Trend analysis for property-claims professionals.
What is changing in property claims and what it means for the firms working them: carrier automation, post-reform settlement behavior, compensation movement, market shifts.
Analysis is grounded in the same sourcing rule as the rest of the field notes. Predictions are labeled as predictions.
Trend analysis
LA County Reused Its State Farm Letter on Farmers, Minus the Cites
County Counsel's Sept. 9 investigation letter to Farmers repeats the State Farm bullet list but drops the authorities that letter cited inline. What each bullet maps to, and the documents to pull before Sept. 21.
4 min read
Trend analysis
Minnesota Matching After Jamestown Villas: The Panel Decides
The Eighth Circuit held that an appraisal panel's dollar figure already decides whether replacement shingles are of like kind and quality, and Minnesota has no matching statute standing behind it.
10 min read
Trend analysis
Ask TWIA for the Ownership Audit: What the Beryl RICO Suit Is Reading
A federal RICO complaint over Hurricane Beryl estimates names the Xactimate audit records TWIA policyholders can request under the Texas Public Information Act.
6 min read
Trend analysis
State Farm's Smoke Sequence, and the Paragraphs to Cite
Los Angeles County's August 2026 complaint against State Farm is a publicly filed, regulator-documented account of how one carrier handled California smoke claims. This is how an adjuster reads it by paragraph number and uses it on an open file.
9 min read
Trend analysis
0.53%: The NFIP Gap in Indiana's 21 Declared Counties
Across the 21 Indiana counties FEMA designated for Individual Assistance under DR-4933, only 0.53% of residential structures carry an NFIP policy, which pushes almost every claim onto the wind side of an HO-3.
3 min read
Trend analysis
August 11 Derecho: 616 Wind Reports, 19 Tornadoes, No Record Yet
SPC logged 616 wind reports to 19 tornado reports across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky on August 11, 2026. The official federal record of the storm will not exist until late this year, which puts the causation record back on the claim file.
8 min read
Trend analysis
Florida's Late-Notice Burden Now Depends on Your County
On July 22, 2026 the Second DCA held in Wild Oak Bay that American Coastal's own policy wording removed the presumption of prejudice, putting the burden to prove prejudice on the insurer in six counties. The court certified conflict with the Third DCA's Arce.
2 min read
Trend analysis
Florida's Fourth DCA: A Paid Coverage Judgment Doesn't Bar the Bad-Faith Claim
Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal held in Healthy Food Experts v. AmGuard that paying a coverage judgment does not bar a first-party bad-faith claim for extra-contractual damages. What it means for how you document carrier delay.
2 min read
Trend analysis
Texas Appraisal After In re Ace American: The Interest Clock the Ruling Left Running
Texas's May 2026 In re Ace American ruling forces appraisal but leaves bad-faith and §542 prompt-pay claims intact — so the appraisal award becomes the evidence for the claim that survives it.
9 min read
Trend analysis
State Farm's Oklahoma Bad-Faith Reckoning: What the Hail Litigation Means for Your Roof Files
Roughly 900 Oklahoma lawsuits accuse State Farm of a 'functional damage' hail standard its policies never mention. Here is what the litigation — and 36 O.S. § 3629 plus Christian bad-faith law — means for working an Oklahoma roof claim.
5 min read
Trend analysis
Reinsurance Prices Fell in 2026. Why Public Adjuster Claims Still Get Fought Harder.
Property reinsurance rates dropped double digits at the January 2026 renewals, but reinsurers held their attachment points. Here is why the softening never reaches the claims a public adjuster works.
6 min read
Trend analysis
The 2026 Public Adjuster Compensation Report: What the Numbers Actually Say
What public adjusters really earn in 2026 — contingency math, state fee caps, the OPPAGA settlement data, and why two adjusters under identical contracts can clear $58,000 or $190,000.
6 min read
Trend analysis
AI in Property Claims: Where Carrier Automation Helps Public Adjusters and Where It Hurts
Carriers now triage, score, and assemble property estimates with AI before a human opens the file. Where that automation is accurate, where it underpays, and how a public adjuster pushes back.
5 min read
Trend analysis
The 2026 Florida Carrier Behavior Report: How Settlement Tactics Shifted After Tort Reform
How Florida's SB 2-A and HB 837 reshaped property-claim carrier behavior — denial rates, DOAH arbitration, the 90-day bad-faith safe harbor, and what the 2026 file looks like for public adjusters.
6 min read