After my last report explaining what agents need to know about Public Adjusters (PA’s), agents let me know they appreciated the recommendations.
Conversely, a much smaller but nonetheless relevant number of PA’s, took umbrage, especially when I cautioned agents to “…never recommend hiring a PA to any client.”
Then comes an article by the Insurance Journal (the Journal) reporting that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) recent data shows PA’s are the most sanctioned of all P&C licensees–more than General Lines (2-20) Agents and their licensed employees including CSR’s, Independent Adjusters(IA’s), and every other P&C category—perhaps a total of 20,000 or so licensee’s.
The Journal’ article sets the number of PA’s sanctioned by DFS at 43—more substantial than it sounds considering it was only for six months, and PA’s total only around 1200. True, some may have been non-residents but, percentagewise, it’s cause for concern.
So, the question is: using these rough numbers, why are just 1200 PA’s sanctioned more than all the other 20,000+ P&C licensee’s?
Readers can investigate by reviewing details in DFS’s enforcement list which can be downloaded here, courtesy of the Journal. The Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (FAPIA) has also commented on the Journals’ article. (See Note #1 below).
Either way, it’s a necessary question. One which I do not have the answer to… yet.
I have, however, made a Public Records Request regarding both the overall numbers and the underlying PA activities and will opine when appropriate.
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Note #1: When asked for comment on the Journals article, FAPIA responded as follows:
The complaints included in the data were predominantly administrative in nature. Administrative actions don’t constitute fraud or even unethical behavior toward consumers. All of these “enforcement actions” took place over the last 6 months (rather than December as the headline implies) and included several public adjuster licensees who retired from the profession for a variety of reasons. Others surrendered their own license because they were changing careers. A very small population of the overall complaints were for allegations of criminal activity primarily from agents who were purchasing insurance for consumers without their knowledge or consent. However, the Department appears to still [be] in the process of determining final actions in many cases. FAPIA and its members have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud and regularly work with both the Department and the Florida Property and Casualty Insurance Fraud Task Force to eliminate unethical and fraudulent activity in all areas of insurance. Should any Florida licensee be found guilty of criminal and/or unethical activity, FAPIA stands with the regulators to ensure the public is protected from bad actors or those that abuse the insurance process for those in need.
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