After the 2025 Los Angeles fires, California's insurer of last resort needed a $1 billion rescue, its first since 1993. Homeowners who never filed a claim are footing part of the bill.

Most homeowners never file a title insurance claim. For the few who do, it can be the only thing standing between them and a multi-year lawsuit to reclaim a forged deed.

Miss an insurance payment and a mortgage servicer can buy its own policy and add the bill straight to your mortgage, coverage that protects the lender, not you.

A fixed-rate loan with a payment that keeps climbing sounds like a contradiction. The culprit is the escrow account, and you have more choices than the letter suggests.

Your monthly payment jumped again after an escrow analysis. The shortfall usually is not a mistake, it is built into how the account works. Here is the mechanism, and what you can do about it.