Hurricane Hilary: Catastrophe For Insurers?

Hurricane Hilary (or rather, Tropical Storm Hilary) has made its way through Southern California. 

Reuters reported:

LOS ANGELES, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in more than 80 years unleashed floods across parts of Southern California more accustomed to drought, as officials urged the public to stay safe as they began to count the cost of damage.

The National Weather Service downgraded the hurricane to a tropical depression but not before California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for much of Southern California, with flash flood warnings until at least 3 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Monday.

I would not be at all surprised if the insurance claims industry assigns a catastrophe status to this event, along with a catastrophe code number, in the days ahead or have done so already. Major events such as this usually are assigned catastrophe status for anticipated high damage claims. Insurers will be hiring additional claims staff to handle the increased numbers of claims. I served on several catastrophes, the last being the Northridge Earthquake in 1994.

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) defines a catastrophe as an event that causes. $24 million or more in insured property losses and affects a significant number of. property/casualty policyholders and insurers.

It is possible that retired property adjusters, such as myself, are called up to join catastrophe teams. Good money is made in joining catastrophe claim teams.

To read more, go here.

Gun Store Purchases: Just Use Cash

Above, an Albuquerque gun store. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Democrats are a huge collection of sneaky bastards who would love to create a gun registry for the ultimate aim of gun confiscation.

The latest is the move by the International Standards Organization, who sets rules on Visa and other credit card companies. Under Democrat pressure, the plan is to introduce a special purchase code for gun store sales. Through the back door, this is nothing less than creating a special registry of gun sales.

The code doesn't differentiate between purchases of guns, gun cleaning products or anything else. Anything purchased at a gun store gets the code when bought with a credit card.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is fighting it.

From CBS News:

The National Rifle Association is slamming the credit card industry's new effort to track gun purchases, describing the plan as "creating a national registry of gun owners."

The NRA is pushing back against decision on Friday from the International Standards Organization (ISO), which sets rules across the financial services industry, to create a new merchant category code for gun and ammunition retailers. ISO's decision comes after mounting pressure on credit card companies by Democrats in Congress who favor use of such a code. 

Merchant category codes are four-digit codes that describe the retailer where a purchase is made, without detailing the specific item bought. These codes allow credit-card issuers to track and restrict purchases — for instance, offering rewards credit cards that give bonus points for travel purchases or cash-back on grocery spending.

On Monday, the NRA questioned the purpose of the new code and the motives for creating it. 

"The ISO's decision to create a firearm specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time," NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. "This is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation — it's about creating a national registry of gun owners."

Visa, Mastercard and American Express all said they plan to move forward with the plan to categorize gun shop sales.

This looks to be a long battle. In the meantime, if one is to make a purchase at a gun shop, just use cash. It is legal to buy guns with cash.

To read the full article, go here.