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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.

View From the Slough, Too - The Art and Science of Branch Assist

I originally wrote this article back in 2001, and hundred of people read it on CADO, but at some point the link to the article became bad. So, for years I have not even been able to access it. I thought the article was lost for good until I recently discovered it on an old backup data disk. Because the conditions in catadjusting in 2001 and 2007 are so similar, I thought it...

The “Killer” amongst us.

 There are many ways to approach the demise of the catastrophe adjuster.    1) The fatal auto accident.    2) The falling off the roof.   3) The stroke   4) The heart attack Many of the above are related to the difficult and lengthily work hours we endure to provide our services to those that require them, as well as to...

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...

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,...

The Unperfect Storm!

From the CatAdjuster.org Article Archive. A few months ago, I had a storm that I cannot wait to forget! It seemed that nothing was going right! The dispatching of assignments was the worse that I had ever had before. I had claims 300 miles to the North, 125 miles to the South, and 60 miles to the East. West was ocean, so I lucked out there! Fortunately, we were able to handle some...

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. 

What are they saying about us

Recent articles published by Bloomberg a copy of which I've posted in the forums completely disparage the work we do. We are seen as mere puppets who foolishly obey our carrier and vendor masters with no forethought or ethics.

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.

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

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

Is the Independent Adjuster Fast Becoming Obsolete?

I have written  more than few times about with Satellite roof technology , the fact that Xactimate is now fully integrated with EagleView and wit

Posted By: CatAdjusterX
Posted In: General
Replies: 36

Know your policy

Janice and I worked a commercial loss last week and submitted it for payment 4 days after assignment, through a vendor with a major carrier. This was

Posted By:
Posted In: General
Replies: 37

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did I mess up?

 I just got hired by Pilot, I guess. They called and said get your paperwork in and get ready for a drug test. The lady told me that she knew the

Posted By: newguy3
Posted In: General
Replies: 50

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

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

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

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

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