Wednesday, August 20, 2008

3 Reasons NOT to hire a Public Adjuster

If you have ever hear a public insurance adjuster speak, you'll most likely hear, "Your insurance company is going to cut corners on your claim," or in laments terms, "Your insurance adjuster is going to screw you." While that may be the perception many people have with corporate or independent homeowners adjusters and the companies they represent, often the case, it simply isn't true.

Your insurance contract states that your company will pay to damages to your property as caused by an accidental loss. Sure there are losses that will not be covered, (ie. mold, rot, ground water seeping through the foundation of your basement) but lets be realistic, these losses aren't accidental. Ads on TV, the Internet and in the yellow pages boast that regardless of your loss, you should contact a public adjuster. Why? Well, I'll tell you, and then I'll tell you why you needn't hire one.

1. "We can help you avoid the stress that comes with dealing with the 'evil' homeowners adjuster. "
- Seriously? The stress you are enduring is most likely due to your homeowners loss, not from the men and women who are so irritable and so annoying that they were only put on earth to become insurance adjusters.

2. "We can maximize your claim payment."
- Plain and simple. Homeowners adjusters pay whatever it costs (less deductible) to get your home and your personal property back to the way it was prior to the loss. This is really not an item in which a public adjuster can "maximize".

3. "Payment comes from a small portion of your settlement."
- Ah yes, the payment. After your public adjuster has taken the stress from your life and has "maximized" your claim payment, he/she is going to want to get paid. 10%? 20%? It varies. But how's this for an example. Say your house burns to the ground and you have $300,000.00 in limits on the home and $100,000.00 in limits on the personal property. Your "evil" homeowners adjuster works with your public adjuster to find that a total loss has occurred on the home that has reached limits. Upon completing your inventory of your personal property, you find that your replacement cost exceeds $100,000.00. Minus any endorsements your policy may hold for this exercise, your total amount available per your policy is $400,000.00. Here is your check. Oh, wait. You have to come up with $40,000 to $80,000 out of your own pocket now... because you hired a public adjuster.


Next time you should have a homeowners loss, let me give you some advice. Call your agent. Talk with your adjuster. Rear your policy. Search the Internet for explanation and breakdowns of you policy. Just avoid the public adjuster, because they are simply unnecessary.

9 comments:

Steve said...

Public Adjusters exist because of the inherent conflict of interest that exists when one person or entity attempts to represent two sides of a financial transaction...

insurance expert said...

You are not being truthful in your reasoning to not hire a PUBLIC ADJUSTER. You expect a homeowner to read things on the web to understand their insurance policy? A public adjuster is licensed in the state they do business in by the State Dept. of Insurance. I have known several people that have suffered major fire, water and wind losses that received a huge recovery from their insurance policy verse what they might have gotten by not using a public adjuster. HIRE A PUBLIC ADJUSTER IN EVERY MAJOR INSURANCE CLAIM!

Unknown said...

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Anonymous said...

It simply is true. A windstorm tore off the back of my houses shingles and flashing,
the ins. co. adjuster didn't even look in the attic for water damage when water was leaking into the house during the storm. That's cutting corners isn't it? For $3200 I'm suppose to replace the back of the roof, have 40ft of wood fence installed, and paint the side of my house and just hope mold don't start growing in the attic.

Nathaniel R. Valenzuela said...

What insurance company do you work for?

Nathaniel R. Valenzuela said...

What insurance company do you work for?

Unknown said...

How do insurance companies make money?

The objective is to take in more premiums than they pay out in losses.

How do they do this when hundreds of thousands of people put insurance claims every year?

They minimize payouts by hiring staff adjusters to estimate repairs for the MINIMIUM amount they can to get the property back to pre loss condition. (Again, paying out less than they take in premiums)

This in turn, minimizes their payouts to the policy holder. Which produces profits for insurance companies. Simple identifiable business practices (again take in more than you pay out)

Public Adjusters maximize settlement by writing estimates that consider things like workmanship, extra time allotted for special building construction, extra time that is needed to repair unique construction, quality of work, insureds hours spent on a loss, negotiating replacement as opposed to settling for patched repairs, and a magnitude of other facets that every unique individual claim may bring to light. On top of all of this Public Adjusters also are experienced to fast track a claim because they know the proper steps needed to attain settlement in timely fashion.

So let me ask you this, do you want the Insurance Company (who is in the business of making money off you the policy holder in the form of charged premiums) to determine what your loss is worth? or do you want someone who is an independent professional licensed by your state to negotiate your loss amount?

Unknown said...

insurance adjuster almost Killed her!!

she kept telling him he was creating more anxiety than she could handle.
Farm Bureau adjuster kept pushing. She almost died in the hospital from heart.

The dishwasher had overflowed. The ceiling in the basement drywall was covered.
the floor around the dishwasher was not covered. The floor was less than a year old.
a year after arguing with her he sent serve pro out to do an evaluation one Year after the incident. Then he formally denied the floor saying other parts of the floor had sustained some wear and tear from unknown moisture. Even though the floor damage around the dishwasher was far more severe than some other moisture a full Year latter and 4 feet from the dishwasher. Now before that she had a car damaged when she left it at a detail shop to be detailed while flying to Vegas and back. The damage was determined to be a accident and went against her insurance as claim equal to if damage was caused while she was driving it. With all complaints to Farm Bureau supervisor they still kept this on her insurance record as an accident claim and she was not even in the State of Michigan when it was damaged.
The same adjuster is now assigned to investigate a new claim of theft. She asked Farm bureau for anyone else. This guy almost killed her from the stress after the floor damage situation. How can they force her to be in the same room with the guy that she knows contributed to her near death? Why would he insist on putting her in that uncomfortable situation? knowing that she has Heart problems and that his presence disturbs her, why would he want to take the chance he could upset her enough. She has make it clear that she has other health issues with her being a 100% Disabled Military Veteran with proven PTSD that is military service related and a heart condition and recently having a kidney transplant and now feeling like this insurance adjuster is harassing her. Why would they insist on now putting her thru a formal investigation even before they have received the proof of loss? Should she consider getting professional assistance to deal with these creeps?

Fla Public Adjusting said...

Nice information,, thanks for sharing such a nice article!!!!

With the help of a professional claims handler, your claim will be processed faster and smoother. For your peace of mind, choose a Public adjuster carefully before signing a contract with them.