Many people might be surprised that having an adjuster look at your claim is only the beginning of the insurance claim process. Remember, the field adjuster that inspects your property may not be an employee of the insurance company. They are typically independent adjusters on contract and typically are paid a set fee or percentage for each claim they handle. This is especially true during disaster situations when there are so many claims to adjust. You should ask them what firm they are with when they come to inspect your property and note how thorough they are recording your damage and if they are “listening” to you. 

Once your claim is submitted to your insurance carrier, it typically goes to an inside claims department for review. So a person who never saw your property is most likely the one who is making a decision on what you will be paid. If the field adjuster missed some damage, the inside claims staff will never know and they may not always agree with the field adjusters conclusions anyway.  If there is anything suspicious about your claim, information is missing or it is complicated or something seems out of the ordinary, they might decide to re-inspect the property, call in engineers or send it to an investigative unit that looks for insurance fraud.  This and the mountain of claims that get filed when there is a serious storm event like the rains and flooding in Tampa is what can cause much of the delays that occur processing your claim.

Having a public insurance adjuster that is working for you and checking to make sure your claim is properly valued and handled can be to your advantage in getting the settlement you deserve. Learn more on how to protect your insurance claim. As always, the professional public insurance adjusters at Tutwiler and Associates are here to help with any property insurance related questions you may have. Please call 800.321.4488 or contact a public adjuster to submit a question to one of our insurance claim experts.