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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Unnatural Disaster Of Insurance, Underinsurance, And Natural Disasters, Kenneth S. Klein
The Unnatural Disaster Of Insurance, Underinsurance, And Natural Disasters, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
This article presents a novel data set describing the frequency of materially inadequate homeowner insurance in the event of a total loss. For decades, after a natural disaster, large percentages of homeowners who have lost their homes report suffering a second devastating loss — that, entirely to their surprise, they are vastly underinsured. These reports provocatively suggest that a large majority of all insured homes in the United States — not just homes destroyed by a natural disaster—might be profoundly, unknowingly, and unintentionally underinsured. Insurance companies reject this possibility. Insurers posit that underinsurance is rare, that other than after natural …
Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein
Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
In 2020, the United States suffered a record number of named storms, a record number of storms causing $1 billion or more in damage, a derecho that destroyed much of Iowa’s corn crop, and previously unheard-of levels of wildfire frequency and damage in California, Oregon, and Washington. The effects of climate change are causing a crisis of affordable, available homeowner insurance. As more and more homes in the United States are in high-risk areas for natural catastrophes, insurers increasingly choose not to offer insurance at all in some communities, exclude disaster risks from coverage in others, and dramatically raise prices …
Minding The Protection Gap: Resolving Unintended, Pervasive, Profound Homeowner Underinsurance, Kenneth S. Klein
Minding The Protection Gap: Resolving Unintended, Pervasive, Profound Homeowner Underinsurance, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
A significant majority of homeowners in the United States unwittingly have less insurance than necessary to rebuild their home in the event of a complete loss. This persistent, multibillion-dollar protection gap first emerged in the 1990s and has never resolved despite a desire by most homeowners to contract for full replacement coverage. While a great deal of academic and industry literature has addressed the issue of underinsurance, the work has been done without reference to two sources that unlock the conundrum. The first is the 1550+ page administrative rulemaking file of the California Department of Insurance collected in the wake …