A newspaper article, 10 months After Hurricane Michael, Florida Still Doesn’t Know Why So Many Insurance Claims are Open,1 noted the slow-moving Hurricane Michael insurance claims. The title is telling because it indicates Florida insurance officials do not know why the delays are happening.
The article also noted that the appointment of a new Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate—after the post was open for over 6 months and during an important legislative session. This appointment was about as fast as most insurers have been paying Hurricane Michael insurance claims.
The new Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate, Tasha Carter, made this statement in a press release:
I am honored and excited to be appointed by CFO Patronis to serve as Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate. I’ve spent much of my career fighting for Florida’s insurance consumers and advocating on their behalf. I look forward to working on consumer-focused policy solutions and ensuring consumers’ interests are always represented when insurance decisions are made.
We wish her success, and I will report to readers about her agenda after I speak with her.
A recent press release, CFO Jimmy Patronis: 40 Percent of Small Businesses Won’t Reopen after a Disaster, Prepare Now! listed four tips for business owners to take to prevent financial disaster following a natural disaster. I would suggest Florida officials make a fifth tip:
GET A LINE OF CREDIT BEFORE THE STORM TO FUND YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY’S FAILURE TO TIMELY PAY YOUR INSURANCE CLAIM
Imagine how upset the Florida Insurance Commissioner would be if the state CFO stopped paying his salary for 90 to 180 days. That is the typical time businesses are waiting for their first substantial insurance payment. No wonder 40% go out of business in Florida. The CFO’s office just gave us the astonishing statistic about business failures following hurricanes. We should be demanding that the legislature, new insurance consumer advocate, and insurance commissioner do something about the problem of insurance delays killing our small businesses.
Thought For The Day
A true natural servant automatically responds to any problem by listening first.
—Robert Greenleaf
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1 Lawrence Mower, Tampa Bay Times, Aug. 25, 2019. https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2019/08/25/10-months-after-hurricane-michael-florida-still-doesnt-know-why-so-many-insurance-claims-are-open/