Should you hire a public adjuster? Many people don’t know what a public adjuster is or what they do. Let alone, if you should hire a public adjuster. Let’s start off with a brief explanation of what a public adjuster is and what they do.
What is a public adjuster?
A public adjuster is a licensed professional in your state that has been given the authority to represent policyholders with first-party insurance claims. This means a public adjuster can file, manage, negotiate, and settle property claims on your behalf. That’s the basic definition of a public adjuster. However, during the claims process, you have to be able to wear multiple hats. These include being an adjuster, estimator, negotiator, mitigation expert, mold expert, roofer, policy expert, etc., you get the idea. Many policyholders don’t have experience in these areas and can easily get overwhelmed.
The Reasons
This brings us to the first reason you should consider hiring a public adjuster. They know the claims process. In an ideal world, the claims process will be smooth and simple. The insurance company will pay the claim adequately and quickly and you’ll be able to fix your property and move along. We don’t live in an ideal world and this situation rarely occurs. When the insurance company stalls the claim, underpays the claim, asks or demands things from you, or denies the claim altogether, most people don’t know what to do and they just accept the situation. This is where a public adjuster can come in and help navigate the claim and take avenues that you as the policyholder may not have been aware of.
Hire an expert
With everything that an insurance claim involves, most people don’t have the time to deal with it all. This is another thing to consider when hiring a public adjuster. A public adjuster will be able to handle virtually all aspects of the insurance claim. This helps take the stress of your shoulders as the policyholder. The public adjuster will speak and meet with the insurance company so you don’t have to.
Filing an insurance claim can be a scary prospect. Especially if when you do file a claim the insurance company starts sending you documents with language like “suit against us” or “proof of loss.” These terms can seem scary. Or one of my favorites is that they make the policyholder responsible for mitigating future damages for the loss, but the insurance company can deny the claim, potentially leaving the policyholder on the hook for the bill to mitigate the loss. An experienced public adjuster can see through this language and can manage the claim properly to help insure the best outcome.
Lastly…
The final reason that I’ll bring up in this post is that a public adjuster can usually recover a larger settlement for the claim. Damage to a property is what it is. It may seem like the cost to repair it is objective and not up for debate. That is not the case. If you were to hire 3 separate contractors you may get a low-cost quote, a middle-range quote, and a high-cost quote, and they will each have their opinion on the best way to fix that damage. If the settlement you as the policyholder receives for your claim is toward the low end of that range, you will be very limited with repair options and may not be able to get the repairs done adequately. A public adjuster will work to secure a settlement that will allow you to have more options for repairing the damage. According to the Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA) in a 2005 study, public adjusters recovered settlements 747% higher than claims that weren’t represented by a public adjuster.
Conclusion
Hiring a public adjuster is just like hiring any other professional like a real estate agent or an accountant. You hire these people to help sell your house or do your taxes because they have expertise in those fields that you might not have. The same situation applies for insurance claims. Public adjusters have expertise in the claims process and can be hired to help simplify, expedite, manage and ultimately maximize the claim. If you’re ready to hire a public adjuster, call us or email us.
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