Hurricanes and severe storms are a part of summertime in Florida and Hurricane experts predict that this year's hurricane season could yield four major hurricanes in the Atlantic in the 2013 season.

Although summer doesn't officially begin until late June, Hurricane season has it's own timeline. June 1 is the official start of hurricane season and insured's are asked to be prepared in the event a storm my venture our way. National Hurricane Preparedness Week begins next week.

Hurricane experts predict that this year's hurricane season could be a bumpy ride, with the Atlantic region seeing (averaging their predictions), four major hurricanes this year.

Florida is located along a sandy Atlantic beach, its location is prone to getting whacked by hurricanes. Anyone who recalls Hurricane Isabel in 2004 and 2005 Hurricane season remembers how destructive they can be, flooding homes and businesses and knocking out power for days and week at a time. Even Tropical Storm Fay in 2008 did some major damage in many Florida areas.

Hurricane season begins in just one weeks, June 1, and lasts until Nov. 30, with the peak of the season from mid-August to late October.

This year, the Florida area could possibly see a Hurricane Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto or Ingrid (for the complete list of 2013 official hurricane names, see bottom of this story).

Read: These Hurricanes Were So Bad, Their Names Were Retired

Although the National Hurricane Center's predictions won't come out until late May, several experts are already weighing in with their predictions of what we can expect for this year's hurricane season.

• Colorado State University predictions for the 2013 hurricane season: Four "major hurricanes," and nine hurricanes. A major hurricane is any storm that is in Categories 3-5, with 5 being the worst. A storm becomes a Category 3 when its winds gust from 111-129 mph; Category 4 is 130-156 mph; Category 5 is 157 mph or higher. 

"The tropical Atlantic has anomalously warmed over the past several months, and it appears that the chances of an El Niño event this summer and fall are unlikely," thus increasing the chance of a busy season, said Phil Klotzbach, who authored the forecast with William Gray as part of the CSU Tropical Meteorology Project.

El Niño, a warming of ocean water off the west coast of South America, often depresses the Atlantic hurricane season due to higher instances of wind shear as storms develop. In its absence, the Atlantic season can be more active.

• WeatherBell Analytics predictions for the 2013 hurricane season: Five major hurricanes, and 12 hurricanes. 
• North Carolina State University Coastal Fluid Dynamics Lab predictions for the 2013 hurricane season: Three to six major hurricanes, seven to 10 hurricanes.
• Tropical Storm Risk's predictions for the 2013 hurricane season: "3.4 major hurricanes, 7.5 hurricanes"

Hurricane names for 2013

When hurricanes result in massive destruction, they're banned from the list of hurricane names that are recycled by the National Hurricane Center every six years. The names are chosen and voted on by members of the World Meteorological Organization. (See the list of retired hurricane names here.) Last year's Hurricane Sandy was officially struck from the list.

The National Hurricane Center began using names for hurricanes in 1953, using female names. They began adding male names to Atlantic storms in 1979.

Here are the names for the 2013 season:

• Andrea
• Barry
• Chantal
• Dorian
• Erin
• Fernand
• Gabrielle
• Humberto
• Ingrid
• Jerry
• Karen
• Lorenzo
• Melissa
• Nestor
• Olga
• Pablo
• Rebekah
• Sebastien
• Tanya
• Van
• Wendy
• Article in part By Mary Ann Barton

Insurance Journal Tuesday 14th May, 2013

In a victory for public adjusters, Florida lawmakers have repealed a 10 percent cap on fees paid to public adjusters who handle claims from the state-backed property insurer. Lawmakers also prohibited adjusters from collecting finder fees and additional monies from attorneys, homeowners or contractors.

Florida lawmakers, as part of this year’s reform of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., touched on a wide-range of issues including the role public adjusters play in the aftermath of a major storm.

As part of those reforms, lawmakers repealed a 10 percent cap on what public adjusters could receive on Citizens claims in favor of a new fee schedule.

Now, public adjusters handling Citizens claims will receive a fee of 10 percent for any initial hurricane claims made in the first year and 20 percent for claims made in subsequent years. The 20 percent fee will also apply to all reopened and supplemental claims.

Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (FAPIA) President George Keys said the fee schedule is only fair and will benefit Citizens 1.2 million policyholders.

“Citizens is the largest insurance company in the state and their policyholders should have the same resources as other insurance companies,” said Keys.

The Department of Financial Services currently licenses some 33,000 resident adjusters and 51,500 non-resident adjusters. Out of those, there are roughly 15,000 independent adjusters who live in the state and 16,000 who do business in the state but reside elsewhere. According to FAPIA, there are 1,612 public adjusters in the state.

In 2008, as part of the sinkhole reforms (SB 408), lawmakers capped public adjusters fees on Citizens claims at 10 percent on supplemental or reopened claims and banned any payment to public adjusters on new claims. The cap also applied to any additional amount paid on the claim over and above what Citizens initially offered.

The rational for the fee cap was born out of the 2008 and 2009 hurricane seasons when regulators found evidence that public adjusters were trying to inflate Citizens claims in order to collect higher fees.

A 2010 state Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report supported that allegation when it found that Citizens claims filed by public adjusters took more time to settle and had a higher claims cost.

However, the cap’s goal of reining in claims costs was quickly negated as public adjusters found ways to steer around it. In fact, some public adjusters used the cap to do the exact opposite of what it was intended.

Citizens spokesperson Michael Peltier said that concerns arose that the cap, instead of being an incentive to quickly settle claims, served as an incentive to extend the life of a claim. As a result, potentially more claims were disputed and ended up in court.

“There was some thought that the cap was driving more cases into litigation,” said Peltier.

Critics of the 10 percent cap also pointed out that it did not end the involvement of public adjusters in Citizens claims, both legally and illegally.

Keys said that deprived of the services offered by an independent source to mediate dispute claims, the homeowners had no choice but to hire an attorney. Those attorneys then turned around and hired a public adjuster to assess the claim.

“If you go to a lawyer, the lawyer hires a public adjuster, and that drastically increased the litigation cost for Citizens,” said Keys.

Then there were other ways public adjusters found a way around the cap by engaging in cost shifting in the form of receiving finders fees or collecting secondary fees from contractors and others for steering work covered under a claim to their companies.

Florida Consumer Advocate Robin Westcott said it was that kind of cost shifting that made her support the lifting of the 10 percent cap and instituting the new cap.

“I just can’t see where the cap has been effective in any way,” said Westcott.

To address those problems, lawmakers approved a provision that prohibits a public adjuster from receiving compensation from any source over the new statutory fee schedule.

The new law also requires public adjusters to meet with the insurer and try to settle the claim as opposed to refusing to meet the insurer and forcing the claim into court.

Public adjusters also are prohibited from acquiring any interest in a totaled property unless a policyholder agrees.

Keys said that it “goes without saying,” that a professional public adjuster would not engage in such practices. He said the FAPIA, along with the National Association of Public Adjusters, supported the provisions to ensure the reputation of the industry.

Read more

With the June 1 start of hurricane season just weeks away, Ann Crane didn't know what to think about a letter informing her the Daytona Beach Shores condominium her realty firm owns would no longer be covered by the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance.

Click for more: http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130514/NEWS/305149974?Title=Lawmakers-take-a-bite-out-of-Citizens-Insurance&tc=ar