Do you typically want that you just had anyone watching out for you? Someone that all the time 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 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 superb editorial printed within the Palm Seashore Submit, Public Adjusters Aren’t The Downside in Florida’s Property Insurance coverage Disaster. He acknowledged:

There was a lot dialogue and legislative exercise designed to ostensibly defend 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 direction of public adjusters. However, the details 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 house owner or industrial insurance coverage service.

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A lot commentary has been made on public adjusters preying on susceptible insureds in occasions 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 defend customers from unscrupulous public adjusters, it is very important observe that the details and statistics undermine their argument.

As an illustration, official statistics from June 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2021 affirm 24,000 complaints in Florida towards firm adjusters or impartial adjusters working for insurance coverage corporations as in comparison with solely 200 complaints towards public adjusters in the identical time-frame. A newer report from WFLA-TV in Tampa stories 4,700 claimants filed complaints towards insurers publish Hurricane Ian, and a serious investigation printed on March 11, 2023 in The Washington Submit discovered that insurers knowingly slashed Hurricane Ian funds far under harm estimates, at occasions by greater than 80%.

The statistics Goodman cited are supported by public paperwork. In Florida Public Information Disclosures Show Insurance coverage Firms Are Mistreating Policyholders—What About Making Legal guidelines Permitting Customers To Do One thing About It? I famous:

I’ve public information which present that from September 2017 by November 2022, customers filed 99 complaints about public adjusters. Guess what number of complaints had been filed towards insurance coverage corporations throughout that very same interval? 105,000 Florida shopper complaints had been filed towards insurance coverage corporations.

With confirmed public report statistics of 99 versus 105,000, I guess you’ll suppose the Florida Republican management can be writing numerous legal guidelines cracking down on insurance coverage firm misconduct and permitting extra lawsuits to be filed towards these wrongful and dishonest insurance coverage corporations, proper? However simply the alternative is going on.

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Information are details—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 towards 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 tackle insurance coverage corporations’ woeful claims processing, which is a plague upon Florida policyholders, quite 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