Adjuster or Damage Appraiser

We have a new adjuster onboard. Mitchell recently got his public adjusters license and was looking for a place to learn the craft. He’s sharp, has good street smarts and had one minor flaw: be believed that an adjuster sent out by an insurance company was a professional. He’s been disabused of that notion.

A client, I’ll call him Hy, had a hurricane loss. Hy called his insurance company, like he’s supposed to do and reported the loss. The company sent out an adjuster who evaluated the loss as below the deductible. Understand, Hy has a rather large deductible, so maybe it’s understandable that the company representative would evaluate the loss as not breeching the deductible. Maybe. A year passes and Hy learns that Mitchell has recently been issued his license, so he calls him.

Mitchell and I inspected the loss and wrote an estimate. The value was well in excess of the deductible. Now if you’re an insurance adjuster reading this you are probably thinking to yourself ‘no surprise here’. Mitchell requests a re-inspection and I tag along. The new and improved adjuster is given a copy of our estimate and begins the process of reviewing it in context of the loss. He agrees that the roof is in need of replacement. He agrees with the estimates’ interior damages. He doesn’t say one word about changes. Mitchell’s thinking ‘all right, I’ve got my first settlement’. I’m watching and waiting. We go over the agreements with our client and then sit back and wait: Mitchell with anticipation, me with reservation.

The check comes. There is no resemblance to the agreements reached with the adjuster. Mitchell’s pissed, Hy’s pissed, I’m pissed. It’s time for a reality check. I know you can’t reach an agreement with the adjuster, but this is news to Mitchell and Hy. The reason for this is quite simple. While the adjuster may have an adjuster’s license issued by the State of Florida, they are not actually adjusters. They are damage appraisers. They look at you with a blank bovine stare knowing full well and aware that the insurance company is going to re-adjust the estimate, unless of course is comes to an embarrassingly small amount. You see the adjuster does not have the authority needed to do their job. Mitchell understands this now. Hy understands this. You should understand this too. Today’s insurance adjuster has no authority, so don’t put much stock into what they say.

We are going to resolve this via appraisal. Appraisal it seems is the only way to reach agreement these days. The tragedy is that most policyholders still believe their adjuster. That’s changing though, one claim at a time. Then what?