Category: Insurance Problems

Pay Up! is officially released for publication. We were planning to have a big book publication party in Tampa, but the coronavirus put an end to festivities with us all together. I think Pay Up! can help policyholders. The purpose of the book is to educate people about what to do when faced with insurance… Continue Reading

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The J Boat crash video seems pretty appropriate as I write this blog. I am at the airport flying up to the panhandle to meet Hurricane Michael clients. Nobody is here. No line at Starbucks—they even poured the cream because the self-help stand is shut down. “Shut down” is what has happened to us. It… Continue Reading

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If you have ever appraised a loss in Minnesota, chances are it was more akin to an arbitration than a traditional appraisal under an insurance policy. That might change given the recent opinion by the Minnesota Supreme Court in Oliver v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Insurance Company., 2020 WL 1041113 (Minn. March 4, 2020)…. Continue Reading

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With Spring a week away, coming off a mild winter, fewer homeowners experienced the frozen pipe burst losses as did in years past. One of the main questions that dominate a frozen pipe case, especially if the property is left vacant for a period of time, is whether the insured used reasonable efforts to maintain… Continue Reading

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Earlier this year, I wrote how, under Michigan law, insurers were required to provide coverage to innocent co-insureds notwithstanding any insurance policy exclusion for intentional acts by an insured.1 This was the case as Michigan law prohibits the exclusion as void against public policy. The Supreme Court of Arkansas, however, very recently found directly to… Continue Reading

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Brian Malone is an 8th generation Royalist Descendant Bahamian. He is one of my best friends who understands my love for completive sailboat racing and runs Merlin Yacht Racing. His family home in Hope Town was destroyed last year from Hurricane Dorian’s 185 MPH winds. His parents and family are now displaced, along with thousands… Continue Reading

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Trying to explain to people why they have to consider getting professional help and self-educate themselves about insurance coverage and benefits after a disaster is one of the reasons I wrote Pay Up! I was thinking about this last night while being told of a Nashville policyholder with a significant property loss involving multiple properties… Continue Reading

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In reviewing policies, I have noticed a scary trend for policyholders: Insurance companies are often making changes to policy language limiting insureds coverage or ability to recover when renewing the policy. If you are like many policyholders when you get your renewal every year and the declarations page shows that your limits went up and… Continue Reading

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The Consumer Federation of America and New York’s Law School’s Center For Justice and Democracy issued a study today, How the Cash Rich Insurance Industry Fakes Crises and Invents Social Inflation. I would suggest readers read this study and also consider my post from last week, How Playing the Float, Taking Depreciation on Labor or… Continue Reading

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Depreciation of labor when determining actual cash value is being raised in cases throughout the country with mixed results. In, Tennessee Tornado Terror and The Insurance Claim Aftermath, I noted that Tennessee recently ruled labor will not be deprecated for tornado policyholders. So, what would be the result if those tornados had gone slightly east… Continue Reading

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