So Good

The other day I met with an adjuster out at a loss. I had heard of this adjusters reputation through the grapevine and the grapevine did not have much good to say about him. Anyway this adjuster shows up with the usual insurance adjuster repertoire of tools: tape measure and camera. This guy was so good that it only took one “o” to spell it and you started with a capital G.

My point in telling this story is not to rant and rail at every adjuster with whom hubris is a personality trait, but rather to point out as I’ve done before that some times losses are not open and obvious. Yet adjusters routinely show up without the tools necessary to do their job beyond what is obvious. The village idiot can see damage that is open and obvious; it takes a professional to see damage that is not.

Here’s the rub: the policyholder depends upon the insurance company to send out a professional adjuster. Those sent out however by and large are not professionals. I know it, you know and the insurance company knows it.

I say the insurance company knows it because they don’t trust these people with authority to agree on scope or price. They don’t trust them! Now here’s my question: if the insurance company doesn’t trust the adjuster they send out to adjuster your loss, why should you?