Are You Disaster Ready? Antone P. Braga, an insurance insider thinks your overwhelming answer is, "NO."
"The millions of people who survive disasters each year such as hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood, and fire, usually carry insurance, but they generally have no idea what they have coming, even after asking around. Just what should they expect, and how do they conceive their damage claims or partake in the process? Nearly everyone has been left out of the loop.
When it comes to disasters there is nothing more fundamental than the elements of recovery. Those elements that pertain to insurance are well hidden and took me a great many years of investigation to uncover. After more than 20 years of insurance adjusting I still had no idea they even existed! Policyholders have had plenty of authority within the insurance contract to enable a fair settlement. It is more a matter of knowing one's authority and how to implement it that escapes notice. That in itself is a rather large problem. However, there is an even larger problem: an ongoing process to negate policyholder authority by removing wording in some policies.
Along those same lines, many company adjusters act to represent the policyholder just as if they had that right and authority...it is commonly accepted behavior. Conflict of interest is hardly even thought of, never mind raised. The misinformed public actually expects company claims adjusters to act that way and are disappointed if somehow that does not happen. This is mostly due to rampant advertising that tells us we are in good hands, have a good neighbor, someone on our side, or some other such claim, and oddly enough the companies' misleading, very costly advertising is paid from policyholder premiums, not from companies' own coffers. It is no wonder we have become helpless and lost in this area. We are programed that way, and we have been defused from our authority without being aware that it happened.
It is important to have an idea how to determine what you are entitled to under your property insurance policies (home, business, auto, boat, etc.). Policyholders are entitled to have an understanding in terms of fundamental adjusting principles, rights, and rules that show what to expect in case of loss--the nuts and bolts of insurance consumer protection. There is no reasonable argument against the policyholder having equal information as the company. No one can very well argue that a policyholder in good standing is any less legitimate than the company itself.
What do you expect in case of loss? Who cares? Who has disaster preparedness/recovery money for that?
I don't have all the answers, but I do have this one," said Braga.
A letter pertaining to disaster (hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood, fire, etc.) has been sent to President Obama on behalf of all insurance policyholders. As a matter of transparency on the record of protecting insurance consumers, any response by President Obama will be posted on these Websites for your review: President http://www.disasterprepared.net/president.html and The White House "The People's House" http://www.disasterprepared.net/whitehouse.html
DisasterPrepared.net
Published on: 2009-07-04
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