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Financial District Insurance

Draco-Risk opens office in PR/USVI to assist insurers with claims

The company will provide consulting services and assistance for customers on contingency basis.

Draco-Risk has set up shop in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to assist customers in the process of receiving just and correct payments from the insurance companies in their claims, after hurricanes Irma and María.

The company will provide consulting services and assistance for customers on contingency basis. They do not get paid unless insurance company pays the claim.

“We have been working in this field for many years and we bring our experience in many states and a diversity of natural disasters scenarios to improve and correct the services policyholders have been receiving from their insurance companies,” said company Chair Michael Ziolkowski.

“We provide consulting services guided to obtain the correct and just results for the people of Puerto Rico after this unprecedented crisis,” he said.

Draco-Risk will assist customers who see their insurance claim process doesn’t work the way it should, when a claim that they think should have been approved was denied, or when customers have been forced to settle for less money of what they were expecting to receive from their claims. Also, when the customer thinks the insurance company is taking advantage of them or they were misinformed in the process of paying and signing for their insurance, said Ziolkowski.

“We see a need in the local market because people want their insurance claims to be paid on time. No more delays,” he said, urging people to go to Draco-Risk’s website for more information.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and María, thousands of individuals, associations and other organizations have filed millions of claims to insurance companies in Puerto Rico and the USVI.

AIR Worldwide’s catastrophe models put insured losses for Hurricane María at $40 billion to $85 billion, with Puerto Rico accounting for 85 percent of that loss.

More than 200,000 insurance claims have been logged since hurricane María hit. Of these, some 35,000 were filed by business owners and more than 95,000 by homeowners. These numbers are expected to rise.

They are also much higher than the number of insurance claims filed after Hurricane Georges in 1998. At that time, 24,596 claims were filed for damages to businesses, 64,482 for houses and 1,238 for condominiums, according to press reports based on official statistics that Draco-Risk cited.

“Not only is it a troubled process for policy owners to get back to normal, yet it is aggravated by the inexcusable delays in payments from the insurance companies in Puerto Rico and USVI,” said Ziolkowski.

The Insurance Code states that claims must be processed within 90 days.  However, after Hurricane María, the Insurance Commissioner Office issued Normative Letter 220D, which reduced the processing period for claims filed by certain businesses to 15 days. It includes business such as supermarkets, gas stations, hospitals, restaurants and manufacturing companies. The letter also included that payments, whether total or partial, must be issued within 10 days.

“It is expected that insurance companies could try to create unnecessary hurdles for property owners looking to get their lives and businesses back on track. These roadblocks are essentially a way of victimizing policyholders twice: first the storm and then denied or low-balled claims,” Ziolkowski said.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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