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taking the test next tuesday.... :) What about MA license? who has it?

Unless you have extensive daily claims experience, studying would be a good idea. I know company adjusters who worked a career, in New York, and never passed the test.

Posted By Olegred on 22 Mar 2010 03:09 PM
taking the test next tuesday.... :) What about MA license? who has it?

 

MADOI

Just got back from working wind and water backup claims in New York.  Most were on Staten Island.  Had a couple in Manhattan and one on Long Island.  A LOT of adjusters were brought in for this event.

Worked on a temporary license obtained by my vendor. 

ddreisbach,

Was the vendor that obtained your temporary license for you an insurance company? I ask this because only insurance companies can obtain temporary licenses. An associate of mine that worked for an adjusting firm tells me they were unable to obtain temporary licenses in New York because of that fact. He also says it is common for adjusting firms to tell adjusters they obtained the proper licenses when in fact they don't. Based on his advice, which has been good for my whole career, I always check to make sure I am properly licensed even when the vendor tells me they are doing it for me.

You should be able to check with the state to determine if you had a temporary license. If you check & find that you didn't, Iwould reconsider working for that vendor.

I don't know who obtained the temporary license.  Doubt that there was any chicanery involved, considering the players.

Out of curiousity I went to the NY DOI website but could not find the usual agent/adjuster search function.

You can call the NY Dept of Insurance and ask about your temporary license. They will tell you if you were properly licensed.

This begs the question if you worked for an insurance company or an adjusting firm. Chicanery is not always involved. Lack of knowledge by a group of people usually results in incorrect information. As my mentor found out when he went to work for an adjusting firm, the person responsible for obtaining temporary licenses had no idea where to obtain licensing information. Since he worked for them as an adjuster in prior disasters, he decided to check with the state and found he had worked without a license.

The best information he has given is never depend on someone else to do what you should be doing.

We have thousands of people who have a TX. license that can not work a loss. Here we have an adjuster with many years experience working in NY and some get upset about a dumb license.

We have thousands of people who have a TX. license that can not work a loss. Here we have an adjuster with many years experience working in NY and some get upset about a dumb license.

True Ray. Why should a "professional" worry about having the proper licenses to work? As long as we do the job correctly nothing will happen. People have worked all over the country without the proper licenses without issues. So, how many licenses do you hold Ray and why do you have them if they are dumb?

As a professional insurance adjuster, it is my responsibility to have the appropriate licenses to work the jurisdiction. It is my responsibility to know the relevant laws and to abide by them. I would hope other adjusters accept their responsibility. Hopefully readers of this thread will see the potential for a problem and take action to prevent it from happening to them.

Face it, it has nothing to do with professionalism. It has to do with "money". It's a revenue generating thing. It's a tax, fee or whatever you want to call it. Companies don't want incompetent adjusters on their claims. They want good professional ones because it saves them money and time. That's why they hire competent IA firms and why IA firms want to use the people they know from experience who are good.

There should be a national adjusters license if any like the Flood Certification. It's $50 here and a $100 there and a test here and a reciprocal there. It's a hodgepodge. A temporary storm license is helpful, but of and by themselves licenses don't prove a whole lot. You could spend $1,500 a year and 2 months work a year just to have licenses.

You see storms and resulting CATS are almost random. It can be chaotic. I think Ray was talking a little retorically and would be the first to agree that to be professional requires what MBoy says. He was just rying to make a statement.

I agree Ray was making a statement; so am I. Ultimately the adjuster is responsible for his conduct & actions. Sometimes it takes extra effort to do the right thing, but you should do it. My mentor has several stories about doing the right thing when it is difficult at first but in the end, because he did the right thing everything worked out in his favor.

An example was a large commercial claim in South Texas. He represented the company that underwrote the deductible buy down. He wrote up all the damages (3 times the amount of the primary policy deductible & maximum payable by his insurer). The company argued over the fee bill (hourly billing). A week after submitting the fee bill there was another occurrence that was smaller. Because he had captured all the damages on the first claim, he was able to identify the new damages. He saved his insurer over $300,000 because he wrote a complete estimate the first time. The $25K invoice was now small change to the insurer & they paid it without comment. This claim ultimately ended up with a TXDOI complaint because the broker failed to place the primary insurance policy. TDI was surprised the loss was properly adjusted but complimented him on doing the right thing. It helped establish the damages payable by the broker for their failure.

A professional adjuster will do the right thing regardless of the pressure applied by others. I don't know if an adjuster worked without a NY license, but I do believe we can all learn from his experience.

yeah.... do it by the book guy.... are you rehearsing the speech for conscientious adjuster conference?

You are preaching to the choir. In this business if you don't do what's right, it will catch up with you eventually. The people who make it over the long haul, are the ones doing it right.

waiting on my NY license oh yeah! does any one of you has more than 27 licenses?