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Cat Adjusting as a Profession (Is It For Me?)

From the Article Archive  Title: Cat Adjusting as a Profession (Is It For Me?) First Posted: Friday, November 26, 2004 Author: Gary White     My son is now ready to go to college away from home and excluding approximately 21 months in an attempt to try something different in my life as a "financial planner", I have been adjusting, supervising...

Common Estimating Errors

By John Postava;  First posted in the forum. "They say there have been more mistakes made by computers than Tequila and Hand Guns combined.  That being said, with the help of one of the top trainers at Vale National Training Center we published a white paper on what we feel are some of the top ...

Catadjusting and Crisis Intervention

This is an article I have considered writing for years, one that deals with some of the emotional/psychological elements of working with people who have experienced personal crisis as a result of a catastrophic event, especially with regard to what this means for effective claim settlement.

Do it right the first time and reduce re-opens

This article was moved from the old system. It was written by George Mullet in 2000. The primary thing an adjuster needs to do is communicate with the insured. I cannot emphasize that enough. We do not know if there is an error, an oversight or what, until we get out there. The adjuster is always supposed to communicate the proposed settlement with an insured and many people tell us they...

Ladder Safety

This is a repost of the article. We are moving all articles from the old format to the new format. As hail season approaches we want to remind everybody to think ladder safety each and ever time you grab that ladder. OSHA has reported that the most recent accident statistics suggest that the working men and women in America abuse and misuse ladders in the workplace as a rule rather than an...

They don't just hand you the keys.

This article comes from a forum post that was made by rass3742 on 9/12/2006 One thing I’ve noticed is the incessant struggle between newbies and veterans of our industry, as they scrimmage to identify the paradigm of CAT adjusting.  As a veteran of claims adjusting myself, I have taken the long road here and know that I am better for it. I have just recently become...

Forum Discussion: Preparing For Level 2 Certification

Hello, I’m currently using the workbook to get through to complete my Level 2 Certification. I’m a bit stuck on Chapter 4, Interior Practice Estimate C - M-Thomas

It has a staircase with a landing with a second section making a U-Shaped staircase over a pantry. With the upstairs portion beginning at 4’ below the level.

Citizens Updates Hurricane Ian Estimates

November 15, 2022 - Tallahassee Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has updated its Hurricane Ian estimates to reflect additional costs expected from litigation and other claims-related expenses. Citizens estimates that direct losses and loss adjustment expenses will total $3.8 billion from the Category 4 storm that slammed into Southwest Florida on September 28, 2022. This...

Not Just Another Pretty Face:

Field Experiences of a Female Catastrophe Adjuster. by  Randi Meyer It was obvious that she was dead. Once you've seen a dead person, there's no doubt in your mind the next time you stumble upon Death's handiwork. And here I was, in a back bedroom of an old house in San Francisco, with two strangers, and a dead woman lying on the bed. I'm a catastrophe adjuster,...

Citizens hires company to review water damage repair estimates, negotiate lower invoices

State-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is hiring an outside vendor to scrutinize water-damage repair estimates from contractors, and to directly negotiate lower invoices with those contractors in exchange for a cut of the savings. The company's board of governors on Tuesday agreed to a five-year, $1.8 million contract with Fort Myers-based Lynx Services LLC, a third-party claims...

IKE LOSSES MAY PUT A MAJOR STRAIN ON TWIA

State-run insurer of last resort bears much of coastal cost By Mary Williams Walsh © 2008 The New York Times, Reproduced under license from the Copyright Clearance Center Hurricane Ike caused as much as $16 billion in property damage, by some estimates, but the state-led insurance pool that will ...

Quick Tip - Xactimate v25: Adjusting O&P Per Claim

In this quick tip we cover issues related to Overhead & Profit (O&P) that you may encounter in the field.  Some clients may request that you handle O&P in a different way then what your current default settings allow.  In those cases you may only wish to change the settings on a selected file instead of changing your system setup. 

Florida Focus---Changes in the Wind?

Some of us reside in Florida.  Many more of us have served time here with a stint or two following catastrophes that impacted the Sunshine State.  In the aftermath of Andrew;  the 'four in 2004', and then Wilma, old-timers and rookie adjusters alike saturated the fourth largest state and served for weeks and months.

Using the Square Break tool to add roof extensions

Have you ever seen an estimate tree in Xactimate where the roof section is listed as Roof1, Roof2, Roof3 and so on? Well in most cases this occurs when the estimate writer uses the "roof icon" or the f key to add the extensions to the main roof diagram in Sketch, when a better option would be to use the "Square Break" tool to add extensions to the roof.

Past Articles

Note: Since CADO first went online in 1995 we have had many members contribute to the site with their articles and forum posts.  But over the years many of these post were lost however, we have recently been able to recover some of the articles and forum post and will be re-posting them as time allows.   They will be posted on this page (Commuunity Blog) with a note indicating that it was a prior post. RC

Forum Topics

2007 Version of Know before you Go.

My opine is not as good as the experts; but I think a monster hurricane will hit Texas or Florida with in the next 50 days. All new and old adjusters

Posted By: Ray Hall
Posted In: General
Replies: 32

LONG NIGHTS - LONGER DAYS

Much has been stated about the trials and tribulations of life on the road while working a storm. We all know about the non- stop 18 hour days and the

Posted By: margar1
Posted In: Community Chat
Replies: 16

Your Reading Files

Your closed files are the best example of your work. When you are looking at all the vendors who are not seeking your commitment during this very slow

Posted By: Ray Hall
Posted In: The Claim File
Replies: 17

Business Casual

Report of duty or a class- Dress code- Business Casual I have been watching the gathering of adjusters for several years. Seems about 25% know the de

Posted By: Ray Hall
Posted In: General
Replies: 23

How many Independent Adjusters out of work Today

Just curious, How many IA's are there out of work today who don't have other income to survive .  How many total adjusters are there in the USA

Posted By: Goldust
Posted In: General
Replies: 35

Another Blow to Professional Adjusting

Xactware and ServiceMaster have teamed up to offer insurance carriers a contents estimating service.  Now the carriers are using restoration cont

Posted By: johnpostava
Posted In: General
Replies: 30

Claim Scenario for Discussion

  Forum Transfer; First posted by Janice Toll The following scenario is presented for discussion: Ms. Insured notices that the shingles on her

Posted By: Janice_Toll
Posted In: General
Replies: 17

I Thought I Had Heard It All

Greetings to everyone from Oaxaca, Mexico, where Jennifer and I are taking a break from our last assignment and staying far away from the demonstratio

Posted By: Medulus
Posted In: General
Replies: 43

Stress and Mental Health of Adjusters

Does anyone know of mental health services needed by or provided to claims adjusters suffering from stress related symptoms after a severe cat? I am c

Posted By:
Posted In: General
Replies: 24

Hurricane Sandy

At this time a rapidly strengthening hurricane is going to cross Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas. But what then. Some modleing is suggesting a sub tropi

Posted By: stormcrow
Posted In: Hail, Flood, Hurricanes and Weather Events
Replies: 24

Sandy Discussion

So, here we are Sandy is here.  It is really funny how changing jobs from commission to salary changes the perception. When I was a salaried road

Posted By: Alex_Chernov
Posted In: General
Replies: 84

Poor quality report writing

I just wanted to put in my two cents on how to write better reports. Please check these two examples:   Example #1 (poor quality) When I

Posted By: Leland
Posted In: The Claim File
Replies: 25

What to do when the insured is deceased or divorced

I think death and divorce are common issues that rarely get covered in training. Adjusters learn what to do by trial and error, or if they are lucky,

Posted By: Leland
Posted In: General
Replies: 8

Fee Schedules

I think someone should have done this a long time ago.  Let's start a list of fee schedules from different carriers and their preferred IA firms.

Posted By: descher
Posted In: Community Chat
Replies: 15

HOW SLOW IS IT???

I HAVE BEEN RUNNING THE ROADS FOR 12 YRS.  UP TO THIS POINT EVEN THE SLOW YEARS TREATED ME OK.THIS YEAR HAS BEEN MY SLOWEST EVER.  NONE OF M

Posted By: Catmannn
Posted In: General
Replies: 26