| Author |
Message |
Chuck Deaton
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2000 - 9:05 pm: | |
A very astute adjuster asked me to pose this question on the CADO Forum for your comments and ideas.
Specifically, look ahead into your crystal ball with emphasis on the following:
(1) What will communications with the Insureds be like? How will we communicate differently?
Communication will not change, but the methods of communicating will be broader and more numerous. We will make wider use of cell phones, pagers, answering machines, email and efax. The same olds, telephone and letter writing, will still be there. Actually, I use email and efax constantly. The online telephone books are a great time saver. As is the general information provided by the Internet. Is natural gas lighter than air? Look it up on the Internet.
(2) What changing technologies and software products will steer our industry? And in what directions?
The adjuster that best uses technology is the adjuster whose gross is highest with the least effort. Efax, lasers, laser printers, laptops, mapping software, GPS, digital photography, video cameras, word processing, and spreadsheets all are changing this industry. We have seen the discussion on this forum regarding “white lists” and “black lists”; data base soft ware makes these pervasive.
Do you have access to broad band and a server at home. If you intend to maximize your income you best be thinking about it.
Whole libraries will be stored on CD-ROMS and DVD. When I need a flood policy I have it on CD. Sliver Plume and others provide this general sort of service.
Eventually virtually every detail of mine and your life will be in an accessible data base. AXXION, located in Conway, Arkansas specializes in this. How old is that roof, what kind of shingles, who put it on, what are the serial numbers for those appliances, how old are they and where were they purchased? Have they been damaged before? How many flood claims have been paid on this physical address? Look it up on the internet.
(3) Will quality of service be more or less important?
There is no substitute for quality.
(4) Will education and training standards change to make it more difficult to enter this field? To stay in this field?
This one is a no-brainer. Crawford’s move from Boeckh to DDS raised the educational bar. If you can’t run a digital estimating program, on a laptop, you will not survive. While digital estimating is generally a catastrophe tool it is gaining wider acceptance and at some point the independent that does not use it will not be used.
Virtually every large company requires some sort of certification. Some companies require certification in several lines.
Pilot has started teaching flood school and certifying flood adjusters. As has been pointed out here in the past certification and ability to do the work is not the same thing, but certification and licenseing are facts of life.
Licensing is becoming more and more important. State licenses and flood licenses are essential.
(5) Will income for the cat adjuster change, and if so, how?
Income for the prepared, trained and equipped Cat Adjuster will sky rocket. On the flip side the unprepared, untrained Cat Adjuster will be squeezed out.
(6) Will the role of the cat adjuster change? Will the role of the vendor change? Will the role of insurance change in this country?
Eventually the best and highest paid Cat Adjusters will not work for vendors. Some of my friends don’t now. Allstate has already hired their team and others will follow. The vendor’s role will diminish. I call it chicken house economics, the farmer down the road gets a chicken house, he does well raising chickens, then he gets a new pickup, then all the neighbors see him and get chicken houses and together they flood the market with chickens and everybody goes broke. My opinion is that there are too many vendors all undercutting one another and a bust in the vendor business is coming. Maybe vendors will be stratified. Some vendors will charge higher prices and provided qualified people and others will specialize in lower prices and less qualified people.
The role of insurance is in a constant state of flux. Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge Earthquake precipitated changes that are wide spread. Single peril commercial policies written by the London market are more prevalent. Percentage deductibles are common. Wind pools are more common. When I started in this business Texas had the only wind pool, TCPIA, now virtually all of the coastal states have some variation.
Self insurance is a growing segment. SIR’s and layered excess is becoming more and more common.
(7) Will adjusting require more dialogue with insureds and will insureds become more difficult and demanding in working with adjusters?
Insureds, to include you and me, are entitled to the coverage that they paid for and more. Carrying on dialogue with most insureds has never been difficult, unless, of course, the adjuster is untrained, unprepared and has poor people skills. Certainly insureds are going to be more and more demanding, and they should be. I am not going to accept a flawed product and neither would you. States are providing more and more access to the complaint process and PA’s are gaining ground.
(8) Will the globalization of business and the economy affect this industry and if so, how?
This week I handled my first claim on a semi with a Canadian title. A French company insured it and the company adjuster’s first language is French. The wreck was in Dallas, TX.
Of course globalization has an effect on this business. The largest insurance markets in the world are in Europe and Asia. NAFTA has opened our borders with Canada and Mexico. If nothing else their trucks are traveling the United States in larger numbers hauling more and more cargo.
(9) Will Insureds become more demanding and more difficult to work with? Will closing files be harder or easier?
For the trained, prepared professional adjuster closing files will become less difficult. The untrained, unprepared adjuster is going to have to go back to flipping burgers while company lawyers deal with the string of lawsuit left in the wake. |
older then dirt
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2000 - 11:33 pm: | |
1. In spite of the rapid advances in technology, most (not all) insurers will be 10 years behind the world in there use of what available.
2. Under NAFTA Mexico will be then next big market as they develop a larger middle class.
3. Insureds will continue to become more demanding and knowledgeable.
4. Coverage will become broader, insurers make their profits from investing, they will be happy to raise premiums.
5. I hope that quality will again be more important then closings(see thread on cleanup).
6. The bottom line is computers will fast and the equipment fancy, but the same people will be in charge 5 years from now. Same old same old |
Jim Flynt
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2000 - 8:29 pm: | |
A very astute adjuster asked me to pose this question on the CADO Forum for your comments and ideas.
Specifically, look ahead into your crystal ball with emphasis on the following:
(1) What will communications with the Insureds be like? How will we communicate differently?
(2) What changing technologies and software products will steer our industry? And in what directions?
(3) Will quality of service be more or less important?
(4) Will education and training standards change to make it more difficult to enter this field? To stay in this field?
(5) Will income for the cat adjuster change, and if so, how?
(6) Will the role of the cat adjuster change? Will the role of the vendor change? Will the role of insurance change in this country?
(7) Will adjusting require more dialogue with insureds and will insureds become more difficult and demanding in working with adjusters?
(8) Will the globalization of business and the economy affect this industry and if so, how?
(9) Will Insureds become more demanding and more difficult to work with? Will closing files be harder or easier?
Please share YOUR ideas and foresight with our larger audience. |
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