and potentially lowering premiums. The show delves into the functionality of the Faura platform, the future of home insurance, and the broader impact of technology on the insurance industry.

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Insurance Hour is hosted by renowned insurance expert Karl Susman. Karl is a frequent guest on television stations such as ABC, CBS, Spectrum, The CW and FOX, and now his popular radio program is available online throughout California and world-wide.

Listeners can now tune in to Insurance Hour on great AM radio station KMET throughout the state of California.

In addition to traditional radio, Insurance Hour is available on several popular streaming platforms, ensuring that listeners can access the show at their convenience.

Audiences worldwide can now enjoy Insurance Hour at InsuranceHour.com, on YouTube, Amazon Music, Tuneln, Alexa, Apple Podcasts, and the iHeartRadio app.

For more information about "Insurance Hour" and its programming, please contact Lara Starr at [email protected]

In an age of increasing natural disasters—wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and extreme storms—homeowners are facing a sobering reality: the places we call home are more vulnerable than ever. Meanwhile, the insurance industry is struggling to adapt to this new era of risk. Carriers are leaving high-risk states, premiums are skyrocketing, and consumers are being left with fewer options and higher costs.

But what if technology could bridge that gap?

Enter Valkyrie Holmes, co-founder and CEO of Faura.us, a climate risk and property analytics startup aiming to reinvent how homeowners and insurers understand, measure, and mitigate natural disaster risk. In a recent conversation with Karl Susman on Insurance Hour, Holmes explained how her platform is helping insurers make smarter underwriting decisions while empowering homeowners to take control of their property's resilience.

Her company's approach is refreshingly simple—and potentially game-changing: use data, AI, and homeowner engagement to align everyone's interests around risk reduction.

Holmes didn't start her career in insurance. With a background in data science and space technology, she spent years working with satellite data before shifting into sustainability research. That transition gave her a crucial insight: climate resilience isn't just a government or environmental problem—it's a data problem, and a coordination problem.

"There are so many stakeholders involved in disaster risk—homeowners, insurers, real estate agents, policymakers," she explained. "The only way to truly reduce losses is to align them all with a shared understanding of the risks and the tools to act."

That mission led to the creation of Faura.us (pronounced Fora), a digital platform that uses climate and property analytics to help homeowners and insurers assess structural vulnerabilities—then take action to strengthen them.

From the consumer side, Faura offers a free, interactive web tool that lets homeowners evaluate how their property might fare in the face of wildfire, hurricane, or windstorm. From the industry side, it offers data-backed insights that carriers can use to make more accurate underwriting decisions, reduce losses, and even create new pathways for insuring homes once considered too risky.

At its heart, Faura's technology is designed to empower everyday homeowners. Through the Faura.us web platform, users can conduct a self-guided property risk assessment—no downloads or special software required.

Here's how it works:

When it comes to money, few topics trigger more frustration than insurance. We don't like paying for it, we don't like being told we have to buy it, and we especially don't like seeing our premiums rise year after year.

Yet, when disaster strikes—a car accident, a fire, or an unexpected illness—insurance becomes the one thing that can save us from financial ruin.

So why do we resent something that protects us? And how can we reframe that frustration into smarter financial thinking?

Insurance expert Karl Susman, host of The Insurance Hour, takes on this emotional tug-of-war head-on, explaining why our resentment toward mandatory coverage is both understandable—and misplaced.

At its core, resentment toward insurance comes down to a simple human truth: no one likes being forced to do anything.

Susman puts it bluntly:

"Being forced to do something is probably on my top ten list of least favorite things. It doesn't matter if it's good for me—I don't want it forced on me."

And yet, much of modern life involves mandatory insurance:

• Homeowners insurance is required if you have a mortgage.

• Auto insurance is required by law to drive.

• Health insurance is practically unavoidable unless you're willing to risk six-figure medical bills.

These requirements aren't arbitrary—they exist because lenders, governments, and society at large have a vested interest in minimizing financial chaos. But psychologically, the experience of being told "you must" triggers resistance.

We equate freedom with choice. And when choice is removed, even a smart decision feels like a loss of autonomy.

Take the example of buying a home.

When a lender loans you hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy property, they want to be sure their collateral—your house—is protected.

If the home burns down and there's no insurance, they lose their investment. So they require you to carry fire insurance (and in some cases, flood insurance) for as long as you owe money on the loan.

From the homeowner's perspective, it feels like coercion: "I have to buy this policy just because the bank says so."
But from the lender's view, it's simple prudence: they're protecting their mon ...

California's insurance crisis is evolving — and now, it's taking flight.

With wildfire season fast approaching, thousands of homeowners are receiving non-renewal notices from their insurance companies — sometimes without a single inspector ever setting foot on their property. Instead, insurers are increasingly turning to aerial imagery and drone technology to decide whether homes are worth the risk.

As ABC 10's Jeannie Nguyen reported in her segment "Get Used to Having Your Home Inspected from the Sky", this high-tech transformation is reshaping the insurance landscape — raising new questions about privacy, fairness, and the future of underwriting.

"Companies are still dropping people's policies," Nguyen said, "and some are getting notices without anyone even ever coming to their home. Inspections are being done by air."

In a striking example of how quickly technology is changing the industry, ABC 10 showed drone footage of a Roseville neighborhood, illustrating what insurers are now doing routinely across the state.

"For many home insurance companies, inspections by air are becoming a way of doing business," Nguyen said.

Major insurers, including AAA, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, and Allstate, are now using drone and satellite imagery to assess the condition of homes and surrounding properties — often without the homeowner's knowledge.

A spokesperson for AAA told ABC 10 that the company uses "aerial imagery captured by third-party fixed-wing aircraft and satellites," emphasizing that drones are not part of its standard inspection process. But industry experts confirm that other carriers are using drones, especially in high-risk areas where physical inspections are costly or difficult.

"They're flying drones over neighborhoods to get an idea of the conditions that might exist," said Karl Susman, a California insurance expert.

For decades, insurers relied on in-person inspections — sending field agents to photograph properties, measure defensible space, and evaluate maintenance conditions.

But with California's current insurance crisis, many carriers are cutting costs and accelerating their risk analysis through technology.

"AAA, l ...