Hurricane Ian is going to be a long hard insurance claim tragedy for Florida homeowners and businesses alike given the state of the insurance industry. Here’s what’s next for policyholder insurance claims, the adjustment process, and how industry consultants can help bring everyone together.   

We pay good money to insure our property, while hoping never to have to file claim. When disaster strikes you expect your insurance company to have your back. In a perfect world, your insurance carrier will send out their field adjuster following your notification of a loss. The adjuster will thoroughly inspect and properly value your damage and a check will be forthcoming in a reasonable amount of time. In our 38-years of practicing public adjusting, with storms like Hurricane Ian, we unfortunately see too many cases where this is not the case.

ISV, LLC is a prominent property development company based in Windermere, Florida with a 9-year growing real estate portfolio.  Sadly, ISV’s owner learned that two of his residential multi-family dwelling structures in Sanford, Florida suffered extensive fire damage on May 11, 2021. Following a cause and origin investigation, fire officials were unable to determine the area of origin.  Despite ISV’s timely claim reporting and C&O Report submission, the claim adjuster assigned by ISV’s insurance company notified the claim was still being investigated by the carrier, informing: “the process could very well take several months to finalize.”

WIND held its annual 2022 conference at the Lowes Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando at the end of January.  I have to say that I was a little hesitant attending this conference as it is a multi-day event held in a venue which is a closed environment inside of a very large resort. Based on past year’s attendance I would have expected well over 1000 insurance professionals, experts and vendors showing up to network, learn best practices and refresh their knowledge. To my surprise despite the virus threat, over 1000 people did in fact register and that didn’t include late walk ins, who decided they did not want to be behind the learning curve.  For me, besides seeing old friends and meeting new people from various disciplines, the highlight of the conference was the keynote speaker presentation.

Happy to help educate policyholders in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

Here’s a good recent article to share that can help those impacted by Hurricane Ida work through their insurance claims. If you have questions or need assistance with a large loss from Hurricane Ida, we stand ready to help.

There’s no question Long Islander’s & New Englanders endured their fair share of blizzards and wicked Nor’easters’, yet for some of our company’s public insurance adjusters who worked for northeastern clients 30-years ago after Hurricane Bob, it feels like yesterday. Making matters worse, Hurricane Henri is projected to make landfall at high tide and with a full moon and that may result in coastal flooding. Please prepare for potential days without power and stock-up sufficiently.

As Tropical Storm Elsa approaches the Tampa Bay area residents need to take this storm seriously and prepare accordingly as the path continues to evolve. This type of storm can throw off tornado activity and pockets of heavy wind gusts. As a result, thousands of homeowners may be contacting their insurance company to file an insurance claim. Resources are likely to be stretched and frustration with claims will grow as our public insurance adjusters have seen with past storms. We want everyone to stay safe and also be in a condition to recover as best they can. Below are a few popular pre-storm claim tips that we always try to share with clients. Please feel free to pass them along. Bottom line – PREPARE NOW!

As the Champlain Tower collapse unfolds, people must understand this is a very fluid situation. Now is not the time to be pointing fingers but instead supporting the victims' families and conducting a thorough and objective investigation. That being said, as a 45-year veteran of insurance adjusting in Florida, I have seen and been involved in all types of condo claims in Florida for decades. I concur, water is the cause or should I say the most frequent cause of all insurance losses. Water damage has and still is occurring and causing failures of building components particularly in ocean side concrete structures.