It’s no surprise that insurance companies do not like public adjusters and would rather not have them involved in claims. The Internet is replete with statistics that show how much more carriers end up paying when public adjusters are involved in claims. What is surprising is the lengths carriers will go to in order to keep public adjusters out of the process. I have heard of carriers automatically referring public adjuster claims to their special investigations unit among other tactics. Now, they are just banning the use of public adjusters in the insuring agreement.
I was recently sent the below portion of an insurance application for a Lloyd’s policy:
While I had heard hints that this was coming, seeing it in writing was still a shock to me. I cannot believe that insurance regulators will permit this sort of language to be included in the policy or application.
As this is a Florida based policy, I believe FAPIA will be all over this but I believe all public adjusters and all associations that service the public adjusting industry need to stand up, take notice and be proactive in their lobbying efforts to protect a profession that protects the insureds. If not, it will not take long for this sort of tactic to take hold in every jurisdiction and for the public adjusting industry to be written out of existence by this simple change in the insurance application process.
