What is an adjuster? How do they work within the insurance agency? Does an adjuster work for an insurance company or for the policyholder? These are very common and very important questions to ask when it comes time to make an insurance claim, negotiate the fine details of a policy, or manage finances within a policy.
How do we define an adjuster? It is a lesser-known and understood profession to the general public, but it is incredibly important when it comes to dealing with and managing insurance claims for policyholders. Those who are insured benefit almost every time a claim is submitted as the public adjuster will help the provider by negotiating or masterfully crafting a response to better represent their client’s wants and needs.
Public adjusters typically are individually licensed and are contracted through insurance companies to represent the client or general public to adjust a claim or claims that might impact a settlement. Think of an adjuster as a professional who is hired by an insurance policyholder to represent the policyholder. When an appraisal or negotiation is needed for a claim, a public adjuster will protect and manage the financial aspects and interests of the person represented or appointed in a particular policy.
What is the history and experience of a public adjuster?
The insurance adjuster definition is fairly straightforward. As managers and protectors of a policyholder, adjusters usually have previous work experience with major insurance companies. After gaining the appropriate amount of experience, a public adjuster will use their experience and their state-issued license to comb through the fine details of a policy or claim to best represent the policyholder, individual, or entity represented in an insurance policy.
How does this work when you are involved in an accident? The other party’s insurance company will have one or more adjusters who will represent their client’s best interest and attempt to talk or adjust your claim down, even if their client is at fault. Hiring a public adjuster to represent you signals that you have a personal and professional representative on your side to fight for you.
How many types of adjusters exist?
There are three major types of insurance claim adjusters:
- Independent Adjusters: These independent adjusters have likely worked for major insurance companies before, but are now contracted or are freelancers using their experience to represent clients.
- Staff Adjusters: Insurance companies will outsource or hire one or more staff adjusters to work inside their company.
- Public Adjusters: An insurance adjuster definition is a personal representative not employed, contracted, or hired through a major insurance company.
Many people who understand the definition of a public adjuster prefer to hire a public adjuster to best represent their wants and needs within a claim. These adjusters are not encouraged by a major entity to sway one way or another. Instead, the individual public adjuster will represent their clients with respect, transparency, and honesty.
How to know if you need to hire a public adjuster
How do you know you need to hire a public adjuster? If you have an incident, claim, or issue you need resolved with 1-1 attention and care, a public adjuster will be the right choice for your case or claim. First, the adjuster will go through your policy and assess the damage or issue that the claim or case is pinned against.
The adjuster won’t just highlight the most important talking points of your policy, they will also help negotiate your case while understanding your wants, needs, and policy perks or restrictions. The adjuster will then present the adjustments to the insurance claim and settle your case.
With any kind of legal representation, you will want to know your representative is truly serving your best interests. Hire a professional, experienced public adjuster to represent you in your time of need. Call us at Whistler Law to talk about your case and how we can best represent you with your claim(s).
