Steven Martin had a wonderful routine in the late 1970s that had as its punchline, "Well, excuuuuuuse meeee". I think it was the same routine that he explained how important and life changing the words, "I forgot" were. He mentioned that he was on trial for some crime like bank robbery and he just told the judge that he forgot robbery was a crime. So that made it all better.
Mr. Garamendi hasn't the decency to say, he forgot. He is now the Lt. Governor of California and he was the state insurance commissioner. Yesterday's New York Times has an article that discusses the fact that some of the recent California fire claimants are underinsured. The under insurance comes about because people do not update their insurance policies to reflect the true value of their home. People add on to or renovate their homes and, most likely, never think about how the cost of rebuilding home has changed.
According to the Times Mr. Garamendi said
“lack of clarity in the language” of policies was a main reason that homeowners had insufficient insurance. He also said that, in some cases, insurance agents and insurance companies “were giving bad information to the consumers.”
He could have easily said. "I forgot that I was insurance commissioner and presided over these same types of problems before and I didn't fix something when I knew it needed fixing."
In fact, California did try to make policies more clear under his watch.
On page 72 of the Commissioners Annual Report, we find that
INSURANCE COMMISSIONER JOHN GARAMENDI’S 2004 ENACTED LEGISLATION
includes the following (on p 74)
Senate Bill 1855 (Alpert)
Underinsurance Disclosures. Consumers are provided with various disclosures when they purchase a homeowners policy. One disclosure, known as the “Petris Disclosure”, is given to consumers every two years and defines each of the categories of coverage available in the marketplace. The coverage currently known as ‘Extended’ Replacement Cost will now be called ‘Limited’ Replacement Cost. The “Declarations” page for the policy will include a new consumer disclosure about limitations on reconstruction costs for their home. In addition, a new ‘California Residential Property Insurance Bill of Rights’ will be provided to consumers every two years. Making all of this information available will reduce the chances of, and amount of, underinsurance in the case of a catastrophic loss, such as in the Southern California firestorm of 2003. [emphasis added]
Oops, I guess he forgot that he claimed to have fixed the problem.
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