TALLAHASSEE — After nine straight years without a major hurricane, Florida’s catastrophic insurance fund is flush with cash to pay claims and the cost of backup reinsurance is cheaper than ever. “Reinsurers are hungry for new business,” said Ash Williams, director of the state Board of Administration, which oversees the so-called CAT Fund. “We’ve never…
PROTECTING CONSUMERS AGAINST INSURANCE SCAMS Overview Assignment of Benefits (AOB) is a legal tool intended to ensure the prompt payment of vendors (such as contractor repairing home damage) who provide services to policyholders without requiring a policyholder to be involved in the payment process. However, in recent years, unscrupulous trial lawyers and contractors (often water…
What is insurance assignment of benefits (AOB)? Assignment of benefits is a legal tool meant to ensure vendors receive prompt payments for their services in repairing damage to property without the homeowner having to pay money up front. At the time of service, a customer fills out an AOB form provided by the vendor, taking…
The issue: Assignment of benefits is a legal tool that allows a policyholder to direct their insurance company to pay a vendor directly for work performed to repair damage to a home or other property. However, in recent years, unscrupulous trial lawyers and vendors have used AOB to inflate claims and file costly lawsuits against…
By Peter Schorsch – Mar 26, 2015 Bills are gaining momentum in both the House and Senate to rein in a rapidly growing insurance scam in which sketchy trial lawyers and remediation firms are getting stressed-out homeowners to sign over their policy benefits and rights after a burst water pipe or similar home emergency. Assignment…
Imagine this: You wake up to find your kitchen flooded from a broken pipe. You frantically call a water extractor who arrives and says, “Don’t worry. Just sign these forms and we’ll handle everything.” The truth is, you’ve just signed away control of your insurance claim and may have permitted unscrupulous third parties to inflate…
Rep. John Tobia says all he wants his bill to do is protect consumers like his 67-year-old dad from unscrupulous vendors and lawyers. But CS/HB 669 — alive and well after a 90-minute, standing-room-only hearing in the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee — is revealing what many believe is the follow-up to PIP and sinkholes…
Seven years after they began raking in millions in storm repair insurance proceeds, luck is running out for Carlton Dewayne Dunko and Frank Martin Pureber. No more lavish lifestyles for them – just the prospect of spending time in prison for their sketchy business practices. Missouri issued arrest warrants this week related to a roofing…
Palm Harbor homeowner Joe Zigler had never heard about Florida’s Construction lien law when someone from a roofing company called NBRC Construction knocked on his door in December 2012. Zigler now says that the law, together with NBRC’s questionable business practices, could cost him ownership of his home in a foreclosure action due to unpaid…
View a presentation showing escalating trends in AOB abuse…Citizens Presentation on Assignment of Benefits