If you’re a reader of insurance blogs, I’m certain you’ve read the recent warfare between Parks Chastain and Chip Merlin.  They both make good points on the issue of advance payments (see their posts here and here).  The truth is that there really is very little law in Tennessee concerning advance payments.  Even so, Tennessee’s Unfair Claims Settlement Act of 2009 provides some guidance:

• An insurer must adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt settlement of claims arising under its policies (T.C.A. 56-8-105(3)).  This would seem to necessarily require that an insurance company have standards in place for advances as to undisputed portions of a claim. Even an insurance company would have a hard time making the argument that it doesn’t have an obligation to pay a few thousand dollars to its insureds after a fire to ensure that they aren’t sleeping on the street until the claim is resolved in full.

• An insurer must attempt to effectuate prompt, fair, and equitable settlement of claims submitted in which liability has become reasonably clear. (T.C.A. 56-8-105(4)).  In other words, an insurance company has an absolute obligation to promptly pay undisputed portions of a claim.

• When making a payment, an insurer must indicate the coverage under which payment is being made.  (T.C.A. 56-8-105(10)).  Certainly an insurance company is entitled to a credit against the policy limits of the applicable coverage when it makes an advance, but this provision makes it mandatory that the insurance company let the insured know the coverage under which an advance is being made.