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Posted By Ray Hall on 04 Jun 2011 04:35 PM

 It seems one estimating program will dominate. This will keep the contractors price "guides" in line as most controctors will do the work for qualified adjusters who can scope real damage. I think the downside will be the lawyers bringing up price fixing claims.

Roof inspections will not be as much danger as roof thumpers will not be needed. More call center adjustments on all type of claims. Travel to risk to settle will not be set in stone. Downward pressure on fee bill,s. More eyeballs inside than outside. Outside eye balls will be reconstruction contractors using the water sucker templates for accidental water. All claims 100% e from around the world vendors.

Ray,
 

Well said!!

I have written  many a commentary on the future of the "adjusting" industry and I agree on almost everything you stated.

It was amazing to me when I heard from a newly licensed member last spring that he was being deployed by Pilot not to the site of said hailstorm, but to a call center somewhere in Texas. He was to try and handle "ALL" aspects of said claim over the phone.

In regards to claims where there was "damage" to the interior of said risk, he was directed to ask claimants to guestimate the dimensions of whichever room was affected. In instances where there was no tape measure for an insured to state room dimensions, he would ask the insured to lay down and based upon their height give the general dimensions. They wer trying to handle the entire claim by phone. The powers that be knew there would be supplemental claims from many of these "phone" claims, but that right there gives us a glimpse into the direction that the industry may be headed.

I have stated many times that every single estimate that we write in XM8 "sketch" is archived. Any future damage to those risks will NOT require an adjuster to visit ,atleast in regard to dimensions. The crazy thing about it is that we ourselves the IA are in essence the architects of our own demise. We even are paying through the nose to learn XM8 and XM8 sketch. With sketch, preferred contractor's and emerging advances with satellite rood dimensions from companies like Geoestimator and EagleView, in MOST cases an IA is not required to record roof dimensions. It should also be noted that EagleView is now FULLY integrated with XM8.

While these companies cannot be relied upon for all claims, in regard to Hail claims

(What I believe to be the bread and butter for IA's) it appears that a visit to the risk by an IA will someday soon be a thing of the past.

There will always be a need for IA's to be onsite in regards to tornados, hurricanes, in addition to smaller daily claimsetc... to handle interior damage and related issues, but I think that as a result of emerging technology, we can expect a downward trend in regards to the IA's fee schedule.

Actually, Allstate and Pilot are proving that adjusters are not needed for "tornados, hurricanes" mobile units are set up in parking lots and write advances, then inside people handle the contents claims and ALE. Outside people are more closely analogous to the Maytag man or a Sears appliance repairman, dispatched by computer to a specific location, at a specific time, to complete a specific task and immediately report back.

Inside adjusters, working from an office in Dallas, paid most of State Farm's 2005 flood claims in South Louisiana.

Actually, there is no need for hail adjusters now. Hail scouts can be utilized. Hail scouts are dispatched to find a hail damaged area, this can be done by a satellite with infrared capability, the damage inside the determined area is paid by an inside person.

Customer satisfaction, avoiding expensive class action lawsuits and coping with the lack of personnel who can handle the complex requirements of the job.

Another thought is that as computer systems develop and companies utilize more comprehensive systems features like EagleView and Google Streetview will be a common part of that file assembled at the time the policy is sold. USAA already uses the member number as a part of the claim number and integrates that with a Windows compliant system.

Posted By ChuckDeaton on 05 Jun 2011 12:31 AM
Actually, Allstate and Pilot are proving that adjusters are not needed for "tornados, hurricanes" mobile units are set up in parking lots and write advances, then inside people handle the contents claims and ALE. Outside people are more closely analogous to the Maytag man or a Sears appliance repairman, dispatched by computer to a specific location, at a specific time, to complete a specific task and immediately report back.

Inside adjusters, working from an office in Dallas, paid most of State Farm's 2005 flood claims in South Louisiana.

Actually, there is no need for hail adjusters now. Hail scouts can be utilized. Hail scouts are dispatched to find a hail damaged area, this can be done by a satellite with infrared capability, the damage inside the determined area is paid by an inside person.

Customer satisfaction, avoiding expensive class action lawsuits and coping with the lack of personnel who can handle the complex requirements of the job.

Chuck,
 

I think there will still be a need for IA's, but I do see the end result of the IA's role becoming diminished in the short term and obselete in the long term.

With that being said, it is my opine that carriers must transition slowly from the fallability of humans(IA's) to the fallability of IT(Information Technology). Even with all the HUGE advances with Sat tech(EagleView,Geoestimator) and Pictometry( a college kid duct taped to the bottom of a Cessna with a Polariod camera) there are still limits (layers of shingles,minute Hidden damage) and a host of variables that can significantly impact the dollar amount to restore the risk to a pre event condition.

All I am saying is if the carriers allow this to happen too quickly, I foresee an EPIC boost to the PA/Plaintiff attorney market what with all the things that can't be conveniently built into a MACROS. I would also envision a MASS migration of roof thumpers going to the other side of the game.

 

Thoughts ? 

I would like to make a couple of points on this topic:

1) The shift between "boots on the ground" to using technology and office people is cyclical. Same as the swings between reliance on large staffs vs. outsourcing to IAs. After a move to avoid using adjusters, the pendulum will swing back. Maybe not all the way back, but it does swing back.

2) As discussed on this site before, technology has a predictable effect on organizational structures. Armed with technology, the worker can be more productive, more accurate, and faster. Certainly Xactimate causes this. The employer will need fewer workers. But the workers they need will have higher knowledge and training. And often get paid a bit better, depending on supply and demand. This is why it is important to be Xm8 certified- not because you need certification to to do your job, but because it marks you as one of the smarter, more advanced workers, even if you are not actually smarter. Like a "seal of approval". (disclosure: I am not certified but I am going to take Chuck's advice and get certified)

3) A lot of the issues discussed on this thread are unique to RESIDENTIAL CATASTROPHE adjusting. I know this is a CAT adjusting website but consider that satellites and contractors are not going to be used very much on the following types of daily claims:

commercial claims, especially those with business income losses
inland marine, ie bridges, cell phone towers, and pleasure boats
cars hitting buildings
stolen cargo
crashing big rigs
slip and fall
workers comp
houses that burn down completely, especially when subro or arson is involved
liability claims
hail damaged aircraft
hail damaged cars
etc. etc

Some of these examples are building property, some are not.

But if an adjuster is only looking to do residential hail claims ONLY and not have any other tool in his box then unfortunately he/she might have more problems finding work, especially as the changes happen.

 Working hail claims without roof thumpers is not new. We did that 50 years ago when I was a staff adjuster. I could not understand how you could work a total fire loss on a rent house and its contents in Dallas  with an owner in New York city that had no intention of coming down to help in the adjustment questions until my trainer showed me how. I worked several hundred total loss on Homeowners for fire and tornado,s in the next 50 years.

I could not understand how you could keep a wife from getting a good attorney on a gut liability auto accident case until I was sent to school to learn how.

I was not able to think about how you would be able to settle a 100 million offshore drill ship on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico caused by hurricane Andrew until the the 3 person team I was on settled about 20 claims of this type in about 20 months.

Its good skills of adjusting that can be aquired, lots of good people in the biz. have these aquired skills.

 I had a commercial warehouse loss on a flat roof roof collapse from weight of water several years ago that was not complicated from a scope of loss or amount of loss to get the estimate worked out.

The policy form was an "Output form" with several buildings. This was straight foward commercial coverage , about 50 page,s and the assignment required a reservation of rights and non-waiver hand delivered and exicuted on the 2nd day for several reasons. The carrrier, vendor , broker and myself agreed a very good investigation and prior history of the building was need to accept or turn down a ,5 nillion loss based on contract, tort and good faith low in Texas. 

The loss was paid as presented( risk of loss peril)as I was able to use the phone and communicate with the carriers adjuster (by phone). Good investigations will aways be need and qualifed IA,s haveing been doing these type loss for years and leaving the volume of losses and paper files to the staff adjusters.