New York Gov. Cuomo Orders Insurers to Speed Up Sandy Claims

November 30, 2012

  • November 30, 2012 at 10:44 am
    Laissez-faire says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    How does this help? Most companies have a set procedure in place for Quality control. Reducing the planned time will only encourage short cuts and mistakes that will delay services even further. Maybe the resources for maintaining the report cards would be put to greater use if they sent them out to make repairs and actually help those who need it.

  • November 30, 2012 at 1:44 pm
    Wayne says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Politicians are pathetic. I wish the insurance companies would just walk away and let the governor “order” them to come back. When I found out that people up there were refusing help because the out of state help was not union labor, my sympathy for them ended. Pathetic.

    • January 10, 2013 at 1:06 pm
      Thomas Ritter says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      If the average citizen thought they could trust their insurer in a room with their valuables all the outrage on this page would seem a bit more justified.

  • November 30, 2012 at 2:15 pm
    Rusty says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Another knee-jerk reaction to make it look like politicians care. They were not on the ground handling the sheer volume of claims and, as the article points out, the complications of inaccessibility and fuel in efforts to reach all storm affected homeowners. Moreover, no mention was made about federal flood claims and whether the federal flood program, including those policies issued and managed by insurance companies under FEMA authorization would be subject to this new state regulation. I think not because a state cannot regulat a federal agency.

  • December 3, 2012 at 1:32 pm
    Bob says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Gov Cuomo, another jerk who thinks it is so easy on the adjusters, that ass should try to adjuste a claim, let him run around in this crap, all he does is hold peoples hands and say the right words, Im here to help, if I knew how

  • December 3, 2012 at 2:25 pm
    boonedoggle says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    I agree that it should be unnecessary for the Governor to mandate levels of claim service, but anyone notice that the largest insurers, you know the ones with the highest advertising budgets seem to be slowest in making property inspections? Sorry folks, but policyholders should tolerate a 14 day average inspection time to the same extent they should tolerate fire departments reponding on a reservation only basis. If insurers don’t have the claims infrastructure in place to service catastrophe losses, they shouldn’t write the business.

    • December 3, 2012 at 3:18 pm
      comparison says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      If the fire covered the area that Sandy did, I bet fire departments wouldn’t reach all areas in 14 days.

    • December 4, 2012 at 11:45 am
      Bob Bichen says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      This is a factor of the financial status of the industry over the past twenty years. With underwriting profits minimal to non-existent, and with carriers making almost nothing on investments over the past several years, they have not made investments in staffing. Claims teams are overloaded already and once a CAT event comes, they simply can’t cope. Contracted stormtroopers are iffy (some very good, some not so much) and some of the most experienced are aging and about ready to retire. You can expect these types of service lags to occur for the forseeable future unless or until a combination of industry profitability and regulatory pressure cause carriers to reinvest in their claims teams, including their CAT teams.

  • December 3, 2012 at 5:11 pm
    Pedro says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Politicians are self-serving loudmouths that are only grandstanding to make themselves look like they are doing something to help. There simply are not enough trained claims paople to handle this volume of claims in this large of an area in a short period of time. There are hundreds of thousands of claims and how many claims adjustors? It just isn’t physically possible and there are not enough to handle the volume even if every company shipped every adjustor they have up to the storm area. Where would they stay, where do they get gas, cars to rent, electricity to run their computers? This is what happens when there is a major storm. It just takes time. Anyone that thinks they can wave their magic wand and proclaim it to happen is dreaming.

  • December 4, 2012 at 9:21 am
    Brokie says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    I am an uber progressive NY’er. Gov Cuomo is way out of line here. There is an industry standard in place that functions just fine. Yes there is a sense of urgency, but for Cuomo to issue edicts is government legislatating where it should not. Waiving the hurricane deductibles and ‘ordering’ that claims be processed more timely is bad news for our industry. He wouldn’t dare do something this drastic (and illegal) to any other financial industry segment. I’d like to see him ‘order’ bankers to stop doing something that didn’t meet his standards. He’s a bully.

  • December 5, 2012 at 11:22 am
    SWFL Agent says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    This is a huge tragedy and intersting to see that major, national carriers that have access to out of state claims resources are challenged. This should be a wake-up call to Florida property carriers where many are “Florida domestic” and have very little options or experience with handling catastrophes. It will be a mess.

  • December 5, 2012 at 2:23 pm
    Sarah says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Being a Florida agent, we know a little about hurricanes and the time necessary to handle the claims. My only question is, did all of these homeowners have Flood Insurance? It seems that they lump all claims together and address them as one. If like here in Florida a great deal of these homeowners have no flood insurance is the State of New Jersey and New York making them pay claims on the HO3 as was done in Katrina? In that storm the courts ruled the causation of loses were primarily the result of 140 mile an hour winds CAT4 storm. This storm was barely a hurricane at 80 mile an hour gusts. This was obviously a storm surge event which would only be covered by the flood insurance. Does anyone know the status of these claims being presented to the HO3 carriers? Just a question.

    • December 5, 2012 at 3:23 pm
      SWFL Agent says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      Based on the damage I’ve seen in photos, it certainly appears that storm surge caused the majority of the damage. Certainly 80mph winds did not blow houses off their foundations. My guess – very few had flood policies. Why didn’t they? Because, “I’ve never seen it flood as long as I’ve lived here so I don’t think I need it”. That’s the standard response I get. Everyone’s a weather expert when they try to rationalize saving dollars.

    • January 10, 2013 at 1:09 pm
      Thomas Ritter says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      Sandy was not a hurricane at all after landfall.
      (sorry, no hurricane deductibles)
      Most people and businesses with flood damage are straight up screwed. I expect half of those with wind damage will be screwed until they hire attorneys to get fair claims.



Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*