Top-Rated Homeowners Insurance Companies

Until Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in 1992, causing the largest insured losses of any single natural disaster up to that point, most of us lived in blissful ignorance about our insurance coverage.

Those days are long gone, thanks to some other unwelcome visitors named Katrina, Wilma, Rita, Charley, Jean and Frances. Not that the Southeast has a monopoly on natural disasters. At any given time, somewhere in the U.S. we are threatened by snowstorms, mudslides, floods, tornadoes, wildfires and other mood swings of Mother Nature.

But these disasters are not just capable of wiping out roads and homes. They can wipe out your insurance provider too. In 2006, Poe Financial Group went under as a direct result of hurricanes Frances and Jean in Florida, and Vesta Insurance Group failed as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina. ...