Home Insurance Claims Adjuster

Having once worked as an Insurance Claims Adjuster specializing in large construction property losses, I would humbly suggest all may not be as it seems.

Certainly, the large insurance company vs the individual homeowner does not seem like a fair match but the individual that comes to your home and makes recommendations is not the sum total of that large company's experience. He may have seen a lot of damage before or he may be just out of property damage estimating school.

Primarily, he is the eyes and ears of the company. If he is a little better he will be a capable manager that can handle the claim. (Gathering evidence and opinions to support recommendations, I frequently hired or consulted a large group of experts including photographers, contractors, engineers, lawyers, and other investigators.) A step above that is someone who may be particularly perceptive at sorting out misrepresentation and understanding policies and legal requirements. His ultimate quality is the ability to marshal all of the above in particularly difficult settlement negotiations. Property adjusters are sometimes more trained and therefore stay as adjusters longer than associates handling workman's compensation or auto claims.

The Insurance Claims Adjuster makes recommendations and has limited settlement authorization. If the claim is above the smallest of losses he will have to be making a report and his recommendations will have to be approved. He does not usually get points for the number of minimum settlements. (Those bean counters are further up the ladder.) He will "get points" for the number of settlements based upon sound recommendations. Settling claims at a minimal but satisfactory amount is a factor that is balanced by needing to process and dispose of the number of claims outstanding. More recently, I have had occasion to be on the other side of a claims issue, one of my first questions to the adjuster was how many claims is he currently handling. And so my negotiations began along with the discussion of the scope of the damage.