We’re Revealing the Truth About Insurance. Survey Closes Friday!
Bad faith or bad service? Get the facts Thursday, 7–8 PM Pacific.
Dear friends,
It was so good to give and get hugs from so many of you at the Palibu Recovery Expo!
So many of us are still living through unspeakable trauma. Yet the bonds we’re building are a remarkable silver lining. Every time I’m with you, I leave wanting to fight even harder for us all. Thank you for always inspiring me.
And WOW. Already, 1,892 Palisades and Eaton fire survivors have taken the L.A. Fire Survivor Insurance Survey!
Haven’t taken the survey yet? We’d love to hear your experience, whether you had private insurance, FAIR Plan, or no insurance. It takes about 15 minutes, and closes this Friday night, October 16. Take it today: firesurvey.org
We’ve started building a mini-website where every American can see the results: Which insurers delivered on their promises, and which didn’t?
And I’ve started meeting with communications experts about our survey results rollout, dreaming up fun ways to spoof insurers’ big-budget Super Bowl ads.
Behind the fun is a serious purpose. Our experiences can help survivors fight for the money we’re owed and help every American make better decisions about whom to trust with their homes and lives.
Thank you for all the wonderful feedback about how thoughtfully the survey is designed. We know you’re busy, and the questions adapt to your situation.
We worked with law enforcement and insurance bad-faith litigators to design questions that can reveal patterns of potentially illegal conduct in underinsurance and claims handling. We also want to understand something just as fundamental: Could you get insurance in the first place?
The survey is designed to uncover problems with insurance accountability AND availability.
This morning, someone texted me about homeowners in the pricier, north-of-Sunset part of the Palisades who had been dropped by State Farm before the fires and ended up on the FAIR Plan.
Was this happening systematically? Were some or all insurers dumping higher-value homes onto the FAIR Plan?
The survey is designed to help answer those questions.
Before personal information is removed, each property’s location will be recorded at the level of the nearest few blocks. The actual address will then be stripped out. That will allow researchers to examine geographic patterns, including where FAIR Plan households were concentrated and which insurers previously covered them.
FAIR Plan policyholders hold important pieces of this story. If you know people on the FAIR Plan, please ask them to take the survey.
And if you had no insurance at the time of the fire, we need your experience, too!
Was insurance too expensive? Did an insurer refuse to renew you? Which one? Had you paid off your mortgage and chosen to go without coverage? Were you a renter who didn’t think renters insurance was worth it? Or did you simply choose to go without insurance?
These are all valid answers. They help us understand why families were left without insurance to help them recover.
Survivors who had no insurance will get a much shorter survey focused on those barriers.
The survey is for EVERY survivor: homeowners, renters, condo owners, mobile-home owners, families with standing homes and those whose homes are gone.
And if your insurer did right by you, please tell us! Good experiences matter just as much as bad ones. The survey is designed to uncover the truth.
Your privacy matters.
Some survivors have asked a very understandable question: “What if I’m suing my insurer? Could its lawyers get my survey answers through discovery?”
Our survey is designed to preserve patterns of evidence while removing links that identify which answers are yours.
Under our seven-page data management policy, the links connecting your personal information to your survey responses will be permanently broken after the survey closes. As a further measure, findings will be reported only in groups of households.
So if an insurer’s defense counsel later asks EFSN for your answers, our policy is designed to leave us with no way to identify which responses you gave.
Law enforcement is already asking questions.
Investigators have reached out to ask us to connect them with survivors with particular insurers and experiences. We’ve explained that our data management policy prohibits us from making those connections, even before the survey closes.
At the end of the survey, there’s a checkbox where you can agree to be contacted about opportunities to assist law enforcement.
If you check yes, after the survey closes we’ll email everyone who opted in with details about the insurers and experiences investigators are looking into, and an email address to contact them.
Then YOU decide whether to reach out and share your experience directly.
THIS THURSDAY, October 15, at 7 PM: Insurance Bad Faith Webinar
We’re so glad you’re finding our Beat the Clock survivor legal education series so helpful! As of this morning, you’ve signed up for 2,995 seats across this seven-week series. That is awesome!
This Thursday’s session on insurance bad faith will be guided by our own Larry Midler, former longtime CBRE General Counsel, who’s been masterful at turning complicated topics into information we can actually understand and use.
Here’s a blurb you can share with the above image to invite any friends and networks who may be having trouble with insurance. If our 1,000-person Zoom room fills, additional viewers will be directed to our live YouTube stream.
Bad Faith: When Your Insurer Delays, Lowballs or Denies
Thursday, October 15 | 7–8 PM Pacific | Free on Zoom + live Q&A
Is this simply a frustrating insurance claim, or might you have grounds for legal action?
Policyholder attorneys will explain insurers’ duty of good faith and fair dealing, and examine delays, low estimates, changing adjusters, ignored evidence, denials and potential violations of California claims-handling rules. Get the facts you need to decide whether you have a potential lawsuit.
Presenters:
Michelle Meyers, Singleton Schreiber
Dylan Schaffer, Kerley Schaffer
Kevin Pollak, Abir Cohen Treyzon Salo
Register free:
efsurvivors.net/beat-the-clock
Could Your Fire Losses Lower Your 2024 or 2025 Taxes, Even If You Already Filed?
At our last Beat the Clock webinar, most of us were surprised to learn that qualifying 2025 disaster losses can be claimed on either our 2024 or 2025 federal income tax return, even if we already filed.
Which year could save you more? What if your insurance claim is still unresolved?
Many CPAs rarely encounter these specialized rules. We were lucky to hear directly from two of California’s top experts in an arcane area that’s suddenly so important to us.
Watch the recording, download the slides and handout, and share them with your CPA! The handout includes contact details for the presenters and the appraiser whose expertise includes temporary value decreases for smoke-damaged homes.
Our tiny team has received many requests for these resources. As shown in the below image, we post them directly below each video on the Beat the Clock page on the day after each session:
Eaton: Free Help Reviewing Your Rebuilding Contract
Eaton Fire Collaborative’s pilot Peer Contract Review Program connects residents with trained, licensed building professionals for a free, one-on-one review of proposed rebuilding contracts. They can help spot red flags and provisions to ask about before you sign, providing an experienced extra set of eyes rather than legal advice.
Altadena: Tour Four Completed Foothill Catalog Home Designs on October 24
The Foothill Catalog is celebrating the completion of its demonstration homes with a grand opening and block party on Saturday, October 24, from 10 AM–2 PM on Tonia Avenue in Altadena. Join me and neighbors for a ribbon cutting with public officials at 10 AM, then tour the four completed home designs and enjoy the block party!
Our final push. Can we reach 2,000 by this Friday?
It’s so amazing that 1,892 of us have already turned our experiences into evidence that can help unlock the payouts we’re owed and help every American better protect their families.
If you have more than one affected property, please complete the survey for the first, clear your browser’s cookies for the past day, then complete it again for the next property.
The survey takes about 15 minutes, is available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean, and closes this Friday night, October 16.
Please take the survey today:
Then send the above image and this text to three survivors or networks:
Did your insurer help you or hurt you? Were you on the FAIR Plan, or did you have no insurance to help you recover? Your experience counts! Every fire survivor is welcome in the L.A. Fire Survivor Insurance Survey. Help build the evidence to hold insurers accountable. Responses will be deidentified. Takes about 15 minutes, with a shorter survey if you had no insurance. Available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean. Closes this Friday night! Take it today, then send it to three survivors: FireSurvey.org
Thank you for every survey response and every bit of care you bring to our community.
We’re helping one another find our way home.
With love,
Joy