Whether a company’s properties have been flooded, wind-whipped or completely submerged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, financial leaders of affected companies must work quickly and document the damage carefully to ensure that their organizations receive the insurance proceeds owed to them as soon as possible. experts told CFO Dive.
Losses related to the storm — especially in North Carolina, very affected — have devastated communities in several states. NBC News has reported deaths related to Helene soared above 200 while Milton was responsible for at least 11 deaths, according to The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, estimates of Helene’s total losses related to floods and wind CoreLogic, a global provider of real estate data, set $30.5 billion to $47.5 billion. Milton is insured Losses are expected to range from $30 billion to $50 billionaccording to Fitch Ratings.
Indeed, as Milton approached Florida, concern about the impact those losses could have led Sunshine State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis to issue an emergency rule Wednesday requiring adjusters insurers to “identify and provide detailed explanations of any changes made to damage estimates,” he said. a release The move came about two years after a group of independent claims adjusters sued the insurers “misleadingly” altering damage estimates and low-level insuredsaccording to The Insurance Journal.
Robert Hartwig, director of the Center for Risk and Uncertainty Management and a clinical associate professor at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, said in an interview Friday that the alleged deceptive practices were not a widespread problem, noting that regulators often take a hard line against the insurance industry in times of crisis. However, he said there are steps CFOs and finance executives can take to make it easier to pay their claims. They include:
- Call your insurer, agent or broker immediately. As soon as you and your staff are safe, notify your insurer that you are filing a claim so they can schedule an adjuster to visit the site of the damage. In the wake of larger disasters, major insurers often send disaster response teams that set up RVs in church or Walmart parking lots or other temporary locations to provide assistance, Hartwig said. “Sometimes you can file a claim just by walking in,” he said, noting that you should contact your insurer even if you don’t yet have all the information about the situation. “Waiting to contact your insurer would be a mistake because you would place yourself further from the actual event and make it more difficult to adjust a claim,” he said.
- Document damages regardless of cause. Again, make sure the storm or disaster has passed before you start the property audit, he said. Next, document all damage, not just the obvious physical damage like flooding or wind; for example, document whether the business was possibly damaged in the storm, lost inventory, or was forced to close because workers or customers couldn’t get there. “They will want associated financial documents, such as payroll, rent,” he said, adding that the business could be eligible for a business interruption claim.
- Deep diving to evaluate structures. Visit everywhere it’s safe to go on company property after a disaster: go to the warehouse, go to the basements, turn all the electronics and computers on and off to see what’s broken so you can consolidate all the damage documentation in a single claim, rather than finding out later that some equipment isn’t working, Hartwig said. “Beyond ensuring the safety of your employees, from a business perspective, there are few things that are more important than ensuring the structural integrity of buildings and the value of business inventory and equipment,” Hartwig said.
- Make videos, ideally before and after a disaster. Before a disaster, CFOs should make sure they have video of all company properties and detailed information about the type of equipment the company owns, including VIN numbers for vehicles, he said Jim Buffington, Advisory Services Leader at Intuit ProConnect. an interview on Thursday. Also, when taking videos after a storm, do it before you start cleaning up or working to mitigate the problem, Hartwig said.
- Try to file a claim within 48 hours. The sooner you submit and document your claim, the sooner you’ll get paid, and that can be as fast as a few weeks, Hartwig said, noting that filing within 48 hours is a good goal. “If you want the funds to be recovered, you need to file the claim quickly,” he said.
