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Florida Republican Legislators made a rule limiting public testimony from people who went all the way to Tallahassee to complain about insurance company misconduct last December during the special session which passed laws protecting insurance companies. They cut off the testimony of the whistleblowing independent adjusters who were providing evidence about the bad conduct of Florida insurance companies. Florida Republican leaders are now doing the same thing with new laws regarding insurance company bad faith while making new laws shielding insurance companies in third-party bad faith cases.…

Continue Reading Why Do Republican Leaders Refuse to Listen To Complaints From Those Harmed By Insurance Companies?

An editorial to the Palm Beach Post asked the title question of this post. The answer seemed very obvious when it noted:1

‘[I]nsurance companies, executives and agents have donated at least $74 million to Florida politicians or business groups.’ The top recipient: Gov. Ron DeSantis, pulling in $3.3 million. And there’s this gem: Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, has raked in nearly $2 million — from the industry he’s supposed to regulate.

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Continue Reading Why Are Florida Republican Leaders Rigging the Legal System to Favor Insurance Companies and Prevent Redress For Bad Faith Actions?

One investigative journalist, Brianna Sacks, of the Washington Post, has uncovered and exposed more corruption by Florida insurance companies than all the state paid for insurance investigators and regulators whose job it is to protect Floridians from such conduct. The article, Insurers Slashed Hurricane Ian Payouts Far Below Damage Estimates, Documents and Insiders Reveal, may cause many to say, “look at all the claims corruption by Florida insurance companies. This is outrageous!” The sad question raised by the article is:…

Continue Reading Insurance Company Corrupt Claims Culture Exposed by Washington Post

How can you tell when an insurance company lobbyist is not telling the truth? Everybody should know the answer. But a recent article in the Insurance Journal, Florida’s SB 2A Ended One-Way Legal Fees. Now Some Insurers Say it’s Retroactive, shows that laws written and supported by the insurance industry are always suspect. …

Continue Reading Can Florida Legislators Trust Insurance Company Lobbyists?

A new legislative bill filed in Florida will have a significant impact on the Florida public adjusting profession if it becomes law. The proposed law enlarges the amount of time a policyholder can cancel a public adjuster contract, provides for a cancellation of a public adjuster contract if estimates of damage are not provided to the insurer within 45 days, requires notice to the insurer within three days rather than 30 days if a public adjuster is retained, and provides that the fee percentage amount when a client hires a public adjuster after an insurer’s first offer “shall” be 10 percent of the new amount collected. …

Continue Reading New Public Adjuster Bill in Florida

Florida used to have a statute of limitations for insurance lawsuits that was five years from the date of the breach of contract. As a result, some cases would be filed nearly a decade after the loss. Not anymore, as one condominium and its lawyers learned in a federal court decision last week.1  …

Continue Reading New Florida Statute of Limitations Law Costs Condominium $13 Million

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?

The Florida legislature recently passed a sweeping property insurance bill that severely limited the ability of policyholders to sue their own insurance companies for wrongful claims conduct and took away a 100-year-old law requiring the losing insurance company to pay the policyholder’s attorney fees. To put lipstick on this pig of legislation, the legislature added language allegedly making it easier for the insurance commissioner to request a Market Conduct Examination of a property insurance company’s claims practices. While some policyholders may think this helps, the insurance industry knows that market claims examinations have little impact on curbing significant wrongful claims practices.…

Continue Reading Wrongful Claims Practice Regulation Is Ineffective, and Why Florida’s New Market Conduct Examination Laws Mean Nothing

The Sarasota Tiger Bay Club hosted a presentation on the ‘insurance crisis” today. I was a panelist along with a State Farm agent representative and a Citizens Property Insurance Corporation spokesperson. I always find these discussions with different perspectives interesting. The questions from the audience are enlightening regarding the public’s perception.  …

Continue Reading Reflections From a Panel Presentation at the Sarasota Tiger Bay Club

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