Florida consumers may not realize it, but a heated discussion is brewing between their property/casualty insurance companies and the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation. The subject is price optimization, and the OIR recently reminded p/c insurers that state law prohibits its use.
After an accident, no one wants to spend time fighting an insurance company. If you are injured, you want to focus on getting better. If your property is damaged, you just want it fixed so you can move on with your life. If you have lost a loved one, you need time to mourn and to adjust to the abrupt change in your life.
Our firm has been representing home insurance policy-holders in disputes with their insurers for more than two decades, and we have seen far too many examples of insurers that try to get away with paying homeowners less than they are entitled to.
There are few things you can really count on these days, but one of them is that Florida will rank among the most expensive states for insurance. We ranked third overall in a report recently released by financial analysis website NerdWallet.com. The researchers looked at the average costs of homeowners, health, life and auto insurance in each state and the District of Columbia and then determined what portion of the state’s median household income was spent on insurance.
The Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate is celebrating its unofficial 25th anniversary this year. The Florida Insurance Commissioner originally created the office in 1990. The Legislature, however, did not adopt the governing statutes until 1992. The advocate is now appointed by and reports to the state’s Chief Financial Officer but operates, as the position always has, as an independent entity.
Although insurance-related considerations and needs are of course quite different in many respects for homes and businesses, respectively, they certainly do coalesce in one very important way, namely this: Regardless of the nature of a property, its owners need to protect against third-party liability in instances where it is alleged that some danger or defect resulted in personal injury.
We are finishing up our discussion of the recent Florida Supreme Court decision regarding bad faith claims against state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Again, an insurance company that puts its own interests first — ahead of a policyholder’s interest — is acting in bad faith. The rule only holds for private insurers, though, and Citizens is a government entity. Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, as well as state law, Citizens cannot be sued.
We are talking about a Florida Supreme Court decision about Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and its duty to its policyholders. Unlike private insurance companies that act in their own interests and not in the interests of their policyholders, Citizens cannot be sued for bad faith.
The Florida Supreme Court handed down a ruling on May 14, 2015, that has shaken up the state’s insurance industry. The court has found that state law bars policyholders from suing Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for bad faith.
It may not be noted in your Outlook calendar, but May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month. Not exactly a Hallmark occasion, the program was sponsored by Life Happens, a nonprofit organization of insurance industry professionals that, according to its website, strives “to inspire the public to take personal financial responsibility through the ownership of life insurance and related products.”
