Zalma on Insurance
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Insurance Claims professional presents articles and videos on insurance, insurance Claims and insurance law for insurance Claims adjusters, insurance professionals and insurance lawyers who wish to improve their skills and knowledge. Presented by an internationally recognized expert and author.
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March 29, 2022
True Crime of Insurance Fraud Video Number 44

This Isn’t Fraud, I’m Just Getting a Lower Premium

Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-crime-insurance-fraud-video-number-44-barry-zalma-esq-cfe and see the full video at https://rumble.com/vytsi0-true-crime-of-insurance-fraud-video-number-44.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=3 and at

and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4150 posts.

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Barry Zalma

See the full video at https://rumble.com/vytsi0-true-crime-of-insurance-fraud-video-number-44.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=3 and at

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE presents videos so you can learn how insurance fraud is perpetrated and what is necessary to deter or defeat insurance fraud. This Video Blog of True Crime Stories of Insurance Fraud with the names and places changed to protect the guilty are all based upon investigations conducted by me and fictionalized to create a learning environment for claims personnel, SIU investigators, insurers, police, and lawyers better understand insurance fraud and weapons that can be used to deter or defeat a fraudulent insurance claim.
Insurance Premium Fraud

Insurance fraud is not limited to fake claims. Most people don’t present claims. The basic principle upon which insurance is based require the many to pay small amounts so that the few can collect. If the risk is not spread fairly among the many, all suffer.

Most businessmen would be shocked at a suggestion that they inflate a claim. They are honest in their business dealings. They honor their contracts and pay their bills. They seldom have insurance claims. When they have a claim, they deal fairly and honorably with their insurer.

Paying insurance premiums hurt. The marketplace is competitive. Prices vary from insurer to insurer. Skills vary from insurance broker to insurance broker.

Eventually, businessmen learn how insurers set their premiums. They know that rates are applied to modifiers like the square footage of the structure, the payroll, or the gross receipts of the business.

A businessman, sitting with his insurance broker, asks how he can get the lowest premium. He will often put his morality on hold when the broker suggests that he estimate a lower amount of gross earnings. The businessman will see nothing wrong with loping 10,000 square feet of his 50,000-square foot warehouse when applying for insurance. When called upon to list the payroll for his workers’ compensation policy, he will be unconcerned when he tells his broker the payroll is $200,000 less than it actually is. It is just good business sense to reduce your workers’ compensation premium. When his policy shows factory workers cost more to insure than clerical, he “accidentally” reports to his workers’ compensation insurer that ten percent of his employees are factory workers and ninety percent are clerical, although the opposite is true.

What the businessman does not know, and what his broker does not tell him, is that knowingly misrepresenting a material fact [and there is nothing more material to an insurer than the basis upon which the premiums are calculated] is fraud. Insurance fraud in the acquisition of insurance bears both civil and criminal penalties.

An insurance broker who aids or abets and insured in obtaining lower premiums based upon false information is equally guilty of fraud. The agent or broker who does not require the insured to sign an application will find, if the fraud is discovered, that the insured will deny knowledge of the application. He will merely say, “I trusted my broker. My records were obvious in my office. All he had to do was ask and I would have told him the truth.”

The broker, faced with such a situation, will find himself defending lawsuits brought by the insured and the insurer.

The California Insurance Code now requires the following warning on all claims documents presented to insureds by insurers:

FOR YOUR PROTECTION CALIFORNIA LAW REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING TO APPEAR ON THIS FORM

ANY PERSON WHO KNOWINGLY PRESENTS FALSE OR FRAUDULENT CLAIM FOR THE PAYMENT OF A LOSS IS GUILTY OF A CRIME AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO FINES AND CONFINEMENT IN STATE PRISON.

I believe, to protect the insured, the broker and the insurer, that the law should be modified to require the same warning on every application for insurance. A warning will not stop a person intent on committing fraud. It will, however, remind the honest businessman tempted to commit fraud to obtain a lower premium of the hazards of his actions.

Insurance fraud is not limited to fake claims. Most people don’t present claims. The basic principle upon which insurance is based require the many to pay small amounts so that the few can collect. If the risk is not spread fairly among the many, all suffer.

What the businessman does not know, and what his broker does not tell him, is that knowingly misrepresenting a material fact [and there is nothing more material to an insurer than the basis upon which the premiums are calculated] is fraud. Insurance fraud in the acquisition of insurance bears both civil and criminal penalties.

Every claim adjuster and investigator should review every word on the application and obtain the insured’s answers asked as if the adjuster has no knowledge of the answers on the application form or be criticized for not completing a thorough investigation.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 54 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

Over the last 54 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created a library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Subscribe to Zalma on Insurance at locals.com https://zalmaoninsurance.local.com/subscribe. Subscribe to Excellence in Claims Handling at https://barryzalma.substack.com/welcome.

Write to Mr. Zalma at [email protected]; http://www.zalma.com; http://zalma.com/blog; I publish daily articles at https://zalma.substack.com, Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma; Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/

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September 05, 2025
Interpleader Helps Everyone Potential Claimant to Insurance Proceeds

Interpleader Protects All Claimants Against Life Policy and the Insurer

Who’s on First to Get Life Insurance Proceeds

Post 5184

See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gyxQfnUz and at https://lnkd.in/gAd3wqWP, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5150 posts.

Go to X @bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://lnkd.in/gRthzSnT; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://lnkd.in/g2hGv88; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYk.
Interpleader Protects All Claimants Against Life Policy and the Insurer

In Metropolitan Life Insurance Company v. Selena Sanchez, et al, No. 2:24-cv-03278-TLN-CSK, United States District Court, E.D. California (September 3, 2025) the USDC applied interpleader law.
Case Overview

This case involves an interpleader action brought by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Plaintiff-in-Interpleader) against Selena Sanchez and other defendants (Defendants-in-Interpleader).

Key Points

Plaintiff-in-Interpleader’s Application:

The Plaintiff-in-Interpleader...

00:06:34
September 05, 2025
Demands for Reasons for Termination not a “Claim”

A Claim by Any Other Name is not a Claim
Post 5182

It is Imperative that Insured Report Potential Claim to Insurers

Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gfbwAsxw, See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gea_hgB3 and at https://lnkd.in/ghZ7gjxy, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5150 posts.

In Jeffrey B. Scott v. Certain Underwriters At Lloyd’s, London, Subscribing To Policy No. B0901li1837279, RLI Insurance Company, Certain Underwriters At Lloyds, London And The Insurance Company, Subscribing To Policy No. B0180fn2102430, No. 24-12441, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (August 25, 2025) the court explained the need for a claim to obtain coverage.

Case Background:

This appeal arises from a coverage dispute under a Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance policy. Jeffrey B. Scott, the plaintiff-appellant, was terminated from his role as CEO, President, and Secretary of Gemini Financial Holdings, LLC in October 2019. Following his termination, Scott threatened legal action against Gemini, and ...

00:08:22
September 04, 2025
Demands for Reasons for Termination not a “Claim”

A Claim by Any Other Name is not a Claim
Post 5182

It is Imperative that Insured Report Potential Claim to Insurers

Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gfbwAsxw, See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gea_hgB3 and at https://lnkd.in/ghZ7gjxy, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5150 posts.

In Jeffrey B. Scott v. Certain Underwriters At Lloyd’s, London, Subscribing To Policy No. B0901li1837279, RLI Insurance Company, Certain Underwriters At Lloyds, London And The Insurance Company, Subscribing To Policy No. B0180fn2102430, No. 24-12441, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (August 25, 2025) the court explained the need for a claim to obtain coverage.

Case Background:

This appeal arises from a coverage dispute under a Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance policy. Jeffrey B. Scott, the plaintiff-appellant, was terminated from his role as CEO, President, and Secretary of Gemini Financial Holdings, LLC in October 2019. Following his termination, Scott threatened legal action against Gemini, and ...

00:08:22
September 03, 2025

Barry Zalma: Insurance Claims Expert Witness
Posted on September 3, 2025 by Barry Zalma
The Need for a Claims Handling Expert to Defend or Prove a Tort of Bad Faith Suit

© 2025 Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE

When I finished my three year enlistment in the US Army as a Special Agent of US Army Intelligence in 1967, I sought employment where I could use the investigative skills I learned in the Army. After some searching I was hired as a claims trainee by the Fireman’s Fund American Insurance Company. For five years, while attending law school at night while working full time as an insurance adjuster I became familiar with every aspect of the commercial insurance industry.

On January 2, 1972 I was admitted to the California Bar. I practiced law, specializing in insurance claims, insurance coverage and defense of claims against people insured and defense of insurance companies sued for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. After 45 years as an active lawyer, I asked that my license to practice law be declared inactive ...

post photo preview
September 03, 2025
Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE Insurance Claims Expert Witness

The Need for a Claims Handling Expert to Defend or Prove a Tort of Bad Faith Suit
© 2025 Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE

When I finished my three year enlistment in the US Army as a Special Agent of US Army Intelligence in 1967, I sought employment where I could use the investigative skills I learned in the Army. After some searching I was hired as a claims trainee by the Fireman’s Fund American Insurance Company. For five years, while attending law school at night while working full time as an insurance adjuster I became familiar with every aspect of the commercial insurance industry.

On January 2, 1972 I was admitted to the California Bar. I practiced law, specializing in insurance claims, insurance coverage and defense of claims against people insured and defense of insurance companies sued for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. After 45 years as an active lawyer, I asked that my license to practice law be declared inactive and became a consultant and expert witness for lawyers representing insurers and lawyers ...

post photo preview
September 03, 2025
Evidence Required to Prove Breach of Contract

APPRAISAL AWARD SETS AMOUNT OF DAMAGES RECOVERED FROM INSURER

Post 5180

See the full video at https://rumble.com/v6yd2z0-evidence-required-to-prove-breach-of-contract.html and at https://youtu.be/2ywEjs3hZsw, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5150 posts.

It’s a Waste of Time to Sue Your Insurer if You Don’t Have Evidence

Evidence Required to Prove Breach of Contract

Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evidence-required-prove-breach-contract-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-rfelc, see the full video at https://rumble.com/v6yd2z0-evidence-required-to-prove-breach-of-contract.html and at https://youtu.be/2ywEjs3hZsw, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5150 posts.

It’s a Waste of Time to Sue Your Insurer if You Don’t Have Evidence

In Debbie Beaty and Jonathan Hayes v. Homeowners Of America Insurance Company, No. 01-23-00844-CV, Court of Appeals of Texas, First District (August 26, 2025) Debbie Beaty and Jonathan Hayes filed a claim under their homeowner’s insurance policy with Homeowners of ...

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