Hurricane Andrew
On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida
with a vengeance. For weeks and months later, public insurance adjusters
from all over the country poured into South Florida. Many of these public
adjusters were qualified professionals. Some were neither.
What Public Adjusters Did To Themselves
Public adjuster horror stories were becoming the story
of the day and the insurance industry was bound and determined to do
something about them. Most of the problems were caused by out of state
public adjusters. Unfortunately, we Florida licensed public adjusters (there
were just a handful of us) were about to feel the wrath of the State
Legislature and Department of Insurance, due to the actions of our
misguided, out of state, brethren.
Department of Insurance Reaction
As far as the governmental entities were concerned, we
were all bad! They didn’t know us, but they KNEW they didn’t like
us! Bureaucrats, at the highest level of the DOI, were clueless as to our
function and purpose. Insurance Commissioner, Tom Gallagher (1st
Term), was doing commercials regularly on television and radio, in Miami,
telling people not to hire public adjusters. The DOI began distributing
official bulletins negatively defining public adjusters and cautioning the
public if they chose to use a public adjuster. The National Association of
Public Insurance Adjusters (NAPIA) pressured our DOI and as a result,
emergency licensing of out of state public adjusters was granted. However,
to obtain emergency licensure, an applicant would be required to post a
bond, work under a supervising Florida Licensed public adjuster, provide a
Letter of Good Standing from their home state, and just for good measure-the
applicant was required to be sponsored by any one of the following who
worked in Florida exclusively: an insurance agent, an independent adjuster,
or an insurance company executive. It took months for applications to be
approved and then after approval, an “administrative processing fee”
penalized many of the same P.A.’s. The DOI was in disarray! Shortly
thereafter, legislation was introduced to put public adjusters out of
business.
FAPIA: The Idea Is Conceived
In December of 1992, NAPIA had moved its Mid-Year
Convention to Miami in an effort to accommodate its members who were working
in South Florida. The DOI’s Agency Director had come to the meeting as a
guest speaker. He warned the entire organization of impending doom for
public adjusting in Florida once the next Legislative session opened in a
few short months. After this gentleman spoke, Ray Altieri’s partner (at the
time) and long time public adjuster, Jerry Levin, of Utica, New York, came
to him while he was talking with attorney, William “Chip” Merlin and
suggested that we were going to need a state public adjusters association to
fight this off. Immediately, they went to work. We contacted all of
Florida’s PA’s and attorney Doug Grose. We set a meeting for all Florida
Public Adjusters in Orlando.
FAPIA: The Inaugural Meeting
The inaugural meeting took place in February 1993 at
the Marriott World Center in Orlando. At dinner the night before the
meeting, Chip and Doug, as our legal advisors, proposed a slate of Officers,
which was to be voted on the next day by the public adjusters who were in
attendance. Raymond A. Altieri, Jr. of Tampa was nominated as the
organization’s first President, Steven Lesser of Miami Beach as President
–Elect, Stephen Sarasohn of Boca Raton as Vice President, Chuck Howarth of
Tampa as Treasurer, and Allan Brodsky of Hollywood as Secretary. The
Directors were James Toukatly of Orlando, Craig Tanner of Clearwater, Ron
Livingstone of Orlando, and Ira Sarasohn of Boca Raton. Competing public
adjusters began to work together for the common good. By the next morning
the slate was voted on and accepted. As President, Ray used NAPIA as an
organizational model and employed a similar system for FAPIA. It remains in
place today. The Board of Directors went forward with three major themes:
·
Prevent the extinction of Public Adjusting in Florida
·
Uniting was mandatory for survival
·
Inclusion of all licensed PA’s in FAPIA was a must to be
successful
FAPIA Meets With The Department of Insurance
FAPIA was armed with one strategy. As coined by Chip
Merlin, “We must approach on the side of Angels”. Testify from the
perspective of what eliminating PA’s would mean to the public, not us! Many
of the PA’s named above and others, testified in front of the General
Counsel of the DOI on this very issue. We were successful! We were invited
to participate in the writing of new legislation. They accepted our work
almost verbatim. During this same period and in addition to fighting for
our lives to do first party property work, we had to overcome a competing
group of PA’s who formed FAPA (Florida Association of Public Adjusters).
This group was trying to fight for the “right” to do liability and bodily
injury adjusting as an alternative to attorneys! NO WAY!! We separated
ourselves greatly from FAPA, we showed the DOI that we would support
aggressive and responsible regulation as an industry, and most of all we
gained credibility as a new organization with top management personnel at
the DOI. WE WERE ALIVE!
FAPIA Moves Forward In It’s First Decade
Armed with newly earned credibility at the DOI, FAPIA
flourished. New challenges came and went through sacrifice of time and
money by many of the Charter Members. First name basis relationships were
established with DOI Division Directors. New proposed Rules and Legislation
came forward and the DOI actively sought our input and opinions. FAPIA’s
language was inserted into new Bills involving PA’s. The Tallahassee
Mid-Year Meeting tradition was established to coincide with the annual
Legislative Session to keep us in front of Senators, Representatives, and
the DOI. Negative legislation slowed for a period, which allowed FAPIA to
turn inward.
By –Law Revisions were made in 2000 to help conform to
organizational growth. An Officer’s Ladder was created to send experienced
members to the Presidency. FAPIA enhanced its professionalism by developing
a website and hiring an Administrator, a Lobbyist, and a CPA firm to assist
the organization in its affairs. Through the personal sacrifices of some,
our entire association benefits. FAPIA through the hard work of Charter
Members and Past Presidents such as Mark Boardman, Kimberly Pope, and Dale
McCrory continue to achieve results. Mark is responsible for spearheading
FAPIA’s advancement of the industry’s professionalism through Continuing
Education and political interaction. Kimberly works hard to obtain
Continuing Education credits from the Department of Financial Services for
FAPIA’s members. Dale McCrory has almost single-handedly been responsible
for all arrangements surrounding our conventions since FAPIA’s inception.
FAPIA has also gained recognition beyond the DOI, as
many of its members became members of the Windstorm Network with Dick
Tutwiler becoming that organization’s President and Steve Lesser and Jim
Toukatly voted to its Board of Directors. NAPIA also has repeatedly
recognized FAPIA as the largest and best State public adjusting association
in the country. For its efforts to further the cause of public adjusting
FAPIA has also been rewarded through NAPIA, by it’s voting of Raymond A.
Altieri, Jr. to its Officer’s Ladder, where he will become NAPIA’s President
in 2011. FAPIA’s growth has been outstanding. Our first meetings would
attract 20 to 30 PA’s. Today, at our meetings, we exceed 250 members.
That’s a testimony to the hard work of all.
FAPIA Today And The Future
In spite of all of the good news, we still find
ourselves struggling to be free of excessive regulation. A minority of
Florida public adjusters continues to be a menace to our profession.
Certain PA’s either skirt the edges of the Rules and Regulations or blow
right through them. This causes the Insurance Lobby to introduce broad
reactive and restrictive legislation that the DFS, at times, appears all too
anxious to employ.
All Florida Licensed public adjusters must come to
understand the Codes of Conduct and Ethics, as well as the Rules and
Regulations, which govern the profession.
This is NOT a suggestion, but a mandate.
We may never gain complete acceptance by the insurance
companies, nor should we try. However, only through our daily conduct will
we raise the bar towards broad recognition that we do make a difference in
the lives of our clients. We should strive to make that difference with
honor, character, and a sense of pride for who we are and what we do.
Join FAPIA today! Come seek professional
education and join in camaraderie with a truly skilled and dedicated group
of professionals.
