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With Hurricane Milton now expected to produce several hundred thousand wind-damage claims and with the storm coming so soon on the heels of Hurricane Helene, industry leaders are bracing for significant delays in claims adjusting.

“We’re competing with Helene,” said former deputy Florida insurance commissioner Lisa Miller.

And the longer policyholders have to wait to see action on a claim, the more likely litigation will result, she noted.

One adjuster said delays will be widespread in Florida, in part because of Helene but also because some adjusters have shied away from a state that has seen allegations of at least six insurers drastically revising field adjusters’ estimates, which can reduce adjuster fees.

“A lot of people don’t want to work Florida now,” said independent adjuster Ben Mandell, who has been hired to work claims in Florida, starting next week. “It’s going take a while to get to all the claims.”

Late Wednesday, Florida’s top insurance industry regulator announced an emergency rule that would forbid insurers from changing field adjusters’ estimates without a full explanation.

The shear volume of claims from Milton will be a problem, Mandell said. “This is the big one. Nothing in my career has been as big a storm as this one.” By late Wednesday, reports of wind damage from Milton were already trickling in, along with reports of several tornadoes around the state.

In the last two weeks, Florida has seen more than 112,000 claims filed due to Hurricane Helene, which made landfall Sept. 26 in Florida’s Big Bend area. But thousands of Helene claims, including flood insurance claims, have also been filed in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Many adjusting firms still have teams in those areas, in towns and cities that were inaccessible for days while bridges and roads were out.

Crawford & Company, one of the largest claims management firms in the world, had deployed thousands of adjusters to areas affected by Helene, said Meredith Brogan, president of network solutions for Crawford.

To shift from one storm to another means that “people are going to be spread very, very thin,” said Nancy Dominguez, managing director of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. “It’s going to take a long time.”

By law, insurance carriers in Florida are required to investigate most claims within 30 days of a proof-of-loss statement from the insured. But that can be extended due to circumstances beyond the insurer’s control, such as declared states of emergency. Dominguez and Mandell expect some claims in isolated areas to take months to inspect.

The majority of the claims – perhaps more than 140,000 – are expected to be filed with Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the largest property insurer in Florida. Citizens has contracted with eight claims adjusting firms, including Crawford and Pilot Catastrophe Services.

But with so many adjusters now obligated to Citizens, that could exacerbate the shortage of claims professionals available for other carriers.

And the situation already has led to some subterfuge, one insurer said. In a text message provided to Insurance Journal, someone claiming to be with a well-known claims management firm reportedly spread the word that Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. is paying a much higher day rate – $1,500 – to adjusters. The carrier said that was not the case and officials there suspect that the text was sent in an effort to spur Citizens to raise its per-diem rate.

Citizens and Florida Peninsula could not be reached for comment Wednesday, just hours before the storm was set to make landfall south of Tampa. But an adjuster said that with adjusters so in demand, fees paid by carriers will undoubtedly rise.

Dominguez, of FAPIA, noted that one potential salve for the shortage of adjusters is for Florida insurance agents to step in. State law allows agents to work temporarily for carriers as adjusters.

“They’ll only have 48 hours of training, but at least that would be boots on the ground, getting the ball rolling,” she said.

Dominguez urged policyholders to be patient after the storm clouds have parted and to refrain from climbing on their roofs to inspect the damage – something that can lead to serious injury.

“It’s important for people to stay off their roofs. There are plenty of professionals who know how to do that,” she said.

Adjusting after Milton’s wrath will bring other issues for policyholders, carriers and adjusters. Some have worried that flood and storm surge damage from Helene, uninsured by flood policies, will be erroneously included in wind claims from Milton.

Paresh Patel, CEO of Florida-based HCI Group said that much of the muddy content and drywall from Helene’s storm surge in Florida last month has already been hauled to the street. That should make it easier for adjusters to differentiate between the two types of damage, he noted.

Crawford & Company’s Brogan said the firm’s hired claims professionals are trained to tell the difference between wind and flood damage claims.

At PrimeGroup Insurance, we’re here to provide guidance every step of the way. Contact us to learn more: 844-631-4901 or info@primegroupins.com.