According to a new US study* occupants may be safer in a hybrid vehicle than in a conventional gas-powered model. Statistically, the study found that injuries sustained from a collision were 25% lower  for occupants of hybrids. According to the study, this is “good news for green-minded drivers who don’t want to trade safety for  more...

The policyholder Hubert Thomas was described by the court as an “an elderly gentleman with very limited formal education”.  Shortly after Christmas 2007, Thomas’ home sustained fire damage resulting from a wood-burning stove. What made a bad situation much worse is this: although he had purchased an insurance policy, the insurer refused to pay the  more...

We’ve heard it from advertisers for years: using a specific product will make you look younger, feel happier, express more confidence, __________________(you fill in the blank)… But some recent cases have caused advertisers to be more cautious about stating what their products will do. Example #1: in September, Reebok agreed to pay $25 million in  more...

Everybody buys an insurance policy for protection – the right to recovery when the unforeseen happens. However, insurance policies also extend entitlements to the insurer.  When insuring property against physical damage, the insurer has the right of subrogation. In its most common usage, subrogation refers to a situation where an insurance company attempts to recover  more...

Canada’s most frequent re-occurring natural hazard is one to which other parts of the world are now encountering with greater frequency. Flooding. As referenced previously in TheRiskFactor, flooding is particularly painful in Canada because overland flooding is not covered by Canadian homeowners’ insurance policies. Coverage can be purchased for plumbing overflow and sewer-back, and many  more...

Saturday night’s stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair is already being called the deadliest of its kind in U.S. history. The crowd of roughly 10,000 were awaiting the show, and witnessing the ominous signs of the imminent storm. Quite abruptly, wind gusts – estimated to have exceeded 60 mph – tore through the metal  more...

Within a few days of the June 15th Stanley Cup riot on the streets of Vancouver, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) made a simple offer to police. In that province – where vehicles are insured through the single government owned and operated monopoly – every driver is identified by their most identifiable feature:  more...

AirBNB, the website that allows people to list their homes for “rent” like hotel rooms, has been in the news lately – for one, because of its monetary valuation of billions of dollars, and second because of what is being called a vacation rental horror story where an AirBNB user’s apartment was ransacked by her  more...

The early reports cause freedom-loving people everywhere to shudder: a mid-afternoon blast at a 17-storey government building in Oslo has resulted in fatalities – and fear. And if this turns out – as it initially appears – to be the work of terrorists, it serves as a grim reminder that every democratic nation embracing peace  more...

  You may not have noticed, but the accumulation of bad news stories from around the globe has already made 2011 the worst year of the 21st century for natural disasters – and we have over 5 months to go before year-end!   Is the trend getting significantly worse – or is this year an  more...