Adjuster Estimates

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Last Post 08/26/2011 2:52 PM by  CatAdjusterX
new to this field
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rjlummus
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07/01/2011 8:09 PM

    After reading some of the posts here I am starting to have doubts that I might not have all the experience needed to be hired as an adjuster.

    The course  I intend on taking is given by "Ajuster Training solutions" as anyone heard from them ?  Before spending almost $2000.00 for this course maybe I need to ask here if anyone heard from them.

    I am in the property preservation field for now 12 years for most of all the big assets companies.  Now the property presevation work is changing a lot doing more for less and it is getting worst everyday.  So I am looking for some new avenues and at my age ealy 50ies it is not that easy.  I was thinking that maybe I would have enough experience from my property preservation field to try to switch to this.  Am I wrong to think this?

    I am really good at what I do but like I mentionned previously the work is not there anymore so I want to be good at something else.

    Any type of input will be greatly appreciated. thanks

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    bgilly
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    08/15/2011 11:32 AM
    I would be very careful to spend that much money on training.. seems you should go to a cheaper class and see if you feel comfortable. alot of companies have conferences with training at a low cost. You didn't say if you had a license yet... that would be the first step.
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    steve.enxing
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    08/21/2011 3:31 AM

     I took the State Farm Property Certification course in Baton Rouge this past week. Never having working in the insurance field I found it extremely challenging. So challenging that I humbly say I did not pass the tests. I've been in the aerospace industry for the past 31 years so this experience was completely new and foreign.

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    ChuckDeaton
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    08/22/2011 3:30 PM
    Steve, just my opinion, but I would say that failing the State Farm Property Certification may have been the best thing that could happen. Working for any of the State Farm vendors and making money, in fact one new adjuster posted on FOATA a narrative that anyone just starting out should read.
    "Prattling on and on about being an ass with experience doesn't make someone experienced. It just makes you an ass." Rod Buvens, Pilot grunt
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    Leland
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    08/22/2011 6:07 PM
    what is FOATA? Should i take that with cream?
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    CatAdjusterX
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    08/22/2011 7:26 PM
    Posted By Leland on 22 Aug 2011 06:07 PM
    what is FOATA? Should i take that with cream?

    Ouch Leland !!!!!

    Easy killer !! :-) Foata is out of respect for CADO something that shouldn't be discussed here. However with that being said , FOATA is my baby !

    I must agree with Mr. Deaton that the poster should probably thank his LUCKY stars that he DIDN't get his State Farm certification. To the reason as Chuck stated I am going to copy and paste the State Farm FOATA discussion Chuck spoke of here for all to read.

    Please see below:

    Just completed my first assignment as an adjuster and wanted to tell everybody what my impressions were:

    I understand that large companies are normally behind the curve when it comes to technology. I guess I never imagined that they would be this far behind. I think taking Polaroids and taping them to a piece of paper while working from a paper estimate and referring to a spiral notebook of prices would have been faster than what State Farm is doing right now.

    The first big shocker was there their main system is DOS. I almost fell out of my chair during training when they opened it up. The last time I used DOS was in college in 1992. I was stunned that somebody was still using it.

    However, the biggest waste of time came when I realized how many unnecessary steps and how many different programs need to be simultaneously open on your laptop  just to work on a file. At most you should have to work with two or three. Here is a list of everything you must have open when working on a file:

    1. Wireless Card Manager to go online
    2. VPN Client which is their Firewall System
    3. ECA which is where you download your  assigned claim files and activity logs
    4. Xactimate for obvious reasons
    5. Photo Capture to upload your photos which is internal for State Farm (not Xactimate!)
    6. Contents Inventory which is a State Farm online system (again not Xactimate)
    7. Offline Claim Tool which works with their DOS program because it is easier to upload your log notes through this and it has Spell Check.
    8. Adobe so you could work on your Statement of Loss for each claim.
    9. Microsoft Word so you could copy and paste Log Note Macros into the Offline Claim Tool
    10. Enterprise/Reflections/CCR they have a lot of names for their DOS system where you check log activity and print out letters to the Insured.
    11. Delorme to route your claims
    12. Outlook to check email.
    13. Internet to look up prices for contents and Google Maps etc.

    Even new computers have a tough time with 13 different programs open so you can imagine how older laptops with very little RAM handle this load – not very well. I spent an inordinate amount of time re-booting and talking to computer technicians.

    For my own company, many years ago, I hired a technology consultant and he drastically streamlined my business. Each customer file only requires 5 steps and three programs on my computer to be open at once. State Farm has 22 individual steps and 13 different programs to complete just one file. Then they complain when you aren’t fast enough. I think that if the President of State Farm had to work claims in this cumbersome system for just one day, he would fire the IT staff the next day. Apparently they are going to launch a new system where everything is on one screen later this year during Hurricane Season.  I think I will wait until they get the bugs worked out before I would consider working for them again. When they have eliminated the redundancies and inefficiencies in their current system they will see a huge increase in adjuster production.

    In my own business I can easily handle 6 to 8 estimates per day and that includes ones that are more complicated than your standard hail or hurricane estimate. Most experienced adjusters I talked with could only do 4 to 5 in a day under this system unless they were simple 1 story 1500 sf gable roofs. State Farm could drastically increase their rate of production if they would make some very simple changes.  I casually mentioned to the staff computer technicians that hopefully someday soon we will be using iPads to do our estimates in the field and complete a table top closing and they thought that was the funniest thing they had ever heard. Pretty sad.

    I guess the final kicker for me was the day they handed me a check book. I was too stupefied and in shock to say anything when I was signing my signature card and I realized that I was going to be writing the checks.  I know that doing a first contact settlement really cuts down on your paper work and is a great idea. But, when your authority level is only $5000 and your average estimate is $13,000, it doesn’t help you much. I have a book keeper to write checks and stuff envelopes. I can better spend my time doing estimates.  Having a centralized system that prints and mails checks to the claimants would save adjusters tons of time.

    Now I realize that much of what they are doing is because that is just the way things are done, or because they are trying to protect themselves from lawsuits. But, they really need to have an outsider come in and shake things up and help them realize that technology is supposed to make your life simpler and completing tasks quicker. Somehow they have figured out how to make it more complicated and much slower than it should be. Just my opinion as a first timer and probably last timer until I get the bad taste out of my mouth.

     

    "A good leader leads..... ..... but a great leader is followed !!" CatAdjusterX@gmail.com
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    CatAdjusterX
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    08/22/2011 7:32 PM
    Posted By rjlummus on 01 Jul 2011 08:09 PM

    After reading some of the posts here I am starting to have doubts that I might not have all the experience needed to be hired as an adjuster.

    The course  I intend on taking is given by "Ajuster Training solutions" as anyone heard from them ?  Before spending almost $2000.00 for this course maybe I need to ask here if anyone heard from them.

    I am in the property preservation field for now 12 years for most of all the big assets companies.  Now the property presevation work is changing a lot doing more for less and it is getting worst everyday.  So I am looking for some new avenues and at my age ealy 50ies it is not that easy.  I was thinking that maybe I would have enough experience from my property preservation field to try to switch to this.  Am I wrong to think this?

    I am really good at what I do but like I mentionned previously the work is not there anymore so I want to be good at something else.

    Any type of input will be greatly appreciated. thanks

    I am sure that Adjusters training solutions is a fine company indeed, but what the heck costs 2,000.00 ? Are they printing their certifications on gold?

     

    "A good leader leads..... ..... but a great leader is followed !!" CatAdjusterX@gmail.com
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    jssistrunk
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    08/23/2011 8:00 PM

    CatAdjusterX,

    I noticed you had recommended PTC for new adjusters. I have an eval with Pilot in September. Do you suggest that I take the PTC lvl 1 prior to? Thanks in advance for the advice.

    "When duty and honor and love--immortal things bid the mortal perish. It is only when a man supremely gives that he supremely finds." — LT Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 20th Maine, October 3, 1889, Gettysburg, PA
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    CatAdjusterX
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    08/26/2011 2:52 PM
    Posted By jssistrunk on 23 Aug 2011 08:00 PM

    CatAdjusterX,

    I noticed you had recommended PTC for new adjusters. I have an eval with Pilot in September. Do you suggest that I take the PTC lvl 1 prior to? Thanks in advance for the advice.


    Will the PTC make or break your Pilot evaluation, no.
     

    However with that being said, it sure couldn't hurt and that you can do the PTC online is even more reason to do it. The PTC is about the only certification I think that will really help a new adjuster.

    Other than that , you should only spend money on XM8 until you can do it second nature. If that means 2 classes or 3 classes, you can NEVER have too much XM8 knowledge. Policy is super important as well,but because it's free and doesn't come with a shiny new certification, most rookie adjusters don't bother with it.

    You SHOULD bother and www.claimspages.com is a great way to start

    ATTENTION TO OUR NEWLY LICENSED BRETHREN:

    THE LAST PLACE YOU WANT TO REALIZE THAT YOU NEED MORE XM8 TRAINING IS OUT IN THE FIELD

     

    Robby Robinson

    "A good leader leads..... ..... but a great leader is followed !!" CatAdjusterX@gmail.com
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