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Just wondering....did anyone new get the call?  Did anyone jump ship back to Cat IA?  And what happened?  As far as that goes, how about the Cat IA's that have been around and always got the call?  Been so so quiet here, maybe the answer is just that! Keep up the faith, and stock up on Ramen noodles....Jim Cantore still has a lot of raincoats.

Posted By Mike Kunze on 26 Sep 2012 08:38 PM
Just wondering....did anyone new get the call?  Did anyone jump ship back to Cat IA?  And what happened?  As far as that goes, how about the Cat IA's that have been around and always got the call?  Been so so quiet here, maybe the answer is just that! Keep up the faith, and stock up on Ramen noodles....Jim Cantore still has a lot of raincoats.

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Hi Mike,

I had maybe a dozen or so of my members get deployed for Isaac. 2 or 3 of them were newly licensed never been deployed whilst the others were moderately experienced 1 to 3 years of adjusting. The thing was as with the same thing that happened from Irene last year, more than a few vendors pulled the trigger before the damn storm even made landfall and gave the go order. As with Irene, half of my people got the," we are sorry but the volume is NOT there and as such thank you but we cannot use you. I had a cush gig set up to work remotely reviewing claims (yes god help us all with that) but alas' it was not to be. My thing was only if Isaac made a landfall in Florida.

I had a second opportunity to work NFIP claims in NOLA just a week or so ago. It was one of those things like,"how soon can you get here?" I said ,"if you need me I can be there in 72 hours!!" I was bolstered with the fact of knowing that the lion's share of the claims were going to be flood. Further, with NFIP adding an additional workshop "Due to Isaac's impact" it seemed logical that there was plenty of work if NFIP needed "new blood," if you will.

I have been NFIP certified for a few years, so it was easy to deduce," if they need new blood, then there is plenty of work for those of us who are already NFIP certified.

I had planned to leave on Sunday 16 September 2012. On Friday, I called and spoke to my POC and said, I am hearing from some of my members who are NFIP certified adjusters already on the ground in NOLA who say they are wrapping up the few NFIP claims they have left. So before I get there, can you shed some light on this, what kind of volume are you talking about? I am NOT asking for a guarantee, I am asking because it has to make sense to incur the significant costs with travelling across the country. The POC essentially blew up, yelled at me stating," You guys want guarantees? Well, there are NONE in the CAT industry!! He then stated, ANY amount of claims is better than none!!

Well, in any case I said thanks for the info, I am going to pass on this opportunity.

Mike, in any case, as I have written about in the past, I think there is a silver lining in the lack of significant events over the last few years and as such not much work for the rookie adjuster.

That silver lining is with no significant work, a large % of those rookies who are here for the perceived "easy money" will move on to another industry. Those that remain are those who want to make a career out of the industry and understand that the 6 figure incomes are the fruits of years of hard work

Here is my understanding of the cause of what volume is left in NOLA:

A number of the FEMA inspectors, in addition to the SBA (who likes to loan people money after they incur a loss) have required their insured's (and loan applicants) to file a homeowners claim and provide them with a copy of whatever the carrier happens to provide them that results from the claim.

I and several of my adjusters encountered this while deployed, and frankly, it was shocking to see so many insured's forced to file a claim on their homeowners policy in order to be able to either (a) even consider their flood policy; or (b) borrow money. 

The vast majority of this category of claim was essentially a below deductible loss, not to be confused with a "no claim". The hurricane deductibles there seem to average 2-3%, so for the people with a $250,000 risk and a 3% deductible, even if the roof requires replacement, most of the losses did not meet deductible.

There was wide spread wind damage down there, but it was very light, and a great number of people are not filing claims simply due to the high deductibles. With regards to flood damages, while the media did the whole sensationalist thing, I only encountered a few areas in the greater NOLA area that experienced flooding. I am sure that tens of thousands of claims arose from the flooding, but with all the carriers planning for a large scale event, and all of us chomping at the bit after a somewhat slow year for CAT events, most of those files were closed out rapidly.  

There will likely be a great deal of cleanup work down there, as the insureds appeared to be abnormally well schooled in insurance law and the typical reaction of a carrier to the threat of litigation. I actually met insured's who introduced themselves as "the guy that is going to fight you tooth and nail in court", before I could even shake their hand and properly introduce myself, much less perform the inspection. While an extreme (but factual) example, this attitude seemed to be the norm rather than the exception. That said, I foresee a large number of re-inspections in the future. It would probably be a great time for anyone looking to start a daily firm in the southeast to jump in (just make sure you have ironclad E&O and a great attorney, lol). 

Posted By AcceleratedAdjuster on 01 Oct 2012 07:45 AM

Here is my understanding of the cause of what volume is left in NOLA:

A number of the FEMA inspectors, in addition to the SBA (who likes to loan people money after they incur a loss) have required their insured's (and loan applicants) to file a homeowners claim and provide them with a copy of whatever the carrier happens to provide them that results from the claim.

I and several of my adjusters encountered this while deployed, and frankly, it was shocking to see so many insured's forced to file a claim on their homeowners policy in order to be able to either (a) even consider their flood policy; or (b) borrow money. 

The vast majority of this category of claim was essentially a below deductible loss, not to be confused with a "no claim". The hurricane deductibles there seem to average 2-3%, so for the people with a $250,000 risk and a 3% deductible, even if the roof requires replacement, most of the losses did not meet deductible.

There was wide spread wind damage down there, but it was very light, and a great number of people are not filing claims simply due to the high deductibles. With regards to flood damages, while the media did the whole sensationalist thing, I only encountered a few areas in the greater NOLA area that experienced flooding. I am sure that tens of thousands of claims arose from the flooding, but with all the carriers planning for a large scale event, and all of us chomping at the bit after a somewhat slow year for CAT events, most of those files were closed out rapidly.  

There will likely be a great deal of cleanup work down there, as the insureds appeared to be abnormally well schooled in insurance law and the typical reaction of a carrier to the threat of litigation. I actually met insured's who introduced themselves as "the guy that is going to fight you tooth and nail in court", before I could even shake their hand and properly introduce myself, much less perform the inspection. While an extreme (but factual) example, this attitude seemed to be the norm rather than the exception. That said, I foresee a large number of re-inspections in the future. It would probably be a great time for anyone looking to start a daily firm in the southeast to jump in (just make sure you have ironclad E&O and a great attorney, lol). 

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I wouldn't even call it an extreme example, factual yes 100% . Lots of folks down in that general area feel they were given the shaft by the carriers after Katrina/Rita. Whether reasonable or not, reality is perception. Granted I worked Katrina/Rita reopens and a large % of those initial claims were literally comical in the ineptness of the original adjuster (it was easy to see that MANY of these were three day wonders who were flippin' burgers on a Friday and after going through a weekend seminar, working claims on Monday). There were also over 20% of said claims where I was the fourth and even fifth adjuster on a file. So as you stated, I to was greeted almost always with suspicion and sometimes outright contempt.

One interesting note, I think of the give or take 200+ reopens I worked on, maybe a dozen were closed with no additional claim award. So maybe there is some credibility that "some" insureds did indeed get the shaft. For clarity, even though I was doing reopens and PA rep'd claims and such, I had ZERO draft authority 

No problems on my end. I think a lot of it has to do with the types of claims you handle. Many adjusters choose to work commercial losses due to a noted decrease in the amount of drama created by most personal lines customers.

USAA claims are a clear exception and are similar to commercial losses. Generally, you are working with military personnel who make decisions without letting their emotions cloud their judgement. A basic dose of boot camp generally separates the wheat from the chaff and voila, you have a perfect customer. God bless America!

Secondly, commercial customers tend to have better business sense. This sense (not to be confused with emotion) of theirs tells them when their precious assets are getting ready to get mishandled.

Third, all of the commercial customers I have from Isaac had a good experience in Katrina. They rationally distinguished their personal claims experience from the onslaught of circumstances that they had no control over (lengthy power outages, pump failure, terrible civil/state governance, etc.).

This could also mean that the commercial losses were handled by the good adjusters who chose to work better fee schedules (and had been offered better rates based on their merit). These adjusters abstained from fee arrangements that were substandard from the get-go.  Many carriers think they get ahead of the game with a crappy, regular schedule and strategically release a great schedule based on the size of the storm.  Granted, they get a few this way, but more good adjusters are secured another way.

Good adjusters start looking for decent rates well in advance and plan who they will side with when the storm hits. If I were in Vendor Mgt., I would want adjusters who are organized and decent planners- not the ones that made a decision based on a momentary glimmer that showed up on day three of the storm's landfall. The vendor I'm working with now has a single hourly rate that is decent for both storm and daily work. I've had a relationship with their decision makers for seven years.

Organized adjusters translate into better customer service, efficient time management, and make better adjusters. As adjusters, do we really do anything that difficult outside of staying organized? The difficult stuff is handled by experts and we coordinate (organization) experts, right?

With EXPERIENCE, comes EXPECTATION. THE WEATHER CHANNEL once again hyped this storm (Isaac) to be the 'next Katrina' in order to sell advertising. They know that all they (THE WEATHER CHANNEL) needs to do is dust off Dr. Doom and send out Jim Cantore', and they sell advertising. I know several newbie adjuster wannabe's that kept calling me with their big dreams of big money in New Orleans. When they didn't get the call, they were heartbroken. The IA firms KNEW this was not going to be a big ordeal. The carriers KNEW that this was not going to be a big ordeal. The carriers put the IA firms on notice that they were to deploy experienced adjusters, and set their documentation expectations quite high. In our business, it is truly "feast or famine".

I know some experienced adjusters who were complaining about fee schedules, paperwork requirements, contact/inspect/reporting deadlines... People, if you haven't noticed, many experienced folks were on the sidelines for this storm, too. I was fortunate, having worked steadily (almost 100% continuously) since 2003. I know guys that actually quit their day jobs (again) to chase Isaac. No claims... now they have to run back to the day job (Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, driving dump trucks) with their tails between their legs begging to get back on. Until we have a truly large-scale event (Katrina/Rita/Wilma) or a California Earthquake, etc..., I think the field has enough players. To continue running the "I wanna be an adjuster" schools, putting more newbies out there with "hope" and "change" and "visions of grand wealth" will only dilute the pool of adjusters and deplete the volume of claims for those that do have work. I am all for "staffing up" in a big event, as long as the message to the onslaught of newbies is honest and forthright. But, there's not much soup in the pot this year, and the more people who come to sit at the table, the less soup there is to go around.

Just Saying...

As i am just finishing up with deployment in NOLA for Isaac, I agree with alot of posts in this thread. Alot of insured's seem to possess a disdain for insurance carriers after Katrina. I think we all have to remember that the insurance business is a business, yet have the understanding that fairness and competency of construction techniques and peril impact on structures is key. I rolled to NOLA without orders or assignments (not something I would recommend) but was able to drop a vehicle off in the panhandle to help justify the trip if I didn't get deployed. I was lucky enough to leverage contacts to align myself with an IAS that allotted me a modest amount of wind claims to make the trip worthwhile. Not great money, but helps to keep resume interesting. If you are a new adjuster, try to get daily work, build experience and make contacts. Keep the faith!! Rick Watson