Bottom Line Up Front When a hurricane makes landfall, your client’s damage likely spans two separate insurance programs — the homeowners or commercial policy (wind, rain intrusion) and a flood policy under the NFIP or a private flood carrier. Treating a hurricane vs. flood insurance claim as a single-source event is the fastest way to … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front Overhead and profit (O&P) is one of the most consistently underpaid line items in residential and commercial property claims — and recovering it is often the difference between a claim that covers actual repair costs and one that leaves your client holding the bag. Carriers routinely suppress O&P by arguing a … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front Understanding what is RCV in insurance isn’t a consumer education exercise — it’s your primary leverage point in every structural claim you work. Replacement cost value is the cost to repair or replace damaged property with like kind and quality, without deducting for depreciation. How you document, scope, and fight for … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front The insurance claim statute of limitations is the single most unforgiving deadline in your practice — miss it and the claim dies, regardless of merit, documentation quality, or carrier bad faith. Every file in your pipeline needs a hard deadline tracked from day one, not from when you took representation. Build … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front Additional living expense coverage is one of the most consistently under-documented and under-recovered coverages in a residential claim file. If you’re not building a parallel ALE track from FNOL forward — separate documentation, separate demand, separate negotiation — you’re leaving recoverable dollars on the table on almost every habitability loss. Master … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front Loss of use coverage — Coverage D on the standard homeowners policy — is one of the most consistently undervalued and under-documented components in a residential claim. Most carrier adjusters scope it minimally at FNOL and never revisit it. Your job is to quantify every dollar of displaced-living expense, document it … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front Subrogation is the carrier’s right to recover what they paid your client — and if you’re not tracking it, you’re leaving leverage on the table. When a third party caused or contributed to the loss, subrogation changes the negotiation dynamic, the documentation standard, and sometimes the settlement timeline. Understand where subrogation … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front If you’re not identifying coinsurance issues at FNOL, you’re walking into scope negotiations with a silent landmine under your feet. A coinsurance clause can reduce your policyholder’s recovery — sometimes dramatically — based on underinsurance that predates the loss by years. Understanding the what is coinsurance clause question cold, and knowing … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front The HO-5 policy is the strongest homeowners form on the market — open-perils on both the dwelling and contents — which means your documentation burden shifts from proving the cause of loss to proving the scope. When you’re working an HO-5 claim, your leverage is higher, your supplement pathway is cleaner, … Read more
Bottom Line Up Front Hurricane season preparation for homeowners is your most reliable source of pre-loss documentation — and the adjusters who build their practice around this cycle come out of every storm event with cleaner files, faster closings, and fewer coverage disputes than the competition. If you’re not actively educating your referral network on … Read more