A Preface

Your Insurance Company Hates You

 

For some of you, this is a bold and spiteful statement which you refuse to believe.  That’s OK.  I know where your loyalties lie.  This book is not for you.

For some of you this will come as no surprise.  You know this.  Your experience mirrors this.

You work in the claims ecosystem as a contractor, service provider or one of the gazillion “consulting” firms that service it.  This book is not for you either, not really.

This book is for the ones pay for all of it: the insured public.

Without people willingly and loyally paying their premiums month after month, for their entire lives, the system we all work in would not exist.  So, thank you to everyone who buys insurance.  Without you, I’d probably be digging a ditch somewhere to make a living.

As it stands, I make my living being an insurance consumer and contractor advocate.  My job and mission is to create an environment of transparency and equity in the handling of property damage claims.

You can argue with my approach and express your dislike of me personally.  I can take it.

What you cannot argue with are the facts.  Those are what await on in the following pages.

Welcome to the Suck

Welcome to the Suck.

In Marine jargon, this means to consciously accept or appreciate something that is extremely unpleasant but unavoidable.

I can't think of a more appropriate way to describe filing and settling an insurance claim.  The entire process is designed to be opaque and demoralizing for the claimant, in order to preserve and increase the profits of the carrier.

The insurance claim experience, from the insured's point of view, creates levels of stress, frustration and despair on par with serious life events like buying your first home and losing a loved one.  In many ways it's worse. Some one has already lost everything. Now they must fight the very company that promised they were "in good hands" in order to be made whole(ish).  Even the smallest home fire can make the entire dwelling unlivable. People displaced by disaster are in no condition to rally a meaningful response to the onslaught of bullshit from their insurance company.  Most cannot afford to rebuild on their own.  Many never will.

The reality is that no one is made whole when an insurance claim is filed.  The best you can hope for is break-even.  Policyholders are met by a waves of "experts," adjusters and contractors; all with their hands out looking for a piece of the claim.  Everyone wants a piece.  After the contractor takes their profit, the public adjuster (yes, that's me) takes their percentage, the adjuster writes their lowball "opinion" and takes the depreciation, and the attorneys take their contingency, what's left?

Often the answer is: Not Enough.

My hope is that this book, and the stories and lessons portrayed within, will provide some level of relief and guidance to those who've experienced a recent loss and those working in the "Restoration" industry every day.

Let's start with some ground rules...