Why You May Need A Public Insurance Adjuster

Most people get started with their insurance claim by getting on the line with their insurance agent and providing all the details needed to process the request. In several cases, the next person people might end up calling is the insurance adjuster, such as abbaclaims.com. Most people are not familiar with insurance adjusters and wouldn’t know how to hire one after they’ve been through a loss.

Insurance Claim Filing

When your car or home has been damaged, or your property has been burgled, you would have to put in a claim with your insurance provider. And when a claim is being made, you are highly likely to work with an adjuster who would be assessing your damage and ascertaining the exact sum to be disbursed to you.

Claims Adjuster Types

There are primarily three kinds of insurance claims adjusters: company adjuster, independent adjuster, and public insurance adjuster.

Also called staff adjuster, the company adjuster works for your insurance firm, and you are most likely to deal with them during the claims process. An independent adjuster, as the name suggests, is a contractor with a freehand. They are usually hired by your insurance company on a contract basis to handle your claim.

At times, an insurance company could get flooded with claims – for instance, after a natural calamity – and may find themselves understaffed to handle all the requests using their in-house adjusters. During such scenarios, the insurance firm would hire licensed and reputable third-party adjusters to handle the multiple policyholder claims.

Public insurance adjusters work for you, the policyholder. Like an independent adjuster, public insurance adjusters are licensed and independent professionals.

Using Public Insurance Adjuster Services

Most people don’t find the need to hire a public insurance adjuster since they already have a company adjuster working on their request. Also, most policyholders aren’t aware of the public insurance adjuster option. If you’re hiring a public adjuster, make sure they get involved in your claims process at the earliest. The company would still send its adjuster but having an adjuster of your own would help bring in a third-person perspective that has your interests in mind.

Public insurance adjusters charge a fee for their service. Each adjuster would have a ‘base fees and additional fees’ schedule for their services. Most, however, would charge a specific percentage of the aggregate settlement amount.

Company adjusters are employees of the insurance company and would, therefore, be paid by them. Independent adjusters also get paid by your insurance service provider.

Why Hire Public Adjusters?

There are multiple reasons why policyholders may opt to bring a public adjuster onboard. In events wherein total loss claims are not computed properly by the company or independent adjuster, a public adjuster could chip in and correct the report, helping you receive a bigger claim amount for repairing or rebuilding your property.

During claim assessment disputes or when you think the company adjuster is working keeping only your insurance company’s interests in mind, a public adjuster could help procure a favorable settlement with their expert second opinion. Public adjusters are also easy to contact and correspond with. This is not necessarily the case with company adjusters, particularly when you are in a dispute with your insurance company over the assessment.