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Commissioner Lara Orders Insurance Data on Business Interruption Coverage to Assist California Small Businesses

From the Press Release ... "Commissioner Lara called on the insurance industry to assist small businesses facing layoffs and lost income due to business closures and government actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Insurance company responses to the data call are due by April 9, 2020, and will help the Department understand the number and scope of commercial business...

The advantage of recruiting non-insurance workers as claims professionals

For independent adjusters, the need to replace retiring workers is becoming more urgent.   “A number of our front-line adjusters are very senior, very talented and experienced,” said Paul Féron senior vice president for Ontario and Manitoba at ClaimsPro LP. “In the next 5 to 10 years, a significant number of them will be retiring and deserve to retire. We need to be...

State Farm® to Conduct Drone Damage Assessment Flights Following Hurricane Michael

It was less than one month ago when Hurricane Florence struck North and South Carolina. State Farm was the first and only insurance company to receive an FAA waiver allowing Claims pilots to operate drones beyond visual line of sight and over people for damage assessment. Drone flights were coordinated with the FAA and Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP) at Virginia Tech as part of the...

Insurers ache for qualified inspectors after U.S. hurricanes

(Reuters) - Insurers are scrambling to find inspectors in Texas and Florida after fierce hurricanes battered the states one after the other, causing tens of billions of dollars' worth of property damage in less than two weeks. Although insurers maintain some number of inspectors, known as claims adjusters, across the U.S. year-round, they must redeploy staff from other areas or hire...

Citizens: We weren't ready for major impact from Hurricane Matthew

An Oct. 5 news release declared: “Citizens is ready for Hurricane Matthew, Are You?” Months later, Citizens — with 225,000 policyholders in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties — revealed it was not ready to respond to a major storm in South Florida. Companies Citizens had hired to provide independent claims adjusters for post-storm damage assessments supplied...

All insurers should resist dubious claims

Shingles are something you never want to have, unless they're on the top of your house or on the outside of your law office.  Joe Cantu is fortunate not to have shingles, at least not on his roof, but he does have cement tiles up there, and some of them apparently got damaged when the March 29, 2012 hailstorm hit his Hidalgo County home.  Though conceding that only 8-14 tiles...

Exclusive: Erie Insurance tests Google Glass to help process claims

"The next time you get a visit from an insurance adjuster, he or she might be wearing a futuristic headset to help process your claim. Pittsburgh policyholders were part of a pilot program from Erie Insurance (NASDAQ:ERIE) to test the use of off-the-shelf Google Glass as a way to make insurance adjusters’ working lives easier and more efficient. The idea, developed by three Erie...

NCJUA/NCIUA Approved Catastrophe Adjusters

The North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association (NCJUA), also known as the FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) Plan, is a tax exempt association of insurance companies licensed to write and engage in writing property insurance coverage in North Carolina. The Association was created by law to act as a market of last resort to provide adequate basic property insurance to property...

Don’t Mess With Texas Adjusters In Hail Damage Claims

Texas hail claim policyholder lawyers, like many plaintiffs’ lawyers, clearly prefer to be in state court rather than federal court. To accomplish this and prevent the defendant insurer from properly removing the lawsuit to federal court, Texas policyholder attorneys simply sue the adjuster (who, like the policyholder, is almost always a Texas resident). This common act of gamesmanship...

Want to move to New Zealand and work as a Loss Adjuster?

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) will pay 24 of its staff $65,000 a year to fill new positions requiring just over one week's work per month. The public insurer is looking for candidates from within its workforce for "base contractor" positions, as loss adjusters and estimators, around the country. The jobs pay $65,000 plus GST a year for 54 hours work a month, which is about $100 an hour,...

Insurance industry wins temporary FLSA exemption for insurance adjusters in CRomnibus

Congress's omnibus spending bill effectively created a new exemption to the FLSA's overtime rules for insurance adjusters during the two-year period after a major disaster. Section 111 of the appropriations bill for the DOL directs the agency that the FLSA "shall be applied as if" there is an overtime exclusion for certain workers who are employed to adjust or evaluate claims resulting from or...

Racketeering suit faces Hartford over Sandy

New York • A couple claiming damage from Hurricane Sandy has filed court papers accusing a Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. unit, an engineering firm and a law firm for the insurer of engaging in racketeering by scheming to use fraudulent reports to deny claims.

Team One Adjusting, LLC and Ideal Adjusting, Inc

After storms damaged Mary Erving’s home in Cedar Hill, Texas, she looked to her homeowner’s insurer, National Lloyds to help her rebuild.  National Lloyds sent two adjusters, Team One Adjusting, LLC and Ideal Adjusting, Inc., to inspect the Erving home, and National Lloyds ultimately paid the claims based on the adjusters’ assessments.

Repeated Red Flags In How Insurance Companies Have Handled & Denied The Claims Of Sandy Flood Victims For Damage To Their Homes

Schumer, Gillibrand: FEMA must protect Sandy victims & ensure they are fairly compensated for devastating losses. Repeated Red Flags In How Insurance Companies Have Handled & Denied The Claims Of Sandy Flood Victims For Damage To Their Homes.   Long Island, NY - November 16, 2014 - U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today called on the Federal Emergency...

What The Hail Is Going On With Texas Insurance Claims?

Texas Law360 November 14, 2014 The onslaught of new hail damage lawsuits does not appear to be ending anytime soon. The docket of every county in which a significant hail event has occurred in recent years sees numerous new hail damage lawsuit filings every day. Quote above from the article

Insurance Carrier Changes Water Damage Coverage

"Allstate was the one company that was the exception to this rule. Any water that comes in contact with the ground and then enters the home is classified as 'ground water', according to Allstate. This is reason enough for them to deny a claim. Other insurance companies view the sprinklers as part of the plumbing of the home, and would extend coverage if a sprinkler pipe broke and caused damage...

State Farm® Names Top Ten States With Most Hail Losses

From the State Farm Press Release: Weather Conditions Put Kentucky in the Top Ten Murfreesboro, TN (April 22, 2013) Wind and hail storms remain some of the most frequent and severe causes of property damage. This year the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety Research Center conducted the first-ever indoor hailstorm, in an effort to research building products and ways...

Engineer in trial over Biloxi home calls insurance adjusters 'brainwashed'

Quote below from the article on sunherald.com "GULFPORT -- Structural engineer Ralph Sinno, an expert on wind damage to buildings, testified in federal court Thursday that Hurricane Katrina's winds destroyed a North Biloxi home. Sinno, a retired Mississippi State University professor, said State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. overlooked wind damage that would have been obvious to a sophomore...

Farmers - Deploys Cat Adjusters

February 26, 2013

A storm system moved through Austin and San Antonio, Texas producing strong winds on the evening of February 25, 2012. These conditions resulted to damage to homes and other property.

Catastrophe adjusters have been deployed to the area to assist with claims and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.

New York reports more than 270,000 insurance claims paid after Sandy

"More than 270,000 claims have been paid by 24 insurers since Hurricane Sandy damaged and flooded Staten Island and other parts of New York City as well as Long Island and its suburbs last fall, New New York officials report." "The average time from claims report to inspection ranged from three days for Arch Insurance Group, with 242 commercial claims, to 20 days for State Farm with 55,592...

Past Articles

Note: Since CADO first went online in 1995 we have had many members contribute to the site with their articles and forum posts.  But over the years many of these post were lost however, we have recently been able to recover some of the articles and forum post and will be re-posting them as time allows.   They will be posted on this page (Commuunity Blog) with a note indicating that it was a prior post. RC

Forum Topics

What to do when the insured is deceased or divorced

I think death and divorce are common issues that rarely get covered in training. Adjusters learn what to do by trial and error, or if they are lucky,

Posted By: Leland
Posted In: General
Replies: 8

Poor quality report writing

I just wanted to put in my two cents on how to write better reports. Please check these two examples:   Example #1 (poor quality) When I

Posted By: Leland
Posted In: The Claim File
Replies: 25

Did I mess up?

 I just got hired by Pilot, I guess. They called and said get your paperwork in and get ready for a drug test. The lady told me that she knew the

Posted By: newguy3
Posted In: General
Replies: 50

How many Independent Adjusters out of work Today

Just curious, How many IA's are there out of work today who don't have other income to survive .  How many total adjusters are there in the USA

Posted By: Goldust
Posted In: General
Replies: 35

Know your policy

Janice and I worked a commercial loss last week and submitted it for payment 4 days after assignment, through a vendor with a major carrier. This was

Posted By:
Posted In: General
Replies: 37

Stress and Mental Health of Adjusters

Does anyone know of mental health services needed by or provided to claims adjusters suffering from stress related symptoms after a severe cat? I am c

Posted By:
Posted In: General
Replies: 24

Isaac

Does it appear to be a lot of work from this storm? Before the storm my email and phone were busy. It seems to have gotten pretty quiet.

Posted By: LucyZ
Posted In: General
Replies: 13

Your Reading Files

Your closed files are the best example of your work. When you are looking at all the vendors who are not seeking your commitment during this very slow

Posted By: Ray Hall
Posted In: The Claim File
Replies: 17

I Thought I Had Heard It All

Greetings to everyone from Oaxaca, Mexico, where Jennifer and I are taking a break from our last assignment and staying far away from the demonstratio

Posted By: Medulus
Posted In: General
Replies: 43

Fee Schedules

I think someone should have done this a long time ago.  Let's start a list of fee schedules from different carriers and their preferred IA firms.

Posted By: descher
Posted In: Community Chat
Replies: 15

Claim Scenario for Discussion

  Forum Transfer; First posted by Janice Toll The following scenario is presented for discussion: Ms. Insured notices that the shingles on her

Posted By: Janice_Toll
Posted In: General
Replies: 17

2007 Version of Know before you Go.

My opine is not as good as the experts; but I think a monster hurricane will hit Texas or Florida with in the next 50 days. All new and old adjusters

Posted By: Ray Hall
Posted In: General
Replies: 32

Is the Independent Adjuster Fast Becoming Obsolete?

I have written  more than few times about with Satellite roof technology , the fact that Xactimate is now fully integrated with EagleView and wit

Posted By: CatAdjusterX
Posted In: General
Replies: 36

Business Casual

Report of duty or a class- Dress code- Business Casual I have been watching the gathering of adjusters for several years. Seems about 25% know the de

Posted By: Ray Hall
Posted In: General
Replies: 23

Hurricane Sandy

At this time a rapidly strengthening hurricane is going to cross Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas. But what then. Some modleing is suggesting a sub tropi

Posted By: stormcrow
Posted In: Hail, Flood, Hurricanes and Weather Events
Replies: 24