THE POLICYHOLDER'S ADVOCATE®
(Note: This Guest Blog is by Frank Chimento, Director of Business Development and Client Services at Merlin Law Group).
I would feel confident making a wager that if Americans were polled on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the least, their level of understanding or interest in insurance matters would be somewhere around 2.5. At least it was for me, until one day at the Almeda Mall in Houston, Texas.…
Continue Reading The Day Insurance Claims and Claims Handling Practices Became Interesting
If you want to find a bunch of irate policyholders with plenty of stories to tell, hang out with Tina Nicholson and Javier Delgado in our Houston office. Commercial and residential policyholders have had enough frustration trying to do it themselves and are seeking legal counsel to fight the delays and denials from their insurance carriers. Anger at the insurance company and the adjusters working their claim is the prevalent emotion. Over the next several weeks, I plan to write much more on Texas property insurance law and protection it provides because Texas is the hottest new venue in the insurance litigation war. We are in the middle of it.…
Surplus lines insurance companies are a different breed of insurance cat. They are not admitted carriers in the state in which they do business. Thus, most states have consumer protection laws specifically regarding how surplus lines insurance carriers can do business.
Surplus lines carriers are very important to the insurance marketplace. They will often insure the risks many admitted carriers find too risky or novel. For example, when a property owner buys surplus flood insurance or a complex Difference in Conditions policy, it is often sold through the surplus lines market.…
Continue Reading Surplus Lines Insurers, Sinkholes, and the Law of Mars
A Comment from a previous post, How Ike Insurance Claim Help is Supposed to Be, provided insight to the understanding of the claims process from two adjusters in the insurance industry. The comment is worthy of repeating here:…
Continue Reading Views From Hurricane Ike TWIA Insurance Adjusters
The deteriorating economy appears to be having an impact on our business. We are being referred more insurance disputes involving losses that are directly the result of the souring economy.
For the first time in a decade, we have been referred several fire claims that are allegedly of an incendiary (intentionally set) cause.
There are…
