This month is the season when MS company Scott Favre Public Adjuster’s telephone starts ringing at all times of the day and night. Oftentimes, April showers bring storms of hail and tornadoes. Floods from melting snow in some regions wash away many of May’s flowers (and the homes and buildings they compliment). Then, June kicks off six more months of hurricane watches, warnings and even disasters to some communities along America’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts while fire burns destruction in other regions suffering droughts.
Despite the good done for their clients, Favre and his associates do not like to think of their company as some often describe it –“most insurance companies’ worst nightmare.” In fact, the Gulf Coast native who grew up amidst constant warnings of floods, hurricanes and other potentially destructive weather, prefers the kinder, gentler descriptions of Scott M. Favre Public Adjusters, LLC – “the conscience of many insurance companies.”
“While we can’t prevent natural disasters, our job is to help people and organizations recover as much and as soon as possible. When I hear about insurance companies holding up recovery for schools or ripping off people as claimed by some victims of Hurricane Sandy, I get a sickening feeling. Suffering a major natural disaster is tough enough, but insurance companies intentionally adding frustration to their clients’ plates is akin to being blindsided with a second disaster. The frustration comes in the form of delays in reimbursements, devaluing properties, denying damage claims and other tactics some insurance companies use to discourage those whose property they insured and accepted payments from for years.
“In faith, people and organizations pay insurance companies billions of dollars to protect them in the rare event of a disaster. However, when it’s time for many insurance companies to step up to do the right thing after disaster hits, many insured find that faith is one way and often times the less creditable insurance company or their agent works against the person or organization whom they are suppose to protect,” Favre explains to executives such as school superintendents, college presidents, city managers or county administrators attending his workshops to help government leaders understand how to better protect properties the public has entrusted them to manage.
Favre is a native of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where he grew up “flat out poor” as his parents raised him and his 13 other siblings to understand that integrity, diligent work ethics and caring for others less fortunate are critical to rising above poverty. It was these principles, peppered with stories by his elders about how much Mississippi and other coastal residents lost in lives and billions of dollars in property to historic storms that stretched from Florida to Texas. Although Favre was just an infant when Hurricane Camille tore across his hometown, he will never forget the long-term impact the storm had on his family, community and the region. Unfortunately, 36 years later, his community was destroyed again. This time it was by Hurricane Katrina. As Katrina’s 10-year anniversary approaches, many in Mississippi and Louisiana still struggle to rebuild. “What I garnered from these stories, as well as from real life experiences, is that rebuilding a home, a business, schools, churches, government entities or a community at-large is a monumental challenge. Furthermore, rebuilding is very difficult to do when those responsible for getting facilities back to normal are not equipped with the knowledge, skills and technology for finding, documenting and presenting the true losses, replacement values and other information to insurance companies and supporting government agencies,” the veteran public adjuster explained.
Favre has a long list of clients whose insurance companies offered them little or nothing for major property damages. One school district was offered only three million dollars for damages suffered during Hurricane Rita. Favre and his staff combed inch by inch of more than 30 buildings at the district and consequently proved the district was owed more than $100 million.
Additionally, Favre helped the school officials land a $25 million federal disaster recovery grant, more than $74 million in insurance reimbursements and millions of additional dollars in federal mitigated upgrades. A condominium complex in Florida damaged during Hurricane Ivan was originally offered $800,000 by their insurance company for the destruction. Favre and his associates performed a more intense investigation and found $700,000 in additional structural damages. The president of the condominium association, said, “Mr. Favre’s services were exceptional and beneficial in the association obtaining favorable judgments in court proceedings.”
In another case, an insurance company originally offered a community college $5.2 million for the damages suffered during Hurricane Katrina. Favre and his associates were able to recover more than $70 million. These funds allowed the heavily damaged college to fully recover from one of the new millennium’s most destructive hurricanes. “Mr. Favre provided us with excellent guidance in th remediation, repair and restoration of our buildings” said the college’s president.
How does Favre and his team do it? Simple. Favre is committed to helping taxpayers get the most of every dollar, especially when it comes to public school districts, colleges, cities, counties and other government entities. “The fact is, most government entities have employees who are already stretched to the limit. When a disaster occurs, the resources are more critical because the government staff still has to do its regular jobs and take on the complicated jobs of properly documenting disaster damages. They may have an architect, an engineer and/or a maintenance team on board. However, mostly, the administrators generally trust the insurance company to provide them with a true statement of losses. Favre says this is not a good idea.
“People, organizations and companies suffering from natural disasters need to have someone on their side who is truly looking out for their best interest. Furthermore, that person or team needs to be qualified and equipped to give the insured an accurate picture of their losses and what the insurance company is required to replace or reimburse them for based on the details of their insurance policy and various realistic current market values. I can’t tell you how many times folks have regretted not having a team beyond their general engineer or architect evaluate their damages,” Favre shared.
That’s one of the reasons Favre, charges no upfront fees. In fact, only if he makes a recovery does he charge a percentage of what he recovers and then only on the amount above what the insurance company offered prior to the experts of Scott M. Favre Public Adjusters, LLC, coming aboard. Favre’s experts include certified meteorologists who define the path, angles, power and other information of wind, rain, hail, flood waters and other weather-related destruction. The team incorporates the skills of forensic photographers, technological diverse structural x-ray staff, structural engineers, attorneys and MS companies who comb through every detail of insurance policies and related laws, assessment/evaluators who log in true replacement value of properties, grant writers and others who document and provide needed support to help insured organizations and people get back to normal as soon as possible after a disaster hits.
Although Favre’s team may sometimes look like Dan Aykroyd’s Ghostbusters, the team is realistic and thorough in exposing any damages a disaster may have caused. “Right down to the smallest knick on a roof to a shifting foundation, our infrared high tech scanner helps us to identify any flaws caused by wind, rain, floods or hail. Furthermore, these findings are vetted by additional experts. Our methods help to get people and organizations back to normal as quickly as possible. Oftentimes, an entity’s employees just don’t have the experience, time and skills to do what we do, especially on a fast-tracked basis,” Favre explained.
According to Favre, insured businesses and government entities have a limited time to finalize their claims, even after accepting payments from an insurance company. There are school districts, cities, universities, counties and other government operations in turmoil because of budget issues. Yet, many of them forego receiving millions of dollars owed them by not making timely, thorough full claims for insurance and federal mitigation reimbursements for the damages they suffered during something as simple as a hail storm or as devastating as a tornado, hurricane or flood.
Favre says, “The fact is, leaders of these entities should not be calling ghostbusters to help them, they should be calling us.”
For more details about Scott M. Favre Public Adjuster, LLC, visit www.favrepa.com or call (866) 467-5732.
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