I would like to be an insurance adjuster, not a salesman, I am 36 yrs. old not sure where to start.?

I need to take some direction in my life, have done nothing up till now but just get by. (exist) I don't have much, just your basic education, a used car, and an apt. I can't afford. Where do I start? Anyone need a protege?

I think it's harder to break into adjusting than sales.

You need to get a license from the state. Then you need to contact an outside adjusting firm, like Crawford & Company, in your area, and convince them you can adjust claims. It's going to be paid on a per claim basis, not salary, which makes it HARDER than insurance sales.

Companies mostly hire adjusters at college job fairs, and pay their beginning adjusters NOT MUCH.

I think that you have several handicaps in looking to become an adjuster. If by "basic education" you mean just high school, most insurers look for college grads for adjusters' jobs. A lot of insurers do hire trainees, but these are usually recent college grads; if you haven't done any types of work that would give you an edge as a beginning adjuster, at age 36 you may find it hard to compete. However, if you have clerical skills, you might find a company that promotes from within: those are harder to find than they used to be, but they do still exist.

I started in insurance 20 yrs ago as a 40-yr-old transcriber & decided almost immediately that I wanted to be an adjuster. It was tough to make the transition: I took courses for an Associate in Claims designation, which a lot of adjusters don't have, and that got me over the "only a secretary" hump.

To work as an adjuster, you do need to have a fairly thick skin. You also need to enjoy working with people, not be easily manipulated, and it helps if you're honest and hard-working. Most adjusting is done over the phone nowadays, but there are some outside jobs as well, such as auto & property appraisers & investigators. I've been a fraud investigator for the last 15 years--some people think that's the world's worst job, but I love it. Of course, I hate to be bored: if you like to be bored, you should look into becoming an insurance underwriter (LOL).

It's not the easiest profession to get into. Some companies will hire people with no experience for entry level claim adjuster jobs.

The best way to get into being a claims adjuster is to have a background in auto body repair or home construction. That way you have the knowledge on how to determine the damages. The company will train you on how to determine if there is coverage.

If you are serious about getting a job as an insurance adjuster I would suggest starting with the job boards and looking for adjusting jobs that state no previous experience required (if you don't have auto body or construction experience)

Being an adjuster is a tough job but it is NEVER boring.

There are three types of adjusting jobs.
1. Company adjuster - you are an employee of the insurance company.
2. Independent adjuster - You work for a company that does field investigations for a number of insurance companies. Being an independent adjuster normally requires experience and an adjusters license issued by the state you work in. You will need to pass a test in order to get the license.
3. Public adjuster - you work for the policyholder against the insurance company. You get paid a 10% of the total claim. The only problem is that in order to not screw the policyholder you need to get the insurance company to pay 110% of the claim. That is not an easy thing to do. I can't stand the size

Good Luck

I would suggest staying away from adjusting unless you have thick skin. Depending on the type of claims you are adjusting (work comp, general liability, auto, property) there can be some really heavy issues. You might have to tell somebody in your shoes that "sorry your car is not covered" or "your car is worth this much" or "your back is broken but your employer didn't have coverage". Not great examples but there are some heavy issues to deal with on a personal basis.

One thing you need to know about the industry is there are 2 parts to it. You have the Underwriting and Claims. Underwriting is responsible for rating, pricing and seeing if a customer fits your program and the claims is responsible for paying out claims that are covered or denying that aren't covered. Sales of insurance is done through agencies or brokers. If you work for a company (carrier), not an agency/broker (who sell insurance), you are not going to be under pressure to sell anything in a lot of lower level positions. You are just making sure something fits a model and is priced according to specifications.

The Underwriting department for a company (carrier) determines the price of a prospective insured or whether it fits the guidelines etc and/or determines whether the agent/broker rated or priced an insured appropriately or that they placed it with an appopriate company (the carrier you work for). That is the side of the business that has the least stress in my opinion. You are under less stress for personal production goals (your production is usually looked at as a department or group level) that you might have at an agency.

You could probably find a lower level underwriting support position with a little bit of office experience. I think almost every underwriting type position gets paid a salary and bonuses for production goals.

Examples of companies (carriers) are Travelers, AIG, Chubb, Liberty Mutual etc. They write through independent agencies and brokers. Meaning agents that write those companies place coverage with multiple carriers.

Then there are companies (carriers) that are direct writers like State Farm, Farmers and Allstate. They actually have exclusive agents (that only sell their product), underwriting departments and claims.

If you have some office experience you could find a support type position in an underwriting department for a carrier and move up. Similarly, you could do the same with claims if that is what you really want. Just get a support position, you'll get great exposure to what they deal with on a daily basis and get to learn a lot on the job.

hai i would like to suggest you to become an insurance agent and recruit a group of people who can work under you. you can also recruit people who are parttime job seekers. So that you need not do much of hard work. A little investment will be there initally, but you can recover in future those expences as you bussiness grows.

Hi,
I found this article "The Job Of A Public Insurance Adjuster In Florida. Fighting For A Policyholder's Property Insurance Claim." I hope this article tell you what to expect to be insurance adjuster.

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