FAPIA's Legislative Committee and Lobby Team have been working hard to monitor and keep track of proposed legislation that may affect our industry and the policyholders we represent. This FAPIA message is going out to all licencees in an effort to keep you all informed and to help eliminate the dangers of a rumor mill.
EFFORTS TO INCLUDE A 30 DAY RIGHT OF RESCISSION (ROR) OF PA CONTRACTS
The CFO's office is pushing hard on a significant increase to the right of a policyholder to cancel a public adjuster contract without penalty.
CASES OF PUBLIC ADJUSTER
NON-PERFORMANCE ARE AT ISSUE
FAPIA did receive policyholder complaints about public adjusters who signed up too many claims, never returned phone calls and in some cases literally abandoned the claims. Some of them just turned the claims directly over to attorneys to litigate and made no effort to adjust the claims. The CFO's office received similar complaints and that is driving this effort.
No policyholder should be trapped in a contract where there is non-performance by a public adjuster. Sadly that kind of behavior provides an opportunity for people and stakeholders that would like to eliminate our profession to paint our entire industry as unethical.
ROR UPDATE AS OF FEBRUARY 11, 2020
We can report that the original PROPOSAL contained in the bill of 30 days ROR has now been reduced to 21 days from the date you place the carrier on notice of your representation.
This language is not fair to our industry. It does not address the alleged problems that were outlined by the CFO regarding reports of public adjuster non-performance and the inability to get out of a contract under those circumstances.
The House version of this bill will be heard by the
House Commerce Committee
this Thursday and in the Senate Rules Committee the following week. FAPIA will be there to testify.
A REAL CONSUMER PROTECTION SOLUTION FOR RESIDENTIAL CLAIMS POST DECLARED STATE OF EMERGENCY
Read the following to become familiar with the real solutions FAPIA is proposing:
FAPIA AMBASSADORS WERE CALLED TO ACTION FEBRUARY 10, 2020
Also, and more importantly, it would not solve the problem of public adjuster non-performance and how that negatively and unfairly reflects on our industry.
FAPIA's Board has authorized retaining additional lobbying muscle for this session in an effort to thwart the many attacks our industry is facing. We continue to speak with stakeholders, the CFO's office and others in an effort to bring resolution to this matter. We will keep our members informed as information develops.
FAPIA's Public Relations Committee has developed an awareness program called
Voices of Policyholders and will soon be launching the first in a series of videos that is currently in pre-production. We will be highlighting policyholder stories about the claim process such as managed repair and diminished coverage on policies. At this time, we are collecting policyholders stories for another facet of the Voices of Policyholders launch which will be featured and promoted at
FAPIA.NET. We need your help.
Share the link to the voices of policyholders website with your clients so that we can share them with lawmakers and regulators. Help us build this project with the voices of your policyholder clients by having them visit the site and click on the button to tell their story. Policyholders have a voice - you can help them use it by joining this important awareness project.
