The Colorado Division of Insurance has regulators that are standing up for consumers to encourage full and prompt payment of losses. The Division issued a comprehensive news release yesterday which delves into the problems policyholders are facing following wildfires that have destroyed many homes and businesses over the past two years. Many recurrent problems complained of by our Colorado wildfire clients are addressed in the news release which we are copying in full as part of this post:
Last month, in Colorado Division of Insurance Bulletin For Marshall and Middle Fork Wildfire Claims, I noted that one of the problems wildfire victims have is being assigned multiple and unqualified property insurance adjusters:
One of the most significant claims adjustment problems is the lack of enough experienced catastrophe adjusters with sufficient authority to make prompt payment to policyholders with catastrophic losses. It is not just in Colorado but everywhere where a larger scale catastrophe happens. The field adjusters have little authority and claims drag while desk adjusters often change the estimates or demand that they be modified based on upper claims management guidelines and claims metrics designating how estimates are to be made and claims adjusted.
While the news release and agreements by carriers to adjust claims in a much better way are a big help, the industry needs trained and more experienced wildfire adjusters who will stay on the claim longer, get the claims paid, and not leave the policyholders having to start from zero with a new desk adjuster who has never been to the loss site.
Thought For The Day
You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.
—Bob Nelson
