Blogs

Does anyone  have sample scenarios or questions for the xactimate levels of certifications that they could email me?

What to do IF you are asked to work in 2007? Now 2008?

Well, "AA"  can stand for different things or for the lack of different things..  Florida's insurance crisis revolves around the lack of Availability and Affordability in the insurance market.  Availability and Affordability---that's also "AA".

 

On January 16th, lawmakers, lobbyists, lawyers, agents, consumers and media will inundate Tallahassee, presenting and studying proposals and concepts to rectify the situation.  As for now, the situation seems to be worsening.  For instance, in the last month Citizens has announced their plans to jack up premiums 25% on vacation homes, second homes or otherwise non-homesteaded properties.  In Florida with its 1,300-plus miles of built up coastline, that's a bunch of policies and premiums.

 

Its not just policyholders searching for "AA".  Insurance carriers, too, can't find affordable reinsurance and are demanding rate increases in order to purchase what is available. 

 

What does all this mean for claims people?  Will carriers tend to go with more "in house" adjustments?  Will fee schedules be squeezed?

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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, oldtimers and rookie adjusters alike saturated the fourth largest state and served for weeks and months.

By the end of 2005, state spokesmen proclaimed  the industry was in a crisis mode.  Citizens, the state created 'insurer of last resort'; (ILR), was out of breath (and money).  Poe Financial, a group of carriers that had attempted to help depopulate Citizens, was on the rocks.

Now, Citizens has in excess of 1.2 million policies, and the ILR is still growing.

The newly elected Florida Legislature is having a special January session to deal with insurance matters.  Very few of these lawmakers have any background or experience in the field.  They will attempt to find 'out of the box' solutions, though few, are familiar with what has been 'in the box'.

Private insurers as well...

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.

Note: I moved this post and the comments from the feedback forum. It was posted to go with the current Poll at that time. I have since removed that forum.

I recently attended a meeting in which a guest speaker spoke about Cat Adjusters as a commodity instead of a profession.  Have we become a commodity? Here are the definitions from Wikipedia.org, http://en.wikipedia.org ProfessionA profession is an occupation that requires extensive training and the study and mastery of specialized knowledge, and usually has a professional association, ethical code and process of certification or licensing.CommodityIn the world of business, a commodity is an undifferentiated product whose value arises from the owner's right to sell rather than the right to use. What do you think is Cat Adjusting a Commodity or a profession?Do we as a group meet the definition of a Profesion? I believe I would rather be part of a profession and not a commodity.  Let's break this...

Over the years we have seen many efforts to form an association here on CADO. Well, I'm not sold on the need for an association, there are several reason for this and I plan to explain them in detail below.  One reason is because in a way I see CADO as an association already, web based maybe but still an association and a voice for our community. Of course I realize this may seem bias because I'm the founder, owner and webmaster for CADO.  But I hope in the end that you see this as more than a bias opinion.

more to come...

CADO is offering blogs to visitors that wish to contribute to the community via an open blog.  So if you believe you have a way with writing and would like your own blog drop me a note.

Thanks, Roy

In this blog we will show you one way to change the base service charges using the Summary Matrix.

The template tools in "Sketch" allow you to create diagrams and reuse them in other claims. You can even share them with other adjusters. In this blog we will show you how to create a template and load it.