Matt, I agree with you on many of your points. I'm an experienced IA, and I'm at the top of CAT lists with various carriers. One thing I've found is that many companies won't let you reach agreed figures with contractors until they review and approve the estimate. Some wont let you reveal any information until the first report has been received and direction is given back from the carrier. Others just want agreed scopes, but don't want you talking $$$ with insureds or contractors. It seems some carriers or IA firms are afraid of adjusters committing to coverage, or agreeing to repairs that are beyond their guidelines. I have found some that will let you reach agreed scopes and repair costs from the beginning.... But that is becoming more rare.
Simplex Machines Yes, you’re right. When I was working at Safeco the IA’s we hired for out of territory claims weren’t supposed to commit to coverage (even though many did) or settle up with the insured. On cat the companies I usually work for require us to figure out coverage and settle up with the insured. But I’ve worked for companies that don’t allow it too and it’s weird to not be able to explain everything to the insured. When I was a staffer, we had a couple of nightmare claims where the IA denied coverage on large losses and we had to do a lot of damage control so its understandable under some circumstances. Who knows where it’ll end up. But big water claims - whether we as IA’s settle up or not - can be great billers.
Agreed! I do daily water claims with all sorts of causes from frozen pipes, ice dams, toilet overflow, you name it.... but I also spent a few weeks in Houston last year and wrote several 6 figure estimates for folks that actually had flood coverage from the Hurricane. That was a lot of work! I was happy to leave the area and shift to Florida for Irma clean up and write wind and hail losses for shingles. Much faster!
Yeah, wind and hail are definitely cake relatively speaking. But it's not that water claims are necessarily more complex (they can be).. just that they're more time-consuming.
The best video of what to do ! I've only ever done scope only claims and I've been thrown to the wolves figuring out a rhyme or reason to do full claims
Matt, this is such a great video and the document as you go is so in line with my past work experience with Dell. Why do everything twice. Streamline the process, get the homeowner there information as soon as possible!! Nice
Hello, Question for you. I am new to the restoration industry. Can you please explain it to me what is.. Bronze Certificate-Silver Certificate-Gold Certificate. What is the benefit if your company has the Gold Certificate? Thank you
Matt; this info. is worth gold. Just attained my Xactimate Certification 1 this week and about to get my second call up with State Farm. This video is a great find since I'll probably work some water claims. Curious about any info. on the laptop stand, since you already know the correct set-up.
Couple of ways to do it: you can do a straight drywall W calculation and then just divide.. So if you wanted a 4' flood cut, then you could do DRY 1/2 W/2 There are some DRY LF line items that have different variables. But remember that drywall comes in 4x sheets and if you had 25" of water in a room you'd want to do a 4' flood cut because it'll make it a lot easier to install the new drywall (they'll lay the 4x8 or 4x12 sheets horizontally). Plus, if the walls have insulation the water can wick up so they'll want to go up higher than 25" anyway.
If you have to deny a claim to the insured....do to the issue not being covered. How do you receive compensation for the work you did scoping out the situation? Is that time considered a loss??
You are paid a base fee for your inspection. Typical fee schedules will list something like: "$0-2500 = $275, $2501-5000 = $415.. etc" A denied claim is $0. If you climbed a steep roof and had 3 outbuildings and your fee schedule gives an allowance for those, then you'd also bill those. Because you inspected them and that's what you're paid for.
If you're an IA doing full adjust, I personally feel it should be T&E for a denial because there is no estimate to base the amount of time it took to document the denial. It could be a 30 minute inspection or 2 hours. If its just task then you write up the estimate and the desk examiner will do the denial. I just had a field task where it was a roof and window leak due to wear. I had to do a roof inspection, attic inspection, and every room of a 2500sf home with a complex floor plan. I was on site for 2 hours. Luckily since its task only I got to write a 16k repair for ensuing water damage to the interior, so no issue with getting paid for the time I spent. @Adjuster TV When you are doing full adjust for a non covered loss do you diagram the damaged rooms or just photo document the loss?
@@SheepDog33432 For non-covered losses I don't think I've spent more than an hour max. I usually do cat so denials aren't as common, but when I've done daily/staff the vast majority of the time was spent investigating and then talking to insured. I've only diagrammed rooms/roofs if there was a possibility that it could be covered later.
@@AdjusterTV Thank you so much for your time. I am looking into getting into the IA field but I want to do as much research as possible before I just take a leap into the unknown. Your channel has helped tremendously!!! Thank you again and have a blessed day.
This might be a stupid question: how do you arrange the work for the current COVID situation? If I want to choose this kind of career, but I want to maintain social distancing, is this even possible? Thanks!
Macros are pre-built sets of estimate line items that you can save and recall to drop into estimates. www.adjustertv.com/posts/2018/4/1/the-best-xactimate-shortcut-ever
Neither - Fujifilm XP120 or similar always. It's infinitely easier to drop an SD card into my laptop and just import the photos straight in than it is to mess with trying to sync my iphone up with my pc.
Matt, I agree with you on many of your points. I'm an experienced IA, and I'm at the top of CAT lists with various carriers. One thing I've found is that many companies won't let you reach agreed figures with contractors until they review and approve the estimate. Some wont let you reveal any information until the first report has been received and direction is given back from the carrier. Others just want agreed scopes, but don't want you talking $$$ with insureds or contractors. It seems some carriers or IA firms are afraid of adjusters committing to coverage, or agreeing to repairs that are beyond their guidelines. I have found some that will let you reach agreed scopes and repair costs from the beginning.... But that is becoming more rare.
Simplex Machines Yes, you’re right. When I was working at Safeco the IA’s we hired for out of territory claims weren’t supposed to commit to coverage (even though many did) or settle up with the insured.
On cat the companies I usually work for require us to figure out coverage and settle up with the insured.
But I’ve worked for companies that don’t allow it too and it’s weird to not be able to explain everything to the insured.
When I was a staffer, we had a couple of nightmare claims where the IA denied coverage on large losses and we had to do a lot of damage control so its understandable under some circumstances.
Who knows where it’ll end up. But big water claims - whether we as IA’s settle up or not - can be great billers.
Agreed! I do daily water claims with all sorts of causes from frozen pipes, ice dams, toilet overflow, you name it.... but I also spent a few weeks in Houston last year and wrote several 6 figure estimates for folks that actually had flood coverage from the Hurricane. That was a lot of work! I was happy to leave the area and shift to Florida for Irma clean up and write wind and hail losses for shingles. Much faster!
Yeah, wind and hail are definitely cake relatively speaking. But it's not that water claims are necessarily more complex (they can be).. just that they're more time-consuming.
Excellent video! The tails of my claims are extremely time consuming. Great advise and great customer service skills, watching again.
Water claims as an IA are much easier than they are as a staff adjuster, that's for sure. Thanks for watching!
The best video of what to do ! I've only ever done scope only claims and I've been thrown to the wolves figuring out a rhyme or reason to do full claims
Matt, this is such a great video and the document as you go is so in line with my past work experience with Dell. Why do everything twice. Streamline the process, get the homeowner there information as soon as possible!! Nice
How long did you work as staff field adjuster ?
Hello,
Question for you.
I am new to the restoration industry.
Can you please explain it to me what is..
Bronze Certificate-Silver Certificate-Gold Certificate.
What is the benefit if your company has the Gold Certificate?
Thank you
Hey, Mario.. I haven't heard of this. What are you referring to?
Matt; this info. is worth gold. Just attained my Xactimate Certification 1 this week and about to get my second call up with State Farm. This video is a great find since I'll probably work some water claims. Curious about any info. on the laptop stand, since you already know the correct set-up.
adjustertv.com/resources there's a laptop stand on there. The key, of course, is to write as you go - including photos
I’m a newbie. Can you set up xm8 to calculate a flood cut with the waterline as a variable?
Couple of ways to do it: you can do a straight drywall W calculation and then just divide.. So if you wanted a 4' flood cut, then you could do DRY 1/2 W/2 There are some DRY LF line items that have different variables. But remember that drywall comes in 4x sheets and if you had 25" of water in a room you'd want to do a 4' flood cut because it'll make it a lot easier to install the new drywall (they'll lay the 4x8 or 4x12 sheets horizontally). Plus, if the walls have insulation the water can wick up so they'll want to go up higher than 25" anyway.
If you have to deny a claim to the insured....do to the issue not being covered. How do you receive compensation for the work you did scoping out the situation? Is that time considered a loss??
You are paid a base fee for your inspection. Typical fee schedules will list something like: "$0-2500 = $275, $2501-5000 = $415.. etc" A denied claim is $0. If you climbed a steep roof and had 3 outbuildings and your fee schedule gives an allowance for those, then you'd also bill those. Because you inspected them and that's what you're paid for.
If you're an IA doing full adjust, I personally feel it should be T&E for a denial because there is no estimate to base the amount of time it took to document the denial. It could be a 30 minute inspection or 2 hours. If its just task then you write up the estimate and the desk examiner will do the denial.
I just had a field task where it was a roof and window leak due to wear. I had to do a roof inspection, attic inspection, and every room of a 2500sf home with a complex floor plan. I was on site for 2 hours. Luckily since its task only I got to write a 16k repair for ensuing water damage to the interior, so no issue with getting paid for the time I spent.
@Adjuster TV When you are doing full adjust for a non covered loss do you diagram the damaged rooms or just photo document the loss?
@@SheepDog33432 For non-covered losses I don't think I've spent more than an hour max. I usually do cat so denials aren't as common, but when I've done daily/staff the vast majority of the time was spent investigating and then talking to insured. I've only diagrammed rooms/roofs if there was a possibility that it could be covered later.
@@AdjusterTV Thank you so much for your time. I am looking into getting into the IA field but I want to do as much research as possible before I just take a leap into the unknown. Your channel has helped tremendously!!! Thank you again and have a blessed day.
This might be a stupid question: how do you arrange the work for the current COVID situation? If I want to choose this kind of career, but I want to maintain social distancing, is this even possible? Thanks!
It's up to you. Wear a mask and carry hand sanitizer and ask your insureds about their preference for people coming to the house during covid.
@@AdjusterTV Thank you for the reply.
Check out the full post here: www.adjustertv.com/posts/2018/8/16/water-claims-101
Great info man! Would u recommend we get a laptop stand? What kind of so?..Also what other water damage specific job tools would you recommend?..
For water claims, a laptop stand is a MUST. I've got one that I like here: www.adjustertv.com/resources scroll down a bit and you'll see it.
Thank you sir!!! You’re the best
Quick question? What are macros?
Macros are pre-built sets of estimate line items that you can save and recall to drop into estimates. www.adjustertv.com/posts/2018/4/1/the-best-xactimate-shortcut-ever
Great job!!!
do you offer coaching calls? Thanks in advance?
Scott Pariselli shoot me an email at mathew@adjustertv.com
Do you take photos w your phone or iPad?
Neither - Fujifilm XP120 or similar always. It's infinitely easier to drop an SD card into my laptop and just import the photos straight in than it is to mess with trying to sync my iphone up with my pc.
I am sure that person who gave this video the only thumbs down, he was an adjuster who does not finish his claim on site. lol
Lol! Probably:)