The short answer: Friedman & Associates represents Lake Keowee homeowners in Oconee and Pickens counties, full-time or weekend, in storm, fire, water, dock, and commercial claims, and in our specialty: claims that were denied or underpaid. Licensed South Carolina public adjusters. No recovery, no fee. Call 877-650-3515 or text the partners.
Call us before you call your carrier. The first phone call shapes the whole claim. Already filed, or an adjuster already assigned? We're still your next call.
NOAA record — Oconee · Pickens
S.C. Code § 38-92-120(E)
§ 38-59-40
Every kind of lake loss.
Results and press
$1,664,329 recovered above the carriers' first offers on just 10 recent published files, from more than a decade of this work. See real case results. You could be next.
"He helped me recover 4 times what insurance was offering… extremely diligent and moralistic in how he worked."Kelly, Google review · 4.8★ across 23 reviews · read them all
When you hire the firm, you get the partners: Joshua and Hannah Friedman, with Callie Macho on client success. Not a call center. And Keowee is personal. Josh and Hannah vacation on this lake, and it feels like home.
Want the fuller picture first? The film, the results register, and the client portal are all at the front door. Meet the firm →
Why Keowee estates lose on the carrier's price sheet
Carrier estimates come out of software that prices standard grades: architectural shingle, builder trim, stock glass. A Keowee waterfront home is cedar shake and slate, copper, timber frame, glass facing open water. A standard-grade estimate meets none of that, and the gap is where estates get underpaid.
The policy's own standard is like kind and quality, and we hold the carrier to it: the shake profile, the slate, the copper work, documented before they write their number. Docks, boathouses, and seawalls carry their own separate limit.
High-value claims get private-client handling: strict confidentiality, your file held at the partner level, and the expert bench a complex estate deserves, from forensic engineers to fine-art appraisers. Private client services →
Not every claim qualifies. Four quick moves build your private review.
The law and the clock
South Carolina's claim statutes are unusually direct, and every one sits on our shelf in full, free. Insurer bad-faith liability traces to Tyger River Pine (1933). Claim-handling conduct rules are enforced by the state's insurance director (§ 38-59-20). And an unreasonable refusal to pay can shift attorney's fees onto the carrier (§ 38-59-40).
Act 209 of 2026 created the current Chapter 92. Public adjusting requires a license (§ 38-92-20); compensation and reimbursement may not exceed 10%, and advance payment is barred (§ 38-92-120(E)). The agreement and separate pre-signing disclosure must explain the arrangement (§§ 38-92-130(A)-(B), (F)), the insured may rescind within five business days (§§ 38-92-130(I)-(J)), and the public adjuster owes complete loyalty to the insured (§ 38-92-170).
One clock outranks everything: your policy's own "Suit Against Us" clause. Read it the day a claim goes sideways. Do not assume negotiations extend the deadline; the governing policy and law control, and deadline questions belong with counsel.
The lake record
You weren't there for every storm. The federal record was. 159 logged events around the lake since 2020. The newest: damaging wind near Walhalla, August 2. The 2026 season is already on the record: 25 reports so far, with hail to 1.75" near Fair Play. The biggest hail on the record near here in the last twelve months is 1.75", at 3 Nw Fair Play, about 23 miles from Lake Keowee, on July 2, 2026. Your caretaker finds the damage in October; the storm hit in July. Tie the damage to the logged event and your claim has its date, and that date starts every clock in the claim.
Inside the one-year window: 27 logged events in this county in the last twelve months, the most recent on Aug 2, 2026, including 4 hail reports. Many South Carolina policies shorten the suit deadline by contract, so those are the dates still working for you.
| Date | Event | Size or speed | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2, 2026 † | Damaging wind | damage reported | Westminster |
| Aug 2, 2026 † | Damaging wind | damage reported | Walhalla |
| Jul 2, 2026 † | Hail | 1.75" | Fair Play |
| Sep 6, 2025 | Damaging wind | 58 mph | Cateechee |
| Jul 10, 2025 | Hail | 1" | Tamassee |
| Jun 15, 2023 | Hail | 1.75" | Six Mile |
| Mar 23, 2022 | Tornado | EF2 | Six Mile |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornado | EF3 | Oakway |
† preliminary NWS Local Storm Report; NOAA finalization pending. More of the record lives at Oconee County and Pickens County: damage figures and per-row federal links, refreshed weekly (last: 2026-08-10). Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, cross-read against NWS Local Storm Reports. Storm reports are point observations from spotters, stations, and survey teams — a sample of what happened, never an inventory. The absence of an entry for a date or place is not evidence that no damage occurred there.
The most severe on the county record
Carriers audit storm claims against this same federal record. By its own measurements, the worst of it looked like this:
| Date | Event | Where | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornado — EF3 | Oakway | EF3 |
| Mar 23, 2022 | Tornado — EF2 | Six Mile | EF2 |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornado — EF2 | Pumpkintown | EF2 |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornado — EF1 | Jocassee | EF1 |
Ratings, hail sizes and wind speeds as recorded by the National Weather Service. NOAA also logs a rough dollar figure for some events; those are whole-event estimates entered by the local office, frequently blank and often far below real losses, so we do not publish them as if they meant anything about your claim.
Questions from the lake
Do you come to Lake Keowee?
Yes. We inspect on site in Oconee and Pickens counties, and when the carrier sends its adjuster we attend for you. Everything we file posts to your secure client portal the same day.
Should I call you before I call my insurance company?
Yes. What gets said in the first call shapes the whole claim, so talk to us first. Already filed, or an adjuster already assigned? Call us anyway. We step in at any stage, and the earlier the better.
What does a public adjuster cost in South Carolina?
South Carolina caps a public adjuster’s compensation and reimbursement at 10% of the insurance settlement or proceeds and bars advance payment (§ 38-92-120(E)). The fee and services must be stated in a written contract (§§ 38-92-130(A)-(B)), and the insured may rescind within five business days (§ 38-92-130(I)).
Our contractor offered to handle the insurance claim. Is that normal?
It is common, but public-adjuster work requires a license under S.C. Code § 38-92-20. A property repair contractor may not bypass that requirement through a power of attorney (§ 38-92-130(K)); doing licensed public-adjuster business without a license is a fraudulent insurance act (§ 38-92-140). Your builder handles the build. A licensed public adjuster handles the claim.
The carrier's estimate looks low. What can we do?
Get a second read before you accept it. If the policy contains an applicable appraisal clause and the disputed questions fall within what it assigns to a panel, either party may demand appraisal under that clause. The exact policy and claim record control.
We're only at the lake a few weekends a season. How does a claim work?
From wherever you are. We tie a late-found loss to a dated event on the federal storm record, you sign electronically, and we attend every site visit at the lake for you.
Will the policy replace cedar shake, slate, or copper with the same material?
The policy generally owes like kind and quality. That fight is won with documentation, so we record what was actually on the building before the carrier prices it as builder-grade.
Our dock was destroyed. Is it covered?
Usually, under the policy’s other-structures limit, which runs far below the dwelling limit. A serious dock can exhaust it before the seawall is measured, and rebuilding needs a new Duke Energy lake-access permit, so both clocks start on day one.
Prefer a quieter first step? Ask us anything, free: a real answer from a licensed adjuster, no strings.
Friedman & Associates are licensed South Carolina public adjusters, not attorneys. Our work is the licensed practice of public adjusting under S.C. Code ch. 38-92: reading the policy, documenting and valuing the loss, negotiating with the carrier, and preparing appraisal. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and litigation, including bad-faith suits, is referred to independent policyholder counsel.
Don't take the carrier's first number. A free, confidential review by licensed South Carolina public adjusters. If we take the case, the fee comes from the recovery, never from you.
See if my case qualifies 877-650-3515