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The Oklahoma Insurance Department has released its 2022 Annual Report. Every year, the OID compiles a report summarizing the required financial disclosures of insurers in the state, highlighting new legislation, and breaking down certain regulatory activity taken by the department (although information about market conduct exams is noticeably missing). Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the more interesting information and statistics from last year:…

Continue Reading Oklahoma Insurance Department’s 2022 Year in Review

The 2023 Windstorm Insurance Conference has been great. The two gentlemen in the above photo taken on Monday night are whistleblower independent adjusters who testified during Florida’s Special insurance Session in December. Florida’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) investigators claim they could not track them down and speak with them following their testimony. It does not appear that these whistleblowers are “hiding out.” …

Continue Reading Are Florida’s Department of Financial Service Investigators Competent or Simply Refusing to Investigate Alleged Insurance Company Corruption?

Lawyer-to-client communications are essential. Each policyholder claim is unique, with unique issues and facts of damage and valuation. Many policyholders are in a state of trauma following a loss. Most never dreamed that they would have to hire an attorney. Attorneys must break through and develop a trusting relationship through honest and effective personal communication if they are to be successful.
Continue Reading Policyholders and Their Attorneys Need to Personally Communicate

(I apologize for not having a blog the last couple of days. When you hear news reports that COVID is still around…believe it. After having it a couple of years ago and having the vaccine and a couple of boosters, a Christmas trip to New York City left me with a Covid hangover. I am fine and appreciate the kind words from so many.)

Scot Strems was finally disbarred from practicing law by the Supreme Court of Florida. I noted his law firm’s problems in Public Adjusters and Those Directly Soliciting Insurance Claims on Behalf of Attorneys Are Committing a Crime and Can Go to Jail Along With the Attorneys, and Strems Law Firm Suspended For Unethically Representing Claimants. The Supreme Court of Florida provided this background in its opinion:…
Continue Reading Policyholders Should Always Independently Check the References and Reputation of Attorneys —An Example is Scot Strems

The post, Ding Dong the Wicked Insurance Witch Is Dead! Florida’s Insurance Commissioner Resigns!, generated a great deal of comments from readers. The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie, and lessons are abundant in the story. However, some missed the point of the post, which is found in the last paragraph:

All policyholders and I can do is celebrate his resignation. Most of us have felt like the munchkins in a faraway land and ignored ever since Altmaier was appointed Florida’s insurance commissioner.

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Continue Reading Thoughts From Readers About Insurance Commissioner Resignation

Insurance companies are heavily regulated to guard against financial ruin, leaving policyholders without the promised financial safety net. Historically, many insurance companies would charge unsound actuarial rates, take premiums or surplus from the treasury and give it to insurer executives, and make illusory insurance contracts that paid little following a loss. This is why the industry is regulated on a state-by-state basis.
Continue Reading How Florida Insurance Executives Siphon Off Millions and Leave Their Companies Bankrupt

  1. Limits homeowners’ rights. Limits the ability for homeowners to receive statutory attorney fees from insurance companies even when an insurance company has been found to have treated a policyholder unfairly by denying, delaying, or underpaying their claim. The law effectively replaces the prevailing consumer attorney fee law that has been in place for more than

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In a matter of days, the Florida legislature is poised to consider another sweeping round of legal changes to Florida’s property insurance market. In large part at the behest of CFO Jimmy Partronis, whose campaigns are largely funded by the insurance companies he is supposed to regulate, the legislature will consider a slate of “reforms” taken directly from the insurance industry’s Christmas list.
Continue Reading Insurance Company Denials and Underpayment Drive Florida Insurance Litigation