This is a repost of the article. We are moving all articles from the old format to the new format.

As hail season approaches we want to remind everybody to think ladder safety each and ever time you grab that ladder. OSHA has reported that the most recent accident statistics suggest that the working men and women in America abuse and misuse ladders in the workplace as a rule rather than an exception.

 

This article comes from a forum post that was made by rass3742 on 9/12/2006

One thing I’ve noticed is the incessant struggle between newbies and veterans of our industry, as they scrimmage to identify the paradigm of CAT adjusting.  As a veteran of claims adjusting myself, I have taken the long road here and know that I am better for it.

I have just recently become “active” in reading and posting comments; as such, I hope I am not breaking the rules of CADO by bringing the bulk of a post I already made into this thread.  I just think it’s a topic at the front of so many minds here that it might be of interest as its own discussion.

What I’ve been seeing, in a lot of the posts in the CADO community, are seasoned adjusters who are struggling with the seemingly never-ending complaints of start-up adjusters who aren't being handed a living on a silver platter.
 

By John Postava;  First posted in the forum.

"They say there have been more mistakes made by computers than Tequila and Hand Guns combined.  That being said, with the help of one of the top trainers at Vale National Training Center we published a white paper on what we feel are some of the top ...

From the Article Archive 
Title: Cat Adjusting as a Profession (Is It For Me?)
First Posted: Friday, November 26, 2004
Author: Gary White

My son is now ready to go to college away from home and excluding approximately 21 months in an attempt to try something different in my life as a "financial planner", I have been adjusting, supervising or investigating claims for almost 27 years. By the way, I have worked my share of hail, wind, tornado and hurricane cats for other carriers so I know from whence I speak. Even during the time while I was trying to become a "financial planner", I supplemented my income with adjusting temp jobs and contract adjusting work.

 There are many ways to approach the demise of the catastrophe adjuster.

   1) The fatal auto accident.

   2) The falling off the roof.

  3) The stroke

  4) The heart attack

Many of the above are related to the difficult and lengthily work hours we endure to provide our services to those that require them, as well as to provide for our families.

This is an article I have considered writing for years, one that deals with some of the emotional/psychological elements of working with people who have experienced personal crisis as a result of a catastrophic event, especially with regard to what this means for effective claim settlement.

This article was moved from the old system. It was written by George Mullet in 2000.

The primary thing an adjuster needs to do is communicate with the insured. I cannot emphasize that enough. We do not know if there is an error, an oversight or what, until we get out there. The adjuster is always supposed to communicate the proposed settlement with an insured and many people tell us they never heard from the adjuster after he was out there. Whether that is true or not is not the issue. If the adjuster is overly clear not only on the amount of the settlement but exactly what he is recommending, it leaves little room for misunderstandings. Further, if he/she is extremely clear, people will not have the tendency to want to say they never heard from the adjuster.

State-run insurer of last resort bears much of coastal cost

By Mary Williams Walsh
© 2008 The New York Times,
Reproduced under license from
the Copyright Clearance Center

Hurricane Ike caused as much as $16 billion in property damage, by some estimates, but the state-led insurance pool that will ...

When going to a storm there are a lot of things that are preached over and over every time by both the adjusting company and the carrier. However, I think the number one issue they still emphasize is insured contact.

From the CatAdjuster.org Article Archive.

A few months ago, I had a storm that I cannot wait to forget! It seemed that nothing was going right!

The dispatching of assignments was the worse that I had ever had before. I had claims 300 miles to the North, 125 miles to the South, and 60 miles to the East. West was ocean, so I lucked out there! Fortunately, we were able to handle some smaller claims by phone, and/or reassign only the farthest away through a very small window of time. After that, you owned them, no matter where they were located!

(Recovered Post)

Recent articles published by Bloomberg a copy of which I've posted in the forums completely disparage the work we do. We are seen as mere puppets who foolishly obey our carrier and vendor masters with no forethought or ethics.

Field Experiences of a Female Catastrophe Adjuster.

by  Randi Meyer

It was obvious that she was dead. Once you've seen a dead person, there's no doubt in your mind the next time you stumble upon Death's handiwork. And here I was, in a back bedroom of an old house in San Francisco, with two strangers, and a dead woman lying on the bed.

I'm a catastrophe adjuster, the only woman on a team of ten sent into San Francisco after high winds and heavy rain caused more property damage than the local adjusters could handle quickly. Only about 10% of the national pool of catastrophe adjusters,  or "cat adjusters," as we're called, are women. Of that 10%, only approximately 3%  work without a partner. I work alone. At that moment, I was quite aware of my solitary situation.

(Recovered Blog Post, first posted May 7, 2000)

In this quick tip we cover issues related to Overhead & Profit (O&P) that you may encounter in the field.  Some clients may request that you handle O&P in a different way then what your current default settings allow.  In those cases you may only wish to change the settings on a selected file instead of changing your system setup. 

What to do IF you are asked to work in 2007? Now 2008?