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To my knowledge there is not a certification. Usually the title is self appointed or some companies will designate qualified adjusters. At one time I heard of an association for general adjusters. They seem to have certain standards one would have to meet to be a member of their organization.

There is no certification process that makes you a General Adjuster. It does, however, require that you are trained to handle and conclude all aspects of a loss, inclusive of scoping, writing an extensive estimate, ability to conclude and assimilate all aspects of business interruption, or time element losses. You must be able to completely manage  a large loss from beginning to end, without supervision. I was appointed the GA status while working with Gay and Taylor, many years ago. They did have tests that I had to take to receive this appointment and I was able to pass all of them with excellent grades. Training and knowledge of policy is an absolute. Understanding the elements of coverage through policy interpretation is essential, inclusive of manuscript policy. Some adjuster's who have experience self appoint themselves, without being tested. I am opposed to this self appointment, however, I don't see many companies, other than Crawford and Company and Cunningham Lindsey that have the appropriate training for this title.

Tom,

GAB probably still has the GA program they used to run, both for inhouse staff and for carriers to send their employees to. A fair amount of carriers have a GA training program that they will put their more seasoned Property (or liability) adjusters through. The primary emphasis on the staff programs that i know about is the BI/Time Element losses, as most of those i have known to go through it already have a lot of heavy experience in estimating. I have seen a resume or two here on this site that it was clear the people were "self appointed" after a year or two of handling catastrophe claims. When I read a resume like that, it tells me everything I need to know about the person right away.

Steve, I am like Larry, I thought GAB had been scrubbed.  I knew they had a program for GA's, like C&C and CL. Some of these self annointed GA's want to make me puke. You cannot be an adjuster for a few years and then start calling yourself a GA, it just does not work that way. I worked hard for that status, attending schools, seminars, etc. Anyone interested in gaining this status should contact any of the three mentioned and get the appropriate training.

A General Adjuster working for GAB came and did an inspection on several Gustav/Ike claims in South Louisiana. So GAB is alive and kickin'.