Seen on the wires:
Allstate Insurance Co.’s delays in adjusting claims in Louisiana after hurricanes Katrina and Rita were justified in light of “severe problems, impediments, roadblocks and hindrances” created by the storms, state insurance regulators said in a report issued Friday.
The Louisiana Department of Insurance examined a sample of 120 paid claims and 120 open claims by Allstate after the 2005 hurricanes and found nine instances of delayed payments. But those delays were not “arbitrary” or “capricious,” the department concluded.
With the exception of those nine delayed payments, Allstate complied with state laws, regulations and rules in handling of claims after Katrina and Rita, according to the department.
When an insurer is inundated with claims, when adjusters (company and public) are stretched as thin as they can go by extreme circumstances, and in the case of Katrina, entire towns and a city have been rearranged, it’s going to take time for claims to be processed and settled.