The Independent Insurance Claim Adjuster Resource

Late last week a contractor using the name Tim Arnold commented and and ultimately asked the ever important question, “why?”, with regard to our recommendation that insureds obtain three estimates from potential contractors. Maybe Tim will become the world’s most popular roofing contractor after this post but we’ll just have to wait and see. After all, he did manage to get us to produce a full post on the subject. The question grew from a post and other comments on the subject of Roofing Contractors Advertising as Insurance Adjusters, where one comment recommended obtaining multiple estimates.  Special thanks to Tim for inspiring this post and giving us an opportunity to expose dirt on some contractors, although we won’t mention any names…yet.

Tim partially answered his own question by stating “I understand the need for Read more…

Between late nights in the office, missing cargo, and property appraisals, I can occasionally be found mudding through the piles of resumes that end up on my desk.  It’s not that my office is looking to expand, but rather I feel compelled to send a quick email to the folks who submit them letting them know it was received and that we’ll keep in on file.  It never hurts to give someone hope who’s entering somewhat of a closed door type business; it’s not like we have applications laying around to be filled out.  Conversely, there might be a really well qualified candidate in one of our sub-markets who’s interesting in freelancing.

I once heard that the best weapon an attorney has are writing skills.   This rings true for more than one profession though and independent claim professionals are no exception.  I’ve personally seen insurers loose scores of cases because an adjuster or claim representative worded something poorly. All to often we forget the subtle differences and nuances of the English language; which is amplified to the Nth degree in litigation. Read more…

Independent Adjuster: An independent person and/or company working to provide loss assessment and claim handling to an insurance carrier, attorney or self-employed entity; not working in a payroll but on an as needed basis.

There really is no easy definition that can be made because an Independent Adjuster is many things; but not always at the same time.  Looking at the phrase within we see “independent” and “adjuster”,  (I/A for short) meaning the latter half of the title only becomes active when making an adjustment to something.  What if there is no adjustment to be made?

We believe it is incorrect to reference a party as an “adjuster” when that person or entity is merely investigating a claim or surveying damages.  Those folks would respectively be called independent investigators or surveyors.  This theory is well evidenced as marine surveyors do not refer to themselves, or within their job community as “marine adjusters”. Read more…

Why Public Adjusters are enemies of Independent Agents – October 2nd, 2010

by Phillip A. Crimaldi

As if the insurance claim profession isn’t plagued with enough problems, I came across an obscure article titled “Why Public Adjusters are not enemies of Independent Agents“, published in March of 2010 by Ronald Reitz, CPPA, on the Insurance Journal’s website.  After much consideration, the article was undoubtedly written as a stunt to drive web traffic for the Insurance Journal and Mr. Reitz’s own business, if not in an attempt to help any unsuspecting insurance agents be removed from their rights to sell insurance for a conflict of interest.  Unfortunately, the article was also a slap in the face to independent insurance agents and public adjusters nationwide.

Although this reply addresses the basic outlying conditions of how Mr. Reitz provides stretch-of-the-imagination conditions and suggestions to independent agents, the underlying fact is that he goes to great length to expose the agents’ errors and omissions coverage by suggesting the agent gets more involved in the claim process.  The fact is that many insurers prefer their agents stay out of the claim process because they have employed claim representatives with a focus on excellent customer service.


Under the heading “Here’s why working with a public adjuster can be good for an independent insurance agency and for its customers:”, Mr. Reitz goes on to give six numbered paragraphs and a few guidelines which are so far the opposite of helpful, that they actually demean that intelligence of the insurance community.  At best, Mr. Reitz’ theory on befriending independent agents is an insult that warrants an apology to independent agents, public adjusters and their employees.  We arrived on this conclusion through the following analysis of the article, by the paragraph:

1.  Mr. Reitz explained that after a disaster, insureds have hundreds if not  thousands of questions and that as an independent agent, they’ll be coming to their independent agents and agencies for answers.  Worse, as an independent agent you’ll be having to answer the phone every few minutes to resolve your client’s fears! He continues on that as an agent you’ll have to read the policy and get back to them, and that you might find yourself at odds with the insurer “if you add your own opinion or interpretation of the policy language“.  

We disagree in full, Mr. Reitz. The article first tries to instill fear in the young and unsuspecting agent by employing a Captain Obvious approach.  Any agent knows that when disaster strikes, his phone is going to be ringing off the hook and that the duty to support his clients will be called into play.  The mere concept that you’ll have to “resolve their fears” is the biggest lie I’ve ever read on the web.  Although insured may have some fears initially on the claim process, it is highly doubtful any agent would have any ability to even resolve anything at any point in the claim process.  Agents are removed from the claim process for good reason and to revisit the history of how and why claim representatives were introduced to the claim process would be over-extending ourselves into the obvious need for at least some impartiality.

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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).
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