In Who Do We Trust?

GREED, GREED, GREED! It’s a criminal shame that some “resources” turn greedy in times of disaster. And, it’s even worse that, without knowing it, we end up trusting them to handle our personal crisis in these disasters. Most of us assume we will never have a crisis so we don’t do our homework and check out those we are entrusting to help us through our times of trouble.

Greed has hit Texas and it could not come at a worse time. Local television station ABC-13 in Houston is reporting that as many as 75 Pasadena households may have been ripped off by an insurance agent from American National Insurance Company. The agent, Darryl Golter, apparently oversold homeowners windstorm coverage on their homeowner’s insurance coverage then turned around and pocketed the premiums. Conveniently, the agent has been out of town to comment on the matter, probably on a beach somewhere sipping daiquiris.

In the Burnt Orange Report, DeeceX wrote a blog about this unsettling issue on Thursday, October 9th titled “Surprise! People Getting Screwed By Insurers”. DeeceX brings up an interesting issue. What are homeowners supposed to do about the coverage they thought they paid for while they are trying to file claims from Hurricane Ike? The Texas Department of Insurance told them to call FEMA if they have had damages from Hurricane Ike. What? FEMA’s job isn’t to cover for greedy agents who pocketed the premiums and ran. Let’s see how fast FEMA repairs the damages from Ike for homeowners whose premiums didn’t really get paid. DeeceX calls this scandal “a Texas version of the Wall Street deregulation that is blowing up.”

And, about that. Isn’t it interesting how we can watch TV and feel so bad for those poor homeowners who are affected by the housing foreclosures and plunging stock markets yet we never think anything like this can happen to us. Well, it does happen to us!

The consequences of not doing our homework before we sign on the dotted line make us ultimately responsible for our actions. Yes, we can panic now about our large home purchase we made three years ago and now we can’t step past the foreclosure sign. We can regret buying the insurance from the shady insurance salesman who is now enjoying the beach at sunset. But better yet, let’s take a little time and check out the terms we are agreeing to before we actually agree to them to make sure everything is legit. Then we can be our own hero against the greedy villains.