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Blog & Articles
Our Denver insurance claim services office has taken notice to the rapidly evolving concept that, at least in Colorado, there has been an immense growth in the number of roofing related businesses over the last few years. Unfortunately we can’t speak for everyone but some of colleagues in the area contribute this increase is a direct result of population growth in Colorado over the same time line. A quick glance on Google’s Public Data chart shows a massive 5.93% growth rate from 2005 to 2008 for the state overall. When comparing to the highest concentrated advertisement area from these roofing related businesses we turn to Denver’s population charts to find that it also grew at an astounding 5.89%.
We know that population growth was evident throughout the area but does that mean the number of roofs in the area grew so rapidly that it caused a major and rapid amplification in the number of roofing businesses? What about the number of roofing businesses that claim to specialize in hail or wind related damages? While we’re working on compiling data about the actual number of roofing related businesses (read as businesses with “roofing” in their name), several questions remain about the legitimacy of these companies advertising themselves as insurance experts. Some have even gone as far to say they have independent adjusters on staff, or that they have public adjusters waiting to prove the need for their often excessive costs of $600 per square foot on regular 3 tab asphalt composition residential roofing.
What do you think of these roofing related businesses? Assuming all of the damages were legitimate – are the costs that some of these companies associate with them? Read more…
There are essentially four (4) basic types of adjusters involved in the average insurance claim for property damage. The use of independent adjuster, staff adjusters and field staff adjusters varies with the risk that the insurance carrier is insuring. Public Adjusters, which are rarely needed or required in the average property or homeowner’s claim for damages, are hired by the insured (property owner). We’ll be reviewing why Public Adjusters aren’t really necessary in the near future.
Let’s start with the average property owner’s claim for common cause of loss perils not in a catastrophic situation. In small to mid-size insurance carriers there is usually a staff of adjusters based out of a home office that are commonly or duly known as carrier claim representatives. The carrier claim reps usually work out of a central office and handle the administrative portion of the claim such as gathering the proof of loss, witness information (if any), underwriting concerns, and last but not least: printing of the claim payment check (indemnification).
Read more…
A few weeks ago we posted a short article about the earthquake that occurred in Chile. Although we may briefly cross paths with catastrophe claims and catastrophic adjusting it’s really beyond the scope of our intended subject matter for this website but we are interested in hearing from you about any experiences you may have had as an insurance claims professional in other countries.
As a North American based website we don’t often hear about the various insurance coverages that exist beyond Inland Marine and Floater policies from global insurers. We’re certainly interested in hearing about any national or regionally based Australian (we heard they recently encountered some hail) South American, European, African, Asian or Russian based Residential Property and Casualty carriers including any information about their foreign auto lines. Read more…
Last week, Independent-Adjuster.com put out a request through social media to see what our viewers would be interested in reading. Before presenting our findings on Colorado House Bill 10-1012 , it should be noted that we wrote this article as a partial opinion and offer the following basic analysis of this Colorado initiative. We certainly hope to hear your comments on our findings.
Colorado HB 10-1012 bill is essentially an initiative to reduce or limit the surveillance conducted in Workers’ Compensation Claims. The line of surveillance referred to in the bill doesn’t wholly apply to independent adjusters so much as investigators because I/A’s are usually employed before the evidence triggering indemnity has been set in motion. The type of surveillance referred to in the bill is more along the lines of a preventative against fraud and the over-extension of indemnification because the types of claims in Workers Compensation are on-going.
We noted that the bill’s effects could be wide-spread across the insurance industry in general and made some opinion based on those conditions as well. The sum of our facts and opinion is rather expansive and is better read in the separate parts as follows:
Independent-Adjuster.com does not support Colorado Legislation for House Bill 1012.
Denial of support for HB 1012 prevents the State from opening the flood gates for similar legislation in all insurance markets, which should be a concern to every investigator and insurer in the entire country. Insurance and legal professionals across the nation need to send a clear message against this legislation because we need to preserve the right to gather evidence as we wish. Read more…
Currently there is virtually no regulation for Workers’ Compensation carriers, general carriers, or their independent professional surveillance crews to conduct investigation and surveillance with any regard a claimant’s interests, private or not in The State of Colorado. Synonymous laws for investigation of these and other insurance coverages could not be found in surrounding states. Although it wouldn’t be considered a best-practice, there is thing preventing any investigator, adjuster, or surveillance professional from hanging upside down in ree staring through the claimant’s window with night goggles on, so long as they aren’t trespassing. a worst case scenario, one might get caught and end up with a restraining order but the odds that any aimant files suit is slim to begin with because of their mutual interest in keeping benefits or maining undiscovered if they are in fact fraudulently accepting benefits.
Even if excessive surveillance could possibly be misconstrued as a bad faith attempt to delay or gate indemnification, Schnacker v.State Farm has set a well tested bar in Colorado which prevents a third party claimant from suing a first party insurer because they are not a party to the insurance contract. Workers’ Compensation insurance falls under this category because the employer is the party the contract, not the employee or claimant in the case.
Workers’ Compensation insurers have a capacity to amass evidence against claimants, thus, any unbiased reader of this review or investigator of such claims has wonder what prevents these insurers and surveillance professionals from falsely denying claims altogether after surveillance is over, even if evidence exists against doing so. Further, we have to ask why they would need such freedom to go around investigating the claims that they choose to investigate. For reasons thus far it seems that Workers’ Compensation is a largely unfair practice to the claimant, but we should review the new point from insurers as well as the reasoning for these needs are addressed in three parts as follows: Read more…
