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Steve, the requirements are about the same in Pennsylvania. The PA must post a Bond for $50,000.00 and any one that solicits for them must post a bond for $8,000.00.

Funny or not, neither a PA or an IA is required to have a license in the State?

The LA rules are on line and it took a few months & some phone calls to acquire the License, but as you know without it, you cannot work in Louisiana.

Thanks for your continued insight and keeping us all up to date. (Motor Home got bogged down issues?)

For those of you working Gustav claims in LA, one change that has come about since Katrina is the licensing laws. I should hope that every IA who works claims there makes sure that they get the proper licensing in place before handling claims. There are fines involved in failing to get licensed, and I believe it is a felony to handle claims without a license. On top of that, you could get your IA vendor and the carrier in a world of hurt for handling claims while not being properly licensed.

That being said, as mentioned above the PA's are also required to be licensed and bonded to act as a PA in LA. Both cost them $$ out of pocket and I've found that a lions share of them don't bother to get licensed/bonded. It is fun to watch them in a deposition to skirt the issue and/or commit outright perjury. Problem with that is they face criminal penalties, and when we prove they lie under oath, it blows their credibility as a fact or expert witness out the window. The same holds true for us as adjusters.

When dealing with PA's in Gustav you should always obtain a signed contract that they have with the insured before discussing the claim with them, doing the inspection with them, etc. You should also require them to give you a copy of their certificate of licensing from the LA DOI, and if they say they haven't received it yet, tell them that they can pull it off of the website and fax it over. You can also go into the site and search to determine if they are licensed, and make sure they are properly licensed as a PA vs IA (remember that damn bonding requirement they have to get). Here is the link and you just have to put in the proper type of license and the name. http://www.ldi.louisiana.gov/Produc...e=Producer

I personally like to wait on asking for the license information until after they have provided me all of their work and write up of the claim, and if they tell me they aren't licensed, or some other excuse I politely inform them that I am compelled to report that information to the carrier to handle as they see fit. There may be some carriers that will file a formal complaint to the DOI, and I do not know what the carriers duties are toward dealing with a PA who is not properly licensed. I did this once to a PA in a state that had pretty strong licensing requirements and penalties, and the PA dropped the claim after doing a fair amount of work on it vs face the associated penalties. This is not to penalize any PA's at all, it is just keeping them honest, as we should all be also.

One final thing about the contract is that in LA it is illegal for PA's to charge a percentage of the claim adjustment in fees. If you get a contract that is written that way, you should point this out to your vendor and carrier in case they want to do anything about it. And I would strongly suggest any problems and issues you discover with improper licensing and contracts of PA's just be forwarded to the carriers for them to deal with. i would not go to the DOI yourself on the issues.

Have Fun down there folks. If and when there are any informal get togethers in the New Orleans or Baton Rouge area, post them here with enough time for people to plan to attend. if i attend I'll have to travel about 1500 miles.

Good insigts Steve & Dave, as far as I am concerned we need Laws protecting insureds against unlicensed and unscrupulaus Adjusters, IA firms, And PA's ............ Convicted felons included. From what I have seen These types of laws would surely "Weed out the Worms"

Should be a primary focus amung Associations within our industry if you ask me.

 

Roy Estes

I am new to CAT, and was just contacted by Pilot. I have to go to orientation tomorrow for AllState with expectations of going to Texas. Am I going to have to obtain Texas licensing on my own. Will Texas issue me a temporary license, or will Pilot obtain it for me? I am not licensed in any state but have been looking into a few. Also, I am in Houma, LA.... If I request to stay in this area, is Pilot pretty open?

Hey JT,

Did you apply with Pilot or did they find you?

A gentleman sent me a PM which was very insightful and he stated I could post it if useful. It reads as follows:

"One of the things that IAs have to be careful of is the tort of "unlawfull interference with a contractual relationship", also libel, bad faith, and giving legal advice without being an attorney.

Examples of what not to say:

"Your PA is a sleazeball"

"a PA can't get you any better settlement"

"You should cancel your contract with the PA"

Examples of what you can say:

"I have checked the state database and I did not see your PA's name. Is your PA licensed, as required by law?"

" I see you have signed a contract with a PA. Do you understand what you have signed?"

"It appears that your loss is well above your policy limits. I am prepared to make a recommendation to the insurance company to pay the policy limit. Are you aware that your contract with the PA may require the insurance company to put the PAs name on the check?"

Using careful strategies and good choice of words can help an adjuster avoid getting into unneccesary trouble. Notice all three of my examples are posed as questions, which is much safer way to communicate than by makeing statements about sensitive issues."

What he said is very true and real. I have seen attempts threatened or made by PA's (and others such as contractors, cleaning companies, etc) for "Restraint of Trade" clams, never successfully, but just the same it is very problamatic. We have no business interfering with the insured's decision to hire a PA on a claim and we should be very careful on how we address things in our file notes. Conversally I'd venture to guess most of us have heard the statement from the insured "I was contacted by a public adjuster and I'm thinking about hiring them". I have seen IA's put in their file notes comments like this with the follow up that the IA talked the insured out of hiring the PA. That kind of stuff concerns mein that was it done by the iA saying something like some of the 1st examples above? Whenever an insured told me something like that, I'd politely tell the insured that is was completely their decision, to make sure that they understand all of the conditions of the contract that they sign with the PA, and that I'd need a copy of the signed agreement before I could talk to a pA on the claim. I'd also tell them that I plan to put together my numbers on the case the exact same way with a PA involved as I would without one. I explain that the insured has the option to hire a PA at any thime that they wish in the process, and if they wanted to do it after the estimate is put together and they review it, or beforehand, it makes no difference. the estimate will be exactly the same.

I have read literally thousands of IA reportsand you would be amazed what some people put in their file notes. That is a whold different thread that may get started someday. Gave a seminar on proper use of file notes in claims (and not over spelling, etc which is very important) And the seminar involved roll play with a defense attorney cross examining a fellow claim manager on his file note which read "we don't have to worry about a loss of consortium claim on this case, as the claimant is ugly to the bone". It was a case that actually went to jury and a claim rep got the golden opportunity to defend that statement.

 

Now that a lot of you boys and girls will be traveling to my old stomping grounds of Texas, I'll reinterate the main theme of this thread and say the same holds true for Texas as it does for LA.  Get licensed properly before you work.  PA's are also required to be licensed before acting as a PA  and they have to carry a $50,000 bond in this state also.  Neither IA's or PA's can be licensed if they have a felony conviction, without going through a special application process.  I do know of one PA that I have run into in CA and LA that has a problem with getting properly licensed where he works, it part of that may be because of his felony conviction on sex related charges which shows up in the national sex crimes registry.  I would venture to guess he ends up back in LA (questionable as most of the plaintiff attorneys that used him got a rude awakening when his past caught up to him in settlement discussions) or TX. 

There is one based in a suburb of Houston who is not licensed as a PA, but may be licensed as a regular IA (no bond required) and as a insurance producer of all things (can you spell conflict of interest?).  I would strongly recommend research of all the PA's you deal with.  The link to look them up is as follows, and a link to one of the National Sex Registry's is after that.

http://www.state.tx.us/NASApp/tdi/TdiARManager

http://www.familywatchdog.us/

FYI...the bond requirement in TX for a public adjuster is $10k