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Companys or vendors?

Companys or vendors?

Posted By Mike on 12 Jan 2012 12:04 PM

Hey everyone, I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and ask a few questions. My name's Mike and I reside in the Central Florida area. I just recently completed my degree at the University of Central Florida and the job search isn't going so great!

Prior to completing this last semester, I went ahead and took a course for the All Lines Adjuster license. I am licensed and I have applied to what seems like every insurance company under the sun (well not every one, but every one I can think of). I want to stay local as I plan to go back to school for my MBA in the fall, but need a career in order to do so.

Does anyone have any idea where I should look or what I can do? I would greatly appreciate any responses from y'all!

Thanks!

You probably won't like my answer but it is what it is. For the newly licensed claims professional, get the HECK outta Florida. Florida has the most adjusters per capita than even Texas.

Being that you have a 4 year degree stay the heck away from IA firms and CAT work. Not so much CAT work but apply for a company adjuster trainee position and get paid to learn the industry. State Farm/Farmers/Travellers/Allstate all have company adjusters and training programs.

If you go the IA firm route you will go into a trial by fire/sink or swim scenario and many newly licensed claims professional's careers are ended before they even began. It's not impossible to go the IA firm/CAT route, but it's always better to get paid to learn. 

 

 My most important advice as it relates towards who to apply for work with is hands down.......................................

                                                                 CRAWFORD AND COMPANY

 

Robby Robinson

What is so great about Crawford, I have never worked for them but I am just curious. I have had good luck with PILOT so far.

Thanks, John C.

Nab an entry level job with a carrier for a year or two to learn the business. I chose Farmers because the rumor was it was the hardest program. You'll get second to none training and you'll come out of it being able to handle stuff well.  Feel free to search my post history from the beginning.  I had a track similar to yours.  I had a BA in English and no experience in the field (in all fairness I did have construction estimating experience).  If and when you do make the transition to IA work from staff, keep in mind that you will instantly go from lots of structure and oversight to everything on your own and it will be a culture shock.

Also, you'll get paid while you work. A carrier won't be 3-4 months behind on paying you, which is the kind of nonsense I'm dealing with currently. The only reason I can handle it is I built a cash reserve (well, it turns out it wasn't enough and I had to go do some other work in the interim). For a recent grad, I'm guessing you haven't had the time to do that yet and such an experience could be crushing financially (not to mention your morale).

Hi Mike,

I am currently working for Crawford & Company. They put me to work back last April 2011 I just finally made it home the day before Thanksgiving. They have had me doing cat work then branch assist for our 2 branches here in Mt. where I live.

  I like Robby  would say they are the best company I have ever had the chance to work with & I worked with Pilot for over 8 years. I will say Pilot was always fair with me.

Working for Crawford ,You are paid on time every 2 weeks and they direct deposit it right into your account. They also deduct taxes for you so when this time of year rolls around you don't have to worry about having money left to pay your taxes.

   That being said You need multiple state licenses to be a valuable commodity to Crawford. If you ask them to keep you busy they will do their best to do that.

Crawford has a very good group of Managers & supervisors & adjusters, also their reviewers, who will do everything they can to make sure you succeed.

   Crawford has guidelines on how they want clients handled and I believe it is pretty standard but they take very good care of their clients.it would be best to contact the main office in Atlanta and see what they have for a new adjuster, as far as training.

  Right now it is very quiet so it is not going to be a very good time to go right to work, unless we have a large catastrophe such as an earthquake or something. There might be some windstorms show up here but that's up to mother nature.

Are there any other IA firms that someone would advise a new adjuster to try to work for or with?

Posted By JOHN C on 16 Jan 2012 03:10 PM

What is so great about Crawford, I have never worked for them but I am just curious. I have had good luck with PILOT so far.

Thanks, John C.

Hi John, PILOT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not really, as a matter of fact, I am quite fond of Pilot Catastrophe. They are one of the Big 4 for a reason and as such will be a beacon of stability for all adjusters experienced or not. One thing that stands out for both Pilot and Crawford is that they are equal opportunity in as much as they hire those with experience and those with NO experience. I personally will be forever grateful to both Pilot and Crawford for taking good care of so many of my members.

Now, as it relates to Crawford, Crawford hosts MULTIPLE conferences each and every year. At said conferences, they offer a multitude of HIGHLY profitable(extremely costly to ALL claims professionals) certifications to experienced adjusters as well as those newly licensed claims professionals. Almost all of the certifications are offered by other vendors and they are NOT cheap. As a matter of fact, most are extremely expensive just for the certs themselves . Now add in the cost of lodging and travel costs and you have prohibitively expensive but MANDATED certifications if adjusters wish to work and feed their families. What really pains me is that those newly licensed claims professionals are the ones with the LEAST amount of disposable income to put forth for said MANDATED certifications.

However, Crawford offers all of those MANDATED certifications.........at NO cost........to ANYONE. In fact, Crawford pays handsomely to those training vendors to teach these certifications to ALL that attend. I personally attended the Dallas conference last year and I came away with my NFIP certification(requires a minimum of 4 years continuous service) however even those with no flood experience are able to attend the NFIP workshop and will receive credit for attending the workshop.(in addition, should NFIP certified claims professionals become overwhelmed with claims, one of the first groups of people to be offered an emergency FCN number AFTER those with expired NFIP credentials will be those who attended an NFIP workshop) I also came away from the Dallas conference with my California Earthquake Authority certification. California has NO reciprocity with ANY other state so in a nutshell, if you want to work claims within the state of California you MUST be licensed with the state themselves. Ca requires a minimum of two years experience to even be eligible to sit for the exam itself. However, being that it's not a matter of if, but when Ca gets hit with another devastating earthquake, Ca is aware they will be overwhelmed and as such will need outside help from adjusters licensed in other states. So, Ca has agreed to allow outside licensed adjusters to work said earthquake claims within Ca's borders PROVIDED said adjusters have the CEA certification.

There were multiple carrier certs available in addition to a carrier from Australia looking for folks to go work "Down Under". I personally know multiple adjusters who have went to work in Australia and England under the Crawford banner.

They offer XM8 courses and XM8 Sketch courses to ALL who attend and again at NO cost. That in and of itself would cost any adjuster over a grand just from those two courses alone and at least another grand when you add in the travel and associated lodging costs. Crawford also aggressively recruits newly licensed claims professionals at these conferences who show a superior intellect, superior learning capabilities, superior work product.   

Now in addition to offering these certs at these multiple conferences, Crawford treats it's staff and independents (adjusters) very well. Working with Crawford whilst on a storm or event, all field staff have unrestricted access to claims managers, team leads, examiners who are all there to help...YOU create and submit and get paid very well for a quality work product. It gets even better, for it's top performers, prostitutes (male and female) are provided that get sent right to the adjuster's room*** 

Having someone to go to when you have a question(believe me when I say you will all have questions, experienced or not!!)is priceless. When your files get rejected as revisions are needed is something we all go through, but examiners team leads etc... are right there to assist you. Understand that Crawford isn't providing these people to baby or coddle you, they are providing said support because they CARE about the quality of every estimate that has their name on it!!

***Just in case you actually believed the above ridiculous prostitute statement in bold, it is a joke and is to simply add a touch of levity and NOTHING more.

Robby Robinson
 

Robbie,

I did get a little excited there for a little while Ha Ha. I will have to look into Crawford more. Pilot gave me my big break this past year. Right before Irene hit the east coast Pilot had called me after I had submitted my resume to them in June of this past year and ask me if I would be interested in coming for their evaluation. I took them up on the offer and passed their evaluation in August and at the end of August Irene hit and they deployed me to New Jersey. It was pretty rough at times but with extra help and a lot of prayer I completed 68 claims before having to come home because of an auto accident. I totaled my car and got a cracked sternum. I came home and got healed up while on workmans comp. In Dec. I got deployed again by Pilot to Calif. for the wind storms they had out there I completed 36 claims out there.  Now just waiting on the next storm.

John C

John,

I did well for a lot of years working for Pilot. Always paid on time and paid right. Good support from the staff, mostly.

I would suggest you continue to polish your work product and get all the licenses you think you need and call in every Monday AM to tell them you're available.

Happy Trails

Posted By JOHN C on 19 Jan 2012 05:45 PM

Robbie,

I did get a little excited there for a little while Ha Ha. I will have to look into Crawford more. Pilot gave me my big break this past year. Right before Irene hit the east coast Pilot had called me after I had submitted my resume to them in June of this past year and ask me if I would be interested in coming for their evaluation. I took them up on the offer and passed their evaluation in August and at the end of August Irene hit and they deployed me to New Jersey. It was pretty rough at times but with extra help and a lot of prayer I completed 68 claims before having to come home because of an auto accident. I totaled my car and got a cracked sternum. I came home and got healed up while on workmans comp. In Dec. I got deployed again by Pilot to Calif. for the wind storms they had out there I completed 36 claims out there.  Now just waiting on the next storm.

John C

John,

if Pilot gave you your big break, a touch of loyalty goes a long way.