This is Florida law regarding when an insurance company must start investigating an insurance claim:
3)(a) Unless otherwise provided by the policy of insurance or by law, within 7 days after an insurer receives proof-of-loss statements, the insurer shall begin such investigation as is reasonably necessary unless the failure to begin such investigation is caused by factors beyond the control of the insurer.
(b)
If such investigation involves a physical inspection of the property, the licensed adjuster assigned by the insurer must provide the policyholder with a printed or electronic document containing his or her name and state adjuster license number. An insurer must conduct any such physical inspection within 30 days after its receipt of the proof-of-loss statements.
….
(e) The insurer must send the policyholder a copy of any detailed estimate of the amount of the loss within 7 days after the estimate is generated by an insurer’s adjuster.
Why wait for the policyholder to fill out “proof-of-loss statements” to initiate the investigation? These statements and forms can take months to complete. Why not make the law that requires Florida insurers to investigate within seven days of the “notice of loss,” which is the most common sense time to start and what insurance companies throughout the rest of the country are required to do?
All states, except Florida, require property insurance companies to immediately initiate an investigation after notice of loss is given. This is a matter of good faith and fair dealing. The majority of states afford a common law private cause of action for policyholders who are harmed by an insurance company’s delay in investigating after the “notice of loss.” Not Florida.
Florida has now codified in law that the submittal of “proof-of-loss statements” is the date when insurance companies “shall begin such investigations.” This is why policyholders need to hire public adjusters to complete the proof of loss statements as soon as possible.
Why did Jimmy Patronis and Governor DeSantis not object to this law? Why did Governor DeSantis sign it? They could say, “Whoops, we made a mistake, and this is not what we intended.” Good leaders do this all the time. To error is human—but if you are in bed with the globalist insurance industry as Donald Trump claims they are…
The second part of the statute highlighted does not say when the detailed estimate must be completed. Instead, it says that after the estimate is “generated,” it must be sent to the policyholder. Florida insurance companies are doing several things to not “generate” an estimate.
Some are having field adjusters do nothing other than scope the amount of damage, take pictures, take measurements and gather information. The work of making an estimate is then done by “quality assurance” desk adjusters, who then send a draft of the estimate for approval to the insurance company’s home claims office.
Some are simply making “initial drafts” and will not “generate” an estimate by an insurer’s adjuster.
The reason that this is so important is because the new Ethical Rule for Adjusters calls for the following:
“Adjusters must provide the written estimate of loss to the insured within the time prescribed by law.”
As shown above, the law does not say when the adjuster’s estimate must be generated. If it did, it would be easy to determine when the insurance company would have to comply with this requirement. Instead, the rule does little to help policyholders. It is form over substance.
If a common sense law written by politicians not in bed with the insurance industry were made, it would require that insurers investigate within 7 days after ”notice of loss” and provide full estimates for damage within 14 days after the initial investigation. Who disagrees with that? My guess is the property insurance industry lobby, attorneys representing property insurance companies, Jimmy Patronis, and our current Governor. Florida needs a different breed of politician who is for the policyholder.
Before people who may not know me start suggesting that I am some liberal, my one public position beyond anything else is to be on the side of policyholders. That is our firm’s Holy Grail and what we stand for. People are either for policyholder rights or not. I call the balls and strikes as I honestly see them.
I went to the Republican National Convention in 2016. I was a member of the Republican Governors Association. I also had an attorney in our firm, Sean Shaw, whom I contributed to when he ran as a Democrat for Attorney General against a good Republican friend, Ashley Moody, whom I respected and also supported before Sean announced his candidacy. Politics can be difficult when you actually participate and know the people running.
But I have devoted my adult life’s work to policyholder rights. If our elected leaders are picking on them and making terrible public policy, favoring insurance companies over policyholders, people know where I stand. Those enemies of policyholders should be called out for what they do.
Thoughts For The Day
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
—Desmond Tutu
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world could do this, it would change the earth.
—William Faulkner
