I've been lurking on these boards for some time but never really posted anything.  I'm looking now, and things around here are starting to feel like a ghost town.  Is that because the cane season hasn't started yet, and it'll get busy as the months move on?  Or is it like this because we have had several slow seasons the last few years and everybody went and got a job at Lowe's or something selling lumber?

I'm a young guy in this business with only a couple years of experience, and only as staff, not as an IA.  But looking around here makes me nervious of the future of our profession.

At the present time claims work seems to be hard to find, If it wasn't for my A / C work( Residental ), Inspections, and Substitute Teaching jobs there wouldn't be much going on these days. I wonder how many I A adjusters left with the lack of work these last three years. Perhaps something will happen in 2008, if not then its going to be all over for many here.

When/if a cane hits the USA, this site will look like you turned on the lights in a truckstop cafe.   Watch where you step & bring the Raid.   

The everlasting problems of Catastrophe Adjusting. What do you do when there is no work. There is no answer to this question except within yourself. No one know your capabilities better than you. We find local claims work and pursue it to the inth degree. We manage financially, but it gets a little frightening at times. This work is seasonal. We have learned you save as much as possible and try to lay back as much funding as possble in a savings account.

Many of the new adjusters that started back in 04/05 have fallen to the wayside, unless they have found employment with a staff company. This is a very difficult profession to stay in. During good times, when there are many storms, no problems, but then suddenly there is no work and that leaves you confused and lonely. Be a good scout and be prepared. That includes financial preparedness for the future. Always stay in touch with friends within the industry and remember, never burn a bridge behind yourself.

Then there are those of us who have sold out and taken staff positions.  With each down cycle I saw in my decade as an independent there are fewer and fewer who come back.  I would be surprised if there are still 500 independent catadjusters left who predate 2004.

But I'm sure the short sighted carriers who think their two year "veteran" staff adjusters can handle the next catastrophe can find a few people hanging around the 7-11 parking lot drinking from a brown paper bag when the need for more warm bodies arises.  Then they will spend the next couple years complaining about the quality of independents.  Then the carrier execs can pat themselves on the back and tell themselves they were right all along about independents.

There is a shortage of catastrophe adjusters, but Citizens in Florida is claiming they have commitments from over 6500 for the upcoming season.  I remember in 2004 they claimed over 2000 commitments, but could field half of that.  Does anyone know where their are 6500 qualified catastrophe adjusters? 

MB

I guarantee its the same couple hundred adjusters signed up over and over again by different companies.   And qualified for Citizen's work doesn't mean they have more than six months actual adjusting experience, if that.  Remember that someone who worked the hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 for three months each, and nothing since, are likely to claim they have been adjusters for four years.

As for me, last year I saw the Citizen's schedule and said to myself, "This reeks.  This is the worst fee schedule I may have ever seen."  But I started down the process road in the event I may have to accept that work.  I also had it in the back of my head that I would take almost any other work first.  After the tests and the drug test and the confidentiality statement and the ethics course, and when a new demand surfaced each week to be "Citizen's Certified", I just said, "No more." 

The liklihood is that Citizen's will only need people in the event of a hurricane.  Furthermore, they won't need that many unless there are multiple hurricanes.  In 2004 I got 75 calls from different vendors to come on down and work the hurricanes.  Then I stopped counting.  If I had not been gainfully employed already, I could have taken only one anyway.  If I have 75 options, do you think I will work for a Citizen's fee schedule?  Not on your sweet bippie.

Honestly, though, the fee schedule may have been too high for the folks they would have had to settle for if there had been any actual work last year.

Time to go round up the Applebee's parking lot guy.  Citizen's needs him bad.