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Filing an Insurance Claim? Here’s How a Public Adjuster Can Help
We buy insurance to protect our large investments like our homes and businesses. If something bad happens like a fire or storm and we need to make a claim, we want to make sure we get the most money we are entitled to.
Some people hire a public adjuster to help them through the claims process. But exactly what is a public adjuster?
“We act as an advocate for the policyholder,” says Jodie Papa, president of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. “We represent them to make sure the insurance company is paying the claim properly and fairly.”
A public adjuster is an insurance professional who works for a policy holder to help settle an insurance claim for property loss or damage.The public adjuster has no relationship with the insurance company and legally represents the policyholder. Public adjusters get paid a percentage of the final claim settlement.
Public adjusters are one of three types of adjusters that can be involved in the insurance claim process to determine the value of the loss and decide how much the insurance company will pay.
The three types of claims adjusters are:
After a loss or damage to your home or business, having to deal with insurance companies is something many people either just don’t want to do or don’t have time to do. Having a public adjuster means someone is on your side to do some of the work for you.
“Under the insurance policy, it is the responsibility of the insured to prove their damages to the insurance company, and that is what a public adjuster assists with,” Papa explains. The adjuster prepares estimates, assists with preparing information for additional living expenses, tallies business losses and more, Papa says.
A public adjuster can help with the claims process and paperwork as well as explain complicated items and stipulations. They cannot get more money from an insurance company than the policy allows, but often can get more than an insurance company initially offers.
“Usually, the fees are more than recovered in the process,” Papa says. She cites an example of a recent claim where the insurance company offered her client $17,000 to settle and they ended up settling for $67,000, making her 10% fee worth paying for the client. “That’s just the amount of value and knowledge and looking outside of the box and explaining. There’s a lot of things that the insurance companies don’t volunteer to the insured.”
Using a public adjuster can make things easier, but in the end, it cuts into the amount you end up with since the public adjuster gets paid a percentage of the settlement. That means less money for repairs — so before hiring a public adjuster, make sure you figure out how much you will need to make the necessary repairs.
If you hire a public adjuster, you need to make sure it’s a good fit for you and for your claim.
Papa has some advice for people looking to hire a public adjuster:
Papa advises to be on the lookout for anyone who pressures you into signing a contract. After a disaster, some public adjusters will go door-to-door trying to pressure homeowners into becoming clients, making people think using a public adjuster is the only way to get money from an insurance company.
Other red flags if the adjuster:
Before hiring a public adjuster, think about how much of your settlement you are willing to give up in exchange for a potentially larger settlement. If you decide to go it alone, Papa recommends at least reaching out to a public adjuster for some advice.
“Sometimes just when you report a loss, you could be reporting the claim improperly and you don’t realize it,” she says. “So you want to give a public adjuster a call. They can at least offer some free advice that can assist you.”
Tiffani Sherman is a Florida-based freelance reporter with more than 25 years of experience writing about finance, health, travel and other topics.
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