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
Open enrollment for 2027 marketplace coverage starts November 1, and skipping it can forfeit any subsidy
Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage begins November 1 and runs through January 15, and anyone who lets the window close without...
The old health-subsidy cliff returns in 2027, and a late-50s couple over the line can lose up to $25,000
The Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025, and with them went the cushion that had, for several years,...
Long-term-care insurance premiums keep climbing, and insurers can raise them again
Long-term care insurance is marketed around a single reassuring idea: pick a benefit level, lock in a premium, and budget for it for decades. Federal...
About 4 million people could lose marketplace health coverage as enhanced subsidies vanish
About 4 million people are projected to lose Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage as the pandemic-era premium subsidies that lowered their monthly bills stay expired,...
Naming a minor directly as a life-insurance beneficiary can freeze the payout in court
A grandparent who names a young grandchild as the beneficiary on a life-insurance policy usually pictures the money arriving quickly to help raise the child....
A partnership long-term-care policy lets you keep extra assets and still qualify for Medicaid
A special class of long-term-care insurance, sold under state Long-Term Care Partnership programs, carries a benefit ordinary policies do not: for every dollar the policy...
FDIC insurance covers $250,000 per depositor, and beneficiaries can multiply it
The $250,000 figure attached to FDIC insurance sounds like a flat ceiling, and many savers treat it that way, quietly assuming a household with more...
Home-insurance non-renewals are climbing as insurers retreat from high-risk states
The home-insurance squeeze has a second edge that never shows up on a premium quote. Beyond the rising cost of a policy, a growing number...
Home insurance now averages about $3,057 a year and rivals the mortgage for many owners
The cost of protecting a home has quietly become one of the fastest-rising line items in a retiree’s budget. The average U.S. homeowners policy is...
CHAMPVA can cover the spouse and children of a permanently disabled veteran
When a veteran is rated permanently and totally disabled, the health-coverage question does not stop with the veteran. Their spouse and children face the same...
A long-term-care partnership policy lets you protect extra savings and still qualify for Medicaid
Long-term care is the expense most likely to drain a lifetime of savings, and the usual advice is grim: buy insurance you may never use,...
For 44% of homeowners, insurance now costs about as much as the mortgage, and non-renewals have surged
The cost of insuring a home has climbed so steeply that, for many owners, the annual premium now rivals the mortgage itself. A first-of-its-kind national...
Home insurance premiums keep climbing in 2026, adding to fixed-income costs
Home insurance premiums are projected to rise again in 2026, extending a multi-year run of increases that has turned a routine bill into one of...
A new “No Surprises” law bars most surprise out-of-network bills for emergency care
A trip to the emergency room used to carry a hidden financial risk that had nothing to do with the treatment itself. Even at an...
Long-term-care insurance can spare a healthy spouse from spending down savings for nursing care
When one spouse needs years of nursing care, the bill does not stop at that spouse’s share of the savings. Long-term care is one of...
A Hartford insurance unit would mail $11 million in refund checks for a premium-tax overcharge, with no claim to file
A former Hartford life-insurance business has agreed to an $11 million settlement over premium-tax charges it allegedly miscalculated, and eligible policyholders would not have to...
State Farm is returning $5 billion to auto customers, about $100 a vehicle, and former customers get paid too
State Farm has begun paying out $5 billion in cash to its auto insurance customers, the largest dividend in the company’s century-plus history. The payments...
Sentara’s termination notice to Anthem could push up to 380,000 Virginians out of network on January 1
Nearly 380,000 Virginians could wake up on January 1 to find their doctors and hospitals suddenly out of network, after Sentara Health sent Anthem Blue...
State Farm is returning $5 billion to drivers, about $100 a vehicle, applied automatically this summer
State Farm has begun sending $5 billion back to its auto insurance customers this summer, the largest single dividend in the mutual insurer’s century-plus history....
Home insurance is rising about 4% in 2026 to around $3,057, and California premiums jump 16%
Homeowners are on track to pay about 4% more to insure a house in 2026, pushing the national average annual premium to roughly $3,057, according...