Sean Shaw and I often talk about those who are truly
insurance advocates for Florida policyholders. Robin
Westcott took over the job for Sean Shaw as Florida's
Insurance Consumer Advocate. Sean now works at Merlin
Law Group, representing policyholders where the rubber
meets the road rather than in politics, where
politicians try to make everybody happy and where rubber
rarely meets the road. Sean and I have very interesting
discussions about how efficacy of Robin Westcott’s
advocacy in support of policyholders, as well as the
support of others in powerful political positions.
I met Robin Westcott last year when she showed up for a political rally that Sean Shaw organized to protest outrageous rate increases by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Here is a picture of me that day in the very hot Florida sunshine,
and Sean Shaw with Robin Westcott:
That day, Westcott and I discussed a practical method to
reduce Citizens’ policies. Before any Citizens policy
would be written and for which the policyholder's agent
could not find a replacement private carrier, the
policyholder's risk should be offered to any admitted
private carrier on the internet. It sounded good to me.
The only problem is that, for all I know, her idea went
nowhere except between us. Why not? My educated guess is
that insurance agents would hate that
situation---especially if they lost their fee.
Robin Westcott understands that motives and incentives
are important for positive change to occur; she
recognized this in her pro-consumer stand in
Consumer Advocate Slams Citizens Insurance Over
Inspections. We applaud her for her stance and hope
that she becomes much more vocal in the future.