Two job openings for financial examiners

We're recruiting for two financial examiner positions, both based at our building in Tumwater, Wash.

These positions plan, conduct, and document financial analysis examinations of less-complex regulated entities to determine their compliance with laws and regulations, and to detect fraudulent activity.

Among the duties:

Examining and analyzing eight annual filings to check compliance and and financial conditions.

Reading and interpreting applicable laws, regulations and standards to ensure that analyses and exams are conducted appropriately.

Writing analysis-examination reports, including updated the risk assessment, profile summary and supervisory plan.

For more details, including other duties, salary information, timeline and benefits, please see the link to the full job listing.

We also have a couple of other jobs open, including a deputy commissioner for legal affairs, a management analyst, and a senior market conduct examiner. To keep current on what we're recruiting for, please check our job openings page frequently.

Do I have to buy personal injury protection (PIP) coverage?

We get this question all the time. The short answer, at least here in Washington state, is no. But agents and insurance companies are required to offer Personal Injury Protection coverage, and when you get a quote, it will include PIP coverage.

If you don't want PIP coverage, you'll need to sign a waiver to eliminate the coverage from your policy. If you don't, then the insurer must issue your policy with the coverage, and you will be charged for it. (If you get a policy with this coverage and don't want it, you can still get it removed if you sign that waiver.)

The same is true, incidentally, for uninsured motorist coverage, which goes by the acronym UIM. It's included when you get a quote, and if you don't want it, you'll need to sign a waiver to eliminate the coverage from your policy. Otherwise, you'll get the coverage and be charged for it.

"It's difficult - and expensive -- to find insurance for my log home. Why is that?"

Here's the situation: Log homes are often considered to be specialty construction by the insurance industry. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that log homes have unique construction and repair considerations. That translates into costs that may be above and beyond those associated with modern, conventional home construction.

It's also often the case that log homes are in rural or remote areas where such structures are allowed. That can mean longer response times for firefighters, who may have fewer capabilities than an urban or suburban fire department. All of that means that your homeowners insurance may be more expensive or harder to find.

And these challenges are not unique to log homes, by the way. These same challenges often apply to other specialty structures, such as domes, wood/earth mixed construction, subterranean structures (looking at you, old missile silo owner...), and some types of experimental construction.

Here's our advice: If possible, before you buy one of these types of homes, or decide to finance and build it yourself, please be sure to talk to an insurance agent about the availability of coverage. This can be very important, because if you have a loan on the home, your lender will no doubt insist on proof of insurance coverage in order to protect their interest in the property.

Job opening: Market conduct examiner

We're recruiting to fill a job opening for a senior market conduct examiner in our Seattle office. (It's one of several jobs we have open at the moment; click that link to see the others.)

The position is responsible for performing analysis and examinations under the direction of our chief market conduct examiner. The position would be a lead position, and would lead teams of co-workers in evaluating company activities in the marketplace.

For more specifics, including duties, salary, timeline, etc., please see the full job listing.

Guilty: Man claimed car burglarized at mall; but mall's video indicated otherwise

An Eatonville man has pleaded guilty to felony insurance fraud after falsely claiming that someone burglarized his car while parked at the Tacoma Mall.

Joseph Thomas Rebic, Jr., 48, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court. He was sentenced to 240 hours community service and $1,300 in fees.

On June 11, 2012, Rebic reported that his car had been burglarized while parked for 45 minutes at the Tacoma Mall. He filed reports with Tacoma mall security and the Tacoma Police Department. He immediately filed two claims with his insurer, State Farm.

The car's rear driver's door window was broken, and there was damage to the trunk liner. Rebic said that the thief had stolen several items, including a $179 GPS device, an $1,189 Canon camera and lenses, and a $1,200 bow and arrows. All told, he said, the stolen valuables were worth about $2,880, and the damage to the car totaled about $350.

The problem: The mall's parking lot video showed none of that. The video shows no one approaching the vehicle or taking items from it after Rebic leaves.

State Farm eventually closed Rebic's claim without payment after he canceled an appointment with a State Farm investigator. They then forwarded the case to our anti-fraud Special Investigations Unit.

Note to agents and brokers wondering about their role under health care reform and the Exchange

Are you an agent or broker wondering what your role will be with Health Care Reform and the Washington Healthplanfinder, also known as the Washington Health Benefit Exchange? We get frequent questions from agents about this.  

How the Exchanges are set up varies by state. Here in Washington, the exchange is a separate entity from the state's insurance regulator (that's us).

The Exchange holds monthly public meetings to discuss agent requirements, business processes and to help determine agent/broker training and certification in order to access the Exchange system.

To participate in future meetings and find out what you need to do in order to become Exchange trained and certified,  information is posted at  http://wahbexchange.org/committees/agents-brokers-tac/. 

If you want to attend the next teleconference on May 1, 2013 contact the Exchange at info@wahbexchange.org .

(Note: This is actually a repost of a post we put up early this morning. It was the easiest way to fix a font error. The wording's unchanged.)

"My agent told me I had to add all my cars to my policy, even if I don't use them. Is this true?"

We are not aware of any Washington state law requiring the addition of all owned cars to a policy. If your agent claims there is -- and we hear this from consumers with some frequency -- he or she should be able to tell you what section of law it is.

There is a section of state law (RCW 46.30, regarding mandatory liability insurance) that requires drivers operating certain vehicles on state highways to be able to show proof of liability insurance if asked to do so by law enforcement officers or a court. However, simply owning a vehicle that's not driven doesn't appear to require proof of insurance under that law.

If you're driving it around, yes, of course get insurance on it. The fines for driving without insurance are steep, and the potential losses in an accident could be much steeper.

For more specifics on the mandatory insurance law, including requirements and types of vehicles that are exempt, please see our mandatory auto insurance page.