My letter to Farmers Insurance Company

April 12, 2011

Mark Toohey,
Senior Vice President of Media Relations
FArmers Insurance Company
4680 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Hello Mr. Toohey,

I recently received an e-mail from person who loves Farmers Insurance and loves me as well.  Because of my unique relationship with Farmers, that person suggested that I contact you to correct a very obvious error on Farmer’s website.

First, let me tell you that Brown - O’Haver does, indeed, have a unique relationship with Farmers.  There isn’t a day that goes by that one of us in my office doesn’t work on Farmers Insurance claim.  Indeed, we probably help Farmers close several claims a month.   As a matter of fact, I have two hundred and fifty-five Farmers insureds who are on my reference list!

The issue to which I need to work with you involves your website and particularly:

http://www.farmers.com/claims_faq.html

which states:

“Do I need to hire a public adjuster?

“If you’ve suffered a major loss, you may be contacted by a public adjuster. These are independent claims adjusters who will charge you a fee for their services based on the total value of your claim. That fee is not a covered expense; you cannot seek reimbursement for that cost from Farmers. We’re confident that your Farmers claims representative will investigate, evaluate and settle your claim fairly and efficiently, so that you do not need to hire a public adjuster, but the final decision is yours to make.”

Unfortunately, some of that announcement is not correct.  Sometimes we don’t charge a fee at all.  Our goal is to help people so, to the extent possible, we adjust our fee schedules all the time but, most importantly, we never base our services on the “total value of your claim”.  

The reason that we don’t base our services on “the total value of your claim” is because we don’t charge a fee on additional living expense claims.  Further, I was just retained by a Farmer’s insured to provide only our services to assist with the contents inventory which, as you know, is so important for an insured to conclude a claim.  Certainly we don’t charge a fee on the “total value of the claim”.  So, in order to make your website more truthful, you might change the website to read:

“If you’ve suffered a major loss, you may be contacted by a public adjuster. These are independent claims adjusters who will charge you a fee for their services based on a sum you will negotiate with the public adjuster.  That fee is not a covered expense; you cannot seek reimbursement for that cost from Farmers”. 

There is also the issue of detrimental reliance that seems to be popping up in lawsuits around the country when companies make recommendations that an insured relies upon to their detriment, so  you might also change the last part of your FAQ to state:

“We’re confident that your Farmers claims representative will investigate, evaluate and settle your claim fairly and efficiently with just you only and without your need to hire an advocate like a public adjuster,  but the final decision is yours to make.”

You see, in that statement you let the insured know that Farmer’s is not their advocate in dealing with Farmers..  

Thank you for the opportunity to send this letter to you and please know that I look forward to many more years of working with insureds of Farmer’s Insurance.

Very truly yours,

David E. Young, CPPA, SPPA
Adjuster for the Insured