Save the Date- January 11-14 Austin TX is location of 2010 NACA (National Assn of Catastrophe Adjusters) Annual Conference with CE credits for adjusters

SAVE THE DATE—-  The 2010 NACA Convention will be held January 11-14 at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, TX.  Details will be on our website soon!

 

NACA – National Association of Catastrophe Adjusters, Inc.

PO Box 821864

North Richland Hills, TX  76182

Phone – 817-498-3466

Fax – 817-498-0480

Website – www.nacatadj.org

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.

Guest Blog by Ray Hauser of ClaimSmentor-Ray Shares His Personal Story in our “Luck Where Preparation Meets Opportunity Series”

 

 

Claims Education Magazine published my article in 2008   “Luck…where Preparation meets Opportunity”.

To continue with our strong recommendation that newly licensed adjusters seek reputable training opportunities that are recognized in our industry, Ray is a prime example of  what independent trainee adjusters are going through to get a foot in the door for adjusting assignments.

Here is Ray’s story on the long  journey post license to fill in the squares due to  insurance company and adjusting firm requirements before he can receive assignments. Ray, we appreciate your time contributing to this series of articles. I thoroughly enjoyed your participating in our January/February 50 Hour Fundamentals of Property adjusting course. 

This article link will also remain on our Guest Blog page above with all other entries by contributing bloggers. I do think it is important to highlight what those wanting a career in claims can expect  (from the independent side) and we have several interesting blogs by others when they were new in the field. If I asked Ray what he has spent thus far on licensing, rope and harness classes, and all of his other course fees plus transportation and lodging, I would guess he is in the 7,500 to 10K range. I see this regularly thus my push on looking for other sources for this education.

                  Getting Started in Adjusting by Ray Hauser

 

After I completed my 4 day licensing course I became aware very quickly that the process of finding work may be just a little harder than what I had expected. Many of my fellow course-mates fell by the wayside believing the task was next to impossible. Company after company stated on their websites that they required either a  4 year degree, or at least 2 years of experience, neither of which I had. Here I am, just a few months down the line, with a totally different perspective in terms of what it takes to find a job. What’s changed? Knowledge! The claims companies want knowledge, and they need to know you have the ability to settle a claim and leave the insured with a good experience. Knowledge and customer service drive this train! We adjusters have to understand that the claims companies are not going to hand out jobs to people with just a 4 day crash course in insurance and a 3 day course in Xactimate! That kind of knowledge is only the starting point. So the question becomes, “What else do I have to do, and where do I go to get it?” Of course it’s always beneficial if you start with some construction and customer service experience. I’m a new adjuster too, so believe me when I say “I don’t have all the answers”. But here’s my opinion.

 

First, you should register on web sites that offer information that can help you build your resume.

 

There’s no better place to go than to ClaimSmentor.  Here’s a website that’s a source of information not readily found anywhere else. Anything to do with insurance is found right here. The gal that runs it, Debbie Moroy (debbie@dimechimes.com), has dedicated her life to training new people. She started her career in 1973 with State Farm, and started the adjusting aspect of it over 26 years ago. Who better to learn from? Reading her resume is like reading a dictionary:

 

State Farm Basic, Intermediate, Commercial, and Management Schools. Vale Tech Residential Estimatics,Haag Roofing School, Georgia Arson Fraud School, many others too numerous to list. Have all 5 State Farm certifications to include wind, estimatics, commercial, earthquake, etc.. Have completed IIA, AIC, and 9 parts of CPCU.

 

Because of her reputation in the industry and the fact that she’s so well respected, and knows so many people after these many years, it’s my opinion that having her knowledge as your foundation in claims adjusting is absolutely paramount and priceless!

 

Once you’re registered on her site, you have access to up to the minute information on certification courses, other website links, insurance industry news bulletins, magazine articles, and far too many other items for me to list here. Everyone getting started should take her 50 hr Fundamentals of Property Claims course. In that course you’re taught : Contents Claim Handling Guidelines, Additional Living Expense Claim Handling, Condo Master and Condo Unit-owner Claims , File Documentation Requirements , Carrier Service Standard Expectations,  Insured/Agency Communications, and so much more. “ The class is designed to fill in major gaps of important things you need to know. The course does not cover the estimate software programs and scoping classes but concentrates on the majority of other things that are a must to know before you handle your first claim. You cannot go out in the field and “wing it” and learn as you go when dealing with consumers who have bought a policy expecting “above and beyond” service”.Then, you use the information from that course and on that website to move forward in your search for more certifications and courses.

 

Another very good idea is to get as many licenses from as many different states as you can. That way, if a hail storm hits Georgia, and you have a Non-Resident license for that state, you can be used to work the storm without having to wait for a state declared emergency. You become far more valuable to the claims companies than other adjusters only having one license from their State of Residency. Sircon is a great site for acquiring other licenses for a nominal fee. In most cases, another licensing test is not required.

If possible, pair up with another adjuster you’ve met at your local Claims Association or elsewhere, and mentor with them for a short time. 

 

Immediately after I got my license, Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf coast states. Everyone was in demand. I worked a number of claims for The Mission Group  in Beaumont, Texas. Fortunately, I had a great CEO with a lot of patience. I’d partnered up with somebody who had procured the job, but had about as much experience as I had. Ultimately, the number of mistakes we made was embarrassing. But Mr. Phil Spotts went into the training mode and demonstrated the finest managerial traits I’ve ever witnessed. To this day he’s still a hero of mine! Talk about performing under pressure by training a couple of newbies in the art of adjusting. It was a pleasure to witness, yet embarrassing to be a part of. 

 

Shortly thereafter, I joined a couple of other course-mates and proceeded to take a Two Story/ Steep Roof Rope and Harness course from Kevin Kramer  (k.squared@earthlink.net) in Montgomery, Texas ( great course!). Apparently, for those that have that certification, they’re the first to be called out and the last to leave because they can handle all roofs, not just the easy ones. Kevin also sells an OJT Training Manual that has lots of very good information in it concerning construction, scoping, roof calculations, roof pictorials, estimating interior damage etc etc. It’s a very good manual to have in your library when you’re trying to gain knowledge.

 

Another great manual to have is one published by Richard Beckner . He gives in depth details and step by step instructions in using Xactimate. It truly is geared for the adjuster having problems in using the software. It’s one of the best manuals I have. It can be accessed at: www.learnxactimate.com .

 

After my R & H course we proceeded to Pilot Catastrophe Services Inc. in Grande Prairie, Texas, hoping to acquire a successful evaluation, then 4 days of additional training in Allstate, Integriclaim, and NextGen.

 

 I’ve just completed a Citizens certification class in my search for a job in Daily Adjusting here in Florida, and I have 4 more certifications scheduled.

 

So, in summary, you need to have knowledge that you didn’t pick up on your licensing course. Knowledge like measuring roofs, replacing the shingles with the appropriate amount of waste rounded up to the nearest shingle bundle, replacing or repairing fencing…..depreciated or not depreciated? What are the important things you have to ask the insured when you’re making first contact and arranging an inspection? If you can’t answer these questions, you just need to take the appropriate training. It’s all out there. You just have to access it. 

 

Family members have asked, “Who will I work for?” The answer to me is obvious. I’ll work for anyone wise enough to hire me, because I’m going to be prepared by being ready to go to work, educated enough to do the job, and wise enough to only hand in great claims. I’ll get my local adjuster in town to preview my work if I have to. But my claims will absolutely be as good as anyone’s.  I am not going to be the first one to go home after a storm because of my shoddy work.  And hopefully, I’ll be one of the last ones working the storm!

 

           

Ray Hauser, Port Orange (Daytona Beach), Florida

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To View more information about independent adjuster Ray Hauser, you can view his Linkedin Profile here.

To Join our Claims Industry Group, you can view our Linkedin Profile here.

 

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Ray we thank you for sharing your story and also for your testimonial about the ClaimSmentor online claim mentor group. Deb

 

 

Look Before You Leap! New classes scheduled online LIVE in April 2009 for Staff Adjusters and Management Considering an Independent Adjuster or Independent Claim Management Career

 

              Look Before You Leap! The Grass is NOT always Greener on the other Side!  

                       This class  is designed to improve understanding by Insurance Carrier HR managers considering independent adjusters for staff claim opportunities as well as staff adjusters and Claim managers wishing to make a career move to the Independent Claims Adjuster or Claim Manager fields in the claims industry.       

***Updated 3/21/09: Note this program can also be presented in an individual career coaching order session for those who wish to remain anonymous versus participating in this online class at ClaimSmentor . We will present this to you individually through a career coaching session. Just contact Debbie@Dimechimes.com to schedule your private session.

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This is a new course offering in our Roots and Wings  program  at ClaimSmentor for all of the staff adjusters sending us resumes  as they  consider career moves to the independent claims industry.

You can read more about these classes hosted on Saturday April 4, 2009 and Saturday April 18, 2009 in the following blog topic:

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/new-online-claims-adjuster-and-claim-management-training-class-offerings-for-late-march-and-april-2009-at-claimsmentor/

This link contains a blog link to the registration information for ClaimSmentor. This site is our online e-mentoring program for Independent and Staff adjusters or managers involved in the Property or Auto Claims industry. There is no charge to join our ClaimSmentor forums. You will be able to review more details about this class once you become a member and can view the topic in our forums.

 We also welcome Human Resource managers interested in participating in this class so they better understand the independent adjusters applying to their insurance companies for staff adjuster positions as we would like you to appreciate those that have outstanding experience in are independent industry. We strongly recommend continuing education for newly licensed adjusters participating in our forums at ClaimSmentor and  you will also find valued candidates for your claim trainee job opportunities.

View the About tab for contact information if you are interested in this class.  

 

 

Dr Gary Blake’s-The Claims Communication Workshop- Online Adjuster Training. Webinars, and Claim Conferences

We announced to our ClaimSmentor participants, to those on our rosters , and clients, on 3/1/09 that we planned to support  adjuster professional training opportunites through our adjuster services  100 percent  versus our main concentration on claim staffing. Here’s a link to the announcement  if you missed it.

 We will continue staffing for firms we know as long as they are not deploying to carriers (seems to be a current windpool trend?)  who are not defending adjusting firms, and or  independent adjusters should they be sued on a claim.

 As explained in my announcement, that was the last straw for me on staffing and I will not support that treatment of  adjusters or claims managers who chose to be members of our claim rosters. Heck, carriers do not usually even have independents handle suit files on catastrophe assignments because they have such a long tail (closure date) that they usually prefer to assign litigation files to staff members who can handle the claim from assignment through file settlement for proper insurance customer relations so they don’t have to keep switching adjusters.

 I also feel strongly that this is inappropriate for independent adjusters who I fear will lose their entire career when they can no longer secure Errors and Omissions coverage due to their claim history. I just feel there are too many adjusters (yes both staff and independent..this is not an independent adjusting firm problem when the carrier’s refuse to allow them to attend their certification training until something major has already hit…I’m befuddled about that as they need to ensure that they have an outstanding pool of TRAINED licensed adjusters)..off my soap box now!

We are in the process of getting another update from  Michael Hale with Claims Professional Liability Group  The litigation climate is just too great to sit back and not increase our efforts to improve the quality of training for independent adjusters BEFORE they go out in the field. If one new adjuster learns from the introductions we provide to them for sources such as this then all of my volunteer efforts at ClaimSmentor the last three years are worth it.

Behind the scenes we have been working over a month developing professional resources for all of our groups as we increase our social networking to bring more information to you in whichever format you prefer. We have been doing this exact thing now since 2005 through our ClaimSmentor Forums.

We have ClaimSmentor , now in our fourth year of operation, for those who like all of the headline news , forums, and a complete listing of upcoming carrier certification classes as well as annual claim conferences.  There is more there than I could ever blog about here. This site is limited to independent and staff claim members and their staff as we fostered our online e-mentoring group for new adjusters, adjusting firms, and carriers in those fields. We do also allow members who support our industry such as estimating software vendors and have over 40 over those firms participating. This format also requires a login id as we give our member firms and participating adjusters to upload directly on their profile either their resume or their profile.  We do verify id and require real name, and city and state then will register you and mail you a login id and temporary password to participate. You can change your password to something private to first time you sign in.

We have our Dimechimes ClaimSmentor Adjuster Information Blog due to the number of requests from the claim industry members participating with us who had expressed such a need repeatedly because they just do not have time to log in and see what is new in the forums so here we are! We have been in operation here since July 2007. We are almost approaching 90,000 visit to this blog.

We have just formed our latest  source  for  members of the Claims community at our LinkedIn site which is bringing many more members at DimechimesClaimSmentor Claims Industry Group. Anyone who has joined LinkedIn can join us as long as they have a completed profile on their LinkedIn membership so we can verify id. This is a most impressive site I wrote about the other day- to view it, click here.

Today I’d like to introduce those of you who are not aware of  him, Dr. Gary Blake , Director of the Writing Workshop for the claims industry.  He generally speaks at Insurance Company Seminars but has agreed to join us at ClaimSmentor and I have now invited him to join our Claims group at LinkedIn as well.

His program at www.writingworkshop.com includes options for very very reasonably priced e-articles, webinar options, key note speaker at Insurance Claims Industry conferences, and annual conferences. He has agreed to expand his services for independent adjusters through our connection. You can view his client list and see his primary concentration has been to Insurance Company clients.

As anyone in the claim industry knows, one of the key complaints we get in all survey results is either late reporting, improper activity log documentation which I wrote earlier about-click here- or very poor communication. Anyone who has worked as a claims examiner or claims manager knows that without formatted pattern letters, we often fail to handle written correspondence so well. In addition to classes and e-articles, Gary also provides services for adjusting firms and insurance companies to review your pattern letters and update them to correspond  to today’s consumer needs. I am so glad to see his Letter Fixer services which are long overdue for some carriers.

When I am teaching our Fundamentals of Claims Class, while covering coverage issues and complaint handling, I solitict the participants for the right policy coverage provisions they would refer and insured to or include in a reservations of rights letter. I have learned that while licensed, policy coverage is not a skill  they developed in adjuster licensing classes! Go back to my practice 125 question self -assessment test so you can evaluate if you know what you should before you even consider accepting your first claim! Here is a link!

 Just take a look around at Dr Blake’s website  and you may see something that interests you. I certainly do as my skills as you see on the blog often could use the services of my prior administrative assistants. I sure miss those days! We know those that know us personally know we are more concerned with helping adjuster’s than we’ve been worried about your spellcheckers (smile). Now that I’ve met Gary, I guess I better come out of retirement myself and get my Claims Communication training!

Here is a website link to his biography which is definitely professional (did anyone say Ph.d?  )and just the type of credentials we are looking for so that independents too can gain the expertise to fly through insurance carrier file requirements. I am very thankful he has agreed to come on board with the ClaimSmentor program to more professional educate independent adjusters.  Anyone who has taken my Basic 50 Hours Fundamentals of Claims Class which is online (everything but the estimate and scoping training we hope)  knows how very much I tell them to STOP paying $300-$2,500 for a week of train when I have now spend almost four years developing professional resources for them to take courses from.

Take a look at Gary’s clients on this link and I don’t think you will doubt that we have checked out his client data base to assure you would get professional training there ( i.e. know before you go comments you always hear stated). Now we are working diligently to “Make Things Happen” which was my father’s favorite business quote!

It has been a long struggle since 2005 developing the ClaimSmentor program and to gather such qualified individuals you can use at your seminars, individuals who are tied down at local jobs can use as online claim training along with us at ClaimSmentor. To join us, here is a link on our registration information. If you do not have  license but are involved in claims, just email me at Debbie@Dimechimes.com with either a link to your profile on Linkedin, a link in to your website with your profile and contact information shown, your resume and id, or a summary and ID of your background.

As a staff claim manager, we had speakers such as Gary at all annual conferences. In fact, when I was a field adjuster, it was one of my favorite assigned tasks to set up and create interesting workshops for our unit and I plan to transition some of those programs to field classes for independents as I remember quite well some of the interesting things I put together along with other field adjusters in our unit so we’d not only learn from them but also enjoy them!

Watch for many more such options for independent adjusters in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead the GREAT Lord willing! I’m off to register for my own Claims Writing Workshop with Dr Gary -his new given name so he knows it’s an independent calling!

By the way- if you tell Gary you are a member of  ClaimSmentor, he will give you a 10% discount off all orders! I have provided him with a login id so he can verify your login id on ClaimSmentor before providing the discount.

Thanks again everyone! Together we are going to reduce claim litigation over the things we can control and we DO have the wisdom to know the difference in what independents can control and what they cannot. When it is not within our control and carrier designated privileges just click here for all things Serenity Prayer related!

I just have to tell you everyday I appreciate my freedom to speak my mind openly as a self employed individual instead of muttering under my breath! I recall telling my mother who was raised catholic on one storm that I sure was saying alot of Hail Mary’s and she asked what I was saying so when I told her  she  sure had quite a laugh when the words were totally wrong but they sure worked for me when things went wrong sometimes under catastrophe assignment stress! Most importantly- God knew what was on my mind!

Are you getting any Chinese Drywall liability or property claims? Is it the new “Mold Gold” as Trader likes to call it?

Very interesting. Last night I got a call from a firm owner wanting to know what I knew about Chinese drywall claims. I promised to research it when I had a chance to since I’m still playing catch up.

This morning what do I run across but a Harleysville Construction Litigation Claim Manager posting a discussion question in his Claims group. Here is a link if you can help him out. This would be great training informations for all independents working daily commercial liability claims:

Chinese Drywall Claims- Are you getting these claims?

This is interesting. I got a call yesterday wondering what I knew about Chinese Drywall Claims. Zip…since I’m Training but that also intrigued me. Today I then ran across a Linked in Discussion question by a Claims Manager for Construction defect claims wanting to know if anyone knew about it.

Here is a link to this Claim Managers question. I’ll be very interested to see if anyone from our group can provide more details.

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=1789072&gid=1808294&trk=EML_anet_qa_ttle-0Pt79xs2RVr6JBpnsJt7dBpSBA

Either reply here as a comment on this topic which we always welcome or reply to his profile on our Dimechimes ClaimSmentor Linkedin Group at: www.linkedin.com/in/dimechimesclaimSmentor.com

We welcome anyone in the claims industry to join our group as long as your profile at Linkedin is completed.

Thanks for helping the Harleysville Claim manager out! 

Compare TWIA Manager Jim Oliver’s comments about a major Galveston storm 6/08 to 2/09 Statement on Ike Claims- Part I of II

It is amazing what you can run across on the internet when you just spend some time looking around.  Anyone that follows posts made here knows we certainly do that…if only we could afford a great editor to turn this information into fine editorial posts!

Atleast we plug along the best we can here given very very limited time these days due to my daughter’s medical recovery from tumors discovered in 2008 and subsequent major surgery a few weeks ago to correct damage caused when the tumors shattered nerves and bones as they developed and the radiation damage caused in the aftermath of tumor removal operations. So bear with me  here and take the information and article  links we post here and gather as much information as you can from the articles. Our goal here is very clear to those in the independent claims industry who have a most difficult time when they are not on assignment with carriers gathering hot topic information to educate them on the problems facing our industry. Reporter NOT…Editor NOT..Journalist NOT but interested in helping independent claims adjusters understand our industry…now that is a BIG YES! I sure miss the days with a carrier having a great administrative assistant to take my reports and by magic turn them into professional appearing work product! (Thank you Gail, thank you Cindy and many others!). So set aside your grammar, spelling, and run on sentence checkers and read the professional articles linked within this post.

While researching information today after reading an article from the Galveston news the other day updating the statistics on TWIA (Texas Windpool ) claims from Ike quoting manager Oliver found here, I ran across another article quoting the General Manager at TWIA, Mr Jim Oliver, over at Gene Taylor’s old website/blog here .

I hope you read both- it is almost scary how very dead on he was about the “what if a Category 3 hit Galveston” written in June 08. I have to say that manager had the intuition and knowledge to evaluate the what if’s correctly and what effect it would have on the state of  Texas and the policyholders. He was almost dead on as well about the dollar amount of damage. This is a don’t miss comparison. Do his comments sound familiar about major carriers pulling off the coastal coverage?

A few comments on the first link in the February 09 article found on MS Congressman Gene Taylor’s old blog.

Here we go again about “inexperienced adjusters” quoting from comments by Jim Oliver. I’m sorry but someone has to stand up for those inexperienced adjusters  and independent adjusting firms (whose hands are tied as to who can and cannot attend the carrier training based on experience) who they had working some  of the TX Windpool claims. I am not blaming TWIA .It is a constant problem in the Insurance Company/ Independent Adjusting firm/ Independent Adjuster relationships.

Let me explain why. I feel qualified to do so after founding and supporting our site  at ClaimSmentor where we have over 1,000 partipants with about 50% of them being new independent adjusters. I can tell within 30 days of membership those who are serious about their training and those that thought  it was a ”get rich quick scheme” or career because they either 1) walk away and forget the thoughts of a claims career  when they find out how much is really involved BEFORE deploying or 2) they are extremely serious in their pursuit of professional claims development and I see them on the site forums at night and on weekends (you would NEVER find staff doing so if they aren’t on salary or on the clock).

They spend literally thousands  of dollars and time without the benefit of an employers expense account for per diem while attending carrier certification classes, taking required estimate software training classes, adjusting firm conferences, being forced in some cases to pay for training   just to get on rosters in hopes of being deployed on a storm (I’ll post some unbelievable samples for you tomorrow).

Now here is the real kicker that goes on every day in this industry which drives all of us crazy as there is no such thing as a carrier mentoring new independent adjusters. All national carriers and the windpools set a minimum number of years experience  required BEFORE an independent adjuster can sit  in at an independent adjusting firm designated by the  carrier’ to administer  required training for them. The carriers may send one to a few representatives to the adjusting firm selected to present the material but that isn’t always the case either.

It is usually a minimum of two or three years experience required yet the carriers do NOT allow them to take carrier certification exams without the experience….until something major hits and then they often waive the certification requirement if they are licensed. Heck- look at TX emergency adjuster license information  on the TX Ins Dept website and they even allow emergency adjusters to work under an experienced adjuster (unless they changed something recently).

 Also, check around on the majority of carrier websites and you will not even find mention on their claim links  information or links to independent adjusting firms who they can take classes with so independent adjusters  even know who presents them. It is all based on who they  (independent adjusters )  know and what advertisements or forum posts they find as to where they can find an exam to take.

In additon, thousands travel across the country just to find one. I do not know of any carrier yet adminstering them online. Rumor has it one major carrier will be presenting their training on laptops given to the adjusting firm but the independent will still have to travel across the country to watch the laptop presentation and to take the test. We understand the need for a proctor to administer the exam but come on….how about Prometrics or one of the exam centers with national services where adjusters take license exams? How about the fact that an independent has no clue who may call to deploy them from an adjusting firm standpoint so they have to take as many carrier exams as they can complete before each storm season so they can go? What about the fact the carrier’s often think that there are no experienced adjusters available when the reality is there are many many independents who are turned away because they just haven’t taken their exam yet prior to the storm the carrier will not make any common sense exceptions yet they have 20 years in the  claim industry? Believe me this does go on…I hear it from adjusters, adjusting firms, and my claim staffing firm has experienced this many many times.

I am not supporting inexperienced adjusters with a license only…just the inexperienced adjusters who have taken classes (not 3 day schools or worse yet a one day class!)  and by that I mean classes approved by state insurance departments who approve  trainers  for CE courses sometimes requiring  at minumum 5 years or more experience in the m industry person and continuing insurance education in insurace such as the AIC or CPCU designation?  It is one thing to have field adjusted claims and an entirely different thing to manage claims and understand all of the reasons there are file requirements due to Bad Faith claims and the current litigation environment.

Today there are many experienced adjuster resumes from adjusters with 10 plus years experience with a vast amount of litigation experience that can run circles around some carrier “claim examiners”, reinspectors, and entry level claim managers. I hear these war stories too from the field. Why is ok for all the blame about what went wrong on a storm squarely on the shoulders of independent adjusting firms and independent adjusters who are required to follow carrier established guidelines. As the saying goes “if they tell you to staple the photos upside down…don’t argue or we will lose our contract to service their claims”.

Now exactly how are they  (independent trainees ) supposed to gather that experience?

Experienced independent’s do not have time to train them as it slows down their productivity and they do not make one dollar until closed files get approved and they receive payment usually weeks and months later. Believe me, the carrier quotas for contact and inspections in  this industry are sometimes impossible for staff or independent adjuster to meet. The carriers are driven by Department of Insurance deadlines for contact, inspected, and closing numbers and atleast in the past they had to report those numbers at minimum to the department of insurance on a weekly basis. The second concern I hear regularly is that they would be concerned about liability issues if a trainee they aren’t responsible for as an independent fell off of a roof or if the adjuster happened to be involved in an accident while handling inspections on their daily agenda? These are valid concerns. That is why we started ClaimSmentor- to see what we could accomplish online to avoid those concerns and I can tell you – it works and they will be much better trainees when they can accompany a field adjuster later during a storm.

I agree with the decision of carriers to best service the policyholders however….when something major such as Ike or Katrina causes massive damage those requirements are thrown out the window and anyone with a license can successfully deploy without any real life training or often given a one day training seminar when they arrive on site.

How about the carriers that cross train  staff claim central adjusters who have NO field experience versus a good percent of independent adjuster trainees that often have fantastic construction general manager experience, insurance agency experience, or other skills much more easy to work with than trying to train someone on construction.

I can vouch for the fact it is easier to teach a contractor who knows construction and estimate programs to complete claim forms and learn policy than it is to teach an in office phone adjuster who has no construction experience to learn that side of adjusting. I know- I started in office and moved to the field after two years in office so I understand the difficulty dealing with construction training while handling an insured in crisis.

Ask anyone who has deployed with merely a license if an adjuster’s license prepared them whatsoever for a carrier’s file requirements, estimate format or estimate scoping guidelines and they will tell you definitely NOT!

What about the carrier staff adjusters who may not even have a non resident license in that state? Check any insurance department website and see what they have to say about waiving non resident licenses for staff adjusters. Is it because the carrier has deep pockets and independent adjusting firms and adjusters do not in the event something goes wrong or do the insurance departments merely assume the carrier’s have trained all in office folks before deploying them on a major disaster?

 How about the carriers that are forced to use auto adjusters to adjust property claims because their executive office forbids use of independents in these poor economic times and worse yet underwriters who definitely have a great grasp on coverage but no clue how to handle a claim or to understand construction  repair concepts?

This is a nationwide problem with most carrier’s which I have never understood.  If we accept premium dollars do we not owe it to policyholders to have the properly trained claims adjusters?

Hail damage experienced adjusters do not necessarily understand total losses for major hurricane damage or major fire loss damage estimates.

There is alot of improvement needed all around in the catastrophe claims industry on the carrier side , the independent side, the insurance department regulations, and the National Assn of Insurance Commissioner’s who cancelled the proposed National Independent Adjusters Model Licensing Act which those who are independents do not understand to this day. I’ve blogged about that in the past and will post a link to that blog in Part II.

Watch later this week for part two….for tonight- enjoy reading the two articles. You will definitely be quite shocked at Jim Oliver’s correct assessment of what would happen in Galveston.

I’ll also leave you with a link for Slabbed’s  interpretation of this article and TWIA from a consumer perspective written today after I shared a link to the Galveston article with them based on an entirelydifferent  blog discussion we had the day before . You’ll find their blog article here.

You may disagree with Slabbed posts but if you follow them regularly you will atleast come to the understanding they are diligent in their efforts to help slabbed  homeowner’s(those who lost entire home but the slab during a storm) in the fight about homeowner policy exclusions that create the non coverage issues . I feel the same way about Attorney Chip Merlin’s blog entries. If you don’t know Chip…and I have never personally met him..he is a force to be dealt with. He has offices in FL, MS, and now Houston as well.You can also find photos of him giving a seminar at the National Public Adjuster Association conference at www.NAPIA.com.  

 In fact, I link to his  blog often as well for training purposes. Yes, I do understand he represents the insured not the insurer but that does not change the fact we can learn from his articles and blogs when you don’t find any insurance attorney’s writing such great blogs (except Rossmiller who hasn’t blogged for almost 6 months). If an independent or staff adjuster read them such as his posts on Bad Faith…he is “shouting from the roof tops “that would prevent adjusters from being sued if they just followed fair claim handling guidelines. You just have to “toughen up” to read both and have a thick skin so you don’t take the negative comments about the insurance industry as a whole personally. By the way…if you are a Fox news  fan or Headline News  fan it might be, he is regularly interviewed on the horrific missing childrens cases in central FL (Caylee and Haleigh) . You shouldn’t let the negative comments keep you from reading some important information and articles on his website and blog. Both Slabbed and Merlin’s blogs post links to court documents on active insurance claim litigation we all rarely ever get an opportuntiy to view since staff nor independents are privy to file documents on a claim not assigned to them.

 Truth be told, adjusters inheriting files from a few bad apples  (experienced and inexperienced it just depends on the adjuster’s ethics and training) make the same comments about some files involving poor file claim handling by a percentage of adjusters. The only difference is staff and independents cannot post publicly for fear of losing their jobs. It still doesn’t mean we can stick our heads in the sand and not study the issues and all work a little bit harder to do the right thing no matter what pressure we are under and we all know how bad that pressure is on storms such as Ike and Katrina.

I’ve been there and have so much empathy for not only the claims industry but for policyholders suffering these losses with no coverage. I’ll post more on the 2009 Multi Peril Act as well later this week.

Speaking of Attorney’s, what happened to one of the rare great blogs with the insurance company perspective many of us followed over at David Rossmiller’s blog? Those of us who follow these forums and blogs miss the point and counterpoint between the insured’s perspective and the carrier’s perspective! If you know if Rossmiller is ok, let us know! I think his last blog was in September of 2008 which is remarkable considering his opinions posted on Scruggs and Scruggs recent appearance in MS court with no comment from Rossmiller.

********

Update 1:24 am CST- Ok- I just had to add one more great article titled “Talent Cultivation” from a February 09 issue of Claims Magazine found here:

http://www.claimsmag.com/cms/Claims/Monthly%20Issues/Issues/2009/02/Features/FEATURE%20cover%20story?origin=channels-Education-Training

**Link will move to archived links there when the March issue comes out.

When will carriers learn if they are going to depend on independents for major catastrophes as they downsize their staff that they need to make carrier certifications more accessible online and that independent adjusters need to be trained when they don’t have an inbox overflowing with new assignments waiting for them after a storm class on scene. They can have an “A” list of experienced certified independents that are activated on regular hail storms and a “B” list of less experienced independent adjusters also trained and ready to go when the major storms like Ike and Katrina! Now that would be talent cultivation and a claims mentor of the finest nature! We have hundreds of very trained adjusters  as well as experienced adjusters. At ClaimSmentor  you can deploy with NO fee as we invite your HR departments to post job opportunities for both experienced and for trainee adjusters  and independent claim managers and claim examiners regularly!

Join us and come in and download their resumes!  You decide if many of them are better than a newly licensed only trainee!

**Update 2/27/09…Just one more link: Here is a Self Assessment Test with 125 questions a newly licensed adjuster can review and see how many of these topics covered in our Fundamentals Class at ClaimSmentor  and this is far from a complete list of basicessential things they need to know before deploying.

You can’t teach this im a 1 day or a 3 day class. They may learn very very basic essentials but many that take my class online after taking many very good field classes advise that much of this material was not covered. Mind you these are new adjusters who have taken and passed adjusters license exams, estimate software classes, and in many cases have passed atleast 1 carrier certification exam. They usually have the 3 basics at minium (license, software, and 1 carrier certification ) and tests that cover basic estimating but not the majority of these other important topics. Is it any wonder we have files often mishandled due to a lack of training?

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

Carriers should not complain about needing inexperienced independent adjusters not trained on claim file requirements if they are not willing to let them take their training. They pick up the expense as independents. Follow the example of NFIP who allows them to attend their workshops but will not certify them without 4 years experience….but sometimes make exceptions during major disasters IF they took the current year’s workshop.

My many heartfelt thanks go out to the now hundreds of experienced adjusters who participate on ClaimSmentor to help answer trainee questions without any hassle in our forums and even join us sometimes stopping by in our live online classes for trainee adjusters as well as thanks to the claim managers who also do the same. Our site would not be possible without their partipation and willingness to support our e-mentor project.

**Update 2/28/09 10:45 AM: I had not been following the claim statistics that often recently and today ran across an Insurance Journal article form August 08 about the TWIA losses already depleting funds when two other minor hurricanes came in before Ike. Read this link for the information:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2008/08/26/93100.htm

Citizens of FL Board approves selection of 30 adjusting firms for 2009-2012 See website links here

 We have posted numerous updates on our blogs about the Citizens of FL Request for Proposal (RFP 08-0016 last rebid in September 08) which was rebid several times in 08 as Citizens of FL cancelled the RFP several times in 08 taking one year from the initial bid process in January 08 to finally announcing the final selections in December 2008 and January 2009.

This caused an impossible situation for the adjusting firms and if you track the rebid posts and claim committee and Board of Governor meetings notes posted on their site, you’ll notice they selected different vendors several times which is quite confusing for independent adjusters as well as the independent adjusting firms who were trying to build rosters of adjusters and plan training sessions. It has been a very rough process and quite expensive for the adjusting firms bidding as well as the RFP documents they had to supply to Citizens changed throughout the year and required many copies of their documents be turned into Citizens to be in compliance with the bidding process. If you follow the document and meeting tracks, with each rebid….less firms applied and you cannot blame them!

 They confirmed with the Citizens Board of  Governors meeting in a January 2009 meeting the selection of 30 adjusting firms selected  to use for  2009- 2012 when workload requires use of independent adjusters.  There were 58 firms that applied on the latest RFP and 30 firms selected. The committee notes post two lists. The first is the 30 firms selected and the second list is called “remaining list” which is the adjusting firms who applied but were not awarded contracts.

You can view the Claim Committee and Board of Governor Meeting notes on these links where this was announced  in a  12/12/08 Claims Committee meeting (see minutes of meeting notes in January 09 and approved by the Board of Governors on 1/29/09 on this  link to all past Board of Governors meetings and Claim Committee meeting notes:

https://www.citizensfla.com/about/past_boardmtgs.cfm

You can view the entire RFP to include the evaluation scoring information sheet in their archived RFP information here (just scroll down and look for RFP 08-0016 which includes the fixed fee schedule, the scoring evaluation criteria and other important information independents should know about the expectations of adjusters and adjusting firms processing their claims):

https://www.citizensfla.com/about/purchasing-solicitations.cfm?type=closed

While these meeting notes do list the adjusting firms, they do not list their websites. You will also see the listing here on their Adjuster Resources page:

https://www.citizensfla.com/adjuster/index.cfm

**see link in top right corner to Awarded Competitive Solicitations link which lists the 30 adjusting firms.

You will find the list again in their meeting documents along with the “remaining list” for firms that applied but were not awarded contracts to service their claims on the past meeting link above by looking at the Board of Governors meeting in January- search the documents in  the left column for all lists and the claim committee presentations and info at those meetings.This is public information posted on their website. 

We have located the websites for adjusters to contact these firms about their upcoming Citizens of Florida required carrier certification training. It is our understanding many of the firms are already hosting the daily (non catastrophe) training right now and that the independent catastrophe training will be held beginning April 2009. It is best to check with them as we are not a Citizens vendor but simply provided much needed information for independent adjusters looking for the firms designated to handle their claims.

We post ALL adjusting firm training classes we learn about on our  site at ClaimSmentor  in our Carrier Certification forum for participants on our site. Before you pay to attend any of these sessions make sure to note that a large number of those hosting the classes are hosting them FREE so  be sure you check around for those classes. There are so many going on, it will not be difficult at all to find one in a location near you. The majority of advertisements we see for these are being held in popular locations in Florida and Texas. Now if we can just get them to hold some of them in the central of the US like here in Nashville, TN!!

If you are an adjusting firm wishing to post information about your classes, please contact Debbie@Dimechimes.com for more information about joining ClaimSmentor or posting your class information here on our Adjuster Information blog.

Here is the list of websites for the 30 selected firms. Be sure to ask the firm before you sign up with them if they are one of the firms that did agree on their response to the RFP to offer Citizens a 5 or 10% discount off of their fixed fee schedule. Citizens used an evaluation criteria where each firm applying got X number of points if they offered Citizens a discount.

 I had significant concerns about this as an inexperienced firm could gain points almost forcing them to offer a discount on the fee schedule to be competitive on the evaluation criteria. Other concerns I had/have are:

1)  How would this work with independent adjusters working side by side and some making 10% more than other independents if they happen to be working for one of the firms offering the discount?

2) Would this reduction in fee schedule cause a poor selection of adjusters sending the more experienced adjusters running to other carriers where they can earn a larger fee since they incur significant travel expenses when they work out of town to begin with during catastrophes?

3) Would this run off  excellent firms who are not interested in working for reduced fees when they can service claims for other carriers at greater fees? (When you look at the remaining list on the link above you’ll wonder too!)

The information I have gathered from some of the adjusting firms participating in the RFP is that even when they did offer the 10% discount to Citizens they did not plan on passing those discounted fees on to the independent adjuster. Instead, they plan to absorb that 10% from their portion of the fee bill. Thus for example if the adjusting firm agrees to a fee split of 60/40 with the independent adjuster, the adjuster would still get their 60% of the fee schedule, the adjusting firm 30%, and adjusting firm absorbs 10% of what they would have gotten had they not agreed to the 10% fee schedule discount. Just check with the adjusting firms you apply to to be sure you are not working at a 10% discount should this concern you. You can check the Fixed Citizens Fee schedule by asking the adjusting firm for the FIXED fee schedule from the RFP or look at it yourself in the RFP documents which are linked to here  on the above links to Closed RFP documents on the Citizens Purchasing link on their home page at www.citizensfla.com ( look for RFP 08-0016 )

Here are the websites for the 30 selected firms where you can apply and register for their Citizens Certification training:

Action Catastrophe Team, Inc.

http://www.actioncatteam.com

Alamo Claim Service

http://www.myalamoclaims.com

Allied American Adjusting Company, LLC

http://www.americanadj.com/contact1.html

Bradley Stinson & Associates, Inc.

http://www.bradleystinson.com/

Burton Claim Service, Inc.

http://www.burtonclaimservice.com/contact.htm

CatManDo, Inc.

http://www.catmandoinc.com/contact-us.aspx

Claims Consultants, LLC

http://www.claimsconsultantsllc.com

CountryWide Adjusting

http://www.cwclaims.com

Florida Claims, a division of Weathers Adjustment Company, Inc.

http://www.floridaclaims.com/contact.asp

G&G Insurance Adjusters, Inc.

http://www.ggadjusters.com/upload/jobs.asp

Global Risk Solutions, Inc. (GRS)

http://www.globalrisksolutions.com

Insurance Servicing & Adjusting Company (ISAC)

http://www.isacclaims.com

Insure-Aid Claims Service

http://www.insure-aid.com/ContactInformation.htm

Integrated Catastrophe Services, Inc.

http://www.iclaimsllc.com 

Interclaim, Inc.

http://www.interclaiminc.com/about.html

Johns Eastern Company, Inc.

http://www.johnseastern.com/career.html

Legacy Claim Services, LLC

  http://www.legacyclaims.net

Lozano Insurance Adjusters, Inc.

http://www.lozanoadjusters.com

Mathias and Company, Inc.

http://www.mathiasinc.com/

Nado Insurance Services

http://www.Nadoclaims.com

National Catastrophe Adjusters, Inc. (NCA)

http://www.ncagroup.com

 

Pilot Catastrophe Services, Inc.

http://www.pilotcat.com

ROL Insurance Consulting

http://yellowpages.aol.com/business/fl/oldsmar/rol-insurance-consulting/0-116929477/?query=Insurance+Adjusters

**I couldn’t find a website for them but found phone number above. Anyone know their website?

S&S Claims Service, Inc.

http://www.SSClaims.com

Team One Adjusting Services, LLC

http://www.teamoneclaims.com

The Littleton Group

http://www.littleton-group.com/catastrophe_services.html

US CAT Adjusters, LLC

http://www.uscatadj.com

 

Walker Group, Inc.

http://www.wgclaims.com

Wardlaw Claims Service

http://www.wardlawclaims.com/contact.cfm

 

York Claims Service, Inc.

http://www.yorkclaims.com/YCS/ContactUs/ExecutiveContacts.aspx

***Before you consider working for any adjusting firm, you might want to check the Vendor Feedback forums over at www.catadjuster.org on this link to see what other adjusters may be discussing about these firms as we do not provide vendor feedback on ClaimSmentor since 50% of our members are trainees. I do always have concern with “vendor feedback” as you never know if it is a disgruntled employee if they post negative comments and/or if there were work performance issues. I can assure you based on my claims management background that some of the worst performers are the loudest complainers but at the same time I can also tell you that there are many non payment issues we need to clean up in the independent adjusting business. Unfortunately, the few firms with these issues give others a bad name for all independent adjusting firms:

http://www.catadjuster.org/Forums/tabid/60/afv/topicsview/aff/40/Default.aspx

**Note you have to register on CADO (www.catadjuster.org) and have a login id to get into this Vendor Feedback in the Adjusters Den there as that forum is not open to the public.

There are so many reputable firms, some who have even serviced their claims for years, on the “remaining”  list that it makes you wonder if the evaluation process was the proper tool for evaluating the professionalism of all adjusting firms. I am not by any means putting down those selected, just concerned about many of the GREAT adjusting firm names on the “remaining” list. I will get the websites up to the firms on the “remaining” list within the next week since there are so many good firms on that list as well.

Note the Citizens Minutes of the Board and Claim Committee meetings usually run about a month behind getting posted on their website so we don’t yet have a link to any details about the finalization of the contracts with these 30 firms which their site says was going to be done once they got the board approval for these firms in late January. (See past Board of Governor and Claim Committee meeting links on the link above to past meetings.

*********

Update 6:35pm CST: If you want to see the history of RFP 08-0016 and what independent adjusters  and independent adjusting firms have been put through on Citizens adjuster training in 07 and 08 (with the majority never getting an assignment) you can look at this list of prior blogs we wrote since we started this blog July 07:

7/26/07:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/07/26/hot-topic-for-independent-adjusters-opportunities-to-work-citizens-insurance-of-fl-claims/

 

8/24/07:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/enough-is-enough-citizens-fl-claim-reserve-problem-to-the-tune-of-300-million/

 

10/18/07

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/citizens-of-fl-adds-46th-adjusting-firm-tornado-damage-in-pensacola-fl/

 

2/13/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/citizens-rfp-for-daily-independent-adjusters-cancelled-the-claims-cheese-is-on-the-move-again/

 

4/23/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/citizens-of-fl-releases-new-rfp-for-daily-and-for-catastrophe-claims/

 

5/14/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/citizens-of-fl-new-rfp-revised-times-3/

 

5/14/08:

 

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/citizens-of-fl-changes-independent-training-requirements-for-2008/

 

5/19/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/concerned-regarding-adjuster-fee-schedules-for-citizens-of-fl/

 

 

 

6/18/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/breaking-news-citizens-has-posted-30-firms-selected-for-tier-1-on-new-rfp/

 

8/5/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/citizens-of-fl-cancels-rfp-for-independent-adjusters-yet-another-time-in-2008-rebid-now-times-4/

 

8/18/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/citizens-expects-to-post-rebid-rfp-for-independent-adjusters-on-august-19-2008/

 

9/03/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/citizens-of-fl-now-has-a-new-date-published-for-new-rfp-for-93008/

 

2/19/09:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/citizens-of-fl-board-approves-selection-of-30-selected-adjusting-firms-see-list-here-with-websites/

Note alot of the links have probably moved in these blogs as Citizens moves information to the “Past ” link on the Board of Governors Meeting (there is a future meeting link and a past meeting link you will find on the home page at www.citizensfla.com and the RFP 08-0016 information is moved from the Purchasing documents link to the Closed and Archived documents link which you can still find on the home page linked to a minute ago. 

***************************

Updated 3/6/09: To help adjusters who keep asking who should they take the classes from, who would I recommend,etc (which I don’t do as I have no control of these firms so if I have not been participating with them for years or deployed adjusters for them and gotten great feedback I must refrain from doing so…..in the same vain, we do not provide vendor feedback in our ClaimSmentor forums since we have not personally worked with these firms)….anyway….try the membership directory at www.naiia.com  and also view their membership criteria to understand why we are suggesting you go there to see which members above are approved members at NAIIA. While you are there, be sure to click on their link to the Code of Conduct form they require members comply with. Search our Archives found in the left column of this blog and read our entire blog about this posted on 3/5/09. You can click on the Calendar on 3/5/09 and it will take you right to it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helpful Claim Resource Links for Adjusters- Software, Magazines, Training, Licenses, Forums..much more

 We have updated all of the links on our  Dimechimes ClaimSmentor Adjuster Information Blog and now have seperate links for Adjuster Forums, Claim Career sites, Claim Estimating Software Sites, Claim Blogs of Interest, Insurance News, Claim Conferences, Claim Forums , Claim Magazines,and much much more.

To find all of these links just scroll down all of the entries on the right side of our blog. Just click on a link you are interested in to find resources available  for that topic.

To find blogs related to your training needs, you can also scroll down on the right column and find a drop down menu by Categories or use the Search tool found on the right hand column to find all blogs on the claim topic you are looking for.

We hope this helps all of you who find your way to our Adjuster Information blog through search engines searching for these many topics! Happy Hunting!

Independent Adjusters- Participate in our poll on Carrier Certification Exams

 Be sure to click on the comments tab at the end of this post to find the link to the blog post regarding the need for improvement in carrier certification exams for independent adjusters.

I changed the View Results to allow voters to be able to view the results- check back often for updated results! Note the vote poll software program only allows voting 1 time per cookie so adjusters cannot vote multiple times.

Have License Ready To Go! Not So Quick- Take this Self Assessment Test

We receive hundreds of emails yearly if not monthly from new adjusters specifying they now have their adjuster’s license and are ready to go as they look for independent adjuster assignments. Many will have great backgrounds in construction, auto repair backgrounds, insurance agency, and other related fields.
 
What they do not have that they do not understand is a grasp on the functional essentials to properly adjust a claim. They may have learned state ethics requirements for adjusters, some basic policy to pass the adjuster’s license exam, but little regarding practical file requirements, carrier claim handling guidelines, forms required, proper communication tools and appropriate forms of communication.
 
If you think you are ready…try taking this self assessment and see how many questions you are comfortable with before you go out on assignments and see if you are ready!

Whether you take our 50 Hour Fundamentals of Claims Class or obtain training elsewhere, please do not go out on assignments without taking much needed training from PROFESSIONAL sources. We post them all in our Seminars Forum, our Training Material Forum, in industry Claim Conference postings all found right  on ClaimSmentor. See About page for all website/contact information.
 
This is not by any means a complete list of things you should know but just a 125 sample assessment test of SOME of the minimum things you should know before working property residential claims.
 
Career Self Test Questions:
 
1) What are pros and cons of being a staff adjuster versus an independent adjuster?
 
2) What different type of fee schedules are available for independents to work under?
 
3) What are typical fee splits between independent adjuster and adjusting firms?
 
4)  What parts of independent contract do you need to be careful about before signing?
 
5)  What equipment must you provide yourself to perform your required field adjusting duties?
 
6)  What information will you be given at an induction center meeting versus what you are expected to know at arrival?
 
7)  What things are you required to have on an adjuster’s resume? What format should you use if you are new to the field? If you are experienced?
 
8)  What are holdbacks on fee schedule payments?
 
9)  How much money do you need to deploy on a catastrophe assignment?
 
10)  When should you expect to receive your first fee payments once you start processing catastrophe files?
 
11) What are dress codes for adjusters as required by carriers?
 
12) What are expected hours at a catastrophe assignment?
 
13) What is the difference in pay for an inside adjuster versus a field adjuster?
 
14) What is the average annual income for an independent adjuster? For a staff adjuster trainee?
 
15) What career field options are available for you to pursue?
 
16) How much errors and omissions coverage is it recommended you carry? Should you furnish your own even if the independent adjusting firm offers to furnish it for a fee? Does your E and O cover your defense costs if a claim goes to suit and you are named in the lawsuit?
 
Adjuster Ethics Self Test Questions
 
17) Is it ok to take salvage from an insured?
 
18) Is it ok to take gifts from insureds, contractors, attorneys?
 
19) Is it ok to select a contractor for an insured or recommend a contractor?
 
20) Is it ok to meet a contractor over dinner to reconcile differences in your estimate?
 
21) Is it ok to use an assistant with you in the field who is not licensed to assist with the paper work and calls from insureds?
 
22) Is it ok to discourage an insured from filing an insurance department complaint?
 
23) Is it ok to discourage an insured from hiring an attorney or a public adjuster?
 
24 ) Is it ok to inspect a large group of claims and later write them up once you conclude your inspections?
 
25) Is it ok if you are using an assistant like a husband/wife team of independent adjusters for the non file assigned person to write the activity logs for the one assigned the file?
 
Dealing with insureds- Self Assessment Questions
 
26) What is the minimum time frame most carriers expect you to go by for first contact with insured?
 
27) When should insured expect a personal inspection once you have contacted them?
 
28) Can you accept lump sum estimates from insured?
 
29) When is it required you obtain original documents such as repair estimates from an insured vs copies? Why?
 
30) When is the appropriate time to get contents inventory forms to an insured?
 
31) Who are high profile insureds you should give priority treatment during a catastrophe assignment?
 
32) How do you determine who you should see first if you are assigned a large group of files on a catastrophe assignment when you arrive?
 
33) What is the appropriate way to zone your assignments if given this large number of new claims upon arrival at a catastrophe site?
 
34) What form should you review before ever calling the insured and what parts of this form are important?
 
35) If the insured wants to talk to your manager, what is your appropriate way to deal with this?
 
36) In addition to getting contents inventory forms to an insured immediately, what other forms should be given to the insured if the home is uninhabitable?
 
37) If the insured has damage under multiple coverages on a residential claim which one should you discuss with them first?
 
38) Where would you meet with an insured if the home is uninhabitable? How would you determine the amount of an advance they might need? What authorization can you give them for getting a hotel and eating meals out?
 
39) When is proof of ownership required on a contents claim?
 
40) What 4 items should you ask an insured for on each contents item claimed?
 
Carrier File Requirement Self Assessment
 
41) What 3 ratios does the carrier constantly monitor to see if you are meeting their time service requirements?
 
42) Do carriers allow you to use custom made forms such as your own excel contents sheet?
 
43) Do carriers allow you to use email to communicate with an insured?
 
44) Do independent adjusting firms allow you to communicate with the staff carrier claim manager or adjuster?
 
45) Which carriers are going to require you to get a carrier certification exam successfully passed before you can work their claims for an adjusting firm?
 
46) What language is required on all forms a carrier gives to an insured to sign?
 
47) Who keeps copies of all claim file documents and material..you or the carrier or both?
 
48) What do you do if you receive suit papers on a claim?
 
49) What is required if the carrier receives an insurance department complaint? What steps are you required to take?
 
50) How do you close out a claim if the insured withdraws the claim? What paperwork is required?
 
51) What should you do if a severity code is incorrect in the system on a claim? Who sets up the severity code? Why does it matter?
 
52) How do you establish a claim reserve? How often are you required to change the reserve? What coverages require a reserve? What is the appropriate manner to determine a reserve amount?
 
Dealing with Insurance Agents- Self Assessment
 
53) Are you required to keep the agent up to date with the status of the file?
 
54) Should an agent be copied on all letters to an insured?
 
55) If the insured has a complaint, should you inform the agent or is it none of the agent’s business since the claim was assigned to the claims department?
 
56) What contact is recommended with agency offices when you arrive at your assigned catastrophe department?
 
57) What is the appropriate thing to do if an agent tries to get you to inspect all of their storm losses before other claims?
 
58) Do claim payments affect an agents loss ratio for regular claims? For catastrophe claims?
 
59) When should you notify an agent of underwriting concerns such as maintenance issues? Who else should you notify?
 
60 ) What would you say to an insured that alleges “the agent should have told me that” or “the agent didn’t offer me that coverage”? What process would you have to follow to investigate that?
 
Attorney and Public Adjuster (PA) requirements-self assessment
 
61) What file documentation do you need if the insured advises you they have contracted with a PA before you talk to the PA about
the details of the claim?
 
62) Where do you go to check the rules the PA must abide by in a given state?
 
63) Is the contract the insured signs with a PA a contract with the insurer meaning the insurer must comply? Does the contract waive any rights the carrier has?
 
64) Can you still talk to the insured if they have a contract with a PA?
 
65) Can you ask for the insured to be present if they have a PA?
 
66) What duties does insured have with the carrier if they now have a PA involved in their claim?
 
67) Who pays the PA and how much is allowed?
 
68) Can you talk to an insured if they have hired an attorney?
 
69) Can you inspect a claim if the insured has an attorney without the attorney present?
 
70) What documentation do you need from an attorney if they call to say they are representing the insured?
 
71) Can you send a letter to an insured if they have an attorney?
 
72) Are you obligated to notify the agent if the insured has an attorney or a PA?
 
73) What do you do if you get a time demand letter from a PA? From an attorney?
 
Good Faith Claim handling- Self Assessment?
 
74) What are you required to do to be in compliance with good faith claim handling statutes?
 
75) What do you do if an insured, attorney, or PA accuses you of being in bad faith?
 
76) What are the top reasons for bad faith due to adjuster claim handling problems?
 
File requirements self assessments questions
 
77) What 2 things are used if a coverage question or questions becomes known by the adjuster? What is the name of the form? What is the name of the letter? When do you use each? Can you proceed with investigating the claim when there is a coverage issue?
 
78) What is the name of the report used on large losses, daily claims to summarize the details of the claim? When is it due in to carrier?
 
79) What is the name of the form used to summarize all recommended payments broken down by coverage ?
 
80) What are minimum activity log file requirements? What are the “no’s” or do’s and don’ts of creating an activity log? What entries are required to be on the log?
 
81) What is proper file order for building, contents, and additional living expense documents?
 
82) What is the proper name for each of the  electronic file documents required to be uploaded to a carrier claim file if they use a claim management system?
 
83) What do you do if approached in the field by an insured and their claim is NOT assigned to you? What does the carrier expect?
 
84) When is a Sworn Proof of Loss form required? Who completes it? When is it due?
 
85) What do you do if the insured does not want the mortgage company name of the claim payment? What policy provision do you show the insured?
 
86) What forms do you use if the insured requires appraisal? Can you demand appraisal? If so, what steps do you need to follow?
 
87) Are you required to go over the settlement with the insured  in person once you have finished your estimate?
 
88) How should your file be documented when you have items still pending on the claim?
 
89) What things do you have authority to authorize without the carriers permission when discussing claims with an insured?
 
90) How do you document your claim file if you disagree with instructions from your claim manager ?
 
91) What is the best method to approach your manager about questions you have on the claim? What information should you have with you before going to them? How should the file be documented?
 
Policy Coverage Assessment- Self Assessment
 
92) Who is responsible to get the policy to the insured, agent, attorney or pa when a request is received for a copy of the policy? Do you give them a sample policy from the carrier office or who and what kind of policy is sent to them?
 
93) What reference books are recommended to have out in the field with you for policy forms and endorsements?
 
94)  What forms and endorsements and policies should you always have with you in the field?
 
95) Is it necessary to quote policy language exactly when you deny a portion of the claim?
 
96) Are you familiar with state mandated form language? How about state mandated mediation programs and forms required to notify an insured of their rights? What dollar limit applies requiring you give the insured this information?
 
97) What policy language do you refer to if an insured asks for payment for their time completing inventory forms?
 
98) What do you do if an insured claims items not covered? Property for people not covered on their policy? What letters and forms are required? What policy language would you refer the insured to to discuss this?
 
99) What many questions must you ask an insured to determine the appropriate place for them if their home is uninhabitable? Is an apt needed, a rental house, and how do you assess this? Who is responsible to locate temporary living quarters? What are abatements on Additional living expense coverage and how do you apply them? Who covers their security deposits?
 
100 )Settlements- What provision in the policy explains ACV? What process do you follow to calculate ACV and to notify the insured of RC provisons and how they collect them? How long do they have to collect them?
 
101) How long does an insured have to file suit on a claim? What is the Statute called that applies to this time limit? Where do you find it for each state?
 
Estimatic Self Assessment Questions
 
102) What are carrier guidelines on matching issues?
 
103) How does the pair and set clause apply to contents losses? To building losses?
 
104) Is it acceptable to offer the insured an appearance allowance on a damaged building or contents item?
 
105) What are line of site issues when determining how far to scope on building interior damage?
 
106) What are carrier acceptable methods of determining minimum charges?
 
107) What are general guidelines for allowing for overhead and profit on an estimate?
 
108) Can you pay an insured 10% profit if they do the work themselves?
 
109) How do you detemine the appropriate depreciation for building components? For contents items?
 
110) Is it ok to enter contents items in a building estimate as a miscellaneous item? Why or why not?
 
111) What do you do if you are unable to scope a building damaged item? Is it ok to copy the contractors scope and insert it into your estimate?
 
112) What is the best method for reconciling differences in your scope with the contractors scope?
 
113) If the insured’s contractors estimate is lower than your estimate what do you do? Which is used for fee schedule billing purposes?
 
114) IS it ok to recommend contractors to insured? If so, under what circumstances?
 
115) When are you required to review prior losses to avoid duplication on your current damage estimate?
 
116) What do you do if you suspect the damage you are inspecting is intentional versus accidental? (Example- insured uses a hammer to create appearance of hail damage to roof)?
 
117) Is it ok to round up or down on measurements? Is it ok to use the contractors measurements?
 
118) What are the major reasons for scoping issues when reconciling your estimate to a contractors?
 
119) What trades is it generally acceptable to allow overhead and profit and which trades is it considered not acceptable?
 
120) Is it ok to override a price in an estimating program with a manual entry? If so, how should you document your file?
 
121 ) What estimating program do you need training on? Where is it best to acquire it? Do you need to learn multiple systems? What is the cost involved?
 
122) Should an estimate need to be revised after you’ve given it to the insured what do you do with the original estimate once you have rewritten it?
 
123) If you reject acceptance of a lump sum bid insured provides from a contractor, should you keep a copy in your file?
 
124) Name the company many firms use to send off material samples for flooring such as carpet and tile and the process to follow to submit the sample
 
125) Are you required to agree to a scope with a contractor the insured has NOT signed a contract with to do the work?
 
*********
We cover these topics and much more during our 10 sessions of Fundamentals of Property Adjusting class held online LIVE on Monday and Thursday evenings. We will also hold class during the day should we receive enough registrants requesting the day course.  Our next class starts March 2, 2009.  IF you take the above self assessment and find you need more training, please join us at ClaimSmentor today if you are not already a member to register for our upcoming class. Again this does not begin to cover what you need to know to properly handle claims but gives you a great idea of how much more training you do need in addition to acquiring an adjuster’s state license.

We will also be posting much information in the next week on other sources of training also available as online options as well as the best of the best field training options for those wishing to pursue a career as an independent adjuster.

It is most important you avoid classes held by instructors with little to no experience themselves. It is always utmost important that you learn from experienced personnel and that you ask about the qualifications of the instructor. I personally find it important that adjusters take classes from (at minimum ) folks with both staff and independent experience as they are much more familiar with what goes on from a staff claim management perspective regarding expectations to properly train you in carrier expectations versus possible minimally acceptable file standards that barely meet the muster of carrier file reviews.

I’ve been teaching our Fundamentals of Claims class for several years now with over 200 now processing through our class. I hear their stories and in many cases from adjusters who did go out on their first assignment during Katrina and or Ike who were not given good training and had not known how much there really was to learn only to get sent home and in some cases worse yet to be told they can no longer work claims for a carrier they had worked hard to establish a relationship with. Many assume that if they pass the carrier certification test which is usually on estimatics that they are good to go. Is what these trainees are missing is that the carrier also has high expectations that you already know other basic essentials like proper communication skills, forms, policy language ,etc which definitely is not the case for many sent out.

Is what I don’t like going on in our industry is that many books available and many classes are being hosted by some independent adjusters that have little to no practical experience themselves. It takes years  before one should even consider writing a book, hosting a course or other such classes.

It is really becoming an epidemic in the independent field with classes available if you just check around the classifieds and postings on many sites. We hope to direct you in future blog postings to reputable adjusting firms and classes hosted by some of the more professional vendors our members have found in their training path.

One of the fallouts we are seeing from this inexperience being passed on is that the trainers with little background do not understand the backlash  of some of the poor instructions being given out  and as such I do believe it is leading to the increase in claim litigation  due to  poor decisions and claim handling skills by newer adjusters improperly trained.

The very last thing you should want is to barely be acceptable and only to be assigned deployment opportunities when they’ve run out of adjusters with more professional claim handling skills. The better you are the longer you will be kept out on independent assignments, the less chance you have in being sued for bad faith claim handling activities, the more satisfied insureds will be with their claim handling experience thus reducing Insurance Department complaints,  and the happier the carrier will be with your work product!

 

**Sorry about the smilee faces showing up every time I use the number eight. Every time I use it is shows up when published as a smilee face. If anyone knows how to overcome that issue please let me know!

Have you registered for your 2009 NFIP Adjuster Certification Class?

Here is the link to the NFIP- National Flood Insurance Adjuster Certification Workshops:

http://www.nfipbureau.fema.gov/training/index.html

You will see the link for adjusters at the top of the right hand corner. Register asap if you have not already as these classes fill up quickly. We have many members of  ClaimSmentor who are already attending them in Jacksonville, FL today.

Note this is a different link than they used in 2008 for Adjuster classes and that old link which many are trying to use says their are no workshops presently posted so many adjusters may think that they are not yet available.

We are back! Next 50 Hour online Fundamentals of Claims class begins March 2, 2009

We apologize for the lengthy delay in blog postings! We’ve had extremely limited time available for blog postings due to major operations my daughter underwent this past month but hope to be back on the blog on a more regular basis now that she is recovering at home.

We have improved our Fundamentals of Property Claim Adjusting course to move it from an 8 session course to a 10 session course all held online live at  ClaimSmentor . We have added a session on Contents claim handling and a session on Condo unitowners and master policy claims handling to our original 8 sessions. All participants completing the 10 sessions to include pre-class reading material and self study guides you can use out in the field as well as pre-class homework questions to assess your understanding of the pre-class reading assignments will receive a 5o hour Fundamentals of Property Adjusting Completion certificate. This includes 30 hours of online class instruction as well as 20 hours of pre-class reading and homework assignments.

If you are a new adjuster you will never make the comment again “have license ready to go to work” after taking this course as you will be simply astonished at the amount of material you need to learn to properly adjust claims.

This course is not an estimating course like many you will find out in the field. It is essential that you learn estimating through those valuable classes.  We address all of the things you need to know  in addition to estimating and the list is just simply way to long to go over in this post but includes communicating with PA’s and Attorneys, time demands, sample letter formats, file requirements, signing independent contracts, fee schedule reviews, electronic claim file processing and CMS systems, insurance department complaint handling, quota ratios you must live by ,samples of all commonly used forms in claims, recorded statement taking and outlines , partner adjusting, current trends and changes in adjusting and much much more.

Many courses available to independent adjusters are taught by other adjusters who have worked in the field. We teach our course from an entirely different perspective. We teach you how a claim manager thinks based on personal experience both as a staff and independent claim manager. You need to know and understand procedures based on the expectations your manager will have of you not based on hit or miss training from acquaintences. We also differ from much of the available training as we are not affiliated with an adjusting firm and this course covers the pros and the cons of the claim industry in a reality based method so you will have a much better perspective on the reality of this career.

If you are not a member of ClaimSmentor and wish to join us, the registration information can be found on our About page on this blog. Once registered you will be able to review the complete agenda.

Another most enjoyable aspect of this class is that it is held ONLINE live so your questions as we cover each session can be asked during class with an immediate response to address your concerns or any material you may not completely understand.

This is a great way to learn the property claim industry from home saving the funds normally required to attend a field class with travel expenses on top of the cost of the course.

Not sure if you need additional training or if this Fundamentals of Claims Adjusting for Property losses is for you? Take this self assessment test and you decide!

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

2008 Claims Magazine Claims Salary Survey is Up in the October 2008 Issue

  

We have just had the opportunity to review the 2008 Claims Salary Survey up online in the October issue of Claims Magazine. I consider the detail provided in this year’s report the best yet!

Despite published claims of independents earning fees in the $300K range (see this recently published story in the Winston Salem news on 9/11/08 click here) the average salary for an independent adjuster participating in this year’s survey was $69K while adjusting firm owners surveyed indicated an average salary of $98K for an overall average salary in the independent claims field of $84K. Yes, we do know many who earn above this average but they are the exception versus the rule.

Articles such as this over at Slabbed picked up on this Winston Salem AP article in their “Fat Cat” article- click here. They apparently don’t realize that even for those rare adjusters earning a 300K income during a major storm year that they must pay 100% of their hotel and fuel expenses as well as vehicle and equipment and software expenses which are major. They also apparently are unaware of the many horror stories we hear each year of independent adjusters who experience extremely long delays waiting for reimbursement as the adjusting firms must wait on the carriers to review and approve files which can take months following a major storm before they pay the adjusting firm who then pays the independent adjuster. That alone is another full story I’ll be writing more about soon. In addition, independent adjusters do not earn 100% of the fees from the fees schedules. There is a split determined pre-deployment on the amount the independent splits with the adjusting firm. The typical average is anywhere from a 60%-70% fee split with the adjusting firm keeping 30% to 40% of the fees earned. The fee split usually depends on the supply and demand of adjusters, the experience level of the adjuster, and many other factors. For other pros/cons of working as an independent adjuster, we’ve provided below a link to our blog on this below at the bottom of this blog article.

The staff claim adjuster salaries in the survey averaged about 65K while staff claim managers averaged about 90K. While these figures are somewhat minimally lower than the independent fees earned, you have to keep in mind that a staff claim employee has 100% of their expenses provided by the insurance company so their income is actually much greater when all things are considered.

I hope you will take the time to read the entire salary survey article. I have to say my favorite comment in the article comes from the comment in the article about “a cadillac product on a chevy budget” or something to that effect referring to the expectations of carriers on ever increasing file requirements with an unwillingness to pay for this level of expertise and time required to comply with these file requirements. We hear this complaint frequently from independent adjusters who feel much less productive in the 2008 catastrophe environment due to the extensive amount of time required to comply with these new requirements. As one adjuster explained recently, their average closing numbers per day are reduced due to the extensive paperwork. What happened to putting the customer first instead of a “pretty file”. Again, more about that later!

Here are all the links to the 2008 article and links over at Claims Magazine:

Here is the Salary Survey chart:

http://www.claimsmag.com/NR/rdonlyres/6F30E794-2D5F-4517-AE56-2E3D74F83C04/443004/CoverStory_SB1_1009991.jpg

Here is the full article titled Checks and Balances on the 2008 Claim Salary Survey results: (note these links will change in November when a new featured story is published so I’ll try to remember to update the links next month to this article in their archived links)

http://www.claimsmag.com/cms/Claims/Monthly%20Issues/Issues/2008/10/Features/FEATURE%20cover%20story%20salary%20survey

There are many links to other charts from the survey at the end of this article to include hours, benefits and other very interesting details.

Here is the link to last year’s survey and other information on Fee Schedules and Adjuster Income we’ve previously written in case you missed them. Adjuster income continues to be the most often read articles on our blog as internet searches lead folks to our blog:

How Much Income Can I Make As An Adjuster- 7/26/07:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/07/26/most-commonly-asked-question-is-how-much-income-can-i-make-as-an-adjuster/

 

Pros and Cons of Working Staff Adjuster versus Independent Adjuster-7/27/07:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/claim-career-information-the-pros-and-cons-of-going-staff-adjuster-versus-independent-adjuster/

 

2007 Claim Salary Survey Article and Results – 10/19/07

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/claim-salary-survey-is-up-at-claims-magazine/

 

Adjuster Fees in the News- 8/14/07:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/adjuster-fees-in-the-news-the-time-is-now-to-educate-the-insurance-media-and-press/

 

Auto Adjuster Incomes Blogs- 6/2/08:

 

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/auto-adjuster-claim-training-updates/

Feel free to reply to this blog with your comments we’ll be glad to publish. We’ve also set up a link to this in our ClaimSmentor closed forums where you can comment in private if you are a member. If your not a member and wish to join us if your a member of the adjusting community,you will find a link to our registration information on our About page here on the blog.

Two Carrier Certification Exams offered week of 9/22/08 followed by deployment-Updated 9/25/08

We have two clients offering carrier certification exams the week of September 22, 2008 for additional exams added at the last minute as the carriers have additional needs for independent adjusters.

The State Farm certification exam will be offered twice this week in TX. It is expected that those who successfully pass the certification exam that are properly licensed and experienced will be immediately deployed for Hurricane Ike duty locations.

The Nationwide certification exam is offered by a 2nd client this week on Wednesday in Ohio. Two years experience required and successful completion of the exam for Nationwide on Tuesday is expected to lead to deployment opportunities in OH where over 900,000 residents went without power last week. These will be wind claims. Great opportunity to avoid the nightmares of dealing with the housing and logistics issues going on over in TX and for those on the east coast wishing to work closer to home. ***Update- this was changed from Tuesday to Wednesday 9/24/08 at 8am. **Update 9/25/08- The test was handled yesterday. We are taking a waiting list for the vendor and will notify applicants when the next exam will be administered. They do require 2 years of experience prior to sitting for the exam so submit your resume and 2 references so we can confirm you have the required experience to pass this on to the adjusting firm sponsoring the exam for future Nationwide deployments.

There is no charge for either exam. Both adjusting firms must also be sure you successfully pass the background check so I wanted to also post that so there would be no surprises.

Those interested in either of these opportunities to certify should send their resume and 2 references to debbie@dimechimes.com and be sure to put the carrier exam you are wanting to sit for in the Subject field so the emails are immediately pulled as we are receiving an overwhelming number of emails this week and don’t want you to miss this opportunity should you be interested.

Independent Agents Rank Claim Service as Top Measurement of Carrier Performance- Part III of Claim and Agency Relationships can Make or Break an Adjuster

 

Due to major storm damage as a result of Hurricane Ike, it is timely to bring back to the surface a former blog we wrote on Claims and Agency relationships due to the fact many adjusters do not understand the need to keep the agent in the loop on the status of the claim. I was amazed when teaching a fundamentals of claims class how many new adjusters felt they had no obligation to communicate timely with the agency force. If you missed our first two  blogs on this here is a link:

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/agents-can-make-you-or-break-you-the-often-overlooked-piece-of-the-claim-service-puzzle/

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/claim-adjuster-and-agent-relationships-part-ii/

The Claims Journal has just released the results of a survey of Independent Agents who also consider claims and agency relationships a top concern by considering it a top measure of performance of a carrier. Here is a link to their article:

http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2008/09/15/93683.htm

Please keep the agents- both agents who are committed to one insurer as well as independent agents informed timely on their claims. It will make a world of difference in your ability to resolve difficulties on some of your toughest claims.

Ladder Safety Concerns for Adjusters-Safety Equipment Suggestions

 

Here we are in the midst of major hail storm activity thus a timely reminder about adjuster safety when it comes to doing roof inspections. Don’t let the carrier quotas for inspection and closing numbers cause you to lose perspective of the dangers involved in working roof damage claims.

Each year we hear of adjusters who have fallen off of a roof. As an independent adjuster, most of these folks are self employed and unfortunately many are without health insurance or long term disability policies to protect them should an injury occur  while out on assignment. Here are a few articles and blogs that discuss these issues:

The Consumer Product Safety alert below says there are over 164,000 visits annually (another consumer report indicates it is 180,000 visits) to emergency rooms resulting from ladder usage:

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/ladder.html

Here is a link to  OSHA ladder safety information:

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/falls/4ladders.html

Here’s another article on ladder safety by the National AG database not only on ladder placement against buildings but also for safety using ladders in trees:

http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d000801-d000900/d000826/d000826.html

Our hats off to Worley adjusting firm  as the only adjusting firm I know of which requires adjusters sign off on a ladder safety quiz to be sure they know the  guidelines as part of their new applicant package ( I do know many other adjusting firms do discuss the ladder safety issues at yearly conferences):

http://www.worleyco.com/joinourteam.php **Just scroll down to the ladder safety quiz

Several adjuster forums discuss ladder safety if you view the following links on ladder safety topics and falls many adjusters have experienced:

http://www.catadjuster.org/discus/messages/4079/2802.html

Here’s the link to the Petzel rope harness products mentioned in that discussion:

http://en.petzl.com/petzl/ProProduits?Produit=625

Here’s a link to another blog on adjuster ladder safety after yet another adjuster’s death from falling off a roof:

http://www.catadjuster.org/discus/messages/2893/1516.html

On a more upbeat note, you’ve got to see this Atlas Devices’ new in 2007 Rope Ascender- what a cool tool! Watch both videos on the roof ascender here:

http://www.atlasdevices.com/videos.html

And the product info on these roof ascenders here:

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6837/picture/31224/

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6837/

Have you seen the Ladder EZE Automatic Ladder Level?

http://www.jershon.com/products.php

Another favorite product  are the ”Custom Tool Belts” designed for field adjusters. I had a discussion today with Chris Miller, the owner, who is also a member of our adjuster training site,ClaimSmentor, providing information on roof safety issues as well as on siding matching issues as Chris also owns www.sidingmatch.com. Chris was sharing with me that he has attended many adjuster training seminars where ladder safety is discussed and he has noticed that the ladder safety videos never show the common practice of adjusters climbing a roof with camera in hand, tape measure, roof chalk for marking hail hits, and their sketch pad and pencil for diagramming and how very dangerous this is. These belts provide the relief adjusters need to safely handle roof inspections while hands are free for safe access to the ladder. If you haven’t seen these custom tool belts, here’s a link:

www.customtoolbelt.com

Another favorite ladder safety product we tested in our ClaimSmentor Roving Reporter program (firms donate 1 sample of their product for testing or allow us to send a student free of charge to an adjuster training class where an objective evaluation is done by a designated volunteer participant in our forums) is the Guardian Walk Through Ladder attachment. I know without a doubt that I wish I’d had a set of these walk through devices during my years of climbing roofs on storm losses for a much more secure feeling. These walk through ladder extensions received glowing evals from our tester who himself was an experienced contractor/roofer prior to becoming an adjuster. Here is a link of a picture of these walk through devices:

http://ladderinnovations.com/aic_walk.html

We found these today at Rock Supply on sale for $185.00 which is about $100.00 off of the price we’d located last hail season:

http://www.bigrocksupply.com/laddersaccessories-ladder-safety-c-290_313.html

There was a recall on one of the walk through ladder extensions and a fix has been provided as well so ask about the repair attachment if you do order one of these just in case those being sold today still do have these issues:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06549.html

We also found the rope and harness kits available here:

http://www.guardianfall.com/product.php?id=170

You can also order your rope and harness equipment through KSquared-see below comments for their rope and harness class as well. 

Speaking of Guardian Fall, we did successfully obtain a 20% discount on their Safe_T ladder walk through extensions last year for ClaimSmentor participants so you might want to check  there to see if you can obtain a discount (ask for their National Accounts rep):

www.guardianfall.com

 
K Squared is one of the only firm’s I’m familiar with who offers the Rope and Harness training for adjusters but the owner himself is a field adjuster so we’ve experienced delays trying to get the classes when participants wanted them in groups if the owner was out on assignment. The catastrophe adjuster book sold by this firm has also received an excellent rating by one of our participants who also evaluated the book for us from a new adjuster’s perspective:

http://ksq2.homestead.com/Rope_and_Harness.html

We are working with another group who has developed a rope and harness class and will post more information on that training when it is finalized. If you know of other firms offering this training for independent adjusters, we’d appreciate links to their websites.

 Carriers offer the rope and harness training and equipment to their staff adjusters but not generally to independent adjusters. You can add this to the list of Pros of going staff adjuster. As a staff adjuster working regular non storm claims, your unit receives theft losses, liability claims, grease fires, and many other claims that don’t require roof inspections. Members of my unit would always gladly trade me a steep roof loss for one of these losses which required much more work and a much longer tail in closing. As an independent, you don’t have the luxury of file swapping. If you missed our prior blog on the Pros and Cons of Staff vs Independent adjuster…. here’s a link:

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/claim-career-information-the-pros-and-cons-of-going-staff-adjuster-versus-independent-adjuster/

I’d make sure to stop by and view the Consumer Safety information found on ladders for many ladder recalls and safety issues by manufacturer before using or purchasing ladders for your adjusting inspection duties:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/tools-power-equipment/ladders/ladders-9-06/overview/0609_ladders_ov.htm

Here’s are 13 ladders they found unacceptable as well:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/tools-power-equipment/ladders/ladders-9-06/not-acceptable-ladders/0609_ladders_not-accept.htm

Carriers often require double pulls with your ladder which has always caused me great concern as a claims manager. Be sure you are properly trained on doing so BEFORE you attempt this. I recall the very limited training I got back in the early 80’s when I first moved to the field from an in office position. It consisted of an experienced adjuster riding with me and showing me how to unfold the Stapleton ladder we were required to use in the quickest manner possible for unfolding it and getting it back in the company car in the most efficient manner. Out on my first storm, a reinspector gave me additional tips to include keeping one key in the car truck so I didn’t have to waste one valuable minute taking keys in and out of the car to get the ladder in and out of the trunk (also a great tip as it’s very common for adjusters to lock the keys in the car in the rush of meeting inspection quota daily requirements).

Here is a cute story about “Closer to God” written by a Home Inspector about his experience on a steep roof loss with great advice to be sure you carry a cellphone ON the roof with you in case you can’t get down:

http://www.allamericanhomeinspections.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=13&Itemid=29

I can assure you that I for one should never have done roof inspections! I had a serious fear of heights and hugged many a chimney in my 11 years in the field before progressing into management. I also was never comfortable with the double pull requirements although I saw female adjusters much more petite than I do it successfully due to their confidence level. The only time I was ever happy climbing up that ladder was when being chased in the yard by an insured’s dog and the ladder looked like a better option than the unavoidable dog bite I might have otherwise incurred. I will never forget a reinspector training me in the early years taking me to a loss for training. He did not have a ladder with us and I was told to climb the roof from the insured’s paint ladder. While it was difficult enough getting up, getting down was virtually impossible for me since I was under 5 ft tall. He simply laid on his stomach and rolled off grabbing the gutters and jumping. I was horrified doing so to say the least.

Today, I just would have said no and waited for a ladder even if it meant waiting 30 minutes for one to arrive no matter how angry he may have become.  Seriously consider the many claim central in office claim positions that are now available should you suffer a similar fear of heights. It is not worth the danger to your life and I should never have put myself through the heartache of doing something I made even more dangerous due to my fear of heights. There are so many more options available for adjusters today to work as contents specialists, additional living expense team members, business interruption claim specialists, and of course as liability adjusters.

A few other thoughts for new adjusters from some of the mentors who taught me during my training years:

1) Always honk your horn before jumping out of your vehicle to see if any loose dogs around. I’ve heard numerous stories of adjusters in the process of removing their ladder or setting it up only to be charged by a dog with vicious movements.

2) Never deny a claim from the roof. It’s not unheard of for insureds to remove an adjuster’s ladder in anger!

3)Watch out for your adjuster buddies in the neighborhood. Pranks are often played taking off with an adjuster’s ladder leaving them stranded (more a staff adjuster prank to destroy quotas of a competitor!)

4) Carriers always require your photos be taken from the ridge. Drive by photos as I’ve seen some try to get by with aren’t going to fly nor photos taken from the eaves. They want your photo to reflect you were on the roof.

This leads to another great tip received to circumvent some insureds who call in alleging you never got on their roof- leave your calling card near the chimney under a shingle. Use the same spot routinely so you can direct someone to where you might have left it. It’s really humorous as an adjuster to go up on a roof and see what adjusters have been up there before you on prior losses when you find their business card as many use this tip in our industry!

5) Don’t ever ever climb a roof you are not comfortable with. It seems that most carriers expect you to climb atleast up to a 7/12 pitch. They also usually have rope and harness certified adjusters to work steep/two story teams where they will send those folks out on the ones you just are not comfortable with. In many cases they will do this for independents as well as staff but check with the carrier or adjusting firm management for specific directions for their procedures.

 It is ALWAYS a good idea to take a risk photo to show the steep nature of the roof before requesting a two story team conduct the roof inspection.

These rope and harness teams this year are providing excellent opportunities for new adjusters with construction backgrounds to work as an assistant to the rope and harness team senior partner while also having time to train in the field on file requirements before being let loose on your own. The rates I’m hearing from some of the adjusters doing so is a daily rate between $200-$250 per day while they are an assistant and the daily rate being bumped up to the $500-$550 rates (your portion of this would depend on the fee split you have agreed to with the adjusting firm- usually 60/40 or so) once you are the senior rope and harness adjuster with your own team. I’ve mentioned this before and will do so again here- I would be sure to specify you are rope and harness certified on your resume if you have the training as it is sure to get you additional assignments.

There are many  stories on the internet about tips if you find yourself (escaping a fire..or your ladder falls and the insured is not home) in the position of having to jump off a roof…here is one example:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2106557_jump-off-roof.html

There are also some great articles from firefighters who must access a roof for fire ventilation and many safety tips if you must climb a roof after a fire in firefighter manuals such as this to avoid the roof collapsing beneath you. While these many articles are directed to fire fighters, what great advice for adjusters also working fire losses before climbing these roofs. Consider these same dangers when inspecting a roof that has been compromised with a tree that has punctured the roof structure:

http://www.houstontx.gov/fire/firefighterinfo/ce/2001/August/vertical_ventilation.htm

This next link has some fascinating pictures of how firefighters anchor themselves with the use of axes and other tools from interior walls as a means of escaping if their interior escape route is cut off (I’m sure adjusters have had these same concerns about collapse of structural components while inspecting severely damaged structures from fires, hurricanes, etc).

www.firefighterclosecalls.com/downloads/PersonalEscapeSystem.doc

Speaking of ladders- have you seen these great EZ-GLIDE System van ladder racks which lower the ladder to you with the switch of a lever? What a great option for adjusters who must pull their ladder in and out of a vehicle multiple times a day which is exhausting when you are working 7 days a week/ 12 hours daily:

http://sudburyheatingac.com/images/ezglide.pdf

http://www.weatherguard.com/van_storage_equipment/view_products.php?subcat_id=31

Cougar Paws are the favored shoe of many independents for roof climbing safety concerns:

http://www.cougarpaws.com/

If you are an experienced adjuster and have some great advice for new adjusters on roof safety issues, feel free to reply to this post. We’d love to hear from you as you share your helpful advice with others entering this industry. I’ll end this blog with one final link to a great article that sums up the safety issues, double pull conversations and some good comments by others participating on the blog:

http://www.nachi.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-2351.html

Remember, what is safe to one adjuster who is highly skilled and comfortable on steep roofs may not be comfortable with you. Your life is much more important than a fee bill for a roof inspection. Walk away from the assignment without a second thought if you are not comfortable working the loss. Do not be pressured to inspect something unsafe to you.

 I’ve been on the receiving end of pressure from managers who were supervising steep two story teams who had complaints about some files turned in for a steep two story team inspect with comments that my assigned adjuster should have inspected it. I strongly disagree. If you find a trend with an adjuster you are supervising showing they clearly cannot work a territory which consists of steep roofs but other indications are they are a great adjuster, my first course of action would be to see if there is another territory at the storm location with less steep roofs. Charleston, SC was one great example where downtown had horrific roofs to climb yet I could move adjusters to a different residential area easily thus keeping two great adjusters instead of the alternative of sending one home who couldn’t work the downtown area.

We wish you all a very safe storm season and very glad to see so many adjusters out in the field after two very dry years for most independent adjusters.

Claim Adjuster and Agent Relationships- Part II

 

 Months ago, I wrote about the difference great relationships between adjusters and agents can make while out  on claim assignments. If you missed that post, here is a link:

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/agents-can-make-you-or-break-you-the-often-overlooked-piece-of-the-claim-service-puzzle/

Interestingly at this week’s ACE conference, Rose Kuba of Arthur J Gallagher Risk Management made a presentation with many of the same comments and providing additional suggestions for enhancing the claims experience for policyholders. Here is a link to the article summarizing her presentation:

http://www.propertyandcasualtyinsurancenews.com/cms/nupc/Breaking+News/2008/06/11-ADJUSTERS-pg

Adjusters….Do you need your Nationwide Catastrophe Certification? FREE Class Next Week

 

We had previously written about the need for experienced adjusters to obtain their carrier certifications in this blog:

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/insurance-carrier-claim-certifications-where-do-you-test-for-them-much-improvement-needed-in-the-process-of-certifying-independent-adjusters/

We are assisting an adjusting firm who needs additional independents for standby for Nationwide catastrophes. They are holding their Nationwide Certification next week in Charlotte, NC. The class is FREE and includes certification for Homewise ( a FL carrier who bought out some Citizens policies) and for American Integrity. According to the claim manager, Nationwide must have a manager present the training so they cannot just schedule these certification classes wherever and whenever they wish.

If you need your Nationwide Certification and are available to attend class next week in Charlotte, NC on 6/20/08 or 6/21/08 (your option of either day), please email me at  our staffing firm, Dimechimes Claims Staffing and Claim Training, with your resume, 2 references and your choice of the two dates so we can get you registered. YOU MUST HAVE TWO YEARS OF CLAIMS EXPERIENCE TO SIT FOR THE EXAM according to the Claims Manager we are working with.

We will send those who confirm they can attend all information on the class. Once we get you registered you will also receive the entire training day’s agenda and information to give you an idea of  what you need to study for the exams that day.

We look forward to seeing many of you there!

If you already have your Nationwide Catastrophe Certification and wish to be considered for catastrophe deployment opportunities, please forward your resume, 2 references, and the specific information on the approximate date you passed the certification exam as well as the name of the adjusting firm you certified with so our client can confirm your record with nationwide for approval to deploy you on new assignments.

Insurance Carrier Claim Certifications- Where Do you Test for Them? Much Improvement Needed in the Process of Certifying Independent Adjusters

 

 **Updated 2/13/09- Participate in our Poll on Carrier Certification exams for independent claim adjusters here:

http://dimechimes.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/independent-adjusters-participant-in-our-poll-on-carrier-certification-exams/

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The recent wind and hail storms have brought up the need to centralize information as to where adjusters can obtain their carrier certification tests to go out on storm assignments as independents. We had to pass over many very very qualified senior adjusters on a recent staffing request because the carrier would make NO exception to having passed their pre-qualifying exam for an independent to work their claims.

This practice is becoming much more common and carriers are being much less willing to waive these requirements in the aftermath of Katrina litigation where training seemed to always be a common question during depositions on Katrina lawsuits.

As a result, many adjusters..new and experienced alike… are looking for firms offering their certification exams. This is the way the present system works:

1) Carrier selects adjusting firms that will work their daily and their catastrophe claims

2) The selected firms perform the IDL (Interactive Distance Learning) training and the exams for the carriers

3) If an independent adjuster happens to be on a firm’s roster offering the certification program, they will probably get an email notification of the opportunity to certify but what about the hundreds who have not applied to that particular adjusting firm?

You (as an independent adjuster) do not take the exam directly from the carrier in any case that I am presently aware of. The problems lie in the fact that independents have ZERO way of knowing which independent adjusting firms handle their claims. The carriers normally do not post information for independent adjusters on their open public websites so they are left to word of mouth or postings on forums such as  ours at ClaimSmentor. In addition, the adjusting firms being used by a carrier can change regularly as they change service vendors handling their claims.

We have rounded up all of the information we can on upcoming carrier certification exams on the following carriers:

Citizens of FL

State Farm

Allstate

Nationwide

Texas Windpool

American Family

Homewise Insurance

Farmers

USAA

We have posted this information in our Seminars Forum on ClaimSmentor. We are also working together with participants to improve on those lists to make sure that we have all of the known adjusting firms offering training and are  reviewing all of their websites and providing links to upcoming training. In addition, I will be contacting all of the major carriers media relations departments prior to the 6/1/08 storm season starting to obtain hopefully better information and publish on list of ALL information with website links.

As an example, Citizens of FL is one of the only sites who has an Adjuster Resources link that does have information on independent adjuster training directly on their website. Click here to see their catastrophe vendor list for this year and also this last link (click here) has a 46th vendor that has never made it to their list on the adjuster resource page but is also an approved vendor. State Farm has their 4 vendors listed here(clickhere). We weren’t so lucky finding the information for other carriers except through word of mouth through adjusters participating in our forums or through vendors publishing upcoming training dates either in classified ads (rarely done by most- they expect adjusters to know of them and go directly to their website event or training page) or by directly going to their websites to search for training once we knew they serviced their claims. Even with the known adjusting firms, many have nothing coming up posted on their sites as many have already held their yearly conferences this year and won’t be holding additional certifications unless there is a need at the time of a major catastrophe which we all know is the most stressful time any adjuster can go through tough exams when they are on a cat site with pending claims.

This process is ridiculous is about the best I can say for it. Carriers think that there are no adjusters left out there once a major storm has hit because their selected vendors have run out of folks. Well, I will definitely attest to the fact that after much research and hours spent talking to adjusters through my claim staffing firm that most folks – even the experienced ones- don’t know where to go to obtain their required certification tests through many carriers. More needs to be done to publish this information on carrier websites so independent adjusters can take the testing if that is what they are going to require to deploy them. They shouldn’t assume that there are no qualified folks out there- the fact is there may not be more that have their certification. We know of numerous stories where trainee adjusters who had not even begun their training are pulled out of classes when something major hits to go work files. What a shame when there are experienced folks available who had just not taken their certification classes who were willing to go but turned down over these newer certification class requirements.

Carriers also need to realize that there are MANY independents who are not willing to incur the cost of travel, hotels, and especially gas costs at today’s rates when there is no guarantee of work from a particular carrier or adjusting firm. Much needs to be done to move to 100% web based training classes which can be well done with the technology today. I hear the complaint often from adjusters who can attend an IDL preliminary broadcast locally but then have to drive quite a distance to take the actual test. There is no need for that type of requirement in today’s environment. We understand there are issues of trust that online exams are monitored when conducted such as they are for state licensing exams but there are many many service vendors nationwide that offer such testing facilities that could be utilized for carrier certification testing. Hopefully, we will see improvements in these processes as carriers consider their needs for securing qualified independent personnel to help during major catastrophes.

Other options should be considered by carriers to improve this process to ensure more independent adjusters are available at all times to meet there needs. Examples include offering CE credits for their certification programs to entice the more experienced adjusters to take them, offering them online nationwide at testing facilities, reversing the process so the cart isn’t pulling the horse where the adjuster completes a form online at the carrier site expressing interest in the independent certification exam and then the carrier distributes their information to their approved adjusting firms if they are not wanting to publish that information on their sites (who the adjusting firms are), or just simply giving them registration information through testing facilities where they take the certification exam and then only successful passers names are passed on to approved independent firms to solicit resumes from the adjusters.

The ideal situation would be if there was ONE test that was acceptable to ALL carriers via a training school that is respected by carriers like Vale National  (many already send adjusters there for auto and property training from the staff side) where they would accept that certification in lieu of their own but with each carrier having their own policies and their own company interpretations on claim handling issues such as number of hits per square for hail,etc that is very unlikely to ever happen. I’ve seriously considered opening such a facility but the start up costs and the marketing with carriers who take a long time accepting change would make it cost prohibitive but I do hope to see a professional  Independent Claim University open one day that the carriers embrace. Most carrier certification programs are very much the same with the major concentration on estimatic issues and code of conduct issues. They could easily be conducted by an outsourced training vendor for them. I think they would see a major change in results in the numbers of adjusters available when they take out the personality equation of different adjusting firms deciding who can come and go for them as far as independent claim staffing. It would give them a true count through one source as to the number of independents truly available. Many tell me part of the issue is the distant arm carriers wish to keep with independents due to the employee/independent issues this could raise so rather they rely on independent adjusting firms to totally manage the training and deployment of independent adjusters.

I also don’t think carriers realize that the process of adjusters being willing to go on standby and waiting in a holding pattern while the independent adjusting firm clears their name and social security number with the carrier to make sure they have the record of their certification and that there is no reason this individual adjuster has been put on a “do not use” list based on past poor performance is workable at the time of a major catastrophe. Independents will not sit at home for days turning down other offers for work from other firms to go out on other assignments when the carrier is back logged and delays getting information back to the adjusting firms so they can deploy the adjusters. The carriers should have online access where an approved adjusting firm can simply enter the adjusters social security number and name and confirm online that they are an approved independent adjuster just like they do for a state adjuster’s license and this would avoid your approved adjusting firm losing the opportunity to use a certified adjuster to another assignment they can deploy on immediately.

Please- help us help you by publishing the necessary information. It’s very simple to add information to a carrier’s career website pages for Independent adjusters as to 1) If you use independents 2) If you do what is required to service your claims experience wise and certificates required 3) What adjusting firms are on their current list of firms receiving assignments 4) A website link to those adjusting firms (Citizens still doesn’t provide them and I can tell you it was quite time consuming to locate all 46 websites for the Citizens Research paper I did when they did not publish that information. 5) They should also publish the estimating software they require since this is dictated by the carrier not the adjusting firm in most cases and the adjusters need to sign up and set up for that software prior to deploying.

If you haven’t registered yet for ClaimSmentor so you can access Carrier Certification information we have collected for adjusters once you are registered. All website registration info is posted on the About page here on the blog.