Managed repair is the rage of many insurance companies. To reduce claims costs and better compete on low price, some insurance company adjusters use various techniques to steer or pressure policyholders into using contractors the insurance company wants the policyholder to hire. Independent restoration contractors and public adjusters have legions of stories about how adjusters … Continue Reading
United Policyholders is the largest and oldest charitable organization serving the interests of policyholders. The photo above shows us with Amy Bach at Monday night’s Tee UP 2018 fundraising event for United Policyholders in San Francisco.… Continue Reading
The interests and needs of policyholders is why public adjusters get to make a living adjusting claims. The financial interests of the public adjuster are not paramount to the policyholder. The public interest is paramount over the public adjuster trade. So long as public adjusters properly serve policyholders, serve the public interest, and strive to … Continue Reading
The Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) has issued an email authorizing Florida licensed public adjusters to hire anybody to make estimates of damage. This email corrects my latest two blogs which indicated that the OIR wanted to prevent those not licensed from working on insurance claims by determining valuations of loss and estimates of damage.… Continue Reading
Florida Attorney General Candidate Sean Shaw and I collaborated and drafted language that made people making the values, numbers, scopes of loss or directly or indirectly, helping determine an insurance claim amount, have an attorney license or a public adjuster license. We wanted to better protect consumers and help stop allegations of or actual insurance … Continue Reading
Sean Shaw sponsored and passed a law that protects victims of hurricanes from scammers and criminals. This new law became effective January 1 of this year. Some bad apples are breaking the law, and these scammers need to be stopped.… Continue Reading
House Bill 911, effective January 1, 2018, was filed by Representative Sean Shaw and enacted by the Florida Legislature to amend Fla. Stat. § 626.854, which protects policyholders through the regulation of public adjusters. Chip Merlin discussed this new law in detail in his post on July 2, 2017. In requiring public adjusters to be … Continue Reading
Last week at the Texas Association of Public Insurance Adjuster (TAPIA) Fall Conference, Rene Sigman made the most dramatic speech ever at a public adjuster conference—and did it twice in one day. She stood up to a Texas politician railing about his constituents being harmed by bad laws and bad faith insurance companies. She called … Continue Reading
Sean Shaw will be a great Florida Attorney General. The Miami Herald endorsed Sean this week and noted some of the reasons why he can help so many and change the status quo as Florida’s Attorney General.… Continue Reading
If you are unhappy or have a complaint with how you were treated by your insurance company or adjuster it’s important to let the Texas Department of Insurance know. Many people do not realize that they can file an official complaint with the Texas Department of Insurance (“TDI”) for various bad acts or mistreatment by … Continue Reading
After a disaster, United Policyholders is always a good resource to review for policyholders and family members of those with a home or business affected by the hurricane. This non-profit organization has many programs and services that may guide you in the aftermath of a storm when stress levels are high, and you have many … Continue Reading
On August 17, 2018, the 49th anniversary of Hurricane Camille, the benchmark in Mississippi for devastation and survivability prior to the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Mississippi Insurance Department (“MID”) filed its adoption of Rule 34.11 to amend the Mississippi Homeowner Insurance Policyholder Bill of Rights (“Policyholder Bill of Rights”) to include an … Continue Reading
In Keodalah v. Allstate Insurance Company,1 a Washington appellate court held insurance adjusters may be liable for bad faith and violating Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.… Continue Reading
As many Californians continue to repair, rebuild, and regain financial health after the disasters throughout the State, many are looking at insurance reform as a solution for the future. Insurers should provide the funds due to individuals and businesses after a disaster, but as surveys have shown, these funds don’t always flow as they should.1… Continue Reading
The Texas Department of Insurance and Texas Insurance Commissioner issued two Consent Orders against contractors for the Unauthorized Practice of Public Adjusting.… Continue Reading
Last month, a New York Supreme Court affirmed that insurance companies are subject to that state’s consumer protection law, General Business Law § 349. In 37 West 24th Street, LLC v. Seneca Insurance Company, Inc., the trial court denied Seneca Insurance Company’s motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim under that statute.1… Continue Reading
American politics and government can make people extraordinarily upset. The very nature of democracy, modern regulation, those being regulated and those regulating promotes active and emotional disagreements of what is the best public policy and how it should be determined. So, my first observation from yesterday’s post, Colorado House Bill 18-1153 Concerning Appraisals for Insurance … Continue Reading
Most homeowners and commercial insurance policies contains exclusions for loss or damages caused by mudflow or other similar occurrences. An example of on such exclusion is included below: b. Earth Movement and Settlement, meaning earthquake, which includes land shock wavers or tremors before, during or after a volcanic eruption; landslide; mudflow; sinkhole; earth sinking, rising … Continue Reading
Steaming ahead on our 50-State claims handling tour, we now pull in to the Peach State – Georgia. Insurance carriers operating in Georgia are subject to both the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act1 and regulations that set forth the guidelines they must follow.… Continue Reading
We were recently asked about the extent to which your insurance company can share your personal information. This question begins with the privacy protections under federal law found in the 1999 Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (the Act).1 Title V of this Act relates to consumer privacy, and contains rules about how financial institutions may share “non-public personal … Continue Reading
California State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones recently posted a bulletin urging insurance companies to provide North Bay fire victims up to 100% of their personal property coverage limits by not requiring the insured to fill out a detailed inventory.… Continue Reading
Our next stop as we tour the claims handling guidelines of the 50-states is the First state, Delaware. I have never spent a lot of time in Delaware but I do have a fondness for it. When I was young, I was fortunate enough to have a family home on the Delaware Bay about a … Continue Reading
Sean Shaw is a practicing attorney resolving legal issues for people and it is only fitting that he is running to become Florida’s Attorney General. Do you want an honest person that sees both sides of the aisle, wants to seek practical resolutions, and still rise up against obvious wrong? Sean Shaw is your candidate.… Continue Reading
I hope each and every one of you are in the midst of a wonderful holiday season! I am writing this blog from a food court in Toronto, Canada. While I am on a vacation to see family, the weather is making me rethink my life choices. It is currently 19 degrees. This Floridian is … Continue Reading
