Here we have a look at Mathew Allen’s Webinar for adjusters wanting to make more money in hurricane season. Let’s find out how to go about it.

Mathew Allen from AdjusterTV seems to have it all worked out. For those who are just starting out as independent adjusters, this video will help them understand all the intricacies of the job. From getting more claims to efficiently navigating your way to reaching a six-figure income, everything is covered by Mathew in his webinar.

1. Getting to the hurricane orientation:

The first part of the job is to attend the orientation set up by the insurance firms. As an up-and-coming adjuster, it is essential that you learn everything there is to know about the job and for that, attending the orientation is crucial. Make sure you take notes of all the important points discussed during the orientation and keep a couple of shirts and jackets with the insurance company logo on them for your field visits. In the orientation, you will receive handouts, door hangers as well as business cards. Make sure you don’t take too many and not leave some for other adjusters as well. Make sure your vehicle is in good shape and you are well equipped for a lot of driving around.

2. Setting up Xactimate to accept claims:

Before going for inspections, it is important to catalog all your claims in one place. Xactimate helps you do that. Open the application, and go to Preferences in the Control Center tab. Make sure that the insurance carrier header is appropriate and you are the claims representative. Set your autosave interval to 1 minute. This will ensure your data is safe. All these steps should be followed before accepting a claim.

3. Accepting claims:

In Xactimate, go to the Dashboard tab and click on connect. All the claims assigned to you by the insurance company will show up in your inbox as a list. Select all the claims using Ctrl+A and click on Accept

4. Routing claims in Xactanalysis:

In Xactanalysis, click on the Customize option. Select the claim that you want to map out and from the Select the Action dropbox, select Map Assignments and click on Go. The map will show all the sites that you have to visit and you can route your claims accordingly.

5. Building inspection schedules:

It is important to know how to schedule your inspections in a manner that allows you to settle claims efficiently. As an independent adjuster, the more claims you handle, the more income you pocket. That being said, it doesn’t mean you should take on multiple claims in a single day and have a massive pile-up of claims by the end of the week. As an adjuster just starting out, you should aim at closing one claim per day for the first three days. On the fourth day, you can take what Mathew calls an office day where you can complete all the required paperwork and make necessary phone calls. From the fifth day onwards, you can begin closing one claim a day till Sunday. This would amount to at least 6 claims in a week. Delaying the submission of scoping reports will result in another pile-up in case the IA finds errors in your reports. You will then have to re-do all the reports which will add on to subsequent weeks, making newer claims more difficult to handle. Therefore. always close a claim on the same day as the inspection. For this, having an application like JustEZ comes handy as it automatically creates scoping reports for you.

6. Being efficient and organized:

The way to approach claims is to gradually increase the number of claims you close in a particular day, In the first week take 1 claim a day and over the next 2–3 weeks, increase the number up to 2 or 3 claims a week. Make sure you submit a claim report on the same day as the inspection and don’t delay it. Having this approach will also allow you to get more claims by the end of the month from other adjusters who took too many claims for their own good and burned out. Another highlight of the job is what Mathew calls Fast Pathing smaller claims. These claims don’t require on-site inspection most of the time. All one needs to do is to call up the insurer and fill in the loss report sheet based on the insured’s responses. Adjusters just starting out can fast path up to 12 claims in the first three days of a week and submit 3 normal claims on the last three days. That way, they can handle 15 claims in a week. This will allow them to pocket more income. Additionally, keeping this routine will help you establish yourself as an efficient adjuster. Insurers will keep in mind to always call you for future assignments.

7. Handling claimants:

Often when you’re out on the road, it might become difficult to contact a claimant for inspection appointments. In such a case, do not give the claim assignment back to the insurer just because you weren’t able to contact the claimant. If you have set an appointment on a particular date, and are unable to contact them in the meantime, don’t give up. Visit their home. More often than not you will find the claimant home and will be able to inspect the property and thus close the claim and earn money that would’ve otherwise gone into another adjuster’s pocket.

8. Using Xactimate:

I. For estimation, the first thing to do is go to the Claim Info tab and filling out all the details in the Insured Info tab. II. The next step is to go to the Estimate Items tab. When you click on the tab, a pop-up with a huge number of price lists appears. III. Choose the appropriate price list and from the Grouping section on the left, start adding different areas and aspects inside a property that have suffered damages and need to be estimated. Each grouping can have sub-sections of different areas inside a property. Make sure that you add all this information correctly. IV. After everything has been added, click on Save and Exit. V. In the Coverage/Loss tab under Claim Info fill in all the details about the coverages and the deductible amount. VI. In the Parameters tab details about the price list need to be filled. VII. Under Report Management, the details about the inspection needs to be submitted under the Activity Report. After submitting everything, click on Save. VIII. Under the Project tab, select Copy From Project and select the appropriate file. IX. After submitting all the details-dimensions of rooms, and relevant pieces of furniture, and parts of the house, you will be able to produce a full-fledged scoping report that you can share with the insurance company.

9. Talking to the claimant:

Oftentimes, the claimant may not be fully on-board with your estimation, they might have a confused look on their faces and as an adjuster, it is your duty to make sure that they understand the process through which you have estimated the amount that is presented before them and they agree with it. It is possible that the costs for damage repair may vary once they speak to a contractor but make sure that they understand that you will be there if there are any changes with respect to costs and the settlement amount. Getting them to agree with your point of view and reaching an understanding is essential for becoming an efficient adjuster. Building a good rapport with the claimant is an important part of being an adjuster.

In conclusion, being an adjuster means you should be a people’s person. As an adjuster, you will meet a variety of parties who will represent different interests. Being the middleman between the insurance company and the claimant and having several other parties in the loop requires you to be the kind of person who is able to negotiate well and able to build a solid understanding with whomever you speak to. Such soft skills coupled with an efficient and organized work ethic will go a long way in becoming a brilliant adjuster and earning a six-figure income in a very short time.

You can watch the full video by Mathew Allen here.