Source Fapia.net
FAPIA’s Legislative Committee and Lobby Team have been working hard to monitor and keep track of proposed legislation that may affect our industry and the policyholders we represent. This FAPIA message is going out to all licensees in an effort to keep you all informed and to help eliminate the dangers of a rumor mill.
EFFORTS TO INCLUDE A 30 DAY RIGHT OF RESCISSION (ROR) OF PA CONTRACTS
The CFO’s office is pushing hard on a significant increase to the right of a policyholder to cancel a public adjuster contract without penalty.
During a Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Meeting on February 4th, 2020 and a House Insurance and Banking Committee meeting of January 28, 2020 testimony was heard by FAPIA lobbyist Senator Steven Geller as well as Florida’s CFO Jimmy Patronis regarding the CFO’s proposed language to increase the right to rescind (ROR) your contracts after a declared state of emergency. We encourage you to watch both video links above.
CASES OF PUBLIC ADJUSTER NON-PERFORMANCE ARE AT ISSUE
FAPIA did receive policyholder complaints about public adjusters who signed up too many claims, never returned phone calls and in some cases literally abandoned the claims. Some of them just turned the claims directly over to attorneys to litigate and made no effort to adjust the claims. The CFO’s office received similar complaints and that is driving this effort.
No policyholder should be trapped in a contract where there is non-performance by a public adjuster. Sadly that kind of behavior provides an opportunity for people and stakeholders that would like to eliminate our profession to paint our entire industry as unethical.
ROR UPDATE AS OF FEBRUARY 11, 2020
We can report that the original PROPOSAL contained in the bill of 30 days ROR has now been reduced to 21 days from the date you place the carrier on notice of your representation. This language is not fair to our industry. It does not address the alleged problems that were outlined by the CFO regarding reports of public adjuster non-performance and the inability to get out of a contract under those circumstances.
The House version of this bill will be heard by the House Commerce Committee this Thursday and in the Senate Rules Committee the following week. FAPIA will be there to testify.
A REAL CONSUMER PROTECTION SOLUTION FOR RESIDENTIAL CLAIMS POST DECLARED STATE OF EMERGENCY
Read the following to become familiar with the real solutions FAPIA is proposing:
FAPIA AMBASSADORS WERE CALLED TO ACTION FEBRUARY 10, 2020
Every public adjuster is an Ambassador for our industry. FAPIA sent a message to 85 licensees (members and not) who are represented by House members on the Commerce Committee yesterday. They were provided with our white paper on the issue along with the 3 talking points to help them get the message across. In short, the proposed language by DFS is unacceptable as it would actually create a much longer potential ROR since the time begins to toll on the date of notice rather than the date the contract is signed.
Also, and more importantly, it would not solve the problem of public adjuster non-performance and how that negatively and unfairly reflects on our industry.
FAPIA’s Board has authorized retaining additional lobbying muscle for this session in an effort to thwart the many attacks our industry is facing. We continue to speak with stakeholders, the CFO’s office and others in an effort to bring resolution to this matter. We will keep our members informed as information develops.
VOICES OF POLICYHOLDERS
FAPIA’s Public Relations Committee has developed an awareness program called Voices of Policyholders and will soon be launching the first in a series of videos that are currently in pre-production. We will be highlighting policyholder stories about the claim process such as managed repair and diminished coverage on policies. At this time, we are collecting policyholders stories for another facet of the Voices of Policyholder’s launch which will be featured and promoted at FAPIA.NET. We need your help. Share the link to the voices of policyholders websites with your clients so that we can share them with lawmakers and regulators. Help us build this project with the voices of your policyholder clients by having them visit the site and click on the button to tell their story. Policyholders have a voice – you can help them use it by joining this important awareness project.