We wish everyone a great July 4th holiday.
Our office will be closed June 26th-July 5th for the holiday as we attend a family reunion.
Be safe in your travels through the holiday!
We wish everyone a great July 4th holiday.
Our office will be closed June 26th-July 5th for the holiday as we attend a family reunion.
Be safe in your travels through the holiday!
The Insurance Journal today sent out a breaking news story on this today and I’m also linking to the Miami Herald article stating that State Farm may reconsider departure from the FL insurance market if Governor Crist in FL signs new regulation on rates:
Here is the Miami Herald news story:
Here is a link to the Insurance Journal article:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2009/06/22/101618.htm
Here is a link to the Insurance Journal info on AMBEST downgrading of their rating for State Farm of Florida:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2009/06/18/101518.htm
Here is also a link to delays in a decision until July 15th per another Insurance Journal update:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2009/06/15/101413.htm
Should they stay this might provide substantial reconsideration by independent adjusters thoughts about working the Citizens of FL claims if they feel opportunities will exist into the future to work State Farm Florida claims when a major disaster strikes.
Father’s Day 2009- in quiet reflection thinking about my dad who passed away in December of 2000 and missing him immensely.
While searching for good thoughts to reflect on his honor today, I ran across this blog entry by the author of ” Our Fathers who Art in Heaven” by Gerry Murak and thought the story quite interesting. Also make sure to note on the right column of this entry that they are looking for contributors for Volume II by those reflecting on their great dads and contributions that they made in their lives. I hope you’ll take the time to read and share this with others missing their fathers today.
http://murak.blogs.com/ourfatherswhoartinheaven/2005/05/a_very_memorabl.html
My father was my best friend, mentor, cheer leader, and hero and I do miss him beyond belief not just today but every day.
ClaimSmentor (see tribute on our About us page) was created and dedicated in his honor (William Robert Kane, Sr) as was the name Dimechimes which I use in my business and social networking sites. It represents the 10 of us in our family- how they ever raised 8 children on a limited military income is beyond me yet through my father and mother’s great hearts, the dimes we had did make a difference in the lives of others. My dad’s dimes have taken care of my mother very well since he passed away which he had often expressed was so important to him before he left us from diabetic complications just 3 short weeks after beginning kidney dialysis. ClaimSmentor was dedicated in his honor as my mentor, friend and best supporter.
We wish you all a very happy Father’s Day and hope you appreciate every single minute today with your fathers who are with you. Don’t ever take one minute, one conversation, or one piece of advice from them for granted. They are memories you will treasure forever.
To those in the claim industry who are out on assignment working the many hail storms across the midwest, we appreciate the sacrifice you are making to serve the insured public on their storm losses while missing today, Father’s Day 2009, with your families.
In Loving Memory of William Robert Kane, Sr on Father’s Day 2009
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.~ Henry Ward Beecher
Just a ClaimSmentor moment link to Colorado preliminary storm damage statistics and claims for the numerous storms last week beginning 6/7/09:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2009/06/17/101433.htm
This was a very interesting article about the 2009 changes to the way a hurricane is categorized using the Saffir Simpson Scale due to problems with the storm surge and hurricane categories. For instance, the article indicates Hurricane Ike came in as a category 2 but the storm surge was equivalent to a category 4 hurricane at landfall. Most interesting are the arguments for and against the proposed 2009 changes in the comment section of this article:
http://weatherblog.abc13.com/2009/06/save-the-saffirsimpson-scale.html
For more details from NOAA National Hurricane Center on the 2009 changes here is a link on the storm surge component of the saffir simpson scale and reasons for the changes:
Attorney Thomas Little has joined our Dimechimes ClaimSmentor Claims Industry group at Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/dimechimesclaimSmentor . He provides an update on the hot topic on the Chinese Drywall Claims Litigation here on his blog. We appreciate you sharing this information for our claims group and we pass it along for others as well since this is such a hot topic:
We have updated the ClaimSmentor forums with the following upcoming classes:
Day and Evening online Live Class for Florida Condo Unitowners and Master Policy Claim Handling Classes- July 2009
Day and Evening online Live Classes for Additional Living Expense Claim Handling for Homeowners Insurance Claims- July 2009
You must be a registered member of ClaimSmentor to attend these classes.
Today we also posted field classes coming up in July with numerous adjusting firms for:
NFIP- special class FREE in AL for Standard Flood Policy coverage and form completion seminar
Nationwide Certification class- FREE in ALabama
USAA Carrier Certification classes- 3 different adjusting firms offering these in July 2009 from no cost ranging to 50.00 per course depending on vendor offering them
State Farm Auto and Property Certification classes in August 2009
To register for ClaimSmentor, here is the registration link so you can view these topics for complete details in our Carrier Certification forum, Roots and Wings Training Forums for our Live ALE and Condo class info and much more:
This new product looks quite promising for combating flood damage- called FloodSax:
Here is the link to the firm’s June 3, 09 Press Release announcing this product:
This website posts newly filed insurance claim lawsuits for southeast TX several times each week.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/
Click on any of these links to find not only the suits against TWIA but other carriers as well. You’ll note that many of the cases against TWIA include the adjuster and the adjusting firm named in the complaints filed here is just one example:
You can track the cases going all the way back to the month Ike hit.
This should drive home the seriousness of carrying E and O these days. We have two other posts on this blog with advice fromwww.cplic.net who specializes in carrying Errors and Omissions coverage advising adjusters should be carrying their own E and O coverage and not relying on coverage by the adjusting firm.
Now here is an option that sure would work well when looking for Additional Living Expense housing for insureds as well if they would be available for short term rentals for storm victims:
In another update on FEMA housing, the Obama Administration is considering a Katrina Fema housing transition and sale of Katrina trailers for $1.00 to $5.00 per trailer. Read about that here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060203897.html?g=0
Here is also an update on the sale of FEMA Trailers in another move
We posted over 50 new job opportunities for Auto and Property Claims Adjusters in our Career Forum at ClaimSmentor yesterday.
Positions range from claim trainee opportunities right through Claims Consultant and VP of Claims positions for our management members!
Just check out the Career Forum for all new postings! Don’t guess which FL carrier is hiring for their National Catastrophe Team or which new FL regional carrier is hiring for staff positions……just join us today at ClaimSmentor. If your not yet a member, you will see a link for information regarding joining our now 1108 members in the last paragraph on our home page.
All contact info on the About Us page here on the blog. Blog restrictions won’t allow us to keep linking to the same site including our own so please get contact info for the site and registration link on our About Us page on this blog.
I was quite surprised at the cars that made this list published at Forbes based on the Insurance Institutes information on the 10 most dangerous cars for 2009 based on crash performance tests:
We know this topic keeps coming up in the claims industry on how the chinese drywall claims are going to be handled so I wanted to share this link to the 5/21/09 archived web cast and links to the presentations made to the US Senate committee yesterday for your reference material.
We wish all of our members of Dimechimes Claims Staffing and Claims Training groups and to our ClaimSmentor members a very safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend.
Memorial weekend also spurs memories of my hero- my dad -who I dedicated the ClaimSmentor project to in his honor as the best mentor in my life and my career. Memorial day is always now a day of a heart felt missing him and yearning to talk to him just one more day, one more time, and even just one more word. I wish so much we could be in FL this coming weekend to visit NAS Barrancas Cemetary at NAS Pensacola where not only my father is, but my brother, my brother in law, and several other family members were laid to rest there. Coming from a military family we all know the quiet beauty and tribute to our military on days such as Memorial Day as they place the small American flags at each marker.(See photo on link above) How I wish I could share that this weekend with other family members in the area.
I just ran across this USAA article by staff member, Paul Berry, which is the perfect story to honor our American military families. It is quite moving and I hope you’ll share it with others who will prayer for the women of The American Widow Project- a group of very young women who are widows of American soldiers who have lost their lives fighting in recent years for our country. They are leaving from USAA headquarters going to Washington, DC and stopping to meet and support other young American widows in similar situations having lost their spouses. Mr Berry says it all in this article along with providing email links to the women hosting this most worthy effort. We hope you too will send well wishes their way and prayers for all of our military this holiday weekend.
It makes me proud to be a USAA policyholder so thank you Mr Berry for sharing this most moving story as we enter this holiday weekend. I hope many of you will take the time to view The American Widow Project website and their many heart wrenching stories of loss of their spouses due to war.
http://voices.mysanantonio.com/paulberry/
http://voices.mysanantonio.com/paulberry/2009/05/my-memorial-day-weekend-plans.html
We will be back on line Tuesday after Memorial Weekend. God Bless the USA and God Bless the American Widow Project members!
We have just posted our registration list on ClaimSmentor for our next live online 50 Hour Fundamentals of Property Claims class which starts up on June 8, 2009 and runs through July 16, 2009. We will not be holding the class the week of July 4, 2009 so participants can enjoy the week with their families. Classes are held at www.ClaimSmentor.com from 6-9pm CST. We meet on Monday and Thursday evenings for 5 weeks to cover the 10 classes that make up this course. The complete class agenda as well as our 125 question self- assessment test are posted in the class forum topic you will be able to view once you are registered and logged in. The course consists of 10 live classes meeting for 3 hours each along with 2 hours of pre-class reading material for the 50 hours of study in this course.
If you are a newly licensed adjuster (we love experienced adjusters to register too) who is not yet a member of ClaimSmentor, you can find all registration information for our site at:
http://www.claimsmentor.com/register.php
The deadline to register for this class is June 3, 2009. ***Update 6/6/09- We have extended the deadline through Sunday 6/7/09 as we have a few spots left.
Wondering if this class is for you? Read our prior blog with our 125 question self assessment test and see how many of these property claim basic questions you can answer and you decide!
***Update 6/6/09 All of the above information is on the Evening class which does start Monday night 6/8. We are also receiving requests to host a DAYTIME SESSION of the 50 Hour Fundamentals class. We have agreed to do so should we receive atleast 10 requests. The deadline to register for this class is 6/12/09. If interested, just email Debbie@Dimechimes.com as we will need to register you on ClaimSmentor to participate and give you specific details about this class agenda.
Attorney Chip Merlin (consumer advocate attorney) provides the following two blogs on Texas Senate Bill No. 14 due to some changes proposed on claim dispute handling against TWIA:
Attorney Chip Merlin has a 2nd blog up recommending TX residents take proactive steps to contact their representatives in this blog. Note also in the first link above that Merlin does include a link to the Senate recommended changes on TX Senate bill No. 14
I did some basic research on the web and the Texas Senate discussion on their passage of this bill in their website post of April 30, 2009 does not address the changes that Merlin writes about and I’m sure many others are concerned about:
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/Archives/Arch09/p043009a.htm
Now to see if we can find some opinions on this from the TWIA side……………
Here is what the TX Department of Insurance currently has up on their website about complaint resolution process with TWIA:
http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/consumer/storms/cpmtwiaclaims.html#resolving
****
Update 8:30 AM- I no sooner got this blog up then Merlin posted an update on the activities on this legislation from the House side along with a link to a San Antonio, TX news article on the House action on their counter bill:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/45551952.html
*****
Update once again 10:30 am cst- Merlin provides a 4th blog about TX House version of the bill -here’s his post:
Merlin sends a 4th blog link out about some of the language disappearing from the House version that passed:
Summary:
After reading what actually passed, the House Committee seems to have struck all of the Senate language concerning 2210.552, and then added a new subsection (on page 36 of its 51 page bill) which reads : SECTION 40. Section 2210.552,…
View the entire entry:
http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2009/05/articles/insurance/not-so-fast-on-calling-the-texas-house-bill-badthe-bad-language-mysteriously-disappears/index.html
Dern! I don’t want to be in violation of linking too often to a site- WordPress emailed a few weeks ago about limiting links to others sites too often so I do have to be careful!
WordPress keeps statistics on our blogs which are most informative such as the number of hits on your blog each day, the search engine topics that lead folks to your site, the number of clicks on various blog posts and links within the blog that we check daily. I love viewing them as it helps me know what information those in the claims industry are out there searching for which often leads to topics we post.
We crossed the 100,000 mark on hits for this blog on Tuesday for views since we started publishing this in July of 2007!
Thank you to our followers! As time goes by we hope to have more folks commenting directly here on the blog versus the behind the scenes emails we constantly receive as a result of our posts here on the blog as well as in our forums at ClaimSmentor. We look forward to many more years of information sharing in our continued efforts to mentor independent adjusters searching for career information.
If your a stats person like I am, you can follow our total hits count in the upper right hand corner of the blog.
Claims Magazine made a recent update on their site which changed the links to our published articles over there.
We’ve also added new opportunities you may be interested in to follow us at Linkedin and Twitter. I’ll post the Facebook link as soon as we finish updating our location there. I hope you enjoy visiting our various sites often. We have added job postings on our Twitter feed as well.
You can find links to all of our locations all on our updated About US page with all refreshed links on the About Us tab at the top of this blog! Link up with us at these other locations as well and particicpate!
Thank you for following our regular updates! We welcome comments to any postings and open discussions.
Remember these prior blogs on overhead and profit claim litigation cases we’d been following in the news?
Well, here is the latest I’ve received a notice on here with Lousiana Citizens…apparently there are two different class action cases going on in two different jurisdictions. The part I found particularly strange was the comments in the article alleging that at one time LA Citizens paid the o/p, stopped at a later point, then resumed paying overhead and profit at a later date:
http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2009/04/a_state_appeals_court_has.html
We’d appreciate any updates on these cases if you know what the status of these cases is as we could find nothing much by way of updates on their status on the web and we don’t have access to court documents like some sites do so any help discussing these overhead and profit cases would be appreciated. Here is a 5/13/09 published article on new develops on the Chivers vs State Farm case updating info on Chubb insurance and Nationwide Insurance who apparently settled out of court for a substantial same rather than produce massive discovery documents:
Here’s a link to a second article which goes into more detail about the Nationwide overhead and profit case:
Replies welcome to links to news articles or court updates,etc so we can all learn how these cases have come out in case law if resolved at this point. I’m not hearing any changes about carriers handling these issues differently from adjusters I’ve discussed the topic with at this point.