A Day In The Life Of An Insurance Adjuster

What do insurance adjusters do, day-by-day? Insurance adjusters are important actors in the restoration process. They ultimately decide what gets covered and how much insurance companies will pay out. Understanding the perspectives and motives of insurance adjusters is important for restoration companies to learn how to work with them more effectively. So, below is the typical day in the life of an insurance adjuster. 

Analyze Information And Review Reports

Analyzing information and reviewing reports makes up the bulk up of what insurance adjusters do day in and day out. Their job requires a great deal of scrutiny in making sure that the details of the claim are accurate and that there are no major discrepancies. This can get tedious over time, but experienced adjusters learn how to do this quickly, efficiently, and accurately. And don’t expect even small mistakes to get past experienced adjusters. Make sure you do all you can to ensure your documentation is thorough and complete to prevent hold-ups while your claim is being reviewed. 

Interview And Correspond With Relevant Parties

After reviewing the relevant documentation, the next step for adjusters is to interview and correspond with the relevant parties. This is where adjusters will sort out any questions, correct errors or omissions, and investigate questionable aspects of the claim. This is the part of the process that can take a long time for insurance companies and restoration contractors. Depending on how long it takes to answer these back-and-forth questions, the claim review process can be delayed weeks or months. To speed this process along, you can make an effort to always respond quickly to adjusters when they have questions. 

Negotiate Claim Settlements

Once the details of a claim have been ironed out, the next step for insurance adjusters is to negotiate claim settlements. This is where some false notions about adjusters come into play. Insurance adjusters aren’t your enemy, but they aren’t your friend either. Their goal is to provide an accurate cost assessment of the damage based on the pre-existing state of the property. At this stage, they will seek to negotiate a fair settlement price with you. And what they determine to be fair is largely dependent on your documentation and justification of the work that was done. The best way to get paid what you are owed is to have complete, accurate documentation, and to know how to justify it. 

There are a lot of different balls that insurance adjusters must juggle. Overall, they just want to provide a fair, accurate estimate given the scale of the damage and the pre-existing state of the property. As you work with insurance adjusters in the future, we hope you find this look into the adjuster’s perspective helpful. To get more tips on all things restoration, sign up for our newsletter.