You [The Consumer] Against The Insurance Industry

There is no secret that insurance companies try to increase their profits and limit their losses.  I understand that they are running a business, however, minimizing their losses should not be to the detriment of you the consumer, the policyholder. You pay your insurance premiums when they are due and you expect to be paid when you have damage to your property. That’s not unreasonable. You should be paid what you are owed if you have an insurance claim. Yet when you file a claim, they try to limit your payout.
 
Insurance companies want everyone to believe they are losing money so they can justify their rate increases, when in fact they are making money, and have the large salaries to prove it.  This leads me to share a story. A client of mine who had three young children was brought to tears one day. She had a broken waste line pipe in the kitchen wall that not only damaged her kitchen cabinets, it resulted in additional water damage to the home and caused mold. The insurance company grossly underpaid their claim. I don’t know how they expected her replace her kitchen and do all the repairs for $2500.00!
 
I know. Believe me, they were just as shocked, just like you are reading this. We submitted all the requested documentation to the insurance company together with a very detailed estimate, photos, reports and a valuable explanation supporting our client’s request for payment. After discussing the claim in further detail with the adjuster and providing clarification for him on a few items, we were hopeful that someone was finally going to listen and be reasonable.  Then the adjuster called me and said “I have no authority to settle the claim. It’s going to be up to management what they do next.” 
 
So, the “powers that be” get to decide, based solely on numbers and not facts, whether she would get paid for the claim or not.  This person had not seen any of the documentation we provided and had not discussed the claim with me at all. All they saw were dollar signs, not circumstances or facts.  Although they should, the powers that be do not put your best interests before that of the their own.
 
So, when insurance companies claim they are losing money and request rate increases, I say that the people who regulate these insurance companies should dig deeper into the facts and do more to protect Florida consumers.