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Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
Can you tell me a little about your job, especially getting started in the industry. I ask because I have my resume posted and have received a couple calls from insurance companies asking if I thought about becoming an agent(I have previous claims experience). So I've thought about it a little.

However, its never been a serious thing because of one major factor. The idea of cold calling individuals or businesses makes me so nervous I could either poo poo or puke, or both. Also, there is the fear of having my compensation completely dependent on my ability to generate clients. So I'd like to know how you started, where the intial clients come from, how you survive the beginning with no clients and maybe a typical day. Also, the pros and cons of being an independent vs working for one insurance company.

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Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
Is there any startup capital, supplies or a list of clients you can inherit or anything to get the ball rolling? Or are you starting from zero, with just a license? If its the latter, did you just get a loan to open an office, buy supplies, and start cold calling?

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

sheri posted:

And I'd suggest carrying collision coverage if you would be hard pressed to replace your vehicle in the event you have an at fault accident (or in the event you have an accident where the other party denies fault). Once your insurance company pays for your damages, they then attempt to collection the damages from the at fault party, including your deductible. If you get into a dispute about who is at fault for something (which happens a lot), at least you would always have the option of having your insurance company pay for your repairs and then attempt to collect on your behalf. If you could easily pay for several thousand in repairs or a replacement vehicle in the event something happened to yours, then by all means skip collision.

Also, when there is a liability dispute, if you do not have your insurance pay for the repairs, your insurance carrier cannot pursue the other carrier or really assist you with any recovery. They may be nice and make a call to the other carrier and discuss the reasons for the dispute and relay that info to you. But they cannot go any further than that. They cannot act on your behalf in pursuit of any money. They can only deny liability and refuse to pay the other guy. Really, its best to have collision coverage unless you have an old car that would be considered a total if damaged at all.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Nerdfest X posted:

How much of the insurance industry's focus (and financial resources) revolve around "find a reason to deny this claim". I understand why they investigate (fraudulent claims) but how long do they dig and search until they find a loophole/fine print that will get them out of paying? There is a scene in the 2004 film "Crash" where the shop owner's store is vandalized, and the insurance adjuster overhears the daughter say that the break-in could have been prevented if they had the door fixed. This is when the adjuster basically closes up his notebook and tells them "whelp, thats your fault, have a nice day paying for this yourself". Do insurance adjusters get reprimanded by awarding too many claims? Do they have a personal motivation to pay as few claims as possible? How does awarding or refusing claims affect their career in the insurance field?

Prepare for my rant.

I am an auto claims adjuster and worked for two companies, one being USAA, which deals with the military. So my experience is with them. I have never worked for a discount insurer.

There is no mandate to deny any claims, at all. There are no quotas for how much we spend, save, deny, approve, whatever; at least not at my level. Maybe some VP of something or other gets bitched at if we pay too much one year but we never hear it. The only things tracked that I am aware are how long a claim is open, how fast we respond to calls/email/etc, speed of settlement, length of rentals. Basically workflow things and legal time requirements, things like that. I issue checks on a daily basis for thousands of dollars.

People have this assumption that we are sitting around looking for reasons to screw someone over. Believe me, we don't care. I have no problem accepting liability for an accident and paying someone $10k for vehicle damages. However, that ain't happening just because you said so. I also have no problem denying your claim against our policyholder if stories don't match and there's no other evidence. Call the police and find an independent witness because the police hate to come out there.

At the same time, people get in an accident and assume their company will write a blank check within five minutes of reporting the accident. We are legally required to fully investigate all losses. People pay us for that. Also it is up to us to determine who is at fault. Not you. Not the other guy. Not the cops. And that takes time. A typical claim from reporting to closure is around a month for simple accidents. Add another vehicle and injuries and that claim can last a year.

Also note, an adjuster is handling 100-200 claims at any given time. If two cars are involved, that's 200-400 owners at least, plus the other insurance company, passengers, witnesses, and police. That could be 600 people trying to call me at any given time. Yes, you will get my voicemail 90% of the time. Yes, my voicemail also says to zero out if you get my voicemail to speak to a co-worker. No, most people refuse to zero out and just complain because they can't reach me.

Sorry got off track there. Pet peeve of mine.

Regarding investigations and things, for car accidents, its pretty simple. Get a statement from each driver and witnesses. Get the police report. Inspect the vehicles. Review the policy. Make a decision. The problem is people literally expect their vehicle to be inspected within a day and paid within a week. And so do the other 100 people who got into new accidents over the weekend that I have to talk to on Monday.

Also, no one reads their policy. Its that paperwork you get when you start a new policy that you either throw out or file away and never read. There's no fine print. Its all the same font, with some things even in bold. Its actually pretty straight forward. Its the homeowner policies that are confusing as hell. Auto policies are easy.

For your last bunch of questions, no to all of them. The things that affect your career are when you show a trend towards moronic behavior like improper investigations, bad faith, fraud, inability to keep your workflow moving. Adjusters are no different than any other people. Some are lazy. Some are angry at everyone. Some are fair. Some don't give a poo poo. Some care too much. Some are nice. Almost all are cynical and hate people, like most in the call center, phone intensive world.

Oh, and like Jastiger said, you get what you pay for when insurance shopping. People are so surprised when I tell them they have a $1000 deductible and have to pay it. Or have no collision coverage at all. Or no rental coverage. Yeah, when you called and wanted your rates lowered, that's what they did to lower your rates.

Kung Fu Jesus fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Mar 7, 2013

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Jastiger posted:


A question for Kung Fu Jesus, how much does adjuster work pay?


It would depend on what you do and how the company organizes responsibility. I only know about auto claims, which basically goes from first notice of loss representative up to examiners who deal with fatalities. Some companies separate adjuster into injury vs non-injury, soft tissue vs fractures or two car accidents vs 3+ car accidents. I'd say ballpark salaries are 35k up to maybe 70k. I could be way off on the upper end as I am in the middle and never researched the top end of things. If you are an agent, that's where the money is.

I want to slide into underwriting, which pays more and has less customer interaction. If policyholders want to complain about rates, these are the guys who decide them. And yes, it is a mystery to me too, how they determine your and my rates.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

misunderestimated posted:

Thanks for the response. We spent all weekend worrying about this. Called our insurance agent first thing this morning and he kind of blew it off, saying its no big deal, underwriting needs a photo of the front of the house. Nothing to do with our claim, just a photo that should have been taken when we bought the place. He said 'yeah, I've been meaning to come out and do that, just haven't had the chance.' I'm sending him the picture this morning and I'll follow up with the insurance company to make sure they got the photo, but I'm very tempted to take my business elsewhere.

I don't know about the insurance company but your agent sounds like a retard. I'd drop him.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Three-Phase posted:

Renters insurance: I currently have State Farm. Haven't had any issues with them, but of course I have never had a claim for anything like burglary and whatnot.

I've been told that having photographs or video or serial numbers written down on stealable goods (computers, cameras) is a good idea. I'm thinking about taking an inventory of everything that's worth more than $50 and keeping that inventory and photos/videos at my parents house in their safe. Are there any other things that are good to have just in case you ever do get burglarized?

For anyone who has had their house burglarized or car stolen, what was the process like? My understanding is you file a police report, call the insurance agent, and they sit down with you and go over what happened, and if your claim isn't rejected, you get a check for the replacement value (depends on the policy) of goods stolen.

I've also seen some "Channel 5 On Your Side" style videos about people who have had their insurance claim denied. Where the insurers talk about "red flags" that cause serious problems or claims to be denied. What are those flags? My understanding is that things like criminal records and bad credit are what can cause serious roadblocks. I'd be interested in hearing about this from the insurer's side and their view.

Never had my house burglarized but I do handle these claims occasionally. Each company can be a little different but the process you described is basically it. Police report and list of stolen items.

The biggest thing with insurance companies is proof of ownership. Showing a receipt, manual, box, or anything proving what you had is very important. Its generally not mandatory and some companies are more lenient. But it makes it a lot smoother. It also helps to verify the exact model of item when searching for replacement costs. This is one area a claim or certain items may be denied. If its an expensive item and you can't prove ownership and didn't list it with the police, they may not pay for it. Your policy might also have certain limits on certain items. For example, stolen guns may have a $2000 limit. Cash may have a $500 limit.

Red flags could be a million things. Multiple similar claims over the years. A lot of stolen items. A lot of stolen items from your car, like why do you have $5k worth of new electronics in your '96 Geo Prism in June, while its parked overnight in front of your studio apartment? A lot of stolen cash. Wanting the claim settled immediately either by being an angry rear end in a top hat or willing to negotiate prices on stuff for a quicker payout. Usually these will lead an adjuster to involve their internal investigators to further review the claim. That's when they will research your credit and criminal history.

I would not say you need video of items. I've never had anyone with that. Receipts and a photo is more than 90% of people out there, including me. Read your policy for certain limits. If you have very high end things that have limits like jewelry, you might want to add a floater which generally eliminates the monetary limits and covered perils limits. For example, I had a guy lose his grandfathers $4000 ring. Theft is a covered peril, not misplacement. Look under Coverage C - Personal Property for the covered perils. Another lady had about five rings stolen. Total value of a couple thousand. While they were covered under the theft peril, the limit of coverage was $1000.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Jastiger posted:

Taking an inventory is never a bad idea. The thing with renters is they generally look at what you're purchasing as far as the total coverage. If you pay your premium they are generally more or less willing to write a check for the amount you've purchased, provided the claim is legit. You bought $50,000 of renters, they're gonna give you $50,000 if there is a total loss. If you have a specific item you want covered you can file it in the police report and they'll generally replace it. For example "They broke in and stole my TV valued at $1000". They'll see it in the report and pay you for a new TV. If they want to contest it, THAT is where having pictures and stuff is useful. They'll generally only contest if its fishy or not a consistent story.

The denial of claims has nothing to do with credit or criminal history or anything like that. You bought insurance from them, you paid the premium, they are obligated to cover their end of the deal. Red flags for denial would be a claim for stuff, but no police report filed or you waited two months to file a claim for some reason.

Kung Fu Jesus has some goods points as well. I would add that you can increase limits for just about anything, but I'd talk to an agent to go over the cheapest option. For example if you have a lot of guns over the policy limit of say $2000, and you want coverage for $15000. It MAY be cheaper to just add a special floater for just "collectables: guns" listed separately instead of increasing the "guns" limit, since a floater can generally cover just about anything.

In your situation if you have specifics that you want covered that you think would be hard to replace or hard to convince that you owned, take pictures, keep receipts, write it down, and give it to the agent. Done deal:)

Yeah, I don't write policies so my only experience is telling someone they are poo poo out of luck because their policy was horrible.

I should also note, although there are a ton of red flags, and checking credit histories is part of that, we probably deny 1% of those that go that far. Or they pay it, then refuse to renew their policy next time.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
If you aren't at fault, the accident should have no effect on your premiums. The only time it might is if you have a lot of accidents where you are not at fault. The insurance company may think there's either something fishy going on or you do something that makes you a greater risk for them to insure.

Of course, this could all be different from company to company. The two companies I've worked for followed the above guidelines.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

INTJ Mastermind posted:

So if I have good health insurance, i.e. I'm a resident physician and any treatment at our major level 1 trauma center hospital is 100% covered as long as you don't mind your friends and coworkers looking at your weiner, then I don't need UM coverage? I already have disability insurance.

And UIM isn't needed as long as their policy is able to cover your out-of-pocket costs after your health insurance pays out, am I correct?

Btw apparently I was wrong in that I just found out that I can't have both UMPD and collision coverage at the same time. So I guess I'm on the hook for my deductible either way, and the UM/UIM is only for medical expenses.

Couple clarifications on your second and third points.

Jastiger mentioned auto insurance paying before the health insurance for injuries. Maybe its not with every insurer but I think its pretty common across the board. If payment is coming from med pay/pip, auto insurance pays before health insurance, as you treat. If it comes from um/uim or or the other party's BI(bodily injury) coverage, health insurance pays first and auto insurance pays after ALL treatment is done and you, the injured party, are ready to settle.

For UMPD, Sheri is right and its not offered everywhere. Many people get UM/UIM and mistakenly think auto damage is part of it. As for your deductible, depending on your insurance company, they may waive your deductible, even if the other guy is uninsured, once the investigation is completed. Don't hold your breath on that but it is possible. Both companies I've worked for will do it under certain circumstances.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
If you are going to bother to inventory, I'd say at least organize by category for smaller groups of items like jewelry, silverware, collections, dvds, guns, etc. I'd separate out higher priced items or unique items like televisions, computers, grandma's wedding ring, Action Comics #1, etc. A list of items is also not the same as proof of ownership. You may need pics or receipts, especially for the more unique or expensive stuff.

I can only speak for my company and what I do when I get these claims. I am pretty lenient when it comes to a couple hundred bucks in stuff. I don't need you to prove you had a Samsung Galaxy and 20 dvds. But I do want to see the receipt or a pic of that big screen plasma tv(with brand name showing) or your antique $10k chair(you should probably have a separate policy for this anyway).

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Redjakk posted:

About 6 years ago I got hit by a car while I was on foot. My leg was badly broken and I had a major concussion. Auto insurance and health insurance through work covered the whole thing and I even got a check for what was left of my PIP from the Auto insurance company.

This week I got a letter in the mail from a debt collection company saying that I owed a $970 bill for the ambulance ride from the accident but if I paid now I would only have to pay $450. I got an initial bill from the ambulance company shortly after the accident and sent it over to my insurance agent who said that it was taken care of with all the other bills. I'm working somewhere different so I'm not on the same insurance plan or even with the same insurance company anymore. Ambulance fees were covered under the old plan so they should have paid it but since they didn't I don't know if my next step should be paying the bill, disputing the bill, contacting my old insurance company or just ignoring it due to the debt's age.

I agree with Jastiger. Six years is really long.

Since it appears you maxed out your pip coverage, I am assuming the at fault vehicle's insurance picked up the rest. Do you recall getting one big check from the other auto insurance company as a settlement? Its possible your insurance never got the first ambulance bill or it got lost in the pile of paperwork. If it went to the at-fault insurance company, their settlement to you might have included that. I know my company will issue one big settlement check to the injured party and advise them its up to them settle up with any medical bills out of that check. The exception is if any medical providers send the insurance company a lien to get a cut of the settlement up front. Medical treatment bills might also get adjusted by the auto insurance company so even if they pay, it might not be what the doctor requested. I assume that could lead to future bills to the patient.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
MSRP is not replacement cost. There's really no magic to it. If you lost a pair of Diesel jeans that you paid $120 for at Macy's, they will try to find the closest matching jeans available today. They will likely literally look on Macy's website for those jeans. So the more detail you provide describing the items and where you bought them, the more accurate it will be when searching for replacement.

When I deal with these claims, we use a company that researches prices for us and part of what we send the policyholder is a list of items, the price we found them for, and where they were found(Amazon, Best Buy, etc).

As for taxes, I have no idea.

About the rental company and getting insurance, I'm surprised they don't ask you for any proof of insurance. I can't remember if they ever ask me either but when I deal with a claim and provide a rental, the renter must have their own insurance already or we have to pay for the damage waivers. Insurance always follows the vehicle, except with a rental. Then is usually follows the driver, even if the driver is different form the renter but we won't go down that rabbit hole. Your Amex might be helping because I do know there are some platinum cards that do provide full coverage if their cardholder is in a collision. They will actually pay before the insurance pays. Its rare though.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

EugeneJ posted:

At first I thought I was fine, but I got a severe headache and nausea a few days after the accident, which is why I'm thinking concussion. I don't have money for any kind of doctor visit/MRI right now, so I can't even get checked out without a guarantee that someone else is fronting the bill.

I don't know how Canadian insurance works but in the US, if the other party's insurance is covering your medical bills, it won't cover them up front or guarantee coverage. Your medical provider can charge normally through your health insurance or hope to get paid by the auto insurance. You go wherever you want for treatment, they keep track of how you are feeling. Then once treatment is complete, they will review all medical bills/records and present a settlement offer to you. If they do not feel something is reasonable, they won't pay it.

BTW, people threaten me with an attorney all the time. It doesn't work. No one cares. In fact, it makes it easier because attorneys don't bug insurance companies everyday about the status of their claim. And when you call, I'm not allowed to talk to you, only your attorney.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
You still may not want to file a claim on your homeowner's.

You can ignore me as I may be partially talking out of my rear end because I work in claims and not underwriting. But I have been told that any homeowner claim can increase your premiums at renewal. Auto claims generally do not unless there are a lot of them or you are at fault. But any homeowner claim might, regardless of the nature of the claim. So I personally would not file a homeowner's claim unless it was a massive cost to me.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

TheReverend posted:

A roofer came to my house to give me an estimate on a roof.
To my surprise he says I have a lot of hail and wind damage.
He says it should be easy to get my insurance company to pay for it.

What are the ramifications of filing such a claim? He says since it's weather related/ beyond my control that my rates shouldn't spike.

Is that true? What's the er....catch? There has got to be one.

Any claim has the possibility of increasing your premiums. No one can tell you if it definitely will or by how much if it does.

The loss would likely be covered but without seeing your contract, there is no way to know. Standard homeowner policies should have a list of perils. Look for Coverage A, Perils Insured Against or something like that. Damage caused by these perils would be covered less any deductible. However, you need to read them fully because there are always exceptions.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
I agree with Jastiger. Have your insurance go after her insurance. However, your insurance will need to pay for your damages in order to pursue Esurance and they might make you pay your deductible. If your insurance company is good with customer service, they really should waive your deductible, though.

Also I doubt Esurance is lying to you. The person that inspects the vehicle is usually not the person in the office who handles the investigation and obtains statements. That person would contact an appraiser to inspect the vehicle without ever dealing with the owner. The appraiser would be the one to deal with the owner for that. So its likely the appraiser was able to reach the owner to schedule an inspection but the adjuster in the office has not yet been able to reach her.

Regarding any surveillance footage, most companies will not willingly give that to an insurance company without a court subpoena. I've never had a company hand that over to me out of the kindness of their heart.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

VideoTapir posted:

I live overseas and will be returning to the US next month. I want to get insurance before I arrive so that I won't have to get insurance from the rental car company, and so there's one less thing to gently caress around with while I'm trying to get my car back on the road. Will just any car insurance policy cover rental cars, or do I need to look at the fine print?

How about USAA and Progressive (I'll almost definitely be getting one of those two)? This will be in Arizona.

I assume you are military so I'd go with USAA. I used to work there in auto claims and they always have very high customer satisfaction ratings. Since they are geared towards the military, they have certain benefits and are used to dealing with people who may be hard to reach or have odd hours or locations. I don't know if they are the cheapest(probably not) but they have members who have been with them for 50 years who love them. I would be with them still if I hadn't quit.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

anne frank fanfic posted:

You can stay with them if you quit.

Unless it changed, you had to work five years. I couldn't take it that long. I still use their bank though.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

HondaCivet posted:

Oh no I wasn't plan on trying to scam anyone, sorry if I was confusing. I'd file for my own claim on my own insurance for the other gouge. They're on different sides of the car so they should be able to keep them separate.

Is there a way to see after getting an estimate if filing a claim would be worthwhile? If I called them would they help me figure it out, or would they only care about getting me to file a claim so they can raise my rates?

Like Jastiger said, all you need is an estimate. If its $1500 and your deductible is $500, you might want to report it. From my experience taking these type of "hypothetical" calls, we can't tell you much. File the claim or don't but I can't tell you if your rates will go up or how much. We just don't know. Plus we aren't going to commit to some number that can't be met when it comes time to renew.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Hotdog In A Hallway posted:

This past Friday I was doored while on my bicycle. The end result is that I broke my collarbone and my month old bike is a variety of hosed (somewhere between "partially" and "completely").

Thankfully I have health insurance and the driver has car insurance. There is a police report of the accident, although the driver was not issued a citation. I ended up with the whole shebang - ambulance ride to the ER, everything.

I've already called my health insurance company to let them know that another party is at fault, but they said they couldn't do anything until the driver filed a claim on their auto insurance. It's entirely possible that I did no visible or structural damage to the car. Is not contacting the other party's insurance in a situation like this standard procedure? From what I know about insurance companies it seems like they'd want to recoup the cost of treatment from another party if possible.

Do you have any auto insurance with medical coverage? Because the other guy's insurance carrier will unlikely pay for any of your medical bills during treatment. They will review all records/bills and settle directly with you when you are ready. If you have med pay/pip on an auto policy, that coverage pays as you treat.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Jastiger posted:

I was a bit unwary going down this road yet. If you have PiP/Medical on YOUR Policy, yes it'll cover. But you're going to want to make the other guys insurance pay if you can help it. It'll save you from having a Medical claim on YOUR coverage. Don't go to your company for payment unless you absolutely have to.

Yeah, I'll agree with this. I just know from daily experience that people don't realize the other guy's insurance is not going to pay up front, unless they are trying to weasel out of paying more in the future. They also aren't required to pay the medical providers 100% of what they charge the injured party or anything really. So if the injured party has to pay a ton out of pocket, there's no guarantee the liable insurance company will reimburse that fully.

And depending on the state, some forbid insurance carriers from going after the other carrier for medical payments.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
My guess is that they know you only have liability coverage so you are stuck. Either get 50% back or get nothing. Its not exactly word vs word because there's a police report. While a police report does not determine liability on an insurance claim, you can't just ignore it either. I wonder what their driver is telling them.

I think you're kinda hosed because your insurance carrier can't do anything since you had no collision coverage. Even if you could get an attorney, it probably won't matter.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Thanatosian posted:

Even if the OP is not willing to put a lot of work into this, he could possibly do better than 50%.

You're allowed to negotiate this kind of thing. You're also allowed to file small claims suits, or file complaints with the state insurance commissioner. It largely comes down to how much of your time is a chance at more money worth?

Oh, I'm not saying he has no options. But he's got almost no leverage. If he files suit, I'm thinking he can't accept anything from the other carrier, right? Otherwise, he has agreed to the liability. The claim drags out. Meanwhile he has a junked vehicle and got paid nothing.

I think the complaint to the dept of insurance is the best option or at least a threat of it. Insurance carriers hate that. He still may get nothing but maybe the threat of a complaint might get them to accept more liability.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Wade Wilson posted:

injury stuff

I'm curious about the details of this claim. Where is the damage to each vehicle? You said it was your driver side. They said it was their passenger side. That doesn't make sense unless the initial impact was corner to corner. Otherwise, it would be the front of one car and the side of the other.

Second, who are these witnesses? Where is the other party claiming they came from? Obviously they did not talk to the police at the scene.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Scooter_McCabe posted:

The company would have me in house and on a salary. I just want to make sure the skill set I pick up from the position is something that translates better than "sales."

Again thanks for the responses, its really helpful.

What sort of claims with this be? Depending on what your specific job entails, you could be in a cubicle Mon-Fri 9-5 in a semi-call center situation, listening to every excuse in the book why its not their fault. You might also experience the joy of talking to someone after their son was just smashed by your insured's car and killed. Or you could be driving around all day to accidents/homes. Personally, I think working in the field on exclusively homeowner claims for a small to medium company would be perfect. You're out of the office and if the company isn't huge, you won't get stuck working 100 hour weeks when a tornado hits.

I personally work Mon-Fri standard hours, holidays off. I do not work crazy hours. I sit in a cubicle and handle auto/homeowner claims. I set up appraisals, get statements, make liability decisions. All day, every day. It never ends with these monkeys in their cars.

As for skills, I'd say you will learn to communicate well, deal with all sorts of people. You'll learn the laws and regulations of the insurance industry. You'll learn about cars and homes a bit, if that's what you do.

1500quidporsche posted:

Having said all that when I got started I had two offers in insurance, one to be an underwriter and the other to be a claims adjuster, the claims adjuster paid a little less but if I did it over I would go for the claims adjuster over underwriting. It definitely seems more engaging.

I'd love to do underwriting, I think. I'm tired of dealing with people all day. Do you have to contact policyholders a lot in this position and explain why their rates went up? Or do you just silently stare at a computer all day, analyzing poo poo?

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
I've always been told sales is cake and money once you get your clients. I mean, I could never do it because I am lovely at selling anything.

Claims definitely has more variety to it, which leads to more skills and more avenues of advancement. I only deal with personal auto and some homeowner stuff. There are a hundred other types of policies that I don't know anything about. Once you get your foot in the door, I don't see any problem with switching between the various areas because there is always some overlap, where just enough previous experience can carry you into another area.

However, I think I would research the companies first. I don't think I'd work for one of the big ones because its just too much. I used to work for a company that had about 7 million customers. That's pretty small but it was overwhelming. Just endless calls and work. I could have worked 100 hours a week if I wanted. I can't imagine working for Geico or something. I now work for a company that has less than a million customers and its so much better. The pay and hours is the same and its still busy but not insane. We also don't deal with high risk people, only members of certain professional groups. So the level of morons and scammers is lower.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

OssiansFolly posted:

When I can go a full year without someone saying "I hit this person and they want to get their car fixed. How much is my deductible?", I may change my tune. At this time I don't have hope for that EVER happening.

I have to explain this about every other day.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Thanatosian posted:


The best thing to insure that everything you have gets covered is to produce a receipt for everything. Assuming you live in the real world, though, the lowest-effort way to help make sure you'll be able to get your claim accepted is to do a video every year of everything in and around your house that you'd want to get paid for. Now, if your wife has a closet full of outfits, you don't have to pull each and every outfit out of the closet; just show the closet, and pull some of the more expensive ones as a sample. And narrate the video; talk about everything you're getting visuals for. Give the make and model of each of the guns in your safe. Now is a really good time to do this, since it's the start of the new year, and right after Christmas. Take the video and upload it to a cloud service (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.). Then, put it on your calendar to do it again next January (or every six months if you want to be even more thorough). Don't delete the videos ever; if you put in a claim and the insurance company is like "oh, so you just happen to have this video from last month; that's awfully suspicious," you can just produce your videos from previous years, show that you've been doing it as a matter of course.

And if you've got a truck that you keep a bunch of tools in, get those tools on video, too, especially if you've been buying them used off of Craigslist with cash. Thieves love to steal that poo poo.

I deal with the occasional theft claim and if someone ever provided me with this, I would be amazed. The best I ever get are a few receipts, maybe a picture or two. People all have different experiences in what gets paid on a claim and what does not. They have to realize, it can vary greatly from company to company, policy to policy and your specific adjuster. I usually give the person the benefit of the doubt on most items, if the situation and stolen items seems normal. Even if they don't show proof of ownership, I will usually cut them some slack and pay out on it. But there are a million red flags that will stop me in my tracks and make them provide more info. If you want to get the most out of me, just be cool and don't get greedy.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.

Deceptive Thinker posted:

I also got a letter some months back from a Travelers Subrogator saying they were able to recover a portion of the amount - is it possible that they didn't factor this in?

This is strange. If the other party was uninsured, how did Travelers get some portion back? First, they would only be able to attempt recovery if they felt there was shared negligence between both drivers. Then they would have to pursue the uninsured driver directly. Most uninsured parties are not going to agree to pay back part of a claim, especially with apparent injuries involved(35k has to include injuries). If they recovered some of the money, they should forward that percent back to you for your deductible. Companies do reimbursement different so this may not be the case.

If you were considered at fault, you should have also been notified.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
I don't work for Geico but I have this conversation about 10 times a day.

An insurance company cannot force you into any shop. They may offer or recommend. In CA, I don't think you can even offer til the customer says they do not have a shop in mind. However, they have the right to approve any repairs. That usually comes in one of four flavors:

1. Let their network shop inspect and fix it.
2. Let their field appraiser schedule an inspection in the field with you.
3. Go to a "drive-in" which is generally a shop the field appraiser may be stationed certain days of the week.
4. You get your own estimate and pics and submit that to someone at Geico to review.

They are not going to negotiate with you on an estimate. They may negotiate with a shop while the repairs are ongoing if there are additional costs incurred during repair or some delay but they aren't going to negotiate an initial estimate with you. The initial estimate is not a final repair cost. That's why its an estimate. The insurance company owes to get the vehicle back to its pre-accident condition. That number cannot be determined by a visual inspection. Someone mentioned having the shop do a tear down first to get a better estimate.

Unless that shop knows they will be doing the repairs also, I don't recommend it. Shops don't like it because they don't paid for doing a tear down. Plus now they have to put it back together only for you to get the check and go somewhere else. The insurance company is also highly unlikely to provide you with a rental for this tear down/inspect/put back/drive away process.

If you were my brother, I would tell you to use their network shop IF they(Geico) offer a lifetime guarantee on the workmanship. The process is smoother because there is one less set of eyes that have to approve something. And if there is a problem caused by the shop, Geico will likely be more willing to work with you on correcting that or smoothing it over. If its a workmanship issue, they have to get that corrected.

The biggest shop issue I run into daily is when someone uses their own shop that turns out to be full of lazy assholes. Now if there are additional supplements, someone has to okay it before the shop can move forward. More delays. Then the shop completes repairs and refuses to give you your vehicle until they have a check in hand. Or a month goes by and your car shits the bed because the shop didn't fix something. The insurance company has zero authority, incentive, or legal footing to do anything about it if its your shop.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
It sound like it was a "missile" or flying object which would fall under comprehensive. If it fell off the other vehicle and was run over, that would be a collision.

Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
Well, the scenario is one of those grey areas and I would be getting a very clear recorded statement from the driver on the specifics. I think if they hit it while it was flying and it happened to go under the vehicle immediately after, it was still a flying object on impact.

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Kung Fu Jesus
Jun 20, 2002

lol jews gonna get fucked.
From my experience, closure rates of claims is factored into the adjusters overall performance level. So is time on a call, payouts, how quick everyone is contacted, how long you take a dump, and every other metric that companies track these days. But I've never heard of an adjuster taking that into account on a claim by claim basis. I know I try to close claims quickly but that's just because morons can't stop crashing into each other, and I can't keep up, not because I might get five more cents on a raise someday.

I close claims every day as soon as a check is issued. If they never cash it, I could care less. They can call me in six months and complain when their check is no longer valid.

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