Wikipedia does a wonderful job of defining what a public adjuster is. As public adjusters, Noble Public Adjusting Group especially likes this part of the explanation,” A public adjuster is a professional claims adjuster who advocates for the policyholder in appraising and negotiating a claimant’s insurance claim. Aside from attorneys and the broker of record, public adjusters licensed by state departments of insurance are the only type of claims adjuster that can legally represent the rights of an insured during an insurance claim process.” Public adjusters are advocates. We love that word, advocate. We fight for policyholders and that can often make a public adjuster feel like a hero.
The insurance adjuster works for the insurance company, naturally, they are prone to be a little bias. If they gave the max amount on each claim, it’s safe to assume they may not have a job for long. That’s why it’s important to understand your rights as the insured and to know where your negotiating power lies. We thoroughly enjoy our job, helping the public, who otherwise have no advocate or defense against the insurance company.
What Do Public Adjusters Do?
Now you know exactly what a public adjuster is. However, you might also want to know the answer to this question, “what do public adjusters do?” Below we are going to explain what WE do as a company. But sometimes it is better to have other sources in addition to our own. That way you know you are getting the whole picture. To accomplish this, we would like to offer you this article from NetQuote.
Under the section of that article titled, “What Do Public Adjusters Do?” here is a direct quote, “Many policyholders feel at a disadvantage when dealing with their insurer, says Amy Bach, executive director at the nonprofit consumer advocacy group United Policyholders. “Insurance is a foreign language to the average person,” Bach says. “Having a representative who speaks that foreign language puts the policyholder in a better position.”
What Noble Public Adjusting Group Does
The policyholder engages our services–Once a homeowner or commercial property owner calls us, it is game on. We handle everything involved with filing an insurance claim. We visit the site of your loss and give you a free estimate of repair and/or replacement cost. We even set you up with the proper contractor or other specialists to fix the problem you have at your home or business that caused the loss.
Paperwork–Once we establish that there is adequate damage for an insurance claim, a contract is signed. This is not some fancy contract with a lot of big words no one understands. It is simply a contract to say you as the policyholder give permission for Noble Public Adjusting Group to represent you and speak with the insurance company on your behalf.
Obtaining data–One of our Noble’s public adjusters will scope out your property. We will take pictures and measurements and investigate any other important information about your damages. These steps are often taken the same day of your free inspection but can be scheduled whenever is convenient for the policyholder. We work 6 days a week and have flexible meeting hours, so it should be easy to come to an agreement on an appropriate time.
We file your claim–We contact your insurance provider. Our company sends your insurance company the appropriate forms, along with our professional damage estimate. Most often, the Insurance company will then proceed to send out a staff adjuster or independent adjuster hired by them to assess the damages and write up an estimate of their own. We meet with the insurance company’s adjuster for an inspection of your property. Our goal is to make sure that company adjuster sees the true picture of the damages, justifying our estimate and the settlement we propose. You can attend this meeting, but it is not required.
We negotiate–This is where the real fun begins for us. Once the insurance company’s adjuster turns in their estimate to his higher-ups, they make a decision about how much to settle the claim for. Negotiations by us take place. Negotiation time can range from a few days to a few months, depending on how efficient the insurance company is. During this process, our office staff will keep in touch with the insurance company pretty much daily, by phone and e-mail, to check the status of your claim. We want them to get things done as quickly as possible. Notes and status updates are recorded in our library of files, where you can log in and see what’s happening with your claim. You can access your claim 24/7.
A Settlement is reached–Finally, there will be an agreement made for a fair allotment. The insurance company will usually issue a check within days. This check will be made out to you and your Public Adjuster to cover your damages and costs.
***There are rare times when the insurance company refuses to concede during negotiations. At that time, the claim will move into a phase called appraisal, or eventually litigation. Noble Public Adjusting Group does not get nervous when this happens. Why? Because more than 95% of insurance court cases rule in favor of the property owner and not the insurance company. As a rule, the insurance company will try to avoid litigation at almost any cost. The Appraisal is an avenue more commonly used to come to an agreement when neither party will bend. To learn more about what Insurance Appraisal is, please see our Appraisal page here.
****A study performed by The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) determined that policyholders who use a public adjuster receive a 747% higher claim payout than those who choose to file their claims alone. If you want to be counted among those, click here to schedule your free property/claim inspection and consultation.
Or you can call us today at (850) 249-MY-PAY (6972) and let us get started handling your homeowner or commercial property loss claim.
