Aaron Bollinger
Aaron builds and maintains the research systems behind BestInsurance Research: the source registry, the content model, the retrieval layer, and the checks that stop an unsupported claim from publishing. He drafts questions and coverage pages against primary sources and maps every material claim to the record that carries it.
What this role covers, and what it does not
Drafts questions, coverage pages, entity records, and state pages.
Maintains the source registry and the claim-to-source mapping.
Owns the build-time checks for citation resolution, canonical URLs, and structured data.
Does not sign off on the insurance substance of a page. That is the reviewer's function.
Pages authored
Surplus lines (California)
Not a line of insurance so much as a route to one. When no admitted California insurer will write a risk, a licensed surplus line broker may place it with a nonadmitted i
Community association insurance (California)
The insurance program a California homeowners association buys for itself: property on the common area, general liability, crime and fidelity, and directors and officers
Why did my California underinsured motorist coverage pay nothing?
Most often because the at-fault driver carried liability limits equal to or above your own uninsured motorist limit, which in California leaves nothing for the coverage t
How many insurers have to decline before a broker can place my risk in the non-admitted market?
Three, but the number is evidence rather than the rule. California requires the broker to make a diligent search among admitted insurers that actually write the type of i
Does a California guarantee fund cover my surplus lines policy if the insurer fails?
No. California requires the surplus line broker and the nonadmitted insurer to tell you in writing, in boldface 16-point type on a freestanding document you sign, that th
Can my insurer make me use their repair shop after a California car accident?
No. California prohibits an insurer from requiring that an automobile be repaired at a specific automotive repair dealer. It may not even suggest or recommend one unless
Personal auto insurance (California)
The policy that responds when a private passenger vehicle injures someone, damages property, or is itself damaged. In California more of this line is written by statute t
Commercial Auto Insurance
The coverage part that responds when a vehicle used in a business injures someone or damages their property. On the standard form it is built differently from every other
Reading the classification rules to see why an audit reclassifies payroll: the business is classified, not the individual jobs
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that an employer performs several distinct activities and expects the policy to carry one classification per activity, priced to
Reading the marine insurance regulation and the nationwide definition to see why a fine arts schedule sits on an inland marine form
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that a household owns paintings, antiques and a coin collection and is asking where those items should be insured. Nothing here
The EEOC rescinded its harassment enforcement guidance in January 2026, and what an employer's own documents now have to be measured against
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that an employer wrote its anti-harassment policy against federal EEOC enforcement guidance and has not revisited it. Nothing he
Reading the COBRA notice regulations to see three separate clocks, owned by three different parties, and why the 44-day one exists for small employers
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that an employer sponsoring a group health plan has recorded a single COBRA deadline in its process notes. Nothing here decides
Reading the CEA's own deductible page and policy form to see why an earthquake retention is set by a limit on a different policy
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that a homeowner holds a CEA earthquake policy alongside a residential homeowners policy and wants to know the dollar retention.
Reading the HIPAA notification rule against the CISA and NIST control cadences to see why one is a ceiling and the others are intervals
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that an organization handling protected health information has written two numbers into its incident plan: notify within sixty d
Reading CG 20 10, CG 20 37 and CG 20 01 to see why one contract sentence usually asks for three separate endorsements
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that a written agreement contains one common sentence: the other party is to be named as an additional insured, on a primary and
A composite homeowner with no fire damage receives a nonrenewal notice after a declared wildfire emergency and reads the statute that governs the moratorium
In the scenario, a wildfire burns in a California county and the Governor declares a state of emergency. A homeowner whose house is a few miles from the burn area has no
A live entertainment company sought commercial property coverage for pandemic losses, and the case turned on the meaning of direct physical loss or damage
Another Planet Entertainment operated venues for live entertainment, including concerts, festivals, and events, at locations in California and Nevada, and its insurer was
A hypothetical two person California corporation is asked for a workers compensation certificate and reads the statutes on who must be covered
In the hypothetical, two people form a California corporation. Both are officers and members of the board, they own all of the stock between them, and the corporation has
Reading the California FAIR Plan's own dwelling policy page to see which perils it lists and what it tells applicants to buy separately
Assume as the premise of this walkthrough that a homeowner has not found coverage in the standard market and is reading about the California FAIR Plan; nothing here decid
Texas
Texas is a file-and-use rate state: TDI states that like most other states, Texas is a file-and-use state, meaning that once an insurer files its rates it can use them on
Florida
Florida's property market runs through two state-created structures on top of the private market. Statute describes Citizens Property Insurance Corporation as a governmen
California
California requires prior approval of insurance rates: commencing November 8, 1989, insurance rates subject to the Proposition 103 chapter must be approved by the commiss
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) describes itself as the U.S. standard-setting organization, founded in 1871 and governed by the chief insurance
California Earthquake Authority
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is a California public entity created by statute: Insurance Code section 10089.6(a)(1) provides that there is hereby created the
California Department of Insurance
The California Department of Insurance (CDI) is California's state insurance regulator: the Insurance Code directs its commissioner to perform all duties imposed by the c
Workers Compensation Insurance (California)
California employers are required by statute to secure the payment of workers compensation. Labor Code section 3700 provides that every employer except the state shall se
Residential earthquake insurance (California)
Residential earthquake insurance is bought separately from the homeowners policy, because CDI states that homeowners, renters, and condominium insurance policies do not c
Landlord / rental dwelling insurance
A landlord or rental dwelling policy insures a residence the owner rents to others rather than occupies. One national carrier's rental dwelling program is described as pr
Homeowners insurance
Homeowners insurance is a package policy on a residence that combines property coverage on the dwelling, other structures, and personal property with loss of use, persona
Commercial Property Insurance
Commercial property insurance pays for direct physical loss of or damage to a business's buildings and business personal property caused by a covered cause of loss. This
Commercial General Liability (CGL)
Commercial general liability insurance pays sums a business becomes legally obligated to pay as damages for third-party bodily injury and property damage. Whether the ins
How do workers compensation class codes affect a quote?
Start with which system applies, because that is a question of state. NCCI states that its Experience Rating Plan does not apply in California, Delaware, Michigan, New Je
What does a surety bond guarantee, and how is it different from insurance?
A surety bond guarantees that the bonded party will perform an obligation, and it is written for the party that required the bond rather than the party that pays for it.
Why can two insurance policies with the same limit protect differently?
The limit is a ceiling on payment, not a description of what is covered, so two policies printing the same number can behave very differently. The number itself can mean
What is the difference between replacement cost and market value?
Replacement cost is the cost to repair or replace damaged property using materials of a like kind and quality; market value is a different number, because it includes the
What does a lender insurance requirement actually prove?
A lender insurance requirement proves the loan condition is satisfied. It is written around the loan and the collateral, not around whether a household could recover. For
When does a landlord need a landlord policy instead of homeowners coverage?
In the forms read here, the dividing line is whether you still reside at the property, not whether someone else also lives there. The ISO HO 00 03 05 11 special form defi
What is inland marine insurance used for?
Inland marine is the classification used for movable property, property in transit, and a set of transportation and communication structures such as bridges, tunnels, pip
Does homeowners insurance cover earthquake damage in California?
Generally no, and California law says so in the statute itself: section 10083(a) prescribes the wording insurers must use for the mandatory earthquake offer, in at least
What is the difference between general liability and professional liability?
They respond to different kinds of harm: in the standard advisory commercial general liability coverage form CG 00 01 04 13, Coverage A pays sums the insured becomes lega
When can a contract require additional insured status?
A contract can ask for additional insured status, but only a change to the insurance policy can grant it. On the standard ISO forms, that change is an additional insured
What information does a commercial property underwriter usually request?
A commercial property underwriter is generally looking at four categories of information the industry calls COPE: construction, occupancy, protection, and exposures. One
What is a claims-made retroactive date?
On a claims-made liability policy written with a retroactive date, that date is the earliest point at which the injury, damage, or wrongful act can have happened and stil