Anyone know about insurance adjusting--anyone in the business--I would rather not hear sob stories?

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i need to learn about the business before I invest time and money,,have been in Residential construction over 30 years,,tired of the business but need to work,,grandma has too big a list to stay at home

If you are looking at adjusting for a career your answer will depend on what type of adjusting you would be doing.......independent adjuster or a company adjusting. There are a lot of similarities but also some major differences.

An independent adjuster usually works for a smaller company that does field investigations for a number of insurance companies who don't have field reps in the area where the independent adjuster lives/works.

A company or "staff adjuster" works just for one company. Most staff adjuster jobs are inside jobs sitting behind a desk all day working on the PC and phone.

You will have better benefits working for an insurance company as a staff adjuster but you can make more money working as an independent adjuster (especially if you are licensed to handle storm or catastrophe claims) if you are willing to work longer hours.

I have worked at many large companies (St. Farm, Allstate, American Family, Nationwide) as a staff adjuster. I did both field and inside adjusting. Adjusting claims is NEVER boring but when you work at a insurance company you always get more claims than you can handle in a 40 hr week. There is no overtime for any work over the 40 hrs. You do it for free since you are a salaried employee.

For MOST independent adjusters you are paid hourly based on the "billable hours" worked on a file. So you actually get paid for any hours you work in excess of 40 hrs. As an independent adjuster you have much more "face time" with insureds and claimants and that gives you a chance to provide great customer service and sometimes educate people on how insurance works. Other times it means you get called dirty names.

I've done both types of adjusting and currently work as an independent adjuster. Even though the benefits are less than I got at big insurance companies I still like being an independent better. Major insurance companies expect you to work 45 to 50 hrs per week with no overtime. If I work more than 40 hrs I get paid for it. I just get my regular hourly pay but at least I'm not working for some clueless dickweed for free .

To be an independent adjuster in most states you have to pass a licensing test. If you work at an insurance company you normally don't have to be licensed.

If you want to get into this as a career I would suggest one of these backgrounds or experience.
- auto body repair
- home or commercial contruction
- attend an adjusters training program at a vo-tech school.

Some people think that ex-cops make good adjusters but I disagree. I have worked with 3 of them over the years and they were not good at adjusting.

Being an adjuster can be a good job or it can be a bad job so much depends on where you work. EVERY claims dept at a large insurance company has tons of politics and back-stabbing crap going on. Working for or owning an independent adjusting company lessens that crap by about 90%.

Good Luck

In what respcet? Need more details please.

fighting saints is right on for the most part. im a staff adjuster and enjoy the freedom of getting paid to travel all over the country with no expenses. benefits are great too. no...you never work over 40 hours. you make your own schedule. since you have construction experience it should make the transition easier. i would start with a carrier then move indy once you see how it all works. they will train you for free. then, even if you go independent, you will know what most of the big carriers require already....trainees will make about $53k the first year... but with all the vacation time (starts at 5 weeks usually) and not having to pay for anything while you travel..it really adds up. plus...you keep all your airline and hotel points so you will never pay for vacation again.

If you get into the insurance business, you'll hear plenty of sob stories. It's just part of the business.

Well, I don't get the grandma part, but your BEST bet is to talk to your insurance agent. Heck, construction insurance premiums for 30 years EARN you a few hours of chatting about getting into the industry.

There are two basic parts - you have to pass a state exam in order to get a license, and you have to find someone willing to pay you in order to adjust claims. It's REALLY REALLY HARD to get a company to hire you for inside adjusting, but you MIGHT be a good fit for an outside adjuster, like Crawford & Co. YOUR agent should be able to give you some names & phone numbers of local outside adjusting firms, so you can go talk to them.

It's going to be paid on a "per job" basis, though, so keep that in mind.

fightingsaints has your best answer here. I've also been an independent and a staff adjuster. I personally like the benefits and stability of a staff position better. If you want to work for one of the major companies in a staff role, you'll likely need a college degree, but some will consider experience. If you go the independent route, I suggest studying for and taking the Texas adjuster licensing test first. It is probably the hardest of the licensing tests, but it is also widely reciprocated. Once you have it - you won't have to test for other states. Get your Texas license then the hail and hurricane prone states that require licenses.

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