Protect Your Insurance Rights

Texas Department of Insurance, I was recently made aware of an alarming proposed TDI rule that allows insurance companies to include vendor-based umpire selection methods in an insured’s policy — meaning insurers could effectively hand-pick the pool of umpires used to resolve disputes between insurance companies and the insured. These vendors have a financial incentive to favor the insurers who put them on the approved list. Under the current rule language: 1) The insurer — not the insured — controls which umpire mechanism is used by default. 2) There is no requirement that the insurer disclose whether a vendor is financially tied to them. 3) The insured will be required to split the cost of the vendor-based umpire that the insurance company essentially chose. This defeats the purpose of the appraisal process entirely. I propose the following: 1) The insured should have the sole right to choose which umpire selection method is used at the time of any dispute. 2) The insured should have the contractual option to seek judicial intervention to appoint an umpire if needed. 3) Insurers should be required to disclose any financial relationship with listed vendors in the policy itself. 4) If a vendor mechanism is used, the insurer should bear the full cost — not the insured. I respectfully request that TDI take my consumer protection concerns into consideration and strongly petition that the long-standing judicial selection of the umpire option be retained as a contractual right when the parties disagree.