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 That was a bit of a lame but very factual post. Seems like I am ripping adjusters but the TRUTH does hurt sometimes. There is a thing called professional liability a.k.a. E&O and if the agent is not careful in explaining coverage and having the proper file documentation, he/she can be sued.

Just like an adjuster.  I know I would be reluctant to handle any TWIA claims after what they did to some adjusters.  I have heard that some adjusters were individually sues by homeowners insured with TWIA and that they got no support from TWIA.  

Insprojohn, I get the impression that you are not to impressed with adjusters as a whole based on some of your posts, and I wonder why you have a desire to be one. Why not just stay with the agent end of the business that you had/have been in for 20 years or so. I know there are a lot of adjusters that don't know coverages well, and some that are pretty weak at adjusting issues too. In the same breath I will say that I've run across a lot of agents that don't know squat about estimating and adjusting, and are incredibly weak at understanding coverages too. I can't tell you how many times a policyholder has told me that their agent never explained this or that to them when writing the policy, especially when I am either denying a loss or explaining some of the inside limits to them that are restricting their loss payments. I have know an agent that explained to an indured everything that is and isn't covered on a policy, and if anyone ever told me he/she did I wouldn't trust another word out of their mouth. A policy is way too complex to tell an insured everything that is or isn't covered. I recently handled a ton of bad faith litigation cases direct for a carrier out of Katrina, and on a lot of them there were co-defendents of agents and adjusters alike. Needless to say, the agents and adjusters had to report a suit to their carrier under their E & O policy, and without knowing the exact percentages I'd guess that the agentsbrokers were sued on at least a 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 basis over the adjusters. The primary pleading was that the agent/broker failed to property explain the coverages/or lack of coverages to the insured. I am not saying anything about the merits of the cases as we all know pltf attorneys will plead anything in their petitions. Keep in mind "the "TRUTH" does hurt sometimes". One should not brush people in groups with broad strokes.

 Sbeau - Well I do not disagree with you at all.  I was very annoyed when I made this post about a lot of my personal experiences in the insurance and contractor sectors of life and as a result I made this stupid post.  Which is actually, thus far, being much better received by the adjuster community than it deserves to be.

I wanted to become an adjuster a very long time ago but could not get hired due to my lack of adjusting experience.  Then I took a large amount of training classes but still had no adjusting experience.   So I got into roofing sales because I wanted to get some construction experience in order to become an adjuster.

Well then after meeting a large number of adjusters, one IA with 36 years experience and another Staff with 20 years experience, and actually becoming friends with them and I speak to them both at least 5 times per month, my opinions about a lot of things have changed.

First I understand the frustrations that an out of work person (adjuster or whoever) must go through.  My  staff adjuster friend with 20 years experience told me about a friend of hers who is a former co-worker who quit being a Staff adjuster with Travelers to go into roofing sales full time.  

My pal the IA with 36 years experience would tell me how hard life is for him due to a lack of steady adjusting work.  My agent friends would gripe about people not paying their premiums due to the hard economy and other agents would complain about their loss ratios going up because all the out of work contractors are knocking on doors selling roofs in order to survive.

So I understand life a lot better now.  I am just trying to survive like anyone else during these hard economic times.  I have been on many scopes with adjusters as a contractor and I would be quiet and observant for several reasons.  

1. First I wanted to watch how each individual adjuster scoped a loss for educational value.

2. Secondly I did not want to delay or interfere with the adjustment process.  In my case the majority of my claims were roofing.  Sometimes there would be siding, gutters, interior ceiling and walls needed to have drywall patched or replaced, plus seal and paint.  Other than that 98% were just roofing alone and 1 claim had some flooring damage to the rug due to a roof leak as well as drywall, paint, etc.    

At this time I managed to get certified on Xactimate and I am going to do whatever pays me the most.  If I can get hired to handle claims and I am not currently earning more money selling roofs I will handle wind/hail claims.  

Anyway....  I am just trying to say I apologize if I offended anyone.  

 

Most Sincerely Yours,

John Merchant

 

There are some very knowledgeable agents and some very knowlegeable adjusters. There are also many out there who aren't. Blanket statements are usually inaccurate because of their very nature. In the recent Cat atmosphere you do have many adjusters who are not well versed because they usually have shallow training and only adjust specific claims under the watch of company supervisors. So, no harm done. However, there are many adjusters out there who have done adjusting for many years on large commercial losses who usually do know more than most agents. I said most, not neccessarily all. There are many senior staff claims people and senior independent adjusters who handle those most complicated of claims and the agents E&O claims. They know those commercial policies forward and backwards.

But, if I was to claim that one or the other knew more than  the other, it would not be from testable and confirmable data. It would be opinion. I also have to admit that when I start to think I know a lot, something surely happens to show me that I know almost next to nothing. The more I learn, the more I see that I don't know.

I remember many years ago I was handling some hail claims and was on one roof with what I considered (at the time) a "redneck" roofer. I was measuring the roof (taking all measurements,using all my geometry from college) and the roofer kept breathing heavy and occasionally mumbling and even chuckling. He finally burst out and asked me what I was doing. I explained that I was trying to get an accurate square footage of the roof. He laughed and said he had that already and that I was wasting a lot of his time. He also said, "let me show you how to do this", which of course offended me greatly. But I told him to go ahead. He then schooled me and from that day forward I looked at roofs differently and realized that just because I was college educated and was wearing a suit and tie (we all did in the old days) and he wasn't, didn't mean a hill of beans. And I also see from Insprojohns last post that he too will learn and will become if he isn't already, a first rate adjuster.

I have found over the years many agents know more about what they intended to cover then what the policy does cover.