Florida Public Insurance Adjusters are growing in popularity throughout Florida. Whether it is hurricane, fire, flood or catastrophe damage, more and more home and business owners are finding it necessary to acquire the assistant of a Public Adjuster because of underpaid property damage insurance claims.

Florida has been devastated by hurricanes in the past 3 years. Broward, Dade, West Palm, Monroe, charlotte and many other counties have had astronomical damage to their property and many of these hardworking people have not gotten a proper settlement from their Insurance Company. The main Insurance Company that is now dealing with these past hurricane damage claims is Citizen’s.

For the most part, Citizen’s has been a fairly honest company. They have however underpaid a portion of their insurance policyholders from past hurricane and catastrophe damage. This is where Florida Public Insurance Adjusters have stepped up to the place. Their job is to reopen a policyholders insurance damage claim and see if the home or business owner was 100% properly paid on that insurance claim.

The number of underpaid insurance damage claims is astounding. Public Insurance Adjusters routinely get 70%-80% more funds for the policyholder than they originally received from the insurance company when the claim was settled. Reopening a property damage claim is fairly simple and is well worth it for any past hurricane damage victims.

It is not recommended that the policyholder reopen a past insurance claim by themselves. It is a tedious process that should be handled by a professional if you want to walk away with the extra funds you were cut short on. Whether it is a single family home, or a whole condo association, Public Insurance Adjusters are there to represent the policyholder throughout this whole process, and more times than not, these hardworking property owners get the funds that they should have originally received.

We all know people who have moving horror stories. Even if a move goes perfectly, it’s bound to be stressful and exhausting. When you’re dealing with large-scale moves, big rental trucks and self storage, the stress compounds even further.

Self-storage facilities generally don’t have that great of a reputation, whether they deserve it or not. Generally, you get what you pay for. If you use the cheapest storage unit you can find, in the seediest part of town, with the scummiest employees imaginable, you might be putting your precious snow globe collection at risk. On the other hand, you might shell out a small fortune for the best climate controlled, 24-hour attended storage unit you can find, and have an accident or theft still occur. Nothing is failure-proof.

If you are storing things like expensive furniture, collections, your best china, imported rugs or anything else that has a lot of value, you might consider purchasing self-storage insurance. Some self-storage units do offer some type of insurance. Before you go out and spend money on an insurance policy, you should be sure you’re not buying coverage you already have.

However, the vast majority of self-storage units have very strict disclaimers that keep them immune from any theft, loss or damage to your property. When you are dealing with a self-storage company, be sure to read the entirety of every single document you sign. You want to be fully aware of the policies that may affect your possessions.

If you don’t feel like your possessions are adequately protected from a disaster or unfortunate event by the self-storage contract, self-storage insurance is a good idea.

Generally, self-storage covers damages or lost property that happens due to burglary, lightning, windstorm, hail, fire, smoke, earthquake, building collapse, explosion, vandalism, riot and water damage.

When you are purchasing your self-storage insurance policy, you will want to read it very carefully. Many insurance policies don’t cover losses due to floods, especially after the massive loss the industry took after the hurricane Katrina disaster.

If you are concerned about flood or tidal wave coverage and your self-storage policy doesn’t provide it, you can contact the U.S. Government and the National Food Program, which does offer flood insurance. If you are storing your things in a sensitive coastal area, this might be a very good idea.

As you navigate the insurance system and choose an appropriate self-storage insurance policy, you will also want to be very aware of what types of possessions are not covered.

For example, one very popular self-storage insurance policy that many friends of mine have used excludes deeds, bills, currency, evidence of debt, securities, money, notes, jewelry, watches, precious stones, furs, boats, vehicles and some business inventory from coverage. That’s a lot of valuable stuff!

If you are storing things such as the items I just mentioned, I recommend not putting them in a storage unit. Luckily, things like the family heirloom jewelry and deeds, bonds and securities are small enough to put in a bank safe deposit box.

If you manage a small business you’ll dread the possibility of a member of your team being be taken seriously ill or dieing. Apart from the personal upset, your business would be hit hard. Sales or production could take a dive, key skills could be lost and the general pace of the business could fall. All this costs the business money.

Insurance is available to offset those financial risks, risks that can be especially serious for smaller businesses. After all in smaller businesses other employees can’t be moved across to fill the gap – there’s simply no one spare. So the problem remains until the person either returns to work or is replaced.

If the person is off sick with a serious illness such as a stroke or a heart attack you simply don’t know when, or if, they’ll return to work. It could be a month, six months even a year or more. Management is then caught in a cleft stick. Do you take on a temporary employee, contract out or recruit a permanent employee? Or are you forced to tread water and wait for matters resolve themselves? That’s risky. And how much will all this cost the business in terms of extra overheads, lost sales and profit?

Keyman Insurance has traditionally absorbed these very real financial risks but nine out of ten small businesses still don’t carry that insurance. It’s either because they haven’t addressed the problem or they’ve found Keyman Insurance to be too costly.

A Simon Briault, a spokesperson for the Federation of Small Businesses said, “In an ideal world, small firms would be insured against everything, but reality demands the businesses prioritise threats and occasionally take risks”.

But there is a cheaper alternative. It’s called Group Critical Illness Insurance. And it’s about half the price of normal Keyman Insurance!

With Group Critical Illness Insurance, the management decides which employees to insure and how much to insure them for. The business then pays the premiums and receives any lump sum payout. A claim can be made as soon as any of the insured employees are diagnosed with any critical illness which is scheduled within the insurance policy. As you would expect heart attacks, strokes and cancer are the biggest three biggest reasons for a claim but the full list of insured critical illnesses is much longer. For example, kidney failure, meningitis, paralysis and even blindness.

The important point to realise is that to make a claim, the insured employee must survive at least 28 days after their critical illness is diagnosed. (Some insurance companies have now reduced this to 14 days so please check before you buy.) Therefore, if the employee were to die before the end of the survival period, any claim would be invalid. In that context, it’s not as comprehensive as full Keyman Insurance – but at around half the price of there has to be some compromise!

Simon Burgess, the MD of British Insurance says: “Group Critical Illness Insurance is a real alternative to full Keyman Insurance – and at around half the cost, it’s great value for money. If managers find Keyman Insurance too expensive there’s little excuse for not covering the biggest part of the risk with Group Critical Illness Insurance. Don’t pay the price for apathy”.