As the insurance industry approaches the five-month mark from the appearance of Hurricane Charley, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a large number of the claims filed as a result of the four hurricanes have been resolved. The bad news is that, for those claimants still waiting, frustrations are mounting and, in many cases, finances are getting tight.

“There's a slowing process of payments and, I would say, that it's slowed down with advance payments and even finalization of claims,” said Ray Altieri, CEO of Transco American Claims in Tampa, Fla., and two-time president of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. “We have not seen a good turnover of files from the insurance carriers and it's across the board.”

To a large extent, Altieri blames the sheer volume of claims. He pointed out that, although more than 1.5 million claims have been filed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the total number of adjusters currently working in the United States at 241,000, with 14,000 of those being auto damage appraisers. “We believe that there's just been an overwhelming need from all areas of the industry, and there's only so much that these insurance companies can do,” he said.

“Part of it is you had a state where 64 out of 67 counties received damage, one out of every five homes received damage,” agreed Justin Glover, spokesman for the Florida Department of Financial Services. “You had a shortage of adjusters getting out to homes.”

The problem is exacerbated as carriers search for qualified personnel to meet the unprecedented number of damaged properties. “There may even be a tremendous influx of new people into the system to try to meet the overwhelming need,” said Altieri. “And when you have inexperienced people trying to do the work of experienced adjusters, you end up with a formula for unsatisfactory settlements.”

Altieri said that he also is seeing cases in which adjusters have little or no settlement authority. “It's been a very frustrating time, because we get agreements with adjusters in the field and we're waiting for authority to occur,” he said. “We're months down the road with some of our commercial clients, and they can't back into business.”

In many cases, agreements that are made with property owners are not reflected in the checks that arrive in their mailboxes. “The settlement comes back completely different than what was agreed upon going in, and you're left wondering what happened,” Altieri said. “Someone hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles away is overlooking the files made by field adjusters, making decisions, 'Well, we're not going to pay for this, and we're not going to pay for that,' and they've never even seen the property.”

Trying to locate live bodies at the carriers creates its own frustrations. “I believe that the insurance adjusters' intentions are honorable, but once they turn in their reports, the reports have to go through levels of management for approval. Once they bog down, it's difficult to know whom to call,” he said. “You can't even leave a voice mail, because all voice mail capabilities have been filled.”

Some claimants actually benefit from the fact that executives are being dispatched to reinforce the adjuster ranks. “We have been lucky in some instances when we've dealt with high-level people in the company who've been assigned out into the field because of the storm,” Altieri said. “I think you're going to find that most people have run into tremendous difficulty with resolution of their cases. If a president or vice president of claims is handling the case, that moves along. Otherwise, you're really at a disadvantage.”

To combat what many claimants perceive as delays in settling their cases — the number-one complaint received by the Department of Financial Services — state lawmakers approved an emergency rule setting deadlines for insurance companies. The rule establishes strict time frames for insurance companies to make initial damage assessments and work toward claim settlements, including additional living expense payments to Floridians unable to remain in their homes due to storm damage. For claims filed by Oct. 21 as a result of Tropical Storm Bonnie, Hurricane Charley, or Hurricane Frances, the deadline was Nov. 22. For those filed by Nov. 8 as result of Hurricanes Ivan or Jeanne, the deadline was Dec. 8.

To provide a remedy for dissatisfied claimants, the state opened mediation centers in four locations. By mid-December, more than 2,700 Floridians had requested mediation services, according to Glover. That figure represents 0.18 percent of the total claims received by insurers.

Although the current situation is dismal for adjusters and claimants alike, statistics provided by the Florida Insurance Council offer some hope. The average number of days to close a claim following Hurricane Charley was 31. By the time adjusters got around to dealing with claims from Jeanne, that figure had dropped to 21. As of Nov. 24, 83.6 percent of the claims from Charley had been closed. Progress also was being made on claims related to the later hurricanes, with closure rates running at 74.9 percent from Frances, 68.8 percent from Ivan, and 65.1 percent from Jeanne.

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