Published: April 3, 2026 | Category: Insurance Industry News | Reading time: 7 min
On May 13, 2025, the executives responsible for claims at two of the largest insurance companies in America sat before a U.S. Senate subcommittee and answered questions under oath. What emerged over the course of that hearing was a portrait of an industry that, according to sworn testimony from multiple licensed adjusters, had systematically pressured its own people to alter damage estimates in order to reduce payouts to policyholders.
The hearing, titled "Examining the Insurance Industry's Claims Practices Following Recent Natural Disasters," was convened by the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri chaired the session. The witnesses included homeowners whose properties had been severely damaged by recent storms, independent adjusters who described being pressured by their employers to doctor reports, and the executive director of the American Policyholder Association — a consumer advocacy organization that investigates fraud by insurance companies. Facing them across the dais were Michael Keating, Operations Vice President of State Farm, and Mike Fiato, Executive Vice President and Chief Claims Officer of Allstate.
What the Adjusters Said
The most consequential testimony came from the adjusters. Nick Schroeder and Clifford Millikan, both property adjusters with Pilot Catastrophe Services, described a claims environment in which field estimates were routinely revised downward by desk reviewers who had never visited the damaged property. Homeowners received settlement offers based on these revised figures, often with no indication that the original estimate had been changed.
The American Policyholder Association's Doug Quinn provided broader context. His organization had been documenting patterns of claim underpayment across multiple insurers and multiple states, and his testimony connected what the individual adjusters described to a systemic industry-wide practice rather than isolated misconduct.
Senator Hawley did not mince words in his response to what he heard. "This isn't charity that we're talking about," he said. "They turn to their insurance companies because they pay premiums to those insurance companies. It's a contract. And unfortunately, time after time they find when disaster strikes — in their moment of utmost need — the insurance companies come back to them and they delay, and they deny, and they offer excuses, and they send out two adjusters and three adjusters and 15 adjusters and 25 adjusters, and they constantly change the estimates. And at the end of the day, they just won't pay what is due. What is required. What is just."
When he turned to the insurance executives directly, Hawley was more pointed still. "We've just heard testimony here — sworn testimony from multiple adjusters — that your company ordered them to delete or alter damage estimates to reduce payouts and to make you profits. It sounds to me like you're running a system of institutionalized fraud."
The Florida Precedent the Senators Were Watching
The Senate hearing did not happen in isolation. It came less than a year after a 60 Minutes broadcast in September 2024 in which six Florida adjusters — including Jordan Lee and Ben Mandell — went on the record alleging that Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance had systematically altered their post-Hurricane Ian estimates before sending them to policyholders. The adjusters said their names remained on documents they no longer recognized as their own work.
Heritage's response was to sue Jordan Lee for libel. That decision, as legal commentators quickly noted, would require Heritage to open its own claims-handling protocols to discovery in court — including its 2024 consent order with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which had already resulted in a $1 million fine for claims-handling deficiencies. The lawsuit became a searchlight pointed directly at the practices Heritage was trying to defend.
Florida had already passed legislation in 2023 — Senate Bill 7052 — prohibiting insurers from altering adjuster reports without providing written documentation of every change that reduced the estimate. Virginia followed in 2026 with House Bill 808, which contains nearly identical requirements. Read our full analysis of Virginia HB808 here →
The Senate hearing made clear that what happened in Florida was not a regional anomaly. The adjusters who testified in May 2025 were not describing Heritage. They were describing State Farm and Allstate — two companies that together insure tens of millions of properties across the country, including hundreds of thousands in Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.
What Homeowners in Our Service Area Need to Know
The hearing's implications are not abstract for property owners in the Mid-Atlantic region. Virginia, Maryland, and the Washington D.C. metro area have experienced significant storm events in recent years, and the claims practices described under oath in May 2025 are not geographically limited to the Gulf Coast or the Southeast.
If you filed a claim with State Farm or Allstate in the past several years and received a settlement that felt lower than the damage warranted, the testimony from this hearing is relevant to your situation. The adjusters who testified described a pattern: field estimates written at one number, desk-reviewed down to a lower number, and sent to policyholders without explanation. The policyholder sees the final number. They rarely see the original.
Virginia's HB808, once signed into law, will require written documentation for any reduction of $3,000 or more. That protection applies going forward — which is exactly why the time to involve a public adjuster is before the insurance company's adjuster ever visits your property.
A public adjuster works exclusively for you. When we are involved from the beginning, we document your loss independently and create a competing record before the carrier sets the baseline. The testimony from this hearing describes what happens when policyholders face that process alone. Read our full analysis of HB808 here →
If you have experienced property damage — or if you have an open claim that has not yet been settled — call us before the insurance company's adjuster visits. That is when we can do the most for you. There is no upfront cost.
The Broader Trend: Accountability Is Coming
The May 2025 Senate hearing was not the end of this story. In Oklahoma, nearly 900 lawsuits have been filed against State Farm over alleged systematic denial of wind and hail claims, and the state's Attorney General has invoked RICO — the federal racketeering statute — in seeking to intervene. The Oklahoma Supreme Court heard oral arguments in March 2026. Read our full coverage of the Oklahoma situation here →
The pattern that is emerging — from Florida's post-Ian whistleblowers, to the Senate hearing, to the Oklahoma lawsuits — is one of an industry that has operated for years with limited accountability for how it handles claims after a disaster. That accountability is now arriving from multiple directions simultaneously: state legislatures, federal oversight, and the courts.
For property owners in Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, the message is the same regardless of which direction the accountability comes from: you have more rights than your insurance company wants you to know about, and you have more options than you think.
Get a Free Claim Review
At Coin Claims Services, we represent property owners — not insurance companies. Our fee is contingency-based, which means we only get paid when you do.
Call 866-377-COIN (2646) or request your free consultation online.
Sources: U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Management hearing transcript, May 13, 2025 ([hsgac.senate.gov](https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/dmdcc/hearings/examining-the-insurance-industrys-claims-practices-following-recent-natural-disasters/)); Senator Josh Hawley press release, May 14, 2025 ([hawley.senate.gov](https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-chairs-hearing-that-exposes-insurance-fraud-by-major-corporations/)); Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog, November 5, 2025 ([propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com](https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/blog/heritage-adjuster-lawsuit/)). This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.