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Bill, as important a task as adjusting is, there is very little actual policing of adjusters or companies. Anyone can be designated as a General Adjuster or an Executive General Adjuster.

I am certain that there are licensed adjusters who just woke up one day and decided on the GA title. At the same time I have friends who are highly qualifed with decades of experience that don't refer to themselves as GA's.

Bill

Florida requires that all licensed adjusters  have an appointment to work in Florida.  You should have been alerted to lack of qualifications when the PA  filed a bad faith complaint with the DFS.  Bad faith complaints can only be filed by attorneys.

William S Cook

Pubic Adjuster

 

This will shed no light on who appoints a GA to be a GA. I think others are right - that there is no industry recognized standard.

I have sometimes told others that the difference between a GA and a catadjuster is that a GA is always asking, "What do I do next on this file?" while a catadjuster is always asking, "How can I close this file today?"

Bill: Lets wait and see what the national assoc. comes up with. It's still a pay grade with scrambled eggs on the visor in most industry circles.

I have never been ask to  produce credentials; but I could.  Sounds like a good question to ask if you have doubts. Adjusters are always asking you for proof, Why not.

Looking back at my first appointment to a Property Adjuster position, I was given the title of General Adjuster by the HR department.  The reason why was because a multi-line adjuster and handled various types of claims.  Therefore, this HR department assigned the title General Adjuster to those who handled multi-line claim assignments.  Knowing what I know now, this would seem more like a blunder or faux pas.

Another company I worked for, CunninghamLindsey, had a written process for GA designees.  It was a formal and lengthy process which consisted of multiple interviews and claim samples.  I'm sure that GAB and Crawford has something like this, but according to their own customizations.

My point is that each company has their own criteria for what they deem a General Adjuster.  When you take another step into the Catastrophe Arena, you are faced with quite a bit of a lack of regulation and a reciprocal amount of different opinions on this topic.  So you have to determine this on case by case basis.

If someone is a Property General Adjuster, I would like to think that most of us could all agree that the GA should have at least ten (10) years of experience, need little or no guidance on technical issues, and can handle large losses on a routine basis.

Seeing a "self professed" GA with less than ten (10) years of experience usually reflects an excessive and uneccessary amount of arrogance.  If you are tempted to don yourself this title and you don't have the years, I would just let your resume and qualifications speak for itself.  If you are promoted to this title prior to your ten (10) year anniversary, then kudos.  But be ready, for the doubters will come in droves and try to question your true ability.

Jud's description of the General Adjuster's qualifications are prit-near on point as interpreted by an outsider of the firm that apparently generated the position first from an historical standpoint, i.e. the forerunner to the current company known as GAB-Robbins.

General Adjustment Bureau, Inc., was established as a non-profit property adjusting firm in the late 1800's in New York City, to handle all claims presented to it's insurance carrier member shareholders, and was considered the "Premier" property adjusting firm in the nation. I began my career as a multi-line claims adjuster when hired by GAB,Inc., in 1965, and was mentored by General Adjusters in the offices I worked in during my first 14 years with the company. All GAB adjusters "looked up" to the GA's as highly accomplished property claims adjusters who not only had impeccable qualifications but also exuded a decorum that "leveled the playing field" when meeting with industrial plant managers and similar well-educated business-owners with whom they negotiated claims settlements, usually resulting from huge losses to those type entities where machinery and resulting Business Interruption losses easily ran into the multi-millions of dollars. Of course, these GA's were also very educated in accounting and knowledge of costs of running businesses. The term most often used to describe the GA's personality to those of us unknowing, was "Prince of a Gentleman". Oh, I'm sure there was the occasional GA not deserving of this label, but overall, GAB's G.A.s were at the top in the industry.

At the time of my leaving GAB, after 14 years, I was designated to "become" the resident GA in a neighboring metro city to replace a "retiring" GA. I had to complete an accounting course with satisfactory grades as the first requisite to becoming a GA, which was accomplished before I left for another opportunity that arose. I'm sure that other training was in store for me. Although I have now worked Business Interruption losses to satisfactory results, I have never taken the title of "General Adjuster" as it was not originally bestowed on me by GAB.

The nation's economy has come a long way since the 1960's. It's not too difficult to write repair estimates on condo builidings today reaching the millions of dollars, but it's another thing to go into a manufacturing facility and try to write an estimate from the estimating computer programs we work with today. In defense of the GA's who didn't write estimates on commercial buildings, I can assure you that they knew how to break down general contractor's estimates to arrive at the best agreed settlement with the Insured and their contractor of choice. I also suspect some of the commercial contractors were paid by the insurance carrier to write a competitive estimate that the G.C. could "live with" if he was the low bidder and awarded the job.

That's my take on this subject.

Martin,

I appreciate very much your history of GAB and and discussion of what a general adjuster should be. GAB is the company I work with most of the time. They have used me on occasion as a general adjuster, most notably on Hurricane Katrina. They have not been hesitant about handing me a million plus dollar claim from time to time. I have also handed a few of these back to them when I thought their resident general adjuster would be in a better position to handle the claim. I have never used the designation to describe myself, because I serve as a contract employee for GAB Robins. True general adjuster files will often take six months to more than a year to complete. I will only take these files if it appears I am likely to be in the area long enough to complete the file. Otherwise it is preferrable to have an adjuster on the file who can handle it beginning to end. Though I can handle, and have handled, multi-million dollar losses my heart is with catadjusting. My preference is to close a hundred files a month rather than work on have a dozen that will not close for months.

The GAB general adjusters I have met over the last eight years deserve the title. They ask questions that other adjusters often don't even know enough to ask. The spectrum of their knowledge is very wide. I also have not met many who are full of themselves. Your assessment of the level of adjuster that is designated as a general adjuster by GAB and Crawford still hold true today. The same is probably true for Cunningham Lindsey, but I cannot speak to that because I have yet to work for them.

Here is an interesting site which spells out what qualifications the National Assn of General Adjusters deems the criteria for GA along with a list on the site of members. Quite an impressive list of experience and designations!

http://www.ngadjust.com/about

Thanks, Steve. Your points are well taken. Some additional points we might add are as follows:

I strongly believe that the G.A. title should only be used by those active, full-time, insurance trained property adjusters who work only heavy(emphasized) commercial losses, because their decisions within their authority are monumental in scope and complexity, subject to critical review of all parties involved. For this high level of expertise, the G.A.s are paid handsomely (and well should be) on non-catastrophic claims work.

This has now about worn this subject out, but was in need of in-depth discussion for the benefit of all members who were somewhat puzzled about the qualifications of a "GENERAL ADJUSTER".