A recent episode from 60 Minutes revealed a troubling tactic used by insurance companies in attempt to pay out far less money on claims than what the claims were worth. Following hurricane Helene, 60 Minutes' investigators uncovered a slew of cases where insurers substantially modified, eliminated, and cut down the original estimates provided by the field adjusters who went out to the sight and evaluated the damage firsthand. In one investigated case, a field adjuster's original evaluation of over $240,000 was cut down to a mere $15,000 in the final report modified by the insurer.  The insurers also left the name of the field adjuster on the report, a misleading indication that it was the field adjuster who approved and signed off on the final evaluation.

In Arizona, an insurance company commits bad faith and potentially fraud when it puts its own financial interests above the interests of its insureds; the tactic described above qualifies as both insurance bad faith and fraud. Even if an insurance company eventually pays out the fair value of a claim, it can still be held in bad faith for doing anything that prioritizes its own interests ahead of its insureds. Examples include:

• Unjustified denials of coverage.
• Untimely, unthorough, unprofessional, and biased claims investigations.
• Unreasonable delays in payment.
• Lack of communication.
• Unfair and unreasonable claims evaluations and estimates (i.e like the tactic described above).
• Misrepresentation and misleading claims handling tactics (i.e. like the tactic described above).

Insurers often employ a variety of bad faith tactics to save money because they know that the majority of their insureds will not put up a fight.