My dear firefighter friend Keahi Ho lost his home and boat to the wildfire in Maui while saving others and battling the blaze. He and his girlfriend, Ali Grimes, asked me if I could post something for other victims in Maui to help with their insurance recovery.
The request has a simple solution: Click on this link.
There is not a policyholder organization that is a close second to United Policyholders. United Policyholders will provide you honest and learned advice from more than 30 years of experience—especially from catastrophic widespread loss by fire. Here is some background:
UP was co-founded in 1991 by Amy Bach, a consumer advocate and attorney, and Ina Delong, a 22 year insurance professional. The spark for UP was an urban area wildfire that destroyed 3,000 homes in Northern California. In the aftermath of the disaster, the residents struggled with serious and unexpected gaps in their insurance coverage and a claim process that was often adversarial. UP was formed to help level the playing field between insurers and insureds. Donations, foundation grants and volunteer labor support the organization’s work. Our 200+ strong volunteer corps includes disaster survivors, lawyers, insurance professionals, financial planners, CPAs, construction experts, patient advocates and retired judges. No insurance companies underwrite or fund our programs.
…Through the Roadmap to Recovery® Program, UP offers tips, tools and information from previous disaster survivors and from experts on insurance claims, legal matters and the rebuilding/repair process. We also offer educational workshops and long term recovery services after disasters (subject to funding and community support). UP is dedicated to helping insurance consumers.
Over the years, I have noticed that some people, law firms, and other businesses have created alleged charitable organizations with the advertised mission to give free advice and help when in fact it is the first step of their marketing campaign. They typically try to partner with or get a testimonial from somebody prominent or influential in a neighborhood or community to show up for “free advice.” Later, they suggest that their services are available without being transparent that this charitable “free advice” was all a marketing campaign from the beginning, designed to get business from victims.
United Policyholders has no short-term or long-term agenda for selling you anything, just providing you its more than 30 years of experience helping policyholders recover from a disaster. They allow past survivors to teach the new victims tips and lessons learned from dealing with the insurance company.
The Claims Guidance Library is excellent. It provides samples of loss and claim-related documents helping policyholders with claims.
Visit the United Policyholders website and share the information with your friends and neighbors.
Thought For The Day
In Hawaii, we have something called ho’oponopono, where people come together to resolve crises and restore peace and balance.
—Duane Chapman
