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The Florida Department of Insurance Dictate Public Adjuster Fees
By Steven D. Venook.
Florida licensed Public Insurance Adjuster’s are the only professionals besides attorney’s who can negotiate an insurance settlement. The Florida Department of Insurance determined that a ten percent fee was needed for the protection of the public and created an emergency order signed by Tom Gallagher, Chief Financial Officer. This emergency order also created a two week time period in which Florida Public Insurance Adjuster contracts can be cancelled instead the standard three days per Florida law. This emergency order was rolled over three times last year for the protection of the public, so it reads, perhaps for the protection of the insurance companies!
Excuse my editorial, but in no way does limiting a public adjuster fee benefit the public! What it does is help protect the unscrupulous insurance companies from making it financially rewarding to work for the public in hurricanes. There is no secret that being a Public Adjuster is a for profit profession, why else would a professional put up with the stone walling, low balling, and other premeditated tactics that numerous insurance companies initiate as we provide our clients with the best possible insurance settlements and service. It is only through the efforts of professional public insurance adjusters that many insureds get a fair settlement. What are the other alternatives the public can turn to? Perhaps they can hire an attorney who will charge them anywhere from 30 – 40% contingency fee and can take many years to settle in court. There are many times when the only remedy is to go to court to get a fair financial settlement and there are many fine attorneys that specialize in bad faith insurance claim settlements. However, most of the time with the knowledge of a good public adjuster this can be avoided. Perhaps the insured should be aided by a licensed contractor to help determine the value of the damages, and try to get three estimates as the insurance companies preach. Only to criticize the format of these estimates as not having enough detail, further most contractors don’t have the skill or time to write detailed estimates for the insurance company, certainly not for free. Legally why are contractors getting involved in mediating insurance claims when they are not legally licensed, nor are they trained in insurance coverage issues, isn’t that why the State of Florida licensed public insurance adjusters?
Or possibly the unskilled policy holder can get three estimates and hope they can make a proper presentation to the insurance company, and represent themselves as most people attempt on their own, apparently this was not very successful as evidenced by the thousands of consumer complaints and delayed payments to Florida policy holders during last years hurricane season.
Public Adjuster’s knew that the propaganda submitted to the insured’s and by the insurance companies to go to mediation through the state of Florida mediation program was often a waste of time. As the unaided consumer tried to fight their own battle and that the State of Florida mediation program was not a binding remedy, then why did the Department of Insurance in the same mandate to inform the public about mediation not inform the public about their rights to go to binding mediation which is called appraisal and which is a right given to the policy holder under their policy! Perhaps the Florida Bureaucrats want to maintain their campaign contributions by the large insurance companies?
This public adjuster needs to vent, I find that small claims are just as gratifying to be involved in as the larger more prosperous claims or difficult claims. I also need to point out that their are many more smaller claims then large claims, it is not to the benefit of the public to cap our fees. The profession of being a public adjuster is not well suited to be a volume claim factory like the way the insurance companies handle their claims. Bringing in truck loads of emergency temporary field adjusters to take a few photographs, write a poor estimate, and leave town; then leaving the claim to be handled by a factory of emergency temporary inside adjusters. It only serves to make it unprofitable to be hired on a small claim. For instance, if the claim is valued at $20,000 less a 4,000 wind deductible 16,000 less recoverable depreciation of $2,500, for a net payment of $13,500.00 and I put in 50 hours of work to get a proper settlement for my client, I am working at $22.50 per hour before overhead or the equivalent of about $11.00 per hour. I ask how can this be beneficial to the public, no attorney would work at these rates, no general contractor would work at these rates, and no politician would be happy to make a living on this rate.