[ad_1]
Do you typically want that you simply had any individual watching out for you? Any person that at all times has your again? If we had this Guardian Angel, how a lot simpler wouldn’t it be to keep away from the rocks of life we appear to navigate into or steer in the direction of honest seas the place fish are plentiful?
Brian Goodman has acted because the Nationwide Affiliation of Public Insurance coverage Adjusters (NAPIA) Good Shepherd since he took over as normal counsel. Brian changed the legendary Paul Cordish in 2000.
Goodman wrote a wonderful editorial printed within the Palm Seaside Put up, Public Adjusters Aren’t The Downside in Florida’s Property Insurance coverage Disaster. He said:
There was a lot dialogue and legislative exercise designed to ostensibly shield Florida insureds after main storm harm to their property. A lot blame has been assigned by the insurance coverage business, in addition to some legislators and insurance coverage regulators, in the direction of public adjusters. However, the info are clear that this blame is misplaced.
Public adjusters are absolutely licensed in Florida in addition to in 45 different states. They’re the one licensed professionals coming underneath the regulatory management of every state’s insurance coverage division who can legally help an insured in getting ready and presenting property harm claims to the insured’s home-owner or business insurance coverage service.
…
A lot commentary has been made on public adjusters preying on susceptible insureds in instances of disaster. Each the Florida Affiliation of Public Insurance coverage Adjusters and the Nationwide Affiliation of Public Insurance coverage Adjusters have a stringent code of ethics prohibiting this sort of misconduct. When officers seek advice from public adjusters as ‘locusts’ after a disaster, or when the business places forth positions on the necessity to shield customers from unscrupulous public adjusters, you will need to notice that the info and statistics undermine their argument.
For example, official statistics from June 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2021 affirm 24,000 complaints in Florida in opposition to firm adjusters or impartial adjusters working for insurance coverage corporations as in comparison with solely 200 complaints in opposition to public adjusters in the identical time-frame. A more moderen report from WFLA-TV in Tampa studies 4,700 claimants filed complaints in opposition to insurers put up Hurricane Ian, and a serious investigation printed on March 11, 2023 in The Washington Put up discovered that insurers knowingly slashed Hurricane Ian funds far beneath harm estimates, at instances by greater than 80%.
The statistics Goodman cited are supported by public paperwork. In Florida Public Data Disclosures Show Insurance coverage Corporations Are Mistreating Policyholders—What About Making Legal guidelines Permitting Shoppers To Do One thing About It? I famous:
I’ve public information which present that from September 2017 by way of November 2022, customers filed 99 complaints about public adjusters. Guess what number of complaints had been filed in opposition to insurance coverage corporations throughout that very same interval? 105,000 Florida shopper complaints had been filed in opposition to insurance coverage corporations.
With confirmed public report statistics of 99 versus 105,000, I wager you’d suppose the Florida Republican management could be writing a whole lot of legal guidelines cracking down on insurance coverage firm misconduct and permitting extra lawsuits to be filed in opposition to these wrongful and dishonest insurance coverage corporations, proper? However simply the alternative is occurring.
…
Details are info—99 versus 105,000. The legislature is now utilizing the minimal 99 complaints as a foundation to wrongfully change public adjuster legal guidelines whereas closing its eyes to the 105,000 complaints in opposition to insurance coverage firm misconduct and making it harder for the policyholders to acquire redress for these complaints.
The insurance coverage business ought to take the proverbial stick out of its eye earlier than blaming public insurance coverage adjusters for something. Politicians and regulators should first handle insurance coverage corporations’ woeful claims processing, which is a plague upon Florida policyholders, somewhat than making up scapegoats. Brian Goodman’s editorial makes that time.
Thought For The Day
Watch out for false data; it’s extra harmful than ignorance.
—George Bernard Shaw
[ad_2]