The Insurance Adjuster investigate, analyze, and determine the extent of insurance company’s liability concerning personal, casualty, or property loss or damages, and attempt to effect settlement with claimants.
Primary Objectives:
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The Insurance Adjuster must investigate all the facts in a case before making a determination on how the end result must go.
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The Insurance Adjuster must analyze all the facts very carefully before making a determination.
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The Insurance Adjuster uses the facts and their analyzes before determining the insurance company’s personal, casualty, or property loss or damages, and attempt to effect settlement with claimants.
The Insurance Adjuster normally investigates and assesses damage to property before he informs the insurance company of their responsibility toward the client. The Insurance Adjuster must also make a report of their findings for the customer. The Insurance Adjuster examines claims form and other records to determine insurance coverage. The Insurance Adjuster analyzes information gathered by investigation and report findings and recommendations before they can make a final determination in the amount of damage was done to the personal property.
The Insurance Adjuster negotiates claim settlements and recommends litigation when settlement cannot be negotiated. The Insurance Adjuster tries to get the client to accept their findings in order to make a quick settlement without having to go through litigation procedures. Litigation procedures can become very expensive costing the insurance company more money. The customer also loses in litigation because they have to wait an extended period of time without any financial help and if they lose the case they then have expenses court costs and attorney fees. If the Insurance Adjuster can make a good enough determination and convince the customer that this is for their benefit making a settlement then both the insurance company and the customer are satisfied. This is a successful case for the Insurance Adjuster.
The Insurance Adjuster must also prepare a report of findings of the investigation. The Insurance Adjuster after collecting all the information, preparing the report is ready in case the claim is contested in court. The Insurance Adjuster has sufficient enough evidence to negotiate a settlement or present the evidence in court before a judge. The client maybe within their rights to make a claim against the insurance company but many times the client is asking for more money than the claim is worth. This is where expert witnesses must be called to determine the amount of money that the client is entitled. The client may have damage to a vehicle and their insurance policy allows them up to $2,000 for damages, but it only costs approximately $1,200 to repair. The Insurance Adjuster allows the customer the $1,200 in order to make the repairs but the customer feels that they should receive the whole $2,000 since this is what the insurance policy amount allows for such a repair. The technical fine point is that the insurance policy allows up to the $2,000 but not more than the amount it actually costs to make the repair. The repair is fixable with only a cost of $1,200 saving the insurance company $800. Even though the customer feels that they are entitled to the full amount in actuality they are only entitled to the amount required to fix the problem. Situations of this nature occur constantly and it is up to the Insurance Adjuster to explain to the customer how their insurance policy reads and what it actually means at times.
The Insurance Adjuster often needs to interview or correspond with the insurance agent who sold the policy and at times have the agent available when the policy is explained to the claimant. The Insurance Adjuster responsibility is to correct any errors or omissions to the claimant’s case. They must also make sure that all the facts entered are correct and that all the information is entered into the system and reported properly to everyone concerned. The Insurance Adjuster must be capable of using the computer in order to enter information correctly. They must also be capable of doing research work on the computer and using email systems. Often the Insurance Adjuster uses the computer to email other agents, insurance company officials and in some cases the client who is involved with the case. The Insurance Adjuster knows that everything they enter into a case file can be used later in a court case so they are very careful about any entries or email communications.