The state’s new property insurance law has many home and condominium owners wondering how it affects them.

The changes can be confusing. Homeowners are expecting a refund from their insurers based on the new law, but aren’t sure when they’ll see savings or how much. An emergency order from Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet took effect Jan. 31 and has added to the confusion, as customers wonder whether their insurance companies are still able to raise rates or drop their policies.

Here are answers to readers’ most asked questions in recent weeks:

Q: I just got my insurance bill and my premiums are going up. I thought my rates are supposed to go down because of what the Legislature did?

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If you enjoy paying capital gain taxes when selling an investment or business property, you probably won’t want to learn how to pyramid your real estate wealth by legally avoiding taxes on profitable sales. However, if you prefer to build realty wealth without paying taxes, as millions of other investors and major corporations do, read on.

Or you might enjoy selling your rental property at a profit, perhaps an apartment or commercial building, and using those funds to acquire your ultimate dream home without paying capital gains tax. Read on.

Ever since 1921, Internal Revenue Code 1031 has encouraged real estate investors to trade one (or more) “like kind” investment or business property for another property (or more) of equal or greater cost and equity without paying profit tax.

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Many older homeowners prefer reliable, dependable mortgage interest rates. It helps them plan their monthly financial calendars, especially when they are battling the challenges of paying for health care on fixed incomes.

Fixed-rate mortgages have been absent from the reverse mortgage scene for more than a decade as lenders relied primarily on adjustable-rate mortgages insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. These mortgages, known as home equity conversion mortgages, account for nearly 85 percent of the reverse market.

BNY Mortgage (www.bny mortgage.com), which recently announced it would trim the interest rate charged on the adjustable-rate home equity conversion mortgages, will introduce two fixed-rate reverse mortgage products on March 5.

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OLDWICK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A.M. Best Co. has released the third installment of the Insurance Law Podcast, a new podcast series that examines timely insurance issues from an attorney’s point of view.

This episode features a discussion on the crucial role that law firms can play in managing the catastrophic loss scene of an accident, with recent chemical fires and explosions in Kansas City, Missouri, serving as examples. Guest speakers include Russ Melton from Foley & Mansfield in Minneapolis, MN, and Joe Gerber from Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia, PA.

Listen or subscribe to the Insurance Law podcast at http://Podcast.insuranceattorneysearch.com.

Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial services industries, including the banking and insurance sectors. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

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With people living longer, healthier lives, today’s retirees on average enjoy a much longer retirement than that of their parents’ generation.But a longer retirement, combined with rising medical expenses and property taxes, means having to be more resourceful at finding ways to fund those golden years.

And on that front, there’s good news for seniors who own their homes and want to continue living in them. Despite higher property taxes, utility bills and other costs, reverse mortgages have just become more attractive.

Competition is heating up in the reverse-mortgage market. That means that banks are cutting margins, which gives seniors more money, and lenders are creating more options for withdrawing that money.

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With sales slumping and buyers wavering, foreclosures are up and some say that the shakedown has only just begun

CORONA, Calif. — Here’s what Dave Hennigan knows about the four-bedroom house tucked away on a tranquil Corona street: The owner is a woman, and she’s $8,155 behind on her mortgage payments.

Maybe she had a messy divorce or expensive illness. Maybe she has been spending too much and saving too little. Hennigan, a 45-year-old Riverside County real estate agent, doesn’t plan to ask.

As he navigates the suburban streets, map in hand, he rehearses his pitch. “Your name came up on a list of people who might be interested in selling their house.”

That sounds neutral, even sympathetic. If it works, he’ll have his first distressed seller.

There’s a lot of speculation about where the housing market is headed. Some analysts contend the shakeout is over. Others maintain it hasn’t even begun.

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At issue is the insurer’s leaving patients without coverage after they have been hospitalized.

A college student who was dropped by Blue Shield of California after he was hospitalized sued the health plan Thursday, asking a Los Angeles judge to order it to stop canceling the policies of people who get sick and submit claims for treatment.

The request for a sweeping injunction is the latest twist in an escalating controversy over a practice that is widespread and has left thousands of California residents with big medical bills and without coverage. As a series of recent Times articles showed, Blue Shield and its competitors routinely drop policyholders who get sick and run up medical bills.

The suit came as state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner disclosed for the first time that his office was reviewing Blue Shield’s practices and was prepared to take action if it found problems.

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Loans for homeowners over 62 are so in demand that they might exceed federal guarantee limits.

Reverse mortgages have been a boon to older homeowners, as well as the mortgage industry. But the product’s popularity has brought some complications.

Reverse mortgages allow people age 62 and older to draw on the equity in their primary residences, with monthly payments that continue as long as the borrower remains in the home.

People have migrated in record numbers to such loans, according to the Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, a trade association in Washington.

Borrowers last year took out nearly 86,000 Federal Housing Administration home equity conversion mortgages, the dominant reverse mortgage product, compared with just 48,500 in 2005.

In fact, the loans have grown so popular that they run the risk of outstripping federal limits. As of last week, mortgage industry officials said they feared they would be forced to suspend their federal reverse mortgage programs because the government had agreed to insure only 275,000 such loans — a number that is rapidly being approached.

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McLEAN, VA  – In the fourth quarter of 2006, 84 percent of Freddie Mac-owned loans that were refinanced resulted in new mortgages with loan amounts that were at least five percent higher than the original mortgage balances, according to Freddie Mac’s quarterly refinance review.  This percentage is down from the third quarter of 2006, when the share of refinanced loans that took cash out was a revised 87 percent.

“The share of mortgages that were for refinance rose in the fourth quarter as 30-year fixed mortgage rates came down to where they started the year,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.  “Falling mortgage rates encouraged some people to refinance to lower their payments, for example if they had an adjustable-rate mortgage that was scheduled to reset soon, but the primary driver of refinance continues to be equity extraction.

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NEW ORLEANS_A homeowner who claims Allstate Indemnity Co. failed to properly or promptly pay his damage claim after Hurricane Katrina took the witness stand in federal court, kicking off testimony in the first trial for one of the several thousand such Louisiana lawsuits.

Lawrence Tomlinson and his wife Elizabeth, accuse the Northbrook, Illinois-based company of bad faith and say the company underpaid them for wind damage that tore holes in their roof and let water rain into their home in the New Orleans suburb of Marrero.

The Tomlinsons also say Allstate did not start adjusting their claim after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm until November _ more than the 30 days allowed by law.

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