We will be closed June 26th-July 5th, 2009- See everyone July 6th

We wish everyone a great July 4th holiday.

Our office will be closed June 26th-July 5th for the holiday as we attend a family reunion.

Be safe in your travels through the holiday!

Several news stories relate that if Gov Crist in FL signs new regs that State Farm may stay in FL- See articles/ See info on Delay in Exit decision until July 15th and AMBest rating changes for carrier

The Insurance Journal today sent out a breaking news story on this today and I’m also linking to the Miami Herald article stating that State Farm may reconsider departure from the FL insurance market if Governor Crist in FL signs new regulation on rates:

Here is the Miami Herald news story:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090623/ARTICLE/906231038/2055/NEWS?Title=If-Crist-relaxes-rules-State-Farm-hints-it-may-stay

Here is a link to the Insurance Journal article:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2009/06/22/101618.htm

Here is a link to the  Insurance Journal info on AMBEST downgrading of their rating for State Farm of Florida:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2009/06/18/101518.htm

Here is also a link to delays in a decision until July 15th per another Insurance Journal update:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2009/06/15/101413.htm

Should they stay this might provide substantial reconsideration by independent adjusters thoughts about working the Citizens of FL claims if they feel opportunities will exist into the future to work State Farm Florida claims when a major disaster strikes.

“Our Fathers Who Art in Heaven”..a tribute to our dads who have passed away….and Happy Father’s Day to all of our Members

Father’s Day 2009- in quiet reflection thinking about my dad who passed away in December of 2000 and missing him immensely.

While searching for good thoughts to reflect on his honor today, I ran across this blog entry by the author of ” Our Fathers who Art in Heaven” by Gerry Murak  and thought the story quite interesting. Also make sure to note on the right column of this entry that they are looking for contributors for Volume II by those reflecting on their great dads and contributions that they made in their lives. I hope you’ll take the time to read and share this with others missing their fathers today.

http://murak.blogs.com/ourfatherswhoartinheaven/2005/05/a_very_memorabl.html

My father was my best friend, mentor, cheer leader, and hero and I do miss him beyond belief not just today but every day.

 ClaimSmentor (see tribute on our About us page) was created and dedicated in his honor (William Robert Kane, Sr) as was the name Dimechimes which I use in my business and social networking sites. It represents the 10 of us in our family- how they ever raised 8 children on a limited military income is beyond me yet through my father and mother’s great hearts, the dimes we had did make a difference in the lives of others. My dad’s dimes have taken care of my mother very well since he passed away which he had often expressed was so important to him before he left us from diabetic complications just 3 short weeks after beginning kidney dialysis. ClaimSmentor was dedicated in his honor as my mentor, friend and best supporter.

We wish you all a very happy Father’s Day and hope you appreciate every single minute today with your fathers who are with you. Don’t ever take one minute, one conversation, or one piece of advice from them for granted. They are memories you will treasure forever.

To those in the claim industry who are out on assignment working the many hail storms across the midwest, we appreciate the sacrifice you are making to serve the insured public on their storm losses while missing today, Father’s Day 2009, with your families.

In Loving Memory of  William Robert Kane, Sr on Father’s Day 2009

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.~ Henry Ward Beecher

 

Colorado Storm Preliminary Storm Damage Stats In from storms beginning 6/7/09

Just a ClaimSmentor moment link to Colorado preliminary storm damage statistics and claims for the numerous storms last week beginning 6/7/09:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2009/06/17/101433.htm

National Hurricane Center Changes the way the Saffir Simpson Scale will be used due to Storm Surge stats

This was a very interesting article about the 2009 changes to the way a hurricane is categorized using the Saffir Simpson Scale due to problems with the storm surge and hurricane categories. For instance, the article indicates Hurricane Ike came in as a category 2 but the storm surge was equivalent to a category 4 hurricane at landfall. Most interesting are the arguments for and against the proposed 2009 changes in the comment section of this article:

http://weatherblog.abc13.com/2009/06/save-the-saffirsimpson-scale.html

For more details from NOAA National Hurricane Center on the 2009 changes here is a link on the storm surge component of the saffir simpson scale and reasons for the changes:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml

Chinese Drywall Claims Making Their Way through the Courts- Guest entry by Attorney Thomas Little

Attorney Thomas Little has joined our Dimechimes ClaimSmentor Claims Industry group at Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/dimechimesclaimSmentor . He provides an update on the hot topic on the Chinese Drywall Claims Litigation here on his blog. We appreciate you sharing this information for our claims group and we pass it along for others as well since this is such a hot topic:

http://alabamainsurancedefensereport.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/chinese-drywall-coverage-litigation-working-its-way-through-courts/

Claim Class Updates and Carrier Certification Class Updates for July 2009

We have updated the ClaimSmentor forums with the following upcoming classes:

Day and Evening online Live Class for Florida Condo Unitowners and Master Policy Claim Handling Classes- July 2009

Day and Evening online Live Classes for Additional Living Expense Claim Handling for Homeowners Insurance Claims- July 2009

You must be a registered member of ClaimSmentor to attend these classes.

Today we also posted field classes coming up in July with numerous adjusting firms for:

NFIP- special class FREE in AL for Standard Flood Policy coverage and form completion seminar

Nationwide Certification class- FREE in ALabama

USAA Carrier Certification classes- 3 different adjusting firms offering these in July 2009 from no cost ranging to 50.00 per course depending on vendor offering them

State Farm Auto and Property Certification classes in August 2009

To register for ClaimSmentor, here is the registration link so you can view these topics for complete details in our Carrier Certification forum, Roots and Wings Training Forums for our Live ALE and Condo class info and much more:

http://claimsmentor.com/register.php

FloodSax- New product to combat flooding- replaces cumbersome sandbags for flooding

This new product looks quite promising for combating flood damage- called FloodSax:

Here is the link to the firm’s June 3, 09 Press Release announcing this product:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/06/prweb2485034.htm

Tracking Hurricane Ike Claim Litigation in Southeast Texas drives home the need for Errors and Omissions coverage for adjusters

This website posts newly filed insurance claim lawsuits for southeast TX several times each week.

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/

Click on any of these links to find not only the suits against TWIA but other carriers as well. You’ll note that many of the cases against TWIA include the adjuster and the adjusting firm named in the complaints filed here is just one example:

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/219283-latest-hurricane-related-insurance-suits-filed-in-jefferson-county

You can track the cases going all the way back to the month Ike hit.

This should drive home the seriousness of carrying E and O these days. We have two other posts on this blog with advice fromwww.cplic.net who specializes in carrying Errors and Omissions coverage advising adjusters should be carrying their own E and O coverage and not relying on coverage by the adjusting firm.

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/errors-and-omissions-coverage-guest-bloggers-dale-moore-client-relations-director-for-cplic/

FEMA considering use of Foreclosed homes for large catastrophe in Florida

Now here is an option that sure would work well when looking for Additional Living Expense housing for insureds as well if they would be available for short term rentals for storm victims:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/03/fema-considers-placing-florida-storm-victims-foreclosed-homes/

In another update on FEMA housing, the Obama Administration is considering a Katrina Fema housing transition and sale of Katrina trailers for $1.00 to $5.00 per trailer. Read about that here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060203897.html?g=0

 

Here is also an update on the sale of FEMA Trailers in another move

There sure are some GREAT staff claim job openings for Auto and Property Adjusters!

We posted over 50 new job opportunities for Auto and Property Claims Adjusters in our Career Forum at ClaimSmentor yesterday.

Positions range from claim trainee opportunities right through Claims Consultant and VP of Claims positions for our management members!

Just check out the Career Forum for all new postings! Don’t guess which FL carrier is  hiring for their National Catastrophe Team or which new FL regional carrier is hiring for staff positions……just join us today at ClaimSmentor. If your not  yet a member, you will see a link for information regarding joining our now 1108 members in the last paragraph on our home page.

All contact info on the About Us page here on the blog. Blog restrictions won’t allow us to keep linking to the same site including our own so please get contact info for the site and registration link on our About Us page on this blog.

Just a ClaimSmentor Moment- #10 2009’s Most Dangerous Vehicles

I was quite surprised at the cars that made this list published at Forbes based on the Insurance Institutes information on the 10 most dangerous cars for 2009 based on crash performance tests:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/06/most-dangerous-vehicles-lifestyle-vehicles_0206_dangerous_vehicles_slide_12.html?thisSpeed=15000

US Senate Committee holds 5/21/09 hearing on Chinese Drywall issues- Link to archived webcast and testimony presented

We know this topic keeps coming up in the claims industry on how the chinese drywall claims are going to be handled so I wanted to share this link to the 5/21/09 archived web cast and links to the presentations made to the US Senate committee yesterday for your reference material.

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=7036283d-9d1e-4954-8903-b851ba32a49e

Happy Memorial Day and Safe Travels….A Special Tribute Shared by USAA’s Paul Berry to The American Widow Project

We wish all of our members of Dimechimes Claims Staffing and Claims Training groups and to our ClaimSmentor members a very safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend.

Memorial weekend also spurs memories of my hero- my dad -who I dedicated the ClaimSmentor project to in his honor as the best mentor in my life and my career. Memorial day is always now a day of a heart felt missing him and yearning to talk to him just one more day, one more time, and even just one more word. I wish so much we could be in FL this coming weekend to visit NAS Barrancas Cemetary at NAS Pensacola where not only my father is, but my brother, my brother in law, and several other family members were laid to rest there. Coming from a military family we all know the quiet beauty and tribute to our military on days such as Memorial Day as they place the small American flags at each marker.(See photo on link above) How I wish I could share that this weekend with other family members in the area.

I just ran across this USAA article by staff member, Paul Berry, which is the perfect story to honor our American military families. It is quite moving and I hope you’ll share it with others who will prayer for the women of  The American Widow Project- a group of very young women who are widows of American soldiers who have lost their lives fighting in recent years for our country. They are leaving from USAA headquarters going to Washington, DC and stopping to meet and support other young American widows in similar situations having lost their spouses. Mr Berry says it all in this article along with providing email links to the women hosting this most worthy effort. We hope you too will send well wishes their way and prayers for all of our military this holiday weekend.

It makes me proud to be a USAA policyholder so thank you Mr Berry for sharing this most moving story as we enter this holiday weekend. I hope many of you will take the time to view The American Widow Project website and their many heart wrenching stories of loss of their spouses due to war.

http://voices.mysanantonio.com/paulberry/

http://voices.mysanantonio.com/paulberry/2009/05/my-memorial-day-weekend-plans.html

We will be back on line Tuesday after Memorial Weekend. God Bless the USA and God Bless the American Widow Project members!

 

We are now taking registrations for our 50 Hour Fundamentals of Property Claims online class for June/July 2009

We have just posted our registration list on ClaimSmentor for our next live online 50 Hour Fundamentals of  Property Claims class which starts up on June 8, 2009 and runs through July 16, 2009. We will not be holding the class the week of July 4, 2009 so participants can enjoy the week with their families. Classes are held at www.ClaimSmentor.com from 6-9pm CST. We meet on Monday and Thursday evenings for 5 weeks to cover the 10 classes that make up this course. The complete class agenda as well as our 125 question self- assessment test are posted in the class forum topic you will be able to view once you are registered and logged in. The course consists of 10 live classes meeting for 3 hours each along with 2 hours of pre-class reading material for the 50 hours of study in this course.

If you are a newly licensed adjuster (we love experienced adjusters to register too) who is not yet a member of ClaimSmentor, you can find all registration information for our site at:

http://www.claimsmentor.com/register.php

The deadline to register for this class is June 3, 2009. ***Update 6/6/09- We have extended the deadline through Sunday 6/7/09 as we have a few spots left.

Wondering if this class is for you? Read our prior blog with our 125 question self assessment test and see how many of these property claim basic questions you can answer and you decide!

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/have-license-ready-to-go-not-so-quick-take-this-self-assessment-test/

***Update 6/6/09  All of the above information is on the Evening class which does start Monday night 6/8. We are also receiving requests to host a DAYTIME SESSION of the 50 Hour Fundamentals class. We have agreed to do so should we receive atleast 10 requests. The deadline to register for this class is 6/12/09. If interested, just email Debbie@Dimechimes.com as we will need to register you on ClaimSmentor to participate and give you specific details about this class agenda.

Texas Senate Bill No. 14- View the issues- Deals with Claim Disputes and changes to damages allowed on TWIA Claim Disputes

Attorney Chip Merlin (consumer advocate attorney)  provides the following two blogs on Texas Senate Bill No. 14 due to some changes proposed on claim dispute handling against TWIA:

http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2009/05/articles/hurricane-ike/proposed-twia-law-smacks-hurricane-ike-claimants/

Attorney Chip Merlin has a 2nd blog up recommending TX residents take proactive steps to contact their representatives in this blog. Note also in the first link above that Merlin does include a link to the Senate recommended changes on TX Senate bill No. 14

http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2009/05/articles/state-legislation/what-twia-policyholders-need-to-do-now-to-stop-the-bad-legislation/

 

I did some basic research on the web and the Texas Senate discussion on their passage of this bill  in their website post of April 30, 2009 does not address the changes that Merlin writes about  and I’m sure many others are concerned about:

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/Archives/Arch09/p043009a.htm

Now to see if we can find some opinions on this from the TWIA side……………

Here is what the TX Department of Insurance currently has up on their website about complaint resolution process with TWIA:

http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/consumer/storms/cpmtwiaclaims.html#resolving

****

Update 8:30 AM- I no sooner got this blog up then Merlin posted an update on the activities on this legislation from the House side along with a link to a San Antonio, TX news article on the House action on their counter bill:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/45551952.html

http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2009/05/articles/state-legislation/texas-house-representatives-pass-bad-insurance-bill-they-have-not-read/

*****

Update once again 10:30 am cst- Merlin provides a 4th blog about TX House version of the bill -here’s his post:

Merlin sends a 4th blog link out about some of the language disappearing from the House version that passed:

Summary:
After reading what actually passed, the House Committee seems to have struck all of the Senate language concerning 2210.552, and then added a new subsection (on page 36 of its 51 page bill) which reads : SECTION 40. Section 2210.552,…

View the entire entry:
http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2009/05/articles/insurance/not-so-fast-on-calling-the-texas-house-bill-badthe-bad-language-mysteriously-disappears/index.html

Dern! I don’t want to be in violation of linking too often to a site- WordPress emailed a few weeks ago about limiting links to others sites too often so I do have to be careful!

We’ve crossed the 100,000 mark on this blog! Thank you to our readers!

WordPress keeps statistics on our blogs which are most informative such as the number of hits on your blog each day, the search engine topics that lead folks to your site, the number of clicks on various blog posts and links within the blog that we check daily. I love viewing them as it helps me know what information those in the claims industry are out there searching for which often leads to topics we post.

We crossed the 100,000 mark on hits for this blog on Tuesday for views  since we started publishing this in July of 2007!

Thank you to our followers! As time goes by we hope to have more folks commenting directly here on the blog versus the behind the scenes emails we constantly receive as a result of our posts here on the blog as well as in our forums at ClaimSmentor. We look forward to many more years of information sharing in our continued efforts to mentor independent adjusters searching for career information.

If your a stats person like I am, you can follow our total hits count in the upper right hand corner of the blog.

We’ve updated our About Us page to include new Twitter location and new links to our Published articles!

Claims Magazine made a recent update on their site which changed the links to our published articles over there.

We’ve also added new opportunities you may be interested in to follow us at Linkedin and Twitter. I’ll post the Facebook link as soon as we finish updating our location there. I hope you enjoy visiting our various sites often. We have added job postings on our Twitter feed as well.

You can find links to all of our locations all on our updated About US  page with all refreshed links on the About Us tab at the top of this blog! Link up with us at these other locations as well and particicpate!

Thank you for following our regular updates! We welcome comments to any postings and open discussions.

Overhead and Profit issues remain an issue in claims litigation- Louisiana Citizens Class Action Cases On O/P/ Update on Chivers vs State Farm and other O/P cases

Remember these prior blogs on overhead and profit claim litigation cases we’d been following in the news?

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/overhead-and-profit-claim-settlement-issues-under-attack-in-3-ongoing-cases/

Well, here is the latest I’ve received a notice on here with Lousiana Citizens…apparently there are two different class action cases going on in two different jurisdictions. The part I found particularly strange was the comments in the article alleging that at one time LA Citizens paid the o/p, stopped at a later point, then resumed paying overhead and profit at a later date:

http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2009/04/a_state_appeals_court_has.html

We’d appreciate any updates on these cases if you know what the status of these cases is as we could find nothing much by way of updates on their status on the web and we don’t have access to court documents like some sites do so any help discussing these overhead and profit cases would be appreciated. Here is a 5/13/09 published article on new develops on the Chivers vs State Farm case updating info on Chubb insurance and Nationwide Insurance who apparently settled out of court for a substantial same rather than produce massive discovery documents:

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/218979-nationwide-settles-foremost-faces-order-to-produce-documents-in-ongoing-class-action

Here’s a link to a second article which goes into more detail about the Nationwide overhead and profit case:

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/217364-arkansas-judge-orders-expedited-hearing-for-class-certification-against-nationwide

 Replies welcome to links to news articles or court updates,etc so we can all learn how these cases have come out in case law if resolved at this point. I’m not hearing any changes about carriers handling these issues differently from adjusters I’ve discussed the topic with at this point.

Effects of Twitter, Facebook, Social Media effecting court jurors? Great Article!

What an interesting week it has been. We’ve spent the week exploring other possible social networks to work with as well for claim adjusters of every age group. One thing I’m finding with all social network sites is it is much like life- you only get out of it what you put in to it! I am really enjoying exploring all these new found opportunities to learn from others in the industry who willingly give of their time to share information with all kinds of groups across the web.

I had posted earlier this week about the fantastic use of social media that Auto Claims Direct has done using Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and even You Tube. This simply intrigued me as I too have ventured forward into these modern social media venues over the past four years for the claims industry.

We started with the forums at ClaimSmentor in January 2006 where we now have almost 1100 members (that is something considering we dont use posts in anonymous names and all registrants verify id before being registered as members of the independent or staff adjusting community ) then progressed to this blog  you are now viewing and  it should hit the 100,000 views mark on hits this week since starting this back in July of 2007 according to the wordpress dashboard stats they keep (and no your own clicks on your blog don’t count). 

 It is a very time consuming project exploring these social media options and learning first hand the advantages and disadvantages of each. I’ve also learned that the social media preference depends on the reader or the purpose of the post. For instance, ClaimSmentor forums are fantastic for organizing topics such as grouping all carrier certification upcoming classes, policy information,etc. A library if you will of information and resources for new adjusters to study that would take them years to find on their own. They also allow us a private forum for discussing claims industry topics for our members. Since the purpose of ClaimSmentor  was to provide an online e-mentoring group, they wanted a venue to ask their training questions in private since they were new adjusters. As newly licensed independent adjusters without alot of reputable places to just ask questions in a friendly environment, ClaimSmentor works great as a venue for keeping everyone up to date on claims headlines and other claim issues. The biggest hurdle we have had to overcome is the untold hours spent over the past four years searching for information online to train with since we cannot use very good information carriers provide (codes of conduct forms require independents not share private carrier forms and guidelines). It’s been a challenge but one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and believe it or not, my eyes are wide open to many things in the claims industry I had no idea about while working 28 years in a career at a major carrier inspite of the fact that I progressed from mail and file clerk to a claim manager during the course of my employment as a staff employee.

I began this blog because of folks like Lee (yes Lee you know who you are!) and others that just do not learn well in a forum atmosphere digging through thousands of forums. It isn’t that they don’t “get it” but they don’t know how to tie it all together. For instance, we talk about agent and claim relationships…but how does that fit in with the big picture of claim management expectations for handling a claim as a whole? So I’ve presented atleast 3 blogs just on the claims agency relationship for new adjusters like Lee that want it all tied up in a pretty knot like in a class.

We’ve used online software to teach classes in a venue on ClaimSmentor that we tried and as simple a format as it is, it works. Our classes are live and online allowing interaction between me and all participants where they are welcome to ask questions. Picture a coffee shop environment if you will where experienced adjusters and claim managers drop by and check in on us and participate in discussions. It would be so much easier on me to set the classes up now that they are fully developed based on three years of presenting them and knowing what interests them as well as what I have learned that they are NOT getting at many classes available. I just don’t have the heart to move to webinars like online CE classes that take the personal element away. The networking is one of the most valuable things I believe they get out of our classes as I’ve watched many a long term friendship strike up as they get to know their classmates. Many stay in touch with me long after the class to let me know their progress in the claims industry and I just really am not ready to cut the strings on those great relationships I’ve made through our new and experienced members alike. It gives me faith every day in the independent claims industry watching these people develop from newly licensed to experienced adjuster. They are excited and they aren’t the type looking for the big bucks…just real folks with a real interest in claims working very hard to train and do what is right to obtain assignments. They’ve put their heart and soul into learning this industry in a much tougher environment than a staff adjuster ever faces.

About two months ago, I experimented with Linkedin as a venue for independent adjusters and independent adjusting firms and managers to operate and network within the industry. I simply cannot say enough good things about how much value I think Linkedin would bring to any firm. First, from the adjusting firm standpoint, is the vast number of insurance industry personnel participate there. All of the large names from the carrier side seem to have a presence. I’m especially impressed that everyone seems approachable. The number of staff claim VP’s and staff claim management is outstanding. Most of all I am enjoying all of the Claims Industry groups. I have networked with recruiters from carriers, with claim managers from carriers, former associates who have moved on to other carriers who I have renewed talks with today as a result of finding them on linkedin, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I haven’t found fantastic articles or issues being discussed such as the hot topics like chinese drywall claims in the different group discussions, recruiting issues and their uses of social media to check new employee postings, and I learn about meeting opportunities every day through one group I follow or another to share with ClaimSmentor members. From an adjusters standpoint, I highly recommend joining linked in as you can post your resume copy on your profile then use the public profile link which you can personalize, as a link on your business card for all those conferences you attend where they do not want you to drop off your resume at the booths. The job postings for staff positions are awesome. Again, once your profile is built you can join any group that interests you and network to your hearts content while learning about claim issues while meeting other folks in our industry. If you don’t know what to do, just join and click on my linked in profile at www.linkedin.com/in/dimchimesclaimsmentor and look at the groups I’ve joined. Once you are a member of my group, the linked in systems allows you to ask to join other groups I’m a member of. It seems to be professional and definitely a great thing for anyone in business to connect with others.

This week I’ve worked on our newest project over at Twitter at www.twitter.com/dimechimes . It has been an interesting adventure and another week of long hours of volunteer time exploring the Twitter experience to see what advantages and disadvantages I can find with this venue for the claims industry. I have to admit, had I not watched a business associate (yes you Linda) totally addicted to her blackberry one weekend following her “twits” from posts over at Twitter, I never would have tried it. I couldn’t imagine why a professional claims adjuster would be wanting to “tweet”. Well believe me folks, I found out that Twitter is another social media world unto it’s own! I now have a “TweetDeck” on my laptop where I can view any other Tweets (posts) by firms I’m following all in one spot making it quick and easy to keep up with posting there on one deck (like a desk top but it’s just for twitter). Examples of great info I found was an adjusting firm holding a seminar for their independents and two fantastic recruiters making great use of Twitter to post all of their claim jobs free of charge with their Twitter posts. I’ve seen more claim job opportunities for adjusters posted there than you can imagine and even encouraged our ClaimSmentor members to follow them on my Twitter link as I do “retweet” which simple means forwarding it to the people who have “followed” your posts. It saves me half of the time I was spending posting job opportuntity postings for our members in the Career Forum. The only thing I don’t like in my one week experiment thus far is that anyone can click on your Twitter profile to follow you. I’ve had to block about 20 folks out of about 150 requested follower notices as they were from folks with girly girly photos, slick guys promoting their wares (smile) ,etc so to remain a professional business presence on Twitter I highly recommend you view your new followers regularly and block those that are just spamming your site. You could drive off alot of the people you wish to network with if you give the wrong image by having followers presenting the wrong image of your claims group. Oh and by the way – the best use I’ve seen so far is adjusting firms posting their upcoming claim conferences, classses, and having members of their adjusting firm follow them for advance notice of standby! Great job!

I also checked out the insurance companies posting on Twitter by simply viewing the people they follow. It was such an interesting study in insurance company behavior. Are all the individuals they are following employees who twitter or are they customers simply interested in their posts who clicked to follow them? I found sound great resources posted on their sites for emergency sources such as disaster meal kits for adjusters in those first few weeks of storm duty and much much more. The biggest thing I am disappointed in from the insurance company standpoint is that they are not using it more to address claims. One carrier was GREAT about posting their claim damage stats from the MO storms this past week which you can bet I did forward to the claim readers following us. I also learned alot about insurance customers by entering the word “adjuster” on the Tweet Deck search which adds any twitter post that uses that word. I’d have to say customers one frequent post about adjusters is “waiting to hear from my adjuster” which is a bit disturbing when all carriers require 24 hour contact. Adjusters beware…..if you aren’t returning phone calls……you may be the adjuster they are twittering about!

Well enough on my social media explorations….I’ll end this with a great article I came across today in my explorations on social media uses for independent adjusters and adjusting firms. This article is a must read for anyone in claims to consider the effect that these social media networking groups are having on jury pools. I was simply amazed to see the serious cases that were thrown out when one juror did internet research or used Twitter to discuss inside information while on jury duty. It sure gives you alot to think about when considering taking a case to court! In today’s world- I can imagine that it would be extremely hard not to want to do an internet search on a case you were called to jury duty on but I had never given it a thought until I read this very interesting article today. I highly recommend you pass this article on to attorneys you know in the insurance industry as it’s a real eye opener!

http://www.setexasrecord.com/arguments/218993-legally-speaking-when-all-that-twitters-is-not-told-the-dangers-of-the-online-juror-part-1

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

 Unfortunately, since it is a newspaper article, I’m not sure how long this article will remain up but hopefully the author will read our post and can give permission to publish it in it’s entirety here so we don’t lose the importance of his message.