Insurance & Protection
Health insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, homeowner’s and renter’s insurance, disability coverage, and how to evaluate policies and claims.
Latest in Insurance & Protection
New federal ABLE-account rules let people with disabilities save up to $19,000 a year without losing SSI or Medicaid eligibility — the cap doubles for working ABLE-eligible adults
A person receiving Supplemental Security Income is allowed to hold exactly $2,000 in countable assets before the federal government starts clawing back benefits. That ceiling...
Atlantic hurricane season starts in six days — and homeowners with a 5% wind deductible pay $20,000 out of pocket on a $400,000 home before the insurer pays a cent
Hurricane season opens June 1, 2026. When it does, millions of homeowners along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts will carry a financial blind spot baked...
A $1 million personal umbrella policy costs about $200 a year and protects your home, savings, and future paychecks from a single liability lawsuit
A guest slips on icy front steps, breaks a hip, and sues for $800,000. The homeowner’s policy covers $300,000. The remaining $500,000 becomes a personal...
If you owned a life insurance policy before 2000, insurers like MetLife may owe you stock worth thousands — 60 million shares went unclaimed
Somewhere in a state treasurer’s vault or a federally regulated trust account, shares of MetLife stock are sitting uncollected, waiting for people who may not...
A 2024 data breach at insurance broker Alera Group pays anyone notified up to $3,500, or about $50 with no proof — but claims close June 29
What happened at Alera Group Alera Group, one of the largest independent insurance brokerages in the United States with more than 4,000 employees and over...
Max your HSA, invest it instead of spending it, and save your receipts — it’s the only account never taxed going in, growing, or coming out
A $350 eye exam receipt sitting in a Google Drive folder doesn’t look like a retirement asset. But for anyone running a Health Savings Account...
A wrong line on a FEMA flood map can force thousands in flood insurance you don’t need — and you can appeal the designation off your home
Your neighbor pays nothing for flood insurance. You pay $2,500 a year. The only difference? A line on a federal map that places your property...
Filing a single home-insurance claim can raise your premium for years — because a hidden report called CLUE tracks every claim you’ve ever made
Last spring, a homeowner in suburban Denver called her insurance company about a slow leak behind the dishwasher. The damage was minor. The repair bill...
Your car is quietly sending your driving data to brokers who sell it to insurers — and you can shut it off in the vehicle’s privacy settings
You never signed up for a driving monitor. You never plugged a tracking device into your OBD port or downloaded a telematics app promising a...
Insurers aren’t just raising home premiums anymore — they’re dropping policies outright, and the cancellations are spreading from California to Texas, Arizona, and Idaho
Somewhere in a suburb outside Austin, a homeowner who has never filed a claim and never missed a payment pulls a letter from the mailbox....
Health insurance just got brutal for millions who buy their own coverage — the average ACA premium more than doubled this year, from $888 to $1,904, after subsidies expired
Open your health insurance bill for 2026, and the number staring back might make you do a double take. For a 55-year-old self-employed consultant earning...
Home insurance is rising for the 5th straight year — California faces a 16% jump, Nebraska 13%, and the average premium is closing on $3,100
Five years in a row, the number on the renewal notice has gone up. The national average home insurance premium is projected to reach roughly...
Florida homeowners pay $10,240 a year for insurance — 189% above the national average — but Citizens just approved an 8.7% rate cut starting this spring
When Maria Gonzalez opened her Citizens Property Insurance renewal notice at her Hialeah home last spring, she braced for another increase. Instead, her annual premium...
Florida homeowners pay $10,240 a year for insurance — 189% above the national average — but the state insurer just approved an 8.7% cut starting in June
When Maria Gonzalez opened her homeowners insurance renewal last spring in Hialeah, the number barely registered as a surprise anymore: $11,400 for a three-bedroom concrete-block...
Home insurance is rising for the 5th straight year — and Florida homeowners now pay $10,240 a year, 189% above the national average
When Maria Gonzalez opened her homeowners insurance renewal notice in April, the number stopped her cold: $11,400 for a three-bedroom concrete-block house in Hialeah that...
Retiring at 55 without LTC insurance could mean steep health costs
A 55-year-old who hands in a resignation letter in May 2026 starts a financial countdown that most people underestimate. Social Security retirement benefits are off...
Health insurance premiums are rising twice as fast as inflation — employer-sponsored plans up 6–7%, adding $617 to the average family’s annual share
Open your next pay stub and look at the health insurance line. If your employer sponsors a family plan, there is a good chance that...
ACA health insurance premiums jumped 26% in 2026 — and 40% of enrollees downgraded to bronze plans to cope
Maria Delgado, a self-employed graphic designer in Houston, opened her HealthCare.gov renewal notice in November and felt her stomach drop. The silver plan she had...
The real cost of a bronze health plan: how a $2,000 ER visit becomes a $6,000 bill when your deductible hasn’t been met
It starts with chest pain on a Tuesday morning in February. You drive yourself to the nearest emergency room, spend four hours getting an EKG,...
ACA health insurance premiums jumped 26% this year — and 4.8 million Americans are projected to drop coverage
A 45-year-old nonsmoker earning $55,000 a year in Georgia paid about $120 a month for a benchmark silver health plan in 2025, according to rate...