Latest / Financial Survival Network / Hurricane Insurance Crisis: Business Impact - Parag Amin #6167
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Insurance companies, like all other businesses, are in the business
- 0:03Speaker 1: to make money, and with it, the likelihood of them
- 0:05Speaker 1: losing money exceeds the likelihood of them making money.
- 0:09Speaker 2: They choose generally to stop doing business.
- 0:12Speaker 1: And that's I think what we're saying in Florida, with
- 0:15Speaker 1: the increased number of hurricanes and the devastation caused by
- 0:19Speaker 1: the hurricanes.
- 0:20Speaker 3: You're listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network where you
- 0:24Speaker 3: get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else to
- 0:28Speaker 3: thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial Survival
- 0:32Speaker 3: Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot
- 0:37Speaker 3: com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial Survival
- 0:41Speaker 3: Network now more than.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Ever, and welcome you are listening to and watching the
- 0:50Speaker 2: Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Lutz. Well in Florida,
- 0:55Speaker 2: here north southeast, we have had quite a mess too
- 1:00Speaker 2: straight hurricanes hit. Hurricane Milton the latest, just down the
- 1:05Speaker 2: block from a nine miles uh. The tornado hit and
- 1:09Speaker 2: ripped up like a relatively new neighborhood. It's amazing. It
- 1:12Speaker 2: did a lot of damage, but the houses were still
- 1:15Speaker 2: standing afterwards, which I guess says something about our building code,
- 1:19Speaker 2: or maybe it wasn't that bad a hurricane. But the
- 1:22Speaker 2: question is when you have these mass disasters, how do
- 1:26Speaker 2: you recover small business, large business, medium size? What do
- 1:31Speaker 2: the steps you need to take put in place before
- 1:33Speaker 2: it happens so that you can recover. Baragamen is with
- 1:38Speaker 2: us now, and Braggo, it's great to have you on
- 1:42Speaker 2: the show, So tell us here you're an attorney business expert.
- 1:48Speaker 2: First disaster recovery. It's all about the planning, isn't it
- 1:53Speaker 2: one hundred percent? And the best time to plan is
- 1:55Speaker 2: before disaster happens. Now, I know that's convenient to say.
- 1:59Speaker 1: Once disaster happens, well, it would have been nice to
- 2:02Speaker 1: have a plan, but of course these kinds of things, unfortunately,
- 2:05Speaker 1: will occur more frequently. So having the plan of exactly
- 2:08Speaker 1: what you need to do, having your insurance in place
- 2:11Speaker 1: to make sure you can get along with your recovery
- 2:13Speaker 1: is so critical before a disaster happens and after a
- 2:17Speaker 1: disaster happens. It's also a good opportunity to be able
- 2:20Speaker 1: to plan for the future of how you prevent something
- 2:24Speaker 1: unfortunately like this from happening to you or your business,
- 2:26Speaker 1: and if it does, how do you recover from.
- 2:29Speaker 2: It all right. So, like I assume you've gone through
- 2:33Speaker 2: this before, what have you done? Have you worked on it? Yeah?
- 2:37Speaker 1: So when it comes to business owners, for example, a
- 2:41Speaker 1: good way to make sure you're out ahead of it
- 2:43Speaker 1: is just making sure you've got proper insurance. For example,
- 2:46Speaker 1: a lot of business owners will have something known as
- 2:48Speaker 1: commercial general liability insurance that'll protect them from things such
- 2:52Speaker 1: as slip and falls up their property, general kind of
- 2:55Speaker 1: things such as potentially an employee driving a vehicle and
- 2:59Speaker 1: getting into into a crash, things like that. But they
- 3:02Speaker 1: also want to look at business interruption insurance, which is
- 3:06Speaker 1: insurance that covers you and your business in the event
- 3:10Speaker 1: of something catastrophic happening that interrupts it and prevents it
- 3:15Speaker 1: from being able to generate revenue. A great example of
- 3:18Speaker 1: this is a hurricane. So if a hurricane comes and
- 3:21Speaker 1: destroys your business and you're unable to earn revenue for
- 3:24Speaker 1: a while, business interruption insurance is something that can cover
- 3:27Speaker 1: you in addition to that, and by the way, that's
- 3:30Speaker 1: a separate coverage. So these are the types of things
- 3:33Speaker 1: that I encourage all business owners to talk to their
- 3:35Speaker 1: insurance brokers about. Is what kind of coverages are available
- 3:40Speaker 1: to me and my business in the event of something
- 3:42Speaker 1: like this happening. There's also special writers for things such
- 3:46Speaker 1: as flooding. Now, a lot of places, such as Florida,
- 3:49Speaker 1: will exclude flooding from general kind of disaster relief insurance.
- 3:55Speaker 1: So it's a special rider or endorsement, meaning it's something
- 3:58Speaker 1: extra you have to pay for their additional premiums sport,
- 4:02Speaker 1: and if you don't have it, the insurance company is
- 4:04Speaker 1: going to exclude any and all damage that's caused by it,
- 4:08Speaker 1: and maybe unsurprisingly, the insurance company is going to probably
- 4:12Speaker 1: claim that a lot of the damage was caused by
- 4:15Speaker 1: the flooding as opposed to the winds from the hurricane
- 4:18Speaker 1: or something else. So insurance companies out of nac for
- 4:20Speaker 1: finding ways to say, look, this was a part of
- 4:23Speaker 1: the coverage you didn't have, so of course you want
- 4:25Speaker 1: to be sure you're prepared for it ahead of something
- 4:27Speaker 1: like this happening.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Right, So recently state of Florida passed a rule that
- 4:36Speaker 2: if you have citizens insurance, you must get a flood
- 4:40Speaker 2: insurance policy, which just seemed to me to be pretty outrageous.
- 4:44Speaker 2: Whether you're in a floodplane or not and you know
- 4:49Speaker 2: they are just looking out for my benefit. Why would
- 4:51Speaker 2: they do something like that.
- 4:53Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting the way you have to rebibertary. The
- 4:56Speaker 1: way insurance works is it's pooled ru er risk. So
- 4:59Speaker 1: you have to have a certain number of people who
- 5:02Speaker 1: really aren't within a risk period or place to be
- 5:06Speaker 1: able to support the ones that are in a higher
- 5:08Speaker 1: risk place.
- 5:09Speaker 2: The idea is is.
- 5:10Speaker 1: That with everybody pooling their resources, it makes it bitter
- 5:15Speaker 1: for everybody because statistically, not everybody is going to be
- 5:19Speaker 1: adversely affected by something like this, and so it brings
- 5:22Speaker 1: down the premiums for people who are more likely to
- 5:25Speaker 1: be affected by something like this. And the idea of
- 5:29Speaker 1: if there's too few people paying into the policy or
- 5:33Speaker 1: to the insurance company, it really does increase the risk
- 5:36Speaker 1: for everybody because it increases the risk of a potential
- 5:40Speaker 1: default by the insurance company because they don't have enough
- 5:44Speaker 1: premiums collected to be able to ensure the risk. So
- 5:47Speaker 1: states like Florida and other places adding in these requirements
- 5:52Speaker 1: or to help ensure the liquidity and viability of the
- 5:57Speaker 1: insurance company to help ensure that everybody can be potentially protected.
- 6:02Speaker 2: Okay, So in Florida having what they call an insurance crisis,
- 6:07Speaker 2: and you know, basically insurance companies have stopped writing policies
- 6:13Speaker 2: in Florida. What's this coming from? How did we wind
- 6:17Speaker 2: up in this situation?
- 6:19Speaker 1: So insurance companies, like all other businesses, are in the
- 6:22Speaker 1: business to make money. With the likelihood of them losing
- 6:25Speaker 1: money exceeds the likelihood of them making money, they choose
- 6:30Speaker 1: generally to stop doing business. And that's I think what
- 6:33Speaker 1: we're saying in Florida with the increased number of hurricanes
- 6:36Speaker 1: and the devastation caused by the hurricanes, not just in frequency,
- 6:41Speaker 1: meaning that the number of hurricanes Florida is seeing every year,
- 6:44Speaker 1: but also the significant severity of these hurricanes and how
- 6:48Speaker 1: much damage they're causing. So ultimately, going back to what
- 6:52Speaker 1: we were talking about earlier, the problem becomes, these insurance
- 6:55Speaker 1: companies are paying out far more than they're paying or
- 6:59Speaker 1: receiving in premiums is their projection, and so based on that,
- 7:04Speaker 1: they're saying, look, it really doesn't make sense for us
- 7:07Speaker 1: to continue insuring in Florida because we're going to lose money.
- 7:11Speaker 1: And I think that's what we're saying now.
- 7:14Speaker 2: Well, they were claiming that there's a lot of fraud
- 7:18Speaker 2: going on with new roofs, things like that. I mean,
- 7:22Speaker 2: how much does fraud really impact insurance companies bottom lines?
- 7:27Speaker 1: I have no doubt that there's some aspect of fraud
- 7:30Speaker 1: when it comes to these things, But in terms of
- 7:33Speaker 1: the overall macro perspective, the overall bleak picture perspective, I
- 7:37Speaker 1: don't really foresee a majority of the claims al anywhere
- 7:42Speaker 1: close to majority of the claims beying fraudulent claims. A
- 7:46Speaker 1: lot of insurance companies like to talk about fraud on
- 7:49Speaker 1: the insurance company, but they don't really talk about the
- 7:52Speaker 1: reverse when the insurance company is denying legitimate claims to
- 7:58Speaker 1: individuals and business owners even though they should be covered.
- 8:03Speaker 1: And recently, Governor Desantez signed a law that prevents homeowners
- 8:11Speaker 1: from being able to recover their attorney's fees when they
- 8:14Speaker 1: have to sue their insurance companies when an insurance company
- 8:17Speaker 1: doesn't pay out when they're supposed to. So said differently
- 8:20Speaker 1: and explain differently. Previously, the law allowed homeowners whose claims
- 8:25Speaker 1: were wrongfully denied to sue the insurance company and to
- 8:29Speaker 1: recover not only the money that should have been paid
- 8:34Speaker 1: to them for example, if a roof needed to be
- 8:36Speaker 1: replaced and the insurance company improperly denied it and claimed
- 8:39Speaker 1: it was fraudulent, then the homeowner can sue not only
- 8:43Speaker 1: to get the roof replaced, but also to cover their
- 8:45Speaker 1: attorney's fees for the roof replacement, because obviously the attorneys
- 8:50Speaker 1: aren't doing the work for free, and it really is
- 8:52Speaker 1: cost prohibitive a lot of times for homeowners to pay
- 8:55Speaker 1: for the attorney out of pocket. And of course an
- 8:58Speaker 1: individual homeowner is going to be at a significant disadvantage
- 9:02Speaker 1: to a multi billion dollar insurance company. So the law
- 9:06Speaker 1: was intended to designed to help homeowners and try to
- 9:11Speaker 1: even the playing field. Unfortunately, now with these changes, insurance
- 9:16Speaker 1: companies can deny it and if the homeowner sues and wins,
- 9:20Speaker 1: sure they can get the money to replace the roof,
- 9:22Speaker 1: But then now they have to pay for the attorney
- 9:24Speaker 1: s fpees out of pocket. So if you imagine if
- 9:26Speaker 1: a roof replacement is going to cost fifty thousand dollars
- 9:29Speaker 1: and the attorney spees cost twenty thousand dollars, well, now
- 9:32Speaker 1: the home only has thirty thousand dollars to replace their roof,
- 9:36Speaker 1: and you can't get it done for that now. So
- 9:40Speaker 1: the issue becomes that the increasing number of denials of
- 9:45Speaker 1: claims I think will create additional problems for homeowners who
- 9:50Speaker 1: already have the odds stacked against them when they're facing
- 9:53Speaker 1: large insurance companies.
- 9:55Speaker 2: Interesting. Interesting, It's kind of hard to feel bad for
- 9:59Speaker 2: insurance company copanies, though, isn't it. I agree.
- 10:02Speaker 1: I mean, we all of us, we dutifully pay in
- 10:04Speaker 1: our premiums to insurance companies with the hope and expectation
- 10:08Speaker 1: that they'll do the right thing when it comes time
- 10:11Speaker 1: for them to actually pay out. Of course, the insurance
- 10:13Speaker 1: company is betting that they won't have to pay out,
- 10:17Speaker 1: or that the number of premiums that they're going to
- 10:19Speaker 1: collect from the number of people they're going to collect
- 10:21Speaker 1: them from are going to exceed what they end up
- 10:24Speaker 1: paying out. But the issue becomes when the insurance company
- 10:29Speaker 1: puts their thumb on the scale and says, well, look, bet,
- 10:32Speaker 1: we took the bet that we won't have to pay out,
- 10:35Speaker 1: and we lost at bet. But now we're going to
- 10:38Speaker 1: just deny the claim or make homeowners go through additional
- 10:43Speaker 1: hoops or business owners go through additional hoops. They and
- 10:47Speaker 1: then ultimately deny the claim. When they know that the
- 10:49Speaker 1: claim really properly should have been paid out. A lot
- 10:52Speaker 1: of times, unfortunately, these can become wars of attrition, meaning
- 10:56Speaker 1: insurance companies just simply waiting things out for either the
- 11:00Speaker 1: homeowner or the business owner to give up because they
- 11:03Speaker 1: have so much going on. There's all this devastation in
- 11:05Speaker 1: their own lives, and then they've got to deal with
- 11:09Speaker 1: a multi billion dollar insurance company and their council.
- 11:12Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, certain states regulate their insurance companies more strictly
- 11:17Speaker 2: than others. Florida is kind of it's like a less
- 11:20Speaker 2: a fair state, you know.
- 11:21Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm all for capitalism, but I'm all for
- 11:24Speaker 1: capitalism done in the right way. Capitalism done in the
- 11:29Speaker 1: right way creates value for everybody. It creates a benefit
- 11:32Speaker 1: for everybody. So there is an issue of potential government overreach.
- 11:36Speaker 1: But there's also the dark side of capitalism when companies
- 11:39Speaker 1: are taking advantage of their position and power to abuse
- 11:42Speaker 1: the everyday person or business owner.
- 11:45Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a balance here somewhere. But like New
- 11:49Speaker 2: York goes much more strict that their insurance companies, and
- 11:53Speaker 2: it seems like the insurance companies in New York State
- 11:55Speaker 2: are much more solvent than the insurance companies here in Florida.
- 12:00Speaker 1: And part of this could be in terms of the regulations.
- 12:05Speaker 1: The flip side of regulations are that they can add time,
- 12:09Speaker 1: burden and expense, but they can also set companies up
- 12:13Speaker 1: to be more proactive about the way they approach things
- 12:17Speaker 1: because those companies have to be more cognizant of those
- 12:20Speaker 1: rules and regulations, including rules and regulations relating to their
- 12:24Speaker 1: liquidity and how they're handling claims and how quickly they're
- 12:27Speaker 1: handling claims, as well as how much potential profit they're
- 12:31Speaker 1: allowed to earn from compared to what they're collecting in
- 12:35Speaker 1: premiums versus what they're paying out and claims, and those
- 12:40Speaker 1: kinds of additional regulations can be very beneficial to both
- 12:45Speaker 1: homeowners and business owners.
- 12:47Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well, it doesn't feel like it at the time.
- 12:52Speaker 2: So we better off with a regulatory free for all here,
- 12:56Speaker 2: or are we better off with a more regulated marketplace
- 13:01Speaker 2: where where insurance companies are held more accountable.
- 13:04Speaker 1: Well, when it comes to insurance companies, I think the
- 13:07Speaker 1: more critical the infrastructure or the company that's involved in
- 13:12Speaker 1: the day to day American life, I think additional regulation
- 13:15Speaker 1: is helpful in those circumstances, because when you imagine insurance companies, homeowners,
- 13:21Speaker 1: businesses around the country rely on insurance. We have so
- 13:26Speaker 1: many different types of insurance. We have health insurance, we
- 13:29Speaker 1: have car insurance, we have homeowners insurance, we have business
- 13:32Speaker 1: interruption insurance, we have commercial general liability insurance. And these
- 13:36Speaker 1: companies have tremendous sums of capital, they have a tremendous
- 13:42Speaker 1: amount of power, and they pay a lot of lobbyists
- 13:44Speaker 1: in Washington and locally to help protect their interests.
- 13:48Speaker 2: And you do see the.
- 13:50Speaker 1: Results of that with increasing legislation helping insurance companies many
- 13:56Speaker 1: times unfortunately at the expense of homeowners and business owners.
- 14:01Speaker 1: So in my opinion, that's cop capitalism gone wrong, where
- 14:05Speaker 1: it's almost like a reverse regulation where we're insurance companies
- 14:11Speaker 1: are having laws passed that are to their benefit and
- 14:16Speaker 1: to the detriment of the everyday American citizen.
- 14:20Speaker 2: All right, well, interesting situation here that we find ourselves
- 14:24Speaker 2: in currently, and your best bet is to plan ahead
- 14:29Speaker 2: buying the more solvent and responsive insurance companies. You know,
- 14:33Speaker 2: like certain companies like Chubb and AIG who have used
- 14:36Speaker 2: in the past, you never get any problems with them.
- 14:40Speaker 2: As all as it's a legitimate claim, they pay it,
- 14:44Speaker 2: you know, rapidly, and others not so good. Right, Yeah,
- 14:49Speaker 2: that's right.
- 14:49Speaker 1: And a big part of this CARRY is anybody making
- 14:52Speaker 1: an insurance claim, it would be highly beneficial for them
- 14:56Speaker 1: to make sure they document the claim properly, including with photos, videos,
- 15:03Speaker 1: making sure they've got written communications with the insurance companies
- 15:07Speaker 1: because the downside of phone calls is while you might
- 15:11Speaker 1: be able to get somebody on the line, a live person,
- 15:13Speaker 1: eventually all of the recordings, all of that data about
- 15:18Speaker 1: what was discussed is with the insurance company. Now contrast
- 15:22Speaker 1: that to sending an email. Making sure that you get
- 15:24Speaker 1: an email or even sending a fax. You've got written
- 15:28Speaker 1: documentation that shows what you sent and when, and making
- 15:31Speaker 1: sure that you've got that is so critical to show
- 15:35Speaker 1: if there is an improper delay by the insurance company
- 15:38Speaker 1: that one you sent that information and two if there
- 15:42Speaker 1: are additional problems or damages caused by the insurance company
- 15:47Speaker 1: and processing your claim, that you can make those claims later.
- 15:51Speaker 1: Because having litigated these kinds of cases, I can tell
- 15:54Speaker 1: you carry when it comes to an insurance company saying, look,
- 15:57Speaker 1: it really wasn't our fault. That's a very common defense,
- 16:01Speaker 1: and the best counter to that is saying, look, here's
- 16:04Speaker 1: the clear timeline. Here's when we sent the initial documentation
- 16:08Speaker 1: to you showing what all the damages were, and we
- 16:11Speaker 1: asked you, if there's any additional information, please let us know.
- 16:14Speaker 1: We're happy to send it over to you. And then
- 16:17Speaker 1: sending the photos in the video and any other documentation
- 16:20Speaker 1: such as receipts that you have is very very helpful.
- 16:24Speaker 1: And in that regard, making sure that you've got electronic
- 16:28Speaker 1: backed up copies of your photos, videos, and receipts is
- 16:34Speaker 1: very very helpful because a lot of times, unfortunately, when
- 16:37Speaker 1: you've got something like a hurricane and a lot of flooding,
- 16:40Speaker 1: you could have ommaculate receipts and drawers and drawers full
- 16:45Speaker 1: of paperwork that's very easy to access. But if it
- 16:49Speaker 1: gets washed away or it gets flooded and the documents
- 16:53Speaker 1: are water damaged, it's going to be very difficult for
- 16:55Speaker 1: you to be able to use that information later. So
- 16:59Speaker 1: I recommend that everybody who's listening to this start that
- 17:03Speaker 1: documentation process now, keep it organized, and keep it back up.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Things as simple as photos, videos of the things that
- 17:11Speaker 1: you have in your possession, including model numbers or serial numbers.
- 17:17Speaker 2: Is very very helpful.
- 17:18Speaker 1: Even the condition of the rooms or the condition of
- 17:21Speaker 1: the property in both photos and videos is very helpful
- 17:25Speaker 1: when it comes to a claim later.
- 17:28Speaker 2: All right, well, I like you saying the preparation in anything,
- 17:34Speaker 2: being prepared is always the key. Even if your plan
- 17:37Speaker 2: doesn't work, at least you had a plan so you
- 17:40Speaker 2: can change. But if you don't have a plan, then
- 17:43Speaker 2: the things can go south very quickly. People want to
- 17:47Speaker 2: find out more about you, connect with you on the web.
- 17:49Speaker 2: How do you do that?
- 17:51Speaker 1: Yes, so they can visit my website at www dot
- 17:55Speaker 1: LAWPLA dot com. Www dot lawpla dot com. They can
- 17:59Speaker 1: follow on Instagram at parrogpa r A g am A,
- 18:04Speaker 1: m I n E SQ, or they could check out
- 18:07Speaker 1: my YouTube channel where we provide a lot of great
- 18:11Speaker 1: tips and tricks for individuals and business owners that can
- 18:15Speaker 1: help them with their business. All of the legal things
- 18:18Speaker 1: that a lot of times business owners simply don't know
- 18:21Speaker 1: and they wish that somebody had provided that information to
- 18:24Speaker 1: them ahead of time. I wanted to make sure that
- 18:26Speaker 1: everybody has access to that, so we created a website
- 18:30Speaker 1: and a YouTube channel where we have that information available.
- 18:33Speaker 1: If they google my name or lawpla dot com, they'll
- 18:37Speaker 1: be able to find it there.
- 18:38Speaker 2: All right, excellent, Well you've got a question for Paragh
- 18:41Speaker 2: or myself, shoot me an email at kl at Kerrie
- 18:43Speaker 2: Letz dot com. Link to parog site is in the
- 18:46Speaker 2: show notes to this interview on Financial Survival Network dot com.
- 18:51Speaker 2: And while you're there, sign up for your free newsletter PROG.
- 18:54Speaker 2: Thanks for filling us in helping us out. Hopefully all
- 18:57Speaker 2: of you out there, I'll find some value in this.
- 18:59Speaker 2: Always be prepared because disasters happen even in places where
- 19:03Speaker 2: you never expect them to happen, like in the mountains,
- 19:06Speaker 2: the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina,
- 19:11Speaker 2: as we've seen over the past few weeks. Appreciate you
- 19:14Speaker 2: coming on for I can talk to you again soon.
- 19:16Speaker 1: My pleasure, Garrett, thank you, thanks for listening to carry
- 19:18Speaker 1: Letz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times.
- 19:24Speaker 3: For the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial
- 19:28Speaker 3: Survival Network
- 19:30Speaker 2: Now more than ever