Storms' damage leads to call for claims adjusters

Decreasing fees have resulted in fewer independent claims adjusters.
LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY
Willing to work 14-hour days? Check under the seats of recently flooded cars for snakes? Carry your own ladder at all times? If you're a quick study, you might want to consider a career in catastrophe claims adjusting.
That's because Florida's hurricanes have left some insurers scrambling to supplement their own staffs with free-lancers -- some of whom can earn $1,000 a day or more. What's needed -- construction know-how, technological savvy, agility at climbing on and off roofs and a head for numbers -- is a scarce combination.
"If you're a living, breathing adjuster, everyone's hounding you daily to go to work," says Charles Norton, president of the National Association of Catastrophe Adjusters Inc., who, like others, works from a specially equipped RV.
Short supply
The ranks of such independents have shrunk, he says, in part because of decreasing fees and the increasing need to buy and operate sophisticated equipment, such as satellite Internet systems and GPS mapping systems, which have become standard tools of the trade.
According to Dick Anderson, director of training at Wardlaw Claims Training Center in Waco, Texas, "demand has probably increased fivefold because of the storms." That center offers such classes as roof-damage assessment and residential construction and also helps with licensing.
That has given rise on Catadjuster.org, a site for independent adjusters, to a discussion on how much insurance companies will pay these days. But last week, Florida's insurance commissioner issued a warning on price gouging, requiring insurers licensed in Florida to report such instances.
These free-lance adjusters who work for insurers are not to be confused with public adjusters -- those who work on behalf of the insured to help navigate polices and get more from insurers, in return for a percentage of the claim -- capped at 10 percent in Florida right after Hurricane Charley. They have also been known to bilk distressed consumers and a number were arrested in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, says Nina Banister, press secretary for the Florida Department of Financial Services.
One woman's duties
Many of the legitimate adjusters like Kim Jones, 35, prefer staff positions. One of State Farm Insurance's 1,200 staff "cat" adjusters, she's been in Florida the past three weeks, along with her ladder, laptop and checkbook for writing out payments. On the road about three-quarters of the year, she's worked the aftermath of tornadoes, hailstorms, floods, as well as the World Trade Center disaster in Manhattan.
A former underwriter, Jones says she loves the travel and hotel amenities, as well as customer contact. What's best is writing out a check and "seeing someone happy after such a disaster has happened to them." Her company has sent in 2,250 staffers and specially-trained independents to supplement those already based in Florida.