Archive for the ‘Florida Adjusting Services Team Updates’ Category

Nancy Dominguez Honored to Serve As Director on FAPIA Board In One Of It’s Most Challenging Years

At the recent annual meeting of the membership of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters held at the South Seas Resort on Captiva Island this month, Nancy Dominguez was asked to serve as a member of the Board of Directors.  By a majority vote, Ms. Dominguez was awarded the honor to serve as a leader in the public insurance adjusting industry for the State of Florida.  It was discussed that this year will be one of the more difficult times for the public insurance adjusting profession in Florida due to the strength and will of the insurance lobby.   Insurance company strategists consider attorneys and public insurance adjusters who help the general public obtain what is rightfully due to them, a threat.  If they are able to quash the ability of the general public to seek knowledgable and professional representation when they are attempting to seek reimbursement for their most important investments (home, business, etc.) - insurance companies will have an unfair advantage over the insuring public.  As a result, this year FAPIA along with the insuring public, will have to work harder than ever to protect the right to seek representation and counsel. 

• Can you imagine if you weren’t allowed to ask a professional for advice on an important insurance claim, if you needed it? 
• What if the law were such that those professionals could no longer make a living helping the general public because lawmakers and the insurance lobby make it so that it was not cost effective for anyone to handle daily claims?
• Imagine yourself up against an insurance company without anywhere to turn for advice except the insurance company’s own adjuster. 

If the insuring public does not stand up and let their lawmakers know that this is not acceptable, that’s exactly what is going to happen in Florida. 

It seems that lawmakers have gone from one extreme to the other.  After August of 2004, when hurricane Charley hit the shores of Punta Gorda, Florida and caused over 50 billion in damages, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) relaxed the requirements for persons to become licensed public insurance adjusters, in Florida.  This was a terrible mistake, because people who had absolutely no experience decided that this was a quick and easy way to make money.  Many of those people did not have the public interest in mind.  As a result the industry’s reputation took a tremendous downfall as consumers began to complain about-insurance-claims unscrupulous activity. 

This is the perfect example of why it is so important for consumers to do some research when hiring a professional to help.   When you need a financial advisor, you don’t choose a person who got their license online and never received any formal training or education.   Not taking the time to choose a qualified public insurance adjuster for your residential or commercial claim is tantamount to flipping a coin to decide who will perform complicated surgery on you.   It’s just not done that way.  Adjusters who are members of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters subscribe to a stringent code of ethics and are required to take continuing education courses specifically designed to train them to be professionals.  FAPIA is also in the process of designing public adjusting certification testing for it’s members that will set all those who pass it apart from the herd of inexperienced individuals  out there who are currently calling themselves adjusters.   

Make sure when you need the help and advice of a qualified public insurance adjuster in the state of Florida, you choose a FAPIA member first.