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If you've been self-employed for all this time, you know that you can do whatever you set your mind to. You and I know that you never work harder than when you're working for yourself.

You just need to decide if you want to make the commitment to be well educated in the industry, all the many and various fields that you have to have a working knowledge in, and spend the time becoming experienced.

Your decision to make, we won't and can't make it for you.

Happy Trails

Posted By Kevin on 16 Jul 2012 02:31 AM

My first inclination about insurance adjusting is that it might fit me perfectly to become an independant agent, even though I have no experience in insurance or construction. I feel that I would need to be develop a niche segment, I just wonder if this niche exists.

Let me explain:
I already have a successful business (not like millionaire successful, but pays a good wage), but I want to get out more and deal with people.

I have been self employed successfully for more than 20 years in the computer field.

I love to travel, my existing business involves extremely complex software, consulting, hosting, and some programming. I have done this my whole life and pretty much always made a decent living. The problem is I don't really want too much more computer business, but would like to branch out into other things. The reason being is my main focus in computers is often related to disaster recovery and complex failover systems in data centers.

So why would I want to change?

Because, I have done it my whole life, and I want to get into something a little different to supplement my existing business. Hence, it'd be great to not have to continue doing the same thing. I want to travel, and my own business is already REMOTE, so doing something different would be interesting to me.

Sometimes people just need to do something new to re-invigorate their interests. I don't have a degree, but did have some college in computer stuff. I left college early to start a business in computers (which was immediately successful).

Having been self-employed for so many years, I already have a multitude of experience reading business like contracts (also have worked with lawyers and all kind of different business people). I also have experience dealing with disasters and hostile situations, hence I've gone in and helped people recover data in terrible losses.

So the real question is, can I combine any of my pre-existing skills in this business to adjust intellectual property type claims such as computer data loss, or even computer hardware and high-end networking damages (even data center claims). I was thinking I could start out in that specialization and then work into something a little more broad later if I like it.

What do you guys think?

Oh, and BTW, I don't even need a paycheck for 1-2 years, I can do it on the side of pretty much as long as I want, but I'd like to see some return in 2 years.

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Kevin,

Larry could not have said it any better!

There are a few facts that are never going to change in this industry, they are 1) Most who try will fail 2) Those that succeed are completely aware that luck had something to do with it. What I mean is that no matter the adjuster (appraiser) whatever you are, part of your work is completely in the hands of our creator. Simply put, mother nature is the final authority on when we work and when we don't work. Granted there will always be work for some and sometimes there will be work for anyone with a pulse.

One of the biggest causes of failure in this business is," falling under the ether of a predatory training vendor."

Are all training vendors predatory? No

The problem Kevin is that when someone in your specific situation is considering this industry, there are going to be many many many people who will tell you yes, HELL yes!!, you are destined for greatness in this industry!!! The ones who tell you Hell yes, are the ones that in most cases are the ones that to which you will learn "their way" of getting into this industry and get you licensed and such and loaded up with this cert and that cert for the low low price of.....(fill in the blank)

Almost without fail, you will find those under the "ether" posting every week on this very site asking ,"where should they start working as they are freshly licensed and ready to take their place next to us on the "gravy train" 

Now, you will find Kevin that those who are successful in this industry are not super heroes or mythic god's or anything like that, they are good everyday folks with alot of experience who have somehow managed to carve out  living  The path to success will differ for each person.

Do not take this as a crap out, or trying to pound you into submission with failure is guaranteed because it is not that way, not at all. It all depends upon what your idea of success is.

If you remember this little adage, you will be relatively OK. Never ask someone who has a," financial incentive" in getting you licensed and loaded up with certs" what your chances of success are...in this industry.

Someone with a good head on their shoulders with a touch of computer literacy and the financial means to forego a steady paycheck in the early part of their career (and sometimes there will be dry spells for even the best of the best in this industry) have, are and will continue to find a home in this world.

This period in our industry as never before allows those with the above traits highlighted in bold stand a good chance of success(remember every person's version of success will differ.)  A recent article in a trade magazine quoted the CEO of Crawford & Company (one of the premier vendors and highly respected in this industry) with saying" It is easier and more cost effective to teach a tech savvy individual "how to be an adjuster" than it is to teach an experienced adjuster," how to become tech savvy".

I sincerely believe that to be true although that effectively is a slap in the face to a good % of highly experienced  folks who gave their best years to an industry that is leaving them behind. But business is never personal(yes that is much easier to say than it is to swallow)

The fact is that the claims adjusting industry (like all successful industries MUST do) has to adapt and change and reinvent itself with the dramatic leaps and bounds with technology to stay relevant.

Intellectual property claims is indeed a budding niche' as more and more companies tie themsleves to the web. To what extent I haven't the foggiest idea as I am not an expert in that area. But the fact remains it it a growing niche'

For all intents and purposes , you seem to have all the qualities necessary to be on par with every rookie adjuster with the financial means to survive the early portion of your career. That you have the IT skills may in fact put you above the average rookie adjuster.

Follow your heart with a good dose of listening to your brain when a "too good to be true" offer comes your way. Again, always remember to gauge the sincerity of the "offer" with who it comes from and if said individual has a financial incentive  in your training dollars.

One of the biggest factors between success and failure on your first event is your estimating software working knowledge and ability(in the CAT industry that will be XM8). From your IT background, that should not be too tall of an order. Many rookie adjusters will fail their first and only event for lack of computer software estimating skills. They will deploy to an event and will overstate their XM8 abilities to the powers that be, Once out oin the field they will realize this shortcoming and will most often try to compensate by "scoping" all of their claims over the course of the first few weeks and will then deal with their XM8 inadequacies by trying to write them all up at once. Well by that time, they now have their team lead and claims managers breathing down their necks because after a few weeks you will not have even claim one closed. All adjusters whether a rookie or a hand with 20 years of experience are expected to do one thing........ close claims, PERIOD!! It is at this point where either a rookie adjuster will quit or be asked to leave a site. Even with two weeks of hard work, without a closed claim, the rookie adjuster will go home not only penniless but usually a few grand in the hole from expenses(hotel/food/fuel/vehicle expenses)

With your background Kevin, (I don't know if you have a degree) but if you do (in some cases a degree is not always necessary), you should consider seeking employment with a large carrier as a staff adjuster trainee. These firms will most likely have an existing or emerging IT/IP department and you may indeed be a perfect fit. What's more is you can then forego all the licensing and certification treadmill mumbo jumbo that a rookie CAT/IA adjuster must go through.

In any case, it won't be easy but nothing worth having ever is. The fact that you can hang in for the first year or two sans any steady income bodes well for you

With regards to the intellectual property aspect, it sounds interesting, but unless you have people taking out insurance policies on their intellectual property (can one even do that? Maybe I should..will be looking in to it after I review another stack), the investigation aspect would be more likely fall to the attorneys and PI's than an independent adjusting firm.

As far as computer hardware loss, lots of policies are taken on hardware, and while the claims are few (as far as I know), one could in theory hook up with a self insured data center (most of the larger names are likely self insured to a certain point, if not entirely) and become their exclusive adjusting company. The odds of that happening are slim for an adjuster with a license that dates for a few weeks prior, but more and more this industry reveals that it is not necessarily who you are or how experienced you are, but more about who you know (on the daily side, that is, which is more what you seem to be referring to. On the CAT side how good and experienced you are, and the fact that you are a deploy-able warm body means the world). Maybe you have some connections within the dark and murky world of programmers and data center sysops that could help you to make the connections that you would need to handle their claims. If you do not, and you "want to start out in that specialization", indeed you may not see a paycheck for at least a couple of years, unless as X tells you, you end up lucky or blessed.

I can tell you that it takes a certain personality type to succeed as an independent. There are people who need to be told what to do, and there are people who just go do it and are not afraid to ask questions when they need to (some ask here, some know experienced people who can help). There is also a middle breed that seems to have the ability to go and do, but not enough good sense to ask questions (maybe it is pride, maybe it is idiocy, I have yet to decide). There is only one of these three types that actually succeeds as an IA, though the non-question askers seem to be able to muddle along for a year or three before self imploding. Having been self employed for so long likely puts you in the more enviable of personality types, so, provided you are not stuck on a niche market (a niche market grows over time in this industry, unless you know someone who can make it happen overnight), and are willing to learn about all types of claims, you can likely do well.

Just a quick thought. I don't know if it would work for you or not. Since I am computer blond (only slightly an exaggeration) I don't know what is feasible and what is not.

I am in charge of choosing vendors for property claims for the insurance carrier for which I work. Just this morning I was reviewing our earthquake expert list, so I know that one of the categories of experts we will use in the event of an earthquake are forensic computer experts. During the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake it seemed like every electronic device in the San Fernando Valley was claim to have been broken by the earthquake - fell off the table, e.g. The carrier who employed me at the time eventually got wise and figured out that you cannot tell if an electronic device is damaged by looking at it, so they started to demand that an expert must test the device and determine that it is not repairable before they were going to pay to replace it. Providing this type of service after a catastrophe might dovetail with your expertise. You will know that better than I.

If it does, I'll leave it to you to determine how to market that service, etc.

Sounds like you'd fit in more as a consultant than an adjuster, IMO.

 

Check out differnet forensic engineering and consulting companies. many offer contract opportunities.

 

A few firms that offer this type of consulting for computer/electronics are LWG Consulting, Rimkus Consulting Group, etc.