Auto Insurance Premiums Rising Slowly

Connecticut has the 11th highest auto insurance in the country, but, like other countries, have benefited in recent years, with a slight decline of the average policy costs, according to a new report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

That trend begins to reverse, but so far have been relatively modest increases in average, experts say.

The average premium per vehicle for policy, which includes liability, collision and comprehensive coverage, was $ 1,080 in the state of Connecticut in 2006, the latest data in the report, the association released Wednesday. That compares with $ 1,097 in 2005.

Association warns against comparing the contributions to the state because of differences in insurance laws and requirements, rates of accidents and the cost of repairs. Comparisons, but are often cited in public discussions on reform of auto insurance, and the opportunity to serve as a barometer of the premium pain.

The national average premium for 937 dollars in 2006. Washington, DC, topped the list at 1,316 dollars, and came in Iowa at the cheapest 644 dollars.

Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas R. Sullivan noted that the report shows, Connecticut had an average 1.5 percent decline in premiums in 2006. From 2002 to 2006, premiums rose 1.6 percent, but here in the country of 4.5 percent.

"The number of companies in our auto insurance market continues to grow, and Connecticut residents continue to reap the benefits of competition," said Sullivan.

However, auto insurance premiums started rising again, as work to protect insurers' profit margins.

Although the frequency of accidents has fallen, insurers have seen an average increase in the cost of claims, together with an increase in treatment costs and prices of materials such as steel, aluminum and plastic parts needed to repair the car, said Robert P. Hartwig, president and economist at the Insurance Information Institute.

Insurance costs were flat or slightly down in 2006, and almost flat in 2007. "What we have seen, as we have in 2008 was moved by some signs of increased prices for auto insurance, but not so drastically," Hartwig said. Nationwide, motor vehicle insurance costs were 3.1 percent higher in September than a year ago, according to the consumer price index data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The average growth rate of Connecticut, on the basis of the 34 companies that filed an application for a change, is 2.5 percent so far this year, the state Department of Insurance says. The average for 2007, 1.48 percent, on the basis of the rate of 43 entries. Not all consumers are affected, though, because many companies do not change the rate every year, or may lower rates, while others are raising them.

RAI Implements MajescoMastek's STG Insurance Suite

In Responsive Auto Insurance Company has implemented or RAI MajescoMastek's insurance STG Suite to support an automatic personal business in the state of Florida.

Victor Arocho, president and co-founder of RAI, said: "We were looking for the vendor to understand that P & C domain, and we do not have. STG In insurance apartment was our choice, as it was the time tested and approved; our system meets all criteria and business, offering very robust and efficient options, and was extremely profitable. In short, it was everything we were looking for in the system. "

William McCarter, chairman of property and casualty division at MajescoMastek, said: "The partnership with RAI helps us strengthen our base system. It is important to pursue new opportunities arising from the functional, which are adding another level of depth to our products. A partnership that helped us to improve the visibility our Florida auto market.

Foreign Drivers Get Kansas Car Insurance

At least two insurance companies in Kansas are foreign insurance drivers who have driver's license.

State law does not prohibit companies from this, and supporters of the practice say that it guarantees that all drivers are protected in cases.

But critics have raised concerns about traffic safety and national security.

Farmer's Insurance Group office manager Claudia Villatoro said was that insurance from foreign driver’s licenses, regardless of their legal status, by about a year.

"It's helping people," Villatoro said. "Every time they have an accident, they are covered."

Farm state also guarantees the drivers who present valid foreign license, but will give policyholders 12 months to obtain U.S. or Canadian law license, according to Tamara O'Connor, public affairs supervisor for the company.

Those who do not have a valid U.S. license after that time not risk their policies renewed, she said.

Under the rule of law, all vehicles registered in Kansas must carry auto insurance. Drivers must provide proof of insurance when filing or renewing a vehicle registration.

Critics, fans

Members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which the chapters in Kansas, are among the critics who claimed such insurance policies threaten national security.

Chris Simcox, president of the group, said that deeply wonders how insurance companies are probing the drivers' backgrounds for criminal activity in other countries.

"How is it possible to ensure public safety?" he asked.

But Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the insurance companies who offer such policies are in the best position to risk analysis.

"In our view this is definitely a positive sign, although I think we do legislature should encourage people to obtain state driver's license," he said.

Figueroa said of the license application process requires people to be regularly tested on their driving skills on the road and learning, which encourages safe driving.

Figueroa is assisted local immigrant advocate groups, who lobbied in Topeka in Wichita in such cases.

State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, introduced legislation last session, which is cracking on illegal immigrants by revoking business licenses and imposing civil penalties on any Kansas business found to have employed illegal immigrants, among other projects. Legislation was rejected.

She asks if insurance companies are considering legal status in comparison with illegal in the decision as to ensure that such drivers. She wonders what qualified insurance companies to accept or reject the use by motorists driving foreign law.

"If they are in the country legally, and then the temporary insurance is not a bad idea," she said. "When anyone uninsured on the roads are bad."

State requirements

Neither the Kansas Department of Insurance or the Kansas Department of Revenue, which oversees the registration and vehicle tags, a policy aimed at preventing drivers with foreign driver's license from obtaining insurance in Kansas, spokesmen for both organizations said.

Immigration spokesman for the group routinely lobbied for illegal immigrants to have access to the U.S. driver's license or a license, so they can insure their vehicles.

But in 2007, state law says license applicants must have a social security number, which is controlled by the federal government, or else the government to verify identity, such as a visa or birth certificate.

Insurance companies, who have a problem with foreign license offer a reasonable solution, said Villatoro, insurance of farmers, is to make sure all drivers are safe.

"I think that the better for them to be insured than not said Villatoro, who advertises services in the area of bilingual and Spanish-language media. "It affects other people."

State farms, which also sell policies, said in an e-mail reply, "Although recognize immigration and national security concerns surrounding this issue, but do not believe that it is appropriate to take a position on issues which are outside our areas of knowledge."

Being responsible

It is unclear how many vehicles in Kansas, who are insured with a foreign driving licenses have been registered in the State Department of Revenue from the Department vehicles.

Breakdown of approximately 2.56 million vehicle registrations in 2006, according to the department in its latest report. In 2005, processed about 2.53 million vehicle registrations.

Critics said that the issue of driver's licenses to illegal immigrants appears to reward them for breaking the law.

Larry Magill, Executive Vice President for the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, is concerned about whether insurance companies are responsible by offering such policies.

"Looking at another way to a breach of immigration law in order to prevent someone from driving without insurance, which does not appear to be responsible solutions to the problem in my opinion," said Magill.

The Association does not resolve the matter, Magill said, because it was not brought up.

Magill said he wonders whether drivers insured by a foreign driver's license are familiar with U.S. law traffic, such as which side of the street, to drive on.

Simcox, the Minuteman group, said his organization may consider lobbying lawmakers to pressure insurance companies to stop issuing such policies

Eight Charged With Auto Insurance Fraud

Researchers from the auto insurance fraud task force in Lawrence, Mass., say the participants allegedly set up false failures by Leon Lopez usually felt safe.

But the two cars' crash papers "at the intersection of Route 125 and Interstate 495 south near Haverhill, Mass., and Plaistow line on 15 July 2002, is the latest in the case against Lopez.

He faces auto insurance fraud charges along with seven other people, who received a fake treatment of injuries.

"With Leo Lopez, it was probably easier to convince the passengers and drivers to be involved rare, because there was no threat of injury," Lawrence police Detective list. Michael Simard said.

"Most incidents were orchestrated it on paper. So it has not been any incidents at the stage where people could get hurt," said Simard, the lead investigator in the department of the Task Force.

Lopez, 28, 69 Abbott St. Lawrence, was already facing three separate jury indictment, when re-arrested.

Seven people are charged along with Lopez were treated at Kaplan or Haverhill Family Chiropractic.

Operators of these clinics - Michael Kaplan, in Hampstead and Troy L. wheeler, 40, in Amesbury, Mass. - were indicted along with Lopez at the beginning of this year as part of a grand jury investigation initiated by the state Attorney General's Office.

This case brings to 341 the number of people accused of fraud in auto insurance Lawrence five years of oppression.

Lopez is to be retried later this month in the case being prosecuted by the state Attorney General's Office after Superior Court jury could not reach a verdict a few weeks ago.

"Leo Lopez is the most notorious, the most cynical and most prolific of the runners tested by us," Simard said of the former Haverhill man. Investigators identified him as a "major player", which is paid by area lawyers and chiropractors to recruit victims of fraudulent accidents in the home, that the cost insurers millions of dollars a year in Lawrence.

Lopez, a former van driver and chiropractic assistant for Kaplan Chiropractic Corp. on Sutton Street in North Andover, is considered the key at least a dozen accidents are probed by the task force, according to investigators.

"His name surfaces a lot in our investigations on the number of accidents," said Chief of Police Lawrence John Romero, who assembled a task force in the autumn of 2003 when 65-year-old Lawrence great-grandmother died in a staged plane crash, a car that investigators said she helped plan defraud insurance companies.

"It seems that he made a career this way, this guy was a big-time runner. Runners in general are large sums of money on the backs of the residents of Lawrence choreographing by the fraud," said Romero.

Criminal charges result from the probe initiated by the Bureau of Anti-Fraud Insurance Massachusetts, which has several researchers working in a handful of Lawrence police detectives on the task force.

The aunt of Lopez's wife - Elsa Salazar, 37, 67 Franklin St., Lawrence - confessed police to arrest her after that disaster does not happen.

Salazar initially claimed that a 1989 Acura drove to the 1997 Plymouth at the rear made for a rapid end to the other cars. She told investigators she signed a false accident report prepared by Lopez as a favor to him, and also to make some money.

Investigators also received a statement from the Acura owner, who has not been charged. Lopez told police he paid 700 U.S. dollars for using his car registration in order to create misleading information.

Also for auto insurance fraud were:

José de la Cruz, 35, 13 Melrose Ave. Lawrence, a driver from Plymouth. He says that his car was rear ended and denied any wrongdoing.

Adrian Matos, 33, 26 Inman St., a passenger in Plymouth. She denied any wrongdoing.

Violeta de la Cruz, 38, 102 Chester St. Lawrence, a passenger in Plymouth. She denied any wrongdoing.

Isidro Royer, 43, formerly Lawrence, a passenger in Plymouth. He is still wanted by the police, who believe he lives in Florida.

Candida Santiago, 55, formerly Lawrence, a passenger in the Acura. She remains at large and is considered to be living in New Jersey,

Angie Abrams, 36, formerly Lawrence, a passenger in the Acura. I believe that the police living in Florida

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