California’s Most EXPENSIVE Disaster Ever – How It Affects YOU!

2025 02 07 - The video covers a detailed discussion about the California wildfires and their widespread impact, hosted by Karl Susman on Insurance Hour. Karl emphasizes that these wildfires may be the most costly disaster in U.S. history. He discusses various aspects including insurance claims processes, the California Fair Plan, and emerging scams targeting victims. Key points include the indirect economic impact on service workers and businesses in affected areas, the role of reinsurance in global premium impacts, and the challenges faced by the California Fair Plan in handling the volume of claims. Karl particularly warns about various scams targeting vulnerable fire victims, including identity theft schemes and fraudulent contractor offers.

Highlights

Introduction and Overview of Wildfire Impact

Karl Susman opens the show discussing the catastrophic wildfires in Southern California, noting they could be the most costly disaster in U.S. history. He emphasizes the need for community unity and putting politics aside for recovery efforts.

Insurance Coverage and Indirect Impact

Karl explains Department of Insurance regulations regarding non-renewal protections in impacted areas. He details the indirect economic impact on service workers, such as pool cleaners, house cleaners, and car washers in affected areas like Pacific Palisades, emphasizing how everyone is affected regardless of direct fire damage.

Reinsurance and Global Premium Impact

Karl discusses how reinsurance works and explains how large disasters affect insurance premiums globally. He emphasizes that events in one region can impact insurance costs worldwide due to the international nature of reinsurance companies.

Claims Process and Fair Plan Coverage

Karl advises on filing claims, particularly emphasizing that wildfire claims should not be hesitated over. He explains the California Fair Plan's role and its challenges in handling the volume of claims, including the need to bring in external adjusters.

Scams and Fraud Warnings

Karl warns about various scams targeting wildfire victims, including fake government assistance offers, identity theft schemes, and fraudulent contractor proposals. He specifically mentions scammers requesting deposits for construction work and emphasizes the importance of verifying all assistance offers.

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Transcript

0:03

Buckle up everyone, you are strapped in and ready for Insurance Hour. With me, your host, Karl Susman, informing, educating, and entertaining one policy at a time, this is Insurance Hour. Hello, hello, this is Insurance Hour with your host, Karl Susman, and that's me. We are continuing our important wildfire coverage. Remember, the phone lines are not open live, however, you can still call in with your questions 559-656-0317, you can call that number or text it, or you can send an email to Questions@InsuranceHour.com, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. We're going to dive right in. Unless you're living under a rock, you are aware, as you have probably been for several weeks now, that there have been the most catastrophic wildfires in Southern California ever. It is thought that these wildfires may actually be the most costly event, not only in California history, but in the history of the entire country. Let that sink in. Think about all of the disasters that we've already gone through, that you can remember in your own lifetime, and then go back into other, into the periods of time that we were not alive, and you read about in the history books. No, this looks like it's going to be the most costly disaster to ever impact this country of ours. So, everyone needs to come together, everyone needs to put politics aside, everybody needs to put all of their feelings aside, and step up and do what's right to help people, help the city, help the state, help the country, because we're all connected with recovery. With that, let's start off with what can you do in the event that you are not directly impacted by a wildfire? Now, I'll take my cue from the Department of Insurance. Currently, the Department of Insurance has regulations that they've posted that say, if you are in a... specific impacted area from the wildfires, then the insurance company that you currently have a policy with cannot non-renew you for a period of time. However, they're also saying that if you are in a surrounding zip code or in an area that is adjacent to the impacted areas, you also have some protections against having your policy potentially non-renewed. Everyone else, you might say, well, they're not impacted. Oh, they're impacted. We are all impacted. And that's what I wanna talk about first. Now, you can understand if someone has lost their home, someone has lost their car, you can look at that, it's tangible, you can see it, you can touch it, you can understand what it is. What I wanna talk about are the unsung heroes, people that are not directly impacted, they're not living in those zip codes, but they're impacted. Think about the people that have their jobs in, for example, Pacific Palisades. Think about the people who clean pools. people who clean homes, people that come to your home to wash your car. Think about all of those ancillary businesses that happen that are no longer happening. Think about that impact. Now, if you live in those affected areas, hopefully you have an insurance policy that's going to help you with that. But there is no policy out there that's going to pay for people that are indirectly impacted. Now, this indirect impact is vast and the trickle down from it is hard to imagine. Now, I've just rattled off a few of them. We're talking about people that do work for properties in the palisades. It goes beyond that. What about people that work in the businesses that are in an affected area? Same thing. What about people that have commerce for businesses in those areas that no longer exist? Same thing. So when I say that everybody is impacted, that's not hyperbole, everybody is impacted. If you want to just look at your own wallet, I can show you how you're impacted as well, no matter where you are. Let me explain. There's something called reinsurance. Reinsurance is a type of insurance that an insurance company utilizes to help spread the risk for the types of exposures that they have. These are international companies. They're international reinsurance companies. If there's a natural disaster or there's an unnatural disaster, if there's a large event that has large claims being paid out, you might remember not too long ago, a certain bridge was damaged by a vessel, large events like that. Those are not just insured and being paid for by an insurance company, they're being paid for by reinsurance companies in the background. Because those reinsurance companies are international. the impact of the premium that they are charging can be felt internationally. So if you're asking yourself, now wait a minute, is Karl trying to tell me that my insurance policy is impacted because of some type of a large event that happened across the country? The answer is yes. Is Karl trying to tell me that my insurance premium could be impacted by an event somewhere another part of the planet? The answer is yes. So if you're sitting and thinking, well, I'm not in that area, I'm not in that zip code, this does not impact me, it absolutely does impact you. Let's look at the other issues that might impact you even if you're not specifically in that area. You haven't specifically lost your home. There is an unbelievable vacuum now that has been created for people that need to do work to create. These properties and businesses, again, do literally rebuild these cities. That means labor, that means lumber, that means parts, that means architects, that means contractors, that means plumbers, electricians, you get the idea. All of these people are going to be in incredibly high demand right now, regardless of where you are, for example, in Southern California. I was speaking with a real estate agent the other day and she was telling me. She's getting some light plumbing work done at her home right now because she knows when rebuilding begins in these areas that were just absolutely destroyed by wildfire, all of these contractors are going to be very, very busy and in very high demand. They're not going to want to come out for a simple leaky faucet, not when they can potentially get a job putting plumbing in an entire new home. Believe me, this impacts everybody. You don't have to be in a situation where your home is lost or your vehicle has been lost in this event. You're going to be impacted either way. I want to talk about some more after this break. We're going to get into recovery. I want to start from where we are right now and work forward from there because it is going to be an extremely long process. This is not something that's going to be fixed tomorrow or the next day, or even the next day. This is something that's going to take years and not even one or two years, many, many years. So stay with us. We'll be right back in 60 seconds. This is insurance hour with me, your host, Karl Susman. Please do call in at three, one, not three, one, zero at five, five, nine, six, five, six, zero, three, one, seven. You can call or text that number or send your questions into Questions@InsuranceHour.com. And as soon as we're taking those question and answer shows again, I will be sure to answer those questions for you. So sit back, relax. We'll see you in 60 seconds. Let's talk about earthquakes for a minute. Look, we know we live in earthquake country here in California. Powerful, devastating earthquakes have happened here before, and science says that they will happen again. They can't tell us exactly when. They can just tell us that it is going to happen. Count on it. Prepare for it. Did you know that earthquakes are not covered by your homeowner's insurance policy? You need a separate policy to give you the peace of mind that you will be able to recover without getting financially wiped out the next time we get hit with a big one. There is a great company here in California that will provide you with earthquake coverage you need at a price you can afford. That company is GeoVera. I have a policy through GeoVera. I really like how easy it is to choose from all of their great coverage options backed by the financial strength that lets me know that they will be here for me when I need them the most. Go to GetQuake.com forward slash insurance hour to learn more. That's GetQuake.com slash insurance hour. Make sure you're ready for the day when the ground shakes again. Hello, hello, this is Insurance Hour with me, your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here today. The phone lines are not open right now, however, you can call and leave a message with your question. That number is 559-656-0317. You can call or text that number, or send your questions in to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. We are continuing our special wildfire coverage. The wildfires in Southern California, their impact on literally everyone. What I want to take a step into right now is what should you be doing if you are directly impacted by these fires? If you have an insurance policy, chances are by now you have filed a claim. If you have not filed a claim, then you want to file that claim right away. Now, I understand that if you've been a frequent watcher of this program, you probably know that I'm always saying be careful. Don't file small claims. This is not a small claim. Not only that, when there are large events like this, they're called catastrophe events or CAT events, then the insurance industry in general does not look on an individual basis when it comes to claims frequency. That means if, for example, you're not maintaining your plumbing and you have a leak and you file a claim, that's something that an insurance company will look at and say, okay, they're not doing very good home maintenance. However, if your home burns in a wildfire, that's not something that you could have prevented per se. If you have a contract with an insurance company, like a homeowner's insurance policy, for example, they're not going to look at that and say, well, this person has a propensity for filing wildfire claims. If they have a wildfire event, they're going to file that claim. Don't be shy. This is not the time to be sitting back and debating if it's okay to file a claim or not. File that claim. Certainly if you have tangible damage to your property, chances are again you've probably filed it by now. If you're on the fence and you're not sure, maybe you have some minor smoke damage, you're not a hundred percent certain is it safe or not, file the claim. Let the insurance company do what they are there to do. I can't tell you how many times I've said this over the last few weeks. Insurance is here for this. This is why you're paying for insurance. This is go time. It's not really there for, oh the toilet overflowed and caused a few thousand dollars in damage to the floor and you have to have your deductible filled and pay, they'll pay a few thousand dollars to fix it. I mean that's great and your policy will likely do that for you. However, that's not really what homeowners insurance is for. This, these events, this is what homeowners insurance policies are there for. That's what we're really here for. We've been working around the clock, actually, 24-7, talking to people, emailing, texting, you name it. And they always ask if I'm talking to them and it's 7.30, 8 o'clock at night, wow, you're still working? And I laugh to myself because I realize it. Well, of course, this is why we're here. This is the value proposition. This is why you have an agent or broker. So you have a trusted advisor that can be there to help you in times like this. This is the time when we shine. And I have to tell you on a personal level, it feels good to do what I do right now. As stressful as it is, and I have hundreds of clients that have lost their homes or have significant damage to their property, and I feel the emotional weight, I feel the toll, I hear them crying on the phone with me. I can feel it, and it is emotionally draining for me and for our staff, but that's why we're here. That's why we're here. So while we're here doing what we need to do, if you're impacted, you need to do the things that you need to do, and namely that is file that claim. If you're not sure if your home is safe, whether it be air or water or who knows what the situation might be, file the claim. You have the policy, let them send out an expert to test the water, to test the air. Don't just give it the sniff test, okay? Have an expert check, that's why you have a policy, okay? It's rare that you might actually hear me trying to tell you forcibly to file a claim. This is not the time to be on the fence. You file it, you find out what coverage you have, you find out what is safe and when it's safe to go home if you're impacted. Now, some people may be uninsured. Okay, let's talk about people that do not have insurance. What do they do? First, I need to explain to you how that can happen. Most of us, we have a mortgage on our house, right? We don't have enough money to buy the house outright, so we get a loan from a bank, and the bank says, well, if we're going to give you that money, we want to have our collateral, which is the house protected for fire insurance. So you'll have fire insurance in place, namely homeowners insurance is the most common form of fire insurance to have. So you owe money to the bank. So your house at that point is a debt, right? If you're drawing the line between assets and liabilities, or what's yours and what do you owe, it's a debt at that point. You owe money on that. Now as soon as you pay that mortgage off, and people will do this, all of a sudden that property goes from being a debt where you owe money, it shifts over 100% into the asset category. It's all yours. You don't owe a bank more money anymore. It's yours. And somehow, what some people will do right off the bat is they'll say, oh, look, there's nobody forcing me to have fire insurance anymore, so I'll stop. So when it shifts from a debt to an asset, from something that you owe money on to something that you own outright, when you really, really want to have that protection in place, sometimes people will opt to not have it. I think if there are people that are uninsured in some of these areas, they might fall in that category. And the reason I say that is not to be cruel or to try and put the blame on anyone, but because if there is a mortgage, then the chances are there is a fire insurance policy that is in place. So if you're uninsured, the chances are it was something that you knew of or made the choice to do. It might be because premiums were too high or a number of other reasons, but it's not something that would catch you off guard. One final point on this. Sometimes people will say, well, I'll just let the bank force insurance. Understand that forced insurance by the bank or your lender is not fire insurance. It's a special policy that the bank takes out where in the event there is a loss to their collateral, your home, the loan gets paid off. There's nothing there to rebuild your home. Forced insurance is not fire insurance. It's to protect the bank, not to protect you. So if you're in a situation where you do not have fire insurance, again, chances are very high that you're aware of this and for whatever reason, made that choice to be in that situation. When we come back from this break, I want to talk about what people that are in that situation can do. Where can they try and get assistance? Because there are places to go, even if you don't have the luxury of an insurance company there to help you. We'll be back in 60 seconds. I'm Karl Susman and this is insurance hour. Stand by. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in just a few moments, the WindowtotheMagic Podcast show will begin. My name is Patrick. My name is Calvin. I'm Mouseketeer Greg. My name is Paul and I will be your guide through the wonderful world of Disney sound experiences. This show is a weekly trip into the world of the Disney theme parks and resorts. And this is the place where you get to use your ears to surround yourself with the magic. For your safety, please remain seated while listening to the WindowtotheMagic.com Podcast. Maybe there's a name for this, something like Disnotic Obsession. please visit WindowtotheMagic.com for more information, or you can find us on Apple podcasts and in the iHeartMedia app. Hello, hello, this is insurance hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here today. We are continuing our special coverage about the California wildfires. You can still call in with your questions. We won't answer them right now, but they will go into the queue and we will get to them. The number to call or text is 559-656-0317, or you can email your questions into Questions@InsuranceHour.com. Before the break, we were talking about people that did not have insurance and how the likelihood is fairly high that they were at least aware of that situation, if not decided and openly made the choice to not be insured. If you're not sure how that could happen or why, just skip back and listen to the last segment of the show. Now, what can we do to help those people? There are typically two main avenues of assistance for people that are uninsured. One of them is grants, which is where they're given money, and one are loans, where they are, you guessed it, loaned money. Now, most people can immediately go to FEMA for some form of a grant. Now, we're not talking about enough money to rebuild your house. We could be talking about 30 or $40,000. That will help you put a roof over your head while you figure out what your next steps are going to be, but don't expect to be in a situation where you're going to be handed money to be able to rebuild, again, unless you have an insurance policy. Now, the other way to get assistance is through a loan. Now, there are loans that are available to get from banks, certainly, and there are also loans that you can get through the federal government. The Small Business Administration, or SBA, does give loans out for people to need to rebuild their homes. Don't let the name confuse you. Just because it's the Small Business Administration, it does not mean that it is only loans for businesses. I never understand why they don't rename it or at least make that clearer. The SBA, the Small Business Administration, is the arm of the government that loans money. Now, typically it's a low interest loan. And today I believe it's looking at about 4%. And it can be amortized over up to 30 years. So if we go back to someone that perhaps had paid their loan off, opted to not have insurance, and they're going to get another loan, well, now they've got a new mortgage to start with. Keep in mind also that the SBA does not typically have the funds or the programs available to pay for an entire home to be rebuilt. I believe at this recording, the maximum allowable amount. that can be loaned is $2 million for this type of a loss. Now, depending on where the house is, the size of it, that may or may not be sufficient to rebuild the house, especially, and we'll talk about this later, the costs of construction have gone up astronomically, supply and demand, right? That's how it works. Whereas you might've been looking at $300 or $400 a square foot to rebuild a house, now you can be looking at next to $1,000 to rebuild a house. Yeah, $1,000 a square foot. And we're not talking about market value, we're talking about just the cost to rebuild the actual structure. So people that don't have insurance do need to find several avenues likely to be able to have sufficient funds to rebuild their home. Now, it's possible that the federal government, although I don't think it's that, I wouldn't expect it with this current administration, to potentially raise the amount of money that they're able to loan through the SBA, it's possible. But as again, as of sitting here right now, that's not it. That has not happened. So you might need to go to an additional lender to be able to get money to rebuild. Keep in mind also, the ongoing expense, you will need to incur living somewhere. That's going to be something you're going to have to find a way to get coverage for out of your own pocketbook, unfortunately. Now, since a lot of people that don't have insurance were at least offered or could have purchased insurance of some kind through the California Fair Plan, we've talked about the California Fair Plan quite a bit in the past. But just as a quick refresher, the California Fair Plan, FAIR stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, by the way, in case you're curious. So please, if you're typing it, make sure you capitalize all those four letters, F-A-I-R. It drives me crazy because people write Fair Plan, just F-A-I-R, like the word fair, like something is fair. And it's like, no, that's not it. It's fair. It stands for something. Anyway, understand that that organization is funded by private insurance companies. The legislature created the fair plan as a stopgap to be somewhere people could go temporarily if they were unable to obtain insurance through the private market, they were able to go and purchase insurance through the fair plan, which ironically is still paid for by the private market, but the private companies are actually sharing in that exposure versus one company taking all the exposure for that particular risk. Now, the California fair plan has been growing steadily in California because there has been a crisis of coverage availability. Now, we can have an entire show and we have them, I'm sure we'll have more, talking about why there is such a shortage and availability crisis for homeowners coverage. Mind you, spoiler alert, it's not just California. We just see it and hear about it in California the most because California is so big. And so, of course, we're going to hear about it because it affects more people. If there's a problem that affects a thousand people, are you going to hear about that or are you going to hear about the problem that affects eight million people? You can do the math. So the fair plan has been growing steadily because of this insurance crunch, because the private market did not have availability to write policies. When that happens, the fair plan is, of course, collecting premium, but nowhere near enough premium to be able to cover the loss like we're seeing from the California wildfires. At first glance, it appeared that there would be enough money or access to enough money from the fair plan between the fair plan's money in the bank and between their reinsurance to be able to cover the losses. Now as time has gone by and these numbers from the damage continue to skyrocket, it's clear that the fair plan is going to do what's called an assessment, which means they're going to go back to all of their insurance carriers. It's going to go back to all the private insurance companies that are in the state of California, the ones that already pay money to keep fair plan floating, keep the lights on if you want to look at it that way, and say, okay, we're out of money. We need more. And all of the admitted companies in the state of California based on their market share in California will have to get out their checkbook and write a check to the fair plan to be able to be sure that the California fair plan has enough money to pay those claims. It's an irony if you think about it, because the consumer comes to an insurance company and says, ensure me, and they say, you're too much of a risk. They end up with the fair plan, there's a loss, fair plan doesn't have enough money, and they go right back to those insurers to have them pay for that claim. So the good news for consumers and for anyone that's with the fair plan is there will be money to be able to pay your claims. The bad news, and I will talk about this in our next segment, is the service you might be receiving when you're dealing with your claim with the California fair plan might be subpar. We'll talk about it a little more in about 60 seconds. Insurance hour with Karl Susman. Be right back. Have you been dropped by your insurance agency or senior premium skyrocket? Susman Insurance is here to help. We're a family-owned and operated insurance agency that's been serving our community for two generations. At Susman Insurance, we know how stressful it can be to find the right coverage, especially when prices go up or you're left without insurance. That's why we're committed to finding you competitive rates, whether it's for fire, home, earthquake, flood, auto insurance, you name it. We've got you covered. Give us a call or send a text to 310-820-5200 or visit us online at Susmaninsurance.com. Plus, stay updated on all things insurance by joining our text group. Just text 567-4-Karl-with-a-K. That's 567-367-5275 to get the latest updates straight to your phone. Susman Insurance, your family's insurance solution. Hello, hello. This is Insurance Hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here with me today. Our continuing coverage of the California wildfire continues. The phone lines are open, although we're not going to be able to get you on the phone live, but go ahead and give us a call or shoot a text over with your questions. The number is 559-656-0317 or you can email your questions into Questions@InsuranceHour.com. Do everything we can to answer your questions to the best of our ability. And, you know, speak of best of our abilities, I want to make a point before I continue on. I am a licensed insurance agent and broker and I do the very best I can to give you the most accurate and up-to-date information that I can, but I'm only human and I might make a mistake. So if you hear something and you've heard otherwise or it just does not sound right to you, please let me know. This isn't an ego thing. I want to be sure that I'm... getting you the correct information. And if I'm getting something wrong, I want to correct it, I'll be the first one to tell you if I make a mistake and then let everyone have the correct information. So if you're hearing something or you've heard otherwise, let me know and I can address it. The chances are that maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right in what you've heard is wrong and you can go back and correct somebody else that's giving misinformation somewhere else. So at the end of the day, you want to be sure that you're getting the right information and if you're getting absolutely conflicting information, you want to be sure, do not hesitate, reach out to me so I can double check, triple check, quadruple check and be sure you're getting the right information. One of my favorite sayings to our staff is I say, I would rather you ask me the same question a hundred times than give the wrong answer once. And that goes for the show here as well. Now, before the break, we were talking about the California Fair Plan and. If you were paying attention, you probably saw a deep sigh come from me. You might be saying, well, why the deep sigh? You just got through saying how California Fair Plan has access to funds so they'll be able to pay their claims. And that's absolutely true. So what's the problem? Well, when you're dealing with the California Fair Plan and there's an event of this magnitude, the California Fair Plan is not manned or womaned. Is that a word? Sorry. It's not, doesn't have the personnel, how's that, to be able to handle the volume of claims that are coming in. They don't have that many employees to do that. That's just not what normally happens. Again, these events are not designed. They're not, the companies and the Fair Plan, they're not expecting this level of disaster to happen, let alone with any frequency like we're starting to see. So what happens is in order to have people handling these claims, the California Fair Plan will bring in adjusters. And I say bring in, I'm making air quotes because they're not always coming from anywhere. They're just working from wherever they happen to be, but they're not local. They're not in California. What that means is they might not be completely up to date with the specifics of California insurance regulations. And I know, don't have a fit. I know what you're thinking. It's the claims adjuster. If they're not up to date on the regulations, then who in the world is? Well, I don't get it. I'm with you. What that ends up translating into is sometimes you might hear something from an adjuster that's working with the Fair Plan that's not 100% accurate. Fortunately, consumers can reach out to their insurance agent or broker, and they can say, wait a second, is this right? And it can get straightened out. But understand, this is not by design, okay? That's the first thing. There's no conspiracies going on. This is simply a factor of volume. When the carrier or an organization like the Fair Plan has to bring in adjusters from other places. simply to man or I keep saying it, I got to come up with a better expression. If you can think of a better expression, will you please send me a message and tell me? I'm trying to not, I want to say it the right way. At any rate, they want to be sure that they have the staffing to handle people. So that means they might have to bring people in that aren't as familiar as, for example, a private insurance company that's in California that has adjusters on salary in California that deal with claims in California. You get the idea? So dealing with claims adjusters that are with an organization like the Fair Plan with the understanding that a lot of times you're going to be talking to someone that has not, first of all, he's not local. Number two, does not work in this marketplace. And number three, and this is probably the most important one. These, we call them cat adjusters. These are adjusters that different organizations and different companies will call on whenever there's a disaster. it might be a hurricane, it might be a tornado, it might be a windstorm, it might be a rainstorm, it could be an earthquake, it could be a wildfire, you name it. When there's a large event, most of the time, an insurance carrier will have to get help from people other than their own internal staff. It's just a numbers game, right? We would not want to pay premium for a company that maintained enough staff on their payroll all the time to handle this level of devastation. We would not want that. So when they have to reach out to these other people, it's sort of a profession. These adjusters deal in these large, horrible events. And this is all anecdotal for me at this point. So grain of salt, throw it over your shoulder. I think that one of the reasons some of these adjusters might be coming off a little less than, a little less what's the right way of putting this? Empathetic, sympathetic, caring is because over the years of doing this, they've had to build up some levels of thick skin because they're seeing disaster after disaster after disaster. And I can tell you the emotional toll that this one event has taken on me with just relatively small number of clients compared to an insurance company or something that an adjuster might see in their entire career. So they might have built up some level of a protective shield for themselves so that they don't get so emotionally invested to the extent where they really just can't function because it's emotionally draining. It's the worst for the people that have the losses, but don't discount what it's like for the person on the other end of the phone that has to hear about all this, that has to go to bed and first be so thankful they have what they have, but to hear day after day after day the level of misery and loss that people go through. Now I'm only saying that because it's been my experience during this particular event that a lot of the adjusters, I hate to say a lot, but it is true. A lot of the adjusters that have been handling claims for the California Fair Plan have been subpar. I'm sorry, and if there are any of them that are tuned in now, I try to preface it as well as I can. I'm giving you as much rope as possible and leeway to try and understand why, but the reality of the matter is that the level of service that a adjuster that's being brought in for the California Fair Plan claims versus a claims adjuster for a private insurance company is night and day. I can understand that it would be a little different. I was not anticipating it being dramatically and this drastically different. We'll let that go. It is what it is. One more break and we'll be back at it. It's insurance hour with Karl Susman. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in just a few moments, the WindowtotheMagic Podcast show will begin. My name is Patrick. My name is Calvin. I'm Mouseketeer Greg. My name is Paul and I will be your guide through the wonderful world of Disney sound experiences. This show is a weekly trip into the world of the Disney theme parks and resorts. And this is the place where you get to use your ears to surround yourself with the magic. For your safety, please remain seated while listening to the WindowtotheMagic.com Podcast. Maybe there's a name for this, something like Disnotic Obsession. Surround yourself with the magic! Please visit WindowtotheMagic.com for more information, or you can find us on Apple Podcasts and in the iHeartMedia app. Hello, hello. This is Insurance Hour with me, your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here today. Our continued coverage of the California wildfires continues right now. The phone lines are live, however, they're not coming through to us, but you can definitely call in, leave your question, we will get back to you or text it in, the number of course 559-656-0317, or if you like, you can email your questions in to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. If you missed any part of this show and there's a lot of good information here, and I tried to make the point that even if you have not been directly impacted by the wildfires, or you've been impacted, you've been impacted more than you know. Talk about that a little bit earlier on in the show, so if you missed any of it, just jump online, search for Insurance Hour. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, on YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, you name it. but it's go look for insurance hour you'll find this out there. This is an important show with a lot of information for people whether they have direct damage from these fires or not. Okay, now we talked a little bit about what it's like dealing with an adjuster with the California Fair Plan. Let me give you some ideas on how to work with an adjuster period because there are certain ways and certain do's and don'ts that I'd like to recommend that you keep in mind. Now, the first thing to keep in mind is insurance adjusters, I know, wait for it, they're people. They are just people. They have emotions, they have spouses, kids, they have good days, they have bad days, and I'll tell you right now they are all working their you know what's to the you know what trying to stay afloat with everything that's going on with the volume of claims that are coming in. Not making excuses, just giving you some facts. Is it worse to be someone that just lost their home or an insurance adjuster who's very busy? I'll let you draw that obvious conclusion, but I'm only bringing that to your attention because I want you to understand that sometimes, sometimes it's good to remember that you are talking to another human being. I've seen some communications by email that have been going up and back between adjusters that I certainly can hear from our from people and consumers what they're saying and it's pretty harsh. And some of it is deserved, some of it maybe not so much, but let me give you some pointers on how to deal with filing a claim in general. Now the first thing you're going to do when you file your claim is provide your information, whether it be to a person, they're called claim takers or information gatherers on the phone, or you're going to file the basic information with your insurance company online. It doesn't matter which way you do it. Now, first thing is be aware that's not the last time you're going to be saying those exact same words. Now, that's not to try and catch you. That's not to try and be difficult. It's like when you go to the doctor, how many times when you walk into the doctor's office do you have to tell them exactly why you're there? Tell me, think about it, three times, maybe more, maybe you tell them on the phone to make the appointment, then you arrive, you have to tell the person when you check in, then you arrive, you go into the little doctor's office space and the whoever comes in first asks you why you're there, then the doctor finally comes in, hopefully, and you have to go through it again. That's not because they're trying to trick you either. There's just processes that are in place like it or not. So when you file your claim, have the understanding that you are going to have to give the same information more than one time. It just happens. That's just the way it works. Now, you can take some notes. It's a great idea, not because you want to be consistent because if you're telling the truth, which you must, there'll always be. consistent because that's what happened. But if you want to take some notes as you're talking or be sure that you're giving the same information over and over again to be sure that everything stays consistent, no problem doing that. Just be prepared. You are going to give the same information. I know you want to scream sometimes and say, do you not have a computer? Do you not have notes? I already gave this to someone or someone's already. You're going to have to do it more than once or twice. Sorry. That's just the way it works. Now also understand that when you're filing these claims it is going to go to different departments and potentially you might have to even have more than one adjuster get involved. Now that's a real frustrating one I can tell you because you sort of create a rapport with your claims adjuster. If nothing else you might actually feel kind of connected after a while because you've been talking to them about some of your most personal Issues, you're talking about personal items that are lost, trying to find a place to live, all sorts of personal things. So why in the world, all of a sudden, do they take the adjuster and rip them away from you and throw you with somebody else? Well, for better or for worse, number one reason that happens is because your claim is what's called a catastrophe. It's a cat loss, right? We talked about this earlier, and there are special adjusters that work just in catastrophes. Now, why didn't they give you that person to begin with? Because they're in limited supply. There are less adjusters that are trained for these types of events as there are for the, sounds horrible, the everyday claim that might be happening. So it's possible that you might have to get a different claims adjuster somewhere through the process. If you expect it, it might not be as frustrating for you. Also, if for some reason you do decide that you want to get some form of representation, whether it be legal or public adjuster or anything along those lines, then some insurance companies have a process where there are, again, specific adjusters that work directly with third parties. Remember, you are the client of the insurance company. If you hire somebody else to basically take that role, that in between, you're going to pay them to do that and help you in that process, then there are certain adjusters that are used to and trained to be able to work that triangle, right? Between the insurance company, you and this person that you're appointing to basically represent, hopefully, what you're trying to accomplish, right? It's a training issue. So understand if you're working with an adjuster and you do go down the path of deciding to have somebody else work on the claim on your behalf, chances are you are going to end up with a different claims adjuster. And again, it's not nefarious. It's not to be difficult. It's not that these adjusters are tougher. some other nonsense like that. These are just things that I've heard over the years. It's because they're trained to be able to work with a third party. It matters. There are personal things that are involved in this. There are, let's face it, when you're talking about a total loss, are you entirely comfortable having a third party potentially talking about the medication that was lost in your medicine cabinet? Think about it. There are lots of additional considerations. So I mentioned that to you just so you're aware not to try and sway you or not that in the event that you do go in that down the path of having somebody else other than you assigned to work on your claim, the chances are you are going to get another insurance adjuster involved regardless of how far in the process you are. We have one segment to go and I want to talk about something very important. We are going to cover scams and fraud because the amount of that that we are seeing today is as unprecedented as this fire is. The amount of bad actors out there, just as bad. Stay tuned, we'll be back in 60 seconds. This is an insurance hour, and I'm Karl Susman. Are you feeling lost in the search for the right insurance? Making call after call, only to find no one willing to go that extra mile for you? At Susman Insurance Agency, we understand that frustration, and we're here to change your experience. Where others see obstacles, we see opportunities. While many might shy away from jumping through hoops, at Susman Insurance Agency, we are prepared to leap. Looking under every rock, exploring every avenue, that's not just what we do, it's who we are. Our dedicated team doesn't just offer policies, we provide solutions, solutions born from persistence, expertise, and a genuine commitment to finding you the best coverage possible. We don't just meet expectations, we surpass them. If you're tired of hearing no, or it's not possible, it's time to turn to a team that believes in yes and let's make it happen. Don't settle for less, reach out to Susman Insurance Agency at 877-411-5200. Visit us online at Susmaninsurance.com, or email sales at Susmaninsurance.com. Let's uncover the insurance solutions you deserve. Susman Insurance Agency, going the extra mile, every time. Hello, hello, this is Insurance Hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here today. Our continued coverage on the California wildfires begins and continues right now. Phone lines are not live, but you can certainly call or text in your questions to 559-656-0317. You can also email your questions in to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. Probably notice I am not in the studio that I'm normally in if you're watching this on YouTube or any of our other television affiliates. We are still out in the field, and that is to be closer and more accessible to people that do need help with their claims and claims adjusters, and just in general, just more in the middle of things if possible. So before... Before the break, I told you we were going to be talking about some bad actors, and that's what we're going to do right now. It never ceases to amaze me that when people are at their worst, people take advantage of them. People that have just lost their homes, they are at an all-time low. Let me tell you that after talking to hundreds of them, they are in a really bad place. They are very, very vulnerable. You know what they don't need? A scammer. Let me give you some tips on things to be aware of, and this is good in general for anybody to be aware so you don't get scammed. The first thing is, when it comes to, as we talked about earlier, FEMA and the SBA, the Small Business Administration, they don't call and text. The federal government is not going to just text you and say, hey there, Paul, we got some money for you. That's not going to happen. I guess you don't text with a phone to your ear, but you get the idea. they're not going to text you or call you out of the blue. That's not how it works. So if you get a text, a random text or an email that claims to be the government trying to give you money, big pause and say to yourself, whoa, wait a second. Now, if you want to get information on assistance from the government, you go to the official government website and request it. Now in California, you can go to insurance.ca.gov. That's the California Department of Insurance and you can get links to all the different disaster aid sites that are available. Always a good idea to start at a reputable site versus a Google search. So if you start at insurance.ca.gov, chances are pretty good. The Department of Insurance in California is going to have vetted the links that they're giving you. So that's the first thing. They are not going to reach out to you unilaterally. Now, some other things that I've seen happen. Sometimes it makes me so mad just to even talk about it. So in the beginning, when the fires were happening, people were calling people in the areas of the affected wildfires and they were saying, oh, we're a company to help you file your claims. It'll get handled better. So here's the information I need. I need your name, your address, your date of birth, your social, and they start gathering all this information. Now people are very vulnerable. They're scared. They just lost their house. Maybe they're not even sure if they have lost their entire house yet. So they're providing this information because people are good and they assume, especially at times like that, that people are going to be there trying to help them not take advantage of them. Well, these were people that were just collecting personal information and you know where I'm going with this and then stealing their identity. Just what they need. And guess what? It's very easy for a scammer to go to say a credit card company and say, oh, don't send it. into my home address, it's not there anymore. Here's my new address where I'm staying. And the credit card companies and banks and all the other financial institutions were expecting this deluge of calls to come in because they knew that there are these losses happening. So everything started fitting together so well for these scammers and these identity theft people. Horrible. Another scam that I was seeing and hearing about from clients were again, people calling them, always be aware if someone's reaching out to you, that should be a red flag all by itself. I'm not talking about you see an ad on TV. I'm talking about your phone is ringing. It's popping up in your email, right? And they're saying, hey, I work with this contracting company, sign this contract that will guarantee you that we're going to work together and give us a deposit. And the higher your deposit, the more up in the waiting list will bump you. So if you wanna get your house built faster, Start giving us some money and we'll move you up that waiting list. Now, I know when I say it like this, you're thinking, oh, who would do that? A lot of people, unfortunately. This particular scam was brought to me by one of our clients. That's an attorney. And of course, she came to me saying, can you believe this baloney? Because she immediately recognized it for what it was. But they actually sent her the contract. It was a legal binding document. That document had she signed it without any prices. This contracting firm was going to bind her to have to work with them without ever even giving her a price. Okay. That's pretty bad. Can you imagine signing what comes to a blank check for a contractor without getting other bids, without even knowing what they're going to do yet? Yeah. That's the thing. One more I want to go over with you. And it's a horrible story. People were showing up at homes that were in the burn areas that were not total losses, but they were certainly damaged. Showing up, offering to help, saying, we're going to start cleaning up for you. We're going to start testing the water. We're going to bring you special air purifiers. We're going to do all these things. Please sign this contract and give us a deposit. And they were literally taking the deposit, running out, cashing the checks. That was it. Never heard from them or saw them again. There were gangs of people knocking on doors while the ground was still smoldering, scamming people like this. It is unbelievable to me, but this was actually happening. Listen, I don't want to leave you on such a sour note, but I am. We'll talk again soon. And just remember, if you have questions, ask them. And remember, people are good. I really believe people innately are good. But when things like this happen, some really bad people come out of the woodworks and start taking advantage. So whether you are directly impacted and you're getting these types of calls or not, just in general, keep in mind when you're getting someone reaching out to you, just pause for a moment. And remember the old saying, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Yeah, definitely. This is insurance hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for joining me today. I look forward to speaking with you again soon. Stay safe. take care. I do want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen today. I know insurance is not necessarily the most sexy concept. It is important that you understand what it is you're looking for, what it is you think you're getting, and finally what you actually did purchase. You simply need to know more than you used to. Things are more complicated. If you have any questions please reach out to me directly at 559-656-0317. You may also send your questions to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. Informing, educating, and entertaining one policy at a time, this is Insurance Hour. The show is dedicated to Shamrock Papa.