| Author |
Message |
Kile Anderson
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2000 - 9:06 pm: | |
Thanks for the advice, Jim. I got the call today, I'm headed to Chesterfield Indiana. Don't know the extent of the damages yet but I hear the hail was pretty rough. I'll let you know how it looks |
Paul Bagnato
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2000 - 12:13 pm: | |
Like Jim Flynt,I too live and prefer to work in the Northeast. Hurricane Floyd was a real benefit for I worked from my home office on a 7 month run including the cleanup. There are the down times though, yet being a newbee adjuster,(I am only 35 years old), no matter how long I have been adjusting, (8 yrs.) every person at my table is 10 -15 years my senior. I sit and listen to everyone of them. This way when I have a question, and we all do,I know who I want to answer it.
I am on assignment in Chicago working at the NCC of a major carrier with Pilot. Nice people to work with even though I am a Yankee.
It is a completely different style, working as independents in the NCC. I wish everyone a safe storm and remember that we al needto get home safely. |
Chuck Deaton (Chuck)
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2000 - 9:33 am: | |
To those that post asking questions regarding getting a start, let me point out that my Cat 101 is free for the asking. In the 10+ pages there is one morsel that will help you. Just email me and I will send Cat 101 |
Jim Flynt (Jim)
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2000 - 12:51 am: | |
OK Steve, I am finally "On the Road" after a long respite. It was about time! Headed to Chicago for GAB!
I post this only in celebration after a long drive spell and because you asked.
Roy Cupps is headed up there too with Crawford so this will give Roy a chance to buy me a beer while we lay out the most ambitious of plans for the CADO site! |
Jim Flynt (Jim)
| | Posted on Friday, May 19, 2000 - 11:00 am: | |
MEMO to Kile Anderson
Kile, if you want to get more storm assignments, then you need to start selling yourself more.
Here are a couple of ideas for you to consider:
Post your resume and contact information on the CADO Roster. Vendors read this page, especially when they need an adjuster in a particular geographical area. It's easy, it's quick, and it's FREE.
Get a list of the vendors from the CADO Employers Page and send your resume to each and every one of them. Many of these vendors allow you to post your resume online. Again, it's quick, easy, and FREE.
Watch the CADO Bulletin Board, Forum, and On the Road Pages to see where other cat adjusters are working. When you see new storms, try to contact adjusting firms in that area or that specialize in handling claims in that area. More than once, I have been able to find work from ideas gleaned from the CADO Pages.
Hope these ideas are helpful for starters. There are a million more out there as well. Perhaps some of our other newer CADO Newbees can and will share some of their ideas which worked for them.
Good Luck Kile and feel free to email me if I can assist you further or you have any questions. Hang in there, it will happen for you soon! |
Kile Anderson
| | Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2000 - 11:55 pm: | |
Thanks Storm Pro. I love the job, just hope to get more work soon. It looks like things are heating up in the midwest tonight. I'm just glad I'm lucky enough to have a good alternate job to fall back on to pay the rent. This is a hard business to break into but it can be quite rewarding once you get established. |
Jim Odermann
| | Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2000 - 8:21 am: | |
Does anyone out there have any info on how good/bad the hail storms in Detroit, Chicago, or Wisconsin were? Thanks in advance. |
storm pro
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - 7:10 pm: | |
Kile,
Let me try to answer your question.
I would think that you worked Floyd because there was a great demand for adjusters at that time and it probably was a great oppurtunity for you to jump into this business and get your start.
Since that time there have only been pocket storms and the adjusters that have been called out are core adjusters that are very high up on the call list.
I suggest you hang in there as hurricance season is once again approaching and you will get that call again. As time goes on and your work product improves you will move up on the call list and hence you will work more. Enjoy your time off and expand your knowledge and skills and prepare for the next storm.
Good Luck! |
Kile Anderson
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 11:32 pm: | |
Hello gentleman. I'm a newbie adjuster. Hurricane Floyd was my first assigment. I worked in Delaware for Worley adjusting claims for SF. I was just wondering how common it is to be "on vacation" for 6 months or more. I know that I'm new to this and I've been very patient. I've seen quite a few storms pop up on the weather channel, yet the phone remains silent. I really like CADO and plan to support it in the near future, (when the work comes.) |
Jim Flynt (Jim)
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 5:09 pm: | |
Steve, if you ever get thrown in jail, call me and I will come and get you out. If I can't, then I will ask them to put me in the cell with you!
My Best Wishes and don't worry about what has been said by lesser voices.
Keep your head up and I look forward to meeting you and working with you one day.
AND, keep those excellent policy coverage questions coming! |
stormpro
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 4:25 pm: | |
Curious:
You are so clever. You found out where I was working and who I was working for and then decided to slam me and the carrier!
I am CURIOUS however. Why would you do this?
What is your beef with me?
Where on CADO have I ever acted like a know it all?
Just curious...
PS
Thanks to Jim for your support |
Jim Flynt (Jim)
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 1:21 pm: | |
Curious, I do not know Steve Florig personally (and the loss is mine as well as his. We WILL meet one day!) but from what I do know and have heard, I believe him to be a very good adjuster. My impressions from his posts are obviously quite different than yours. From what I know, Steve has been working down in the Columbia, SC area with the recent hailstorm for Reed, Jones, McRorie and Williams, an excellent vendor by the way. I know that Bob McRorie would not send Steve out on an assignment if Steve was anything less than competent and qualified!
Steve, I took absolutely no offense at your question. In fact, I re-posted the same question elsewhere on this Forum today to elicit some serious discussion about that particular question from our CADO readers.
Curious, I wish both you and Steve well as we all work together to make our profession a little better, and I know that both of you Gentlemen share that vision with me and many other of our CADO readers. |
CURIOUS
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 1:14 pm: | |
Storm Pro
what is your experience? You sound like an adjuster with 2-3 years experience and tries to tell everyone all his knowledge. I think you are currently working for USAA where no field adjuster has any authority until the file is review and corrected by the staff personel. Why do you think it would be a big deal if you were caught on a coverage question. |
Jim Flynt (Jim)
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 10:12 am: | |
StormPro (Steve Florig) you ask good questions and a fair one too, so I will do my best to give you a fair answer.
There are several reasons why I am at home right now and not out on assignment. Ironically, another adjuster who reads the CADO site had sent me an email the other day asking the question: "Why are there so many newer adjusters out working while so many Old Timers and experienced adjusters still sitting at home?" Perhaps, you and others can find that question in the appropriate thread and respond.
First of all, I have not been out on assignment because I had unanticipated surgery about 2 months ago, and have just now recovered to the point where I can now go back to work. Fortunately, everything went fine, and I am well rested.
Secondly, I am developing and writing the AIC 35 Property Loss Estimating for the American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters for the First Online AIC course to be offered this Fall 2000. As such, I have been made a part-time employee of AICPCU, but the pay is not what I would make out on "cat." Of course, the pay is not what this is about, and in the long run, I thought perhaps I could make a difference in the education and training of new adjusters, which has long been one of the driving forces in my life.
I will tell you Steve, that from time to time, I do see information posted here on the CADO site which will suggest to me a storm assignment. I have found assignments from information gleaned on the CADO pages and I have on many occasions passed these ideas along to other adjusters who subsequently have gone out and then made money with that assignment. That is another reason why we all should share information on the CADO site.
Steve, I try and work the winter ice storms each year in the Northeast, and normally I will spend about 5 months per year up in such wonderful places as Buffalo, Montreal, and North Jersey. I then try to stay away from the hailstorms, although I do love and enjoy working tornado and wind events. That then gives me several months "off" in the summer to take classes, do updates, and ready my equipment as well as rest my soul, for the hurricane season ahead.
I love handling ice claims, as well as wind claims. Not only do I enjoy them, I think that I am pretty darn good at those particular types of claims. I try to avoid hail (though not at all costs) and I will leave Flood claims to the folks who do them all the time, and who do them much better than I: adjusters like John Postava, Lee Mushaney, John Woods, and Don Kerber.
The world of catastrophe insurance is changing, and as such, I believe that is important for each of us to try and identify our particular niche, and then work to develop it.
Every year, I try my darndest to take at least 6 weeks of continuing education. In this, or any other business, one can never know enough nor learn enough. While I have earned several designations, I am working currently on 5 more. I wish I had more money and more time to progress even faster than I have been. While the information I learn in those classes is invaluable, the networking among others inclined toward educational growth and personal development is an even greater benefit. Those contacts are immeasurable in worth and serve as resources for future mutual service.
As you may well know from reading the CADO Pages, Roy, Dave and I have some grand plans for where CADO can and will ultimately go. There is so much work that goes on behind the scenes to make this site work, and to expand its influence beyond what is easily visible at the present time. This is a "great job" to have the honor and privilege of working with Roy and Dave, although the "pay" consists of a few cold beers from Roy about once a year. (BTW Roy, I am not complaining!).
I know that Roy and I both would love to so arrange our lives so that we could devote 100% of our time to making CADO all that it can (and WILL) become. Unfortunately, we have to work to support our families and lifestyles just as you do. In time, we will still accomplish all we set out to with CADO, although it will take a little longer this way.
Just within the past 2 weeks, Roy and I have had some exciting conversations with The Rough Notes Company which wants to publish information about this site in a new "Agent's Guide." This alone will bring many new readers, and thus perhaps new Members to CADO.
Several months ago, we sent out personal invitations to nearly 2,500 international risk management and insurance claims professionals asking them to take a look at the CADO site. These people were invited from every continent, and almost every country. Many have accepted our invitation and have become regular readers. In time, we expect to have some of them as regular CADO Members. In my own view, we will one day bring down the trade barriers which will then allow more of us to work in international environments on worldwide catastrophe events. We felt this was a good start, and one which in the long run, can only benefit you. Perhaps, that is one reason that we would like to see the CADO postings become less trashy, less negative, less full of attack, and more in the positive fruitful vein of cooperation, sharing of information, and contributions to the personal educational and training developments which can, in the end, only help us all. As Dave as said, we can swim together, or we can sink together.
Within the past 2 weeks, I have had extensive conversations with ISO (Insurance Services Office) concerning ISO allowing us to "publish" and allow our readers to be able to download the more popular ISO Forms from the CADO site (HO-1, HO-2, HO-3, HO-4, HO-6, HO-8, DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, BOP, and the CPP forms). From reading the "Policy Question Corner" on the Forum Page, Roy and I realized that many of our adjuster readers did not have these policies readily at hand and available. Seeing a need for our Members, we hope to "cure that." As CADO is becoming more and more recognized by others within the insurance family, we are gaining some "clout" in our ability to procure services and resources which would not be available to us as individuals. That has been one of the most exciting and fulfilling aspects of working with Roy and our CADO family (readers, Members and Sponsors). It is only going to get better as we grow in numbers!
Over the course of the past year, Roy, Dave and I have had the opportunity to talk with some of the leading insurance resource providers in an effort to help make those resources available to all of you. Without the "clout" of CADO behind us, I doubt those conversations would have or could have ever happened. As we grow in CADO Members and Sponsors, that "clout" can only grow, thus enabling us to offer ever more to each and every one of you. I get excited about those possibilities, as I know Roy and Dave do as well.
Steve, I am a lot like Gale Hawkins. We both have chosen paths in our lives, which as Carlos Castaneda has written, are the "paths which have heart." (He also reminds us so beautifully, that death always sits on our left shoulder reminding us of our mortality).I take great pride in CADO just as he does in PowerClaim. I also take great pride and delight in helping Newbee adjusters. That is where my heart lies and where my heart will remain.
Almost every single day, I get anywhere from 5 to 20 emails from Newbee adjusters and even experienced adjusters requesting information or directions to resources to help with particular problems. Roy's daily email load is probably 3-4 times greater than mine. In any given month, I probably have 3-4 Newbee adjusters who I sponsor to attend Vale as a result of the "Newbee Training or How to Be a Pro" article which is posted to this site.
While we have no problem answering all of the questions and trying to steer folks in the right direction, these things do take time. Yet, in doing the research that is sometimes needed in order to provide the correct answer, I find myself learning so many things that I previously did not know. Does that make me more knowledgeable? YES. Does it make me more money? Well, the jury is still out on that one. But in the end, being the best that I can be and being the most well prepared is much more important to me than being the highest paid adjuster in America.
Finally, and last but not least, I have been taking some time this Spring to just stop and smell the roses. Life is too short, and I know from years past in being on the road for 11 months a year, that we sometimes lose touch with others and other parts of our life which are equally important with the workaday world. Carpe Diem ("seize the day") is not a bad motto in life. But on their deathbeds, one never hears anyone say: "I wish I had spent more time at the office."
So with that, I hope I have given you a better picture of why I am at home.
And now, does anyone need a really good wind adjuster (who can also as Steve has said, handle a "snake claim") who is ready, willing, and rested to go to work? |
paladin
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 9:29 am: | |
Stormpro, I've two seperate vendors ask me with all the activity out there they are receiving calls from so many experienced adjusters looking for work. These are reliable vendors but more of a regional nature and not as exposed nationwide. They also said that the adjusters that are calling are well known by them and have excellant work products. I know that many are busy with some local work, but the balance? By the way attended a seminar/certification class recently and I guess the youngest adjuster there was 35 with the mean age at 50. |
storm pro
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 7:41 am: | |
Jim,
Why are you still at home?
What are you waiting for?
A man of your caliber (geez, you even nailed me on the snake question!)should be working somewhere.
Are you just waiting for the really BIG ONE to hit? |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
| | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2000 - 7:21 pm: | |
Jim we here at PowerClaim have fallen victim of our own success, so time is short. I was warned that over doing it on ease-of-use and under doing it on price by 60% would lead to problems. By the 26th all our current users should have their complete Spring release of PowerClaim 2000 and we will then focus on the others that just must see the hottest adjusting software package on the market ASAP. Maybe after that I will have time for some long winded post that will help make up for the current lack of postings on CADO if that is still the case then. Thanks for thinking of us. |
Jim Flynt (Jim)
| | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2000 - 9:12 am: | |
Who said a few good storms wouldn't quiet things down in here?
We hope many more of you found assignments out there with the recent hail and windstorms. Post to the "On The Road" Page and let us know where you are and what you are doing. As always, send us some photos for posting on the Storm Page.
Maybe the few of us left at home can get a good chess match going on here til you guys get back home. Ok Gale, it's your move! |
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