More than 30 carriers representing flood, automobile, and homeowners insurance were on hand to help consumers at the Hurricane Helene insurance village in Clearwater, Florida on October 4, 2024
We open this edition with a hats-off to Florida insurance regulators for their steadfast support of policyholders. Last week’s Hurricane Milton was certainly bigger than Helene two weeks earlier, with insured losses now estimated at between $30 billion to $50 billion. The Insurance Information Institute expects Milton will be the largest insured loss of any U.S. natural catastrophe this year. Florida policyholders will need more help than ever before.
Since the 2004 2005 storms, regulators after every disaster have established insurance villages that help make it easier for policyholders to find their insurance company and get face-to-face help with questions and with filing and resolving their claim. Hurricane Milton is different, with villages to be set up in different cities, due to the size of the impacted area.
Today (October 14) the first insurance village will open in Bradenton at the Bradenton City Hall Auditorium at 101 12th Street West, from 10am-5pm, and 9am-5pm the rest of the week. A second insurance village will open tomorrow (October 15) in Clearwater at the Clearwater Parks and Recreation Long Center, from 10am-5pm and then 9am-5pm for the rest of the week.
These two insurance villages are the first of four planned, with the others to be located in Tampa and Lakeland. Details will be announced here in the next day or so.
It’s also important to remind everyone that a policyholder hiring a third-party to get involved in their insurance claim can actually prevent them from taking advantage of the consumer protections passed in Senate Bill 7052 because most third-parties such as public adjusters and trial lawyers, prevent their clients from talking to their insurance company. Preventing this communication almost guarantees that the policyholder would never know about the provisions in this legislation that were designed to protect them in working with their insurance company first to resolve the claim before hiring third parties.
We’re standing by here to help answer any questions you may have and offer other assistance on these disaster insurance and recovery issues. Up next in this abbreviated version of our newsletter, the latest on Hurricane Milton, including how you can help, some important updates on Hurricane Helene, and some bright news on Florida’s property insurance marketplace.
LMA Newsletter of 10-14-24
