OrlandoSentinel.com

Public adjusters can give insured 2nd opinion

Anika Myers Palm Sentinel Staff Writer

November 9, 2008

When Charlie Kennedy discovered a crack some years ago in his Mount Dora home, he was sure his insurance company would cover the repairs.

But when the claims adjuster from State Farm arrived, the results weren't encouraging: The damage to his garage had been caused by a sinkhole, the adjuster said, and the policy on Kennedy's Spanish-style 1926 home didn't cover sinkholes.

Kennedy wasn't convinced that was the case, but he wasn't sure what to do next. Then he had an idea: Why not hire someone with the expertise to evaluate the situation for him and the savvy to negotiate with State Farm on his behalf?

"If you have something wrong medically, and you have an opinion from a doctor, if it's serious enough, why not get a second opinion?" he explained.

Employing an intermediary can mean letting the building contractor
communicate with your insurance company -- or it can mean retaining a
lawyer. But for some homeowners, it means hiring a "public adjuster," a
little-known type of loss specialist devoted to helping policyholders
realize the full potential of their insurance policies.

"If you were getting a divorce, would you let your spouse's attorney tell you what you're entitled to?" asked David Beasley, president of Insurance Recovery International, a Winter Springs firm of public insurance adjusters and property-loss consultants.

The way Beasley, a former loss adjuster for Nationwide Insurance, sees it, insurance companies' adjusters are expected to settle customers' claims with as little financial outlay as possible. They don't want the homeowner getting outside advice.

"One or two insurance companies have even written into policies that they [policyholders] can't call a public adjuster" without contacting the
insurance company first, he said.

Beasley doesn't know whether that rule has ever been contested in court, but the Maitland-based Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters has tried -- and so far, failed -- to get the state Legislature to have insurers include a notice in their policies about a customer's right to contact a lawyer or public adjuster.

"Our job is to represent the insured," he said.

Blaine Vermeulen, owner of Insurance General Contractors in Mount Dora, is both a licensed building contractor and a certified public adjuster. He sometimes negotiates with insurers on behalf of a customer -- but as the contractor hired to repair the damage, he said; his training as a public adjuster simply helps the client get the best possible settlement.

Other public adjusters say they won't combine those two roles, preferring to avoid any conflict of interest that could arise between the job of negotiating the claim and the job of making the repairs.

The Florida public-adjusters group -- which has about 500 members, most of them adjusters and lawyers -- has asked state officials to tighten the rules that dictate who can offer their services as a public adjuster. They also want the state to standardize the job's training requirements.

"Just as in any field, whether it's an attorney or CPA [certified public
accountant] or what have you, there may be people that take advantage" of others during a personal or financial crisis, said David Barrack, executive director of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters.

Members of the Florida association are supposed to adhere to the group's ethics requirements and inform clients upfront about the percentage of an insurance settlement that they intend to take as a fee. (It's usually 10 percent to 20 percent, depending on the nature of the claim.)

Still, can't cost-conscious consumers just negotiate with their insurance
companies without someone else getting involved?

Certainly, said Beasley, the Winter Springs public adjuster. But if a
homeowner is worried about a claim, and serious dollars are at stake, he or she might want someone else to look over the insurer's paperwork.

Kennedy, the Mount Dora homeowner, ultimately asked Vermeulen, the contractor with public-adjuster training, to look at the crack in his
garage. Vermeulen examined the crack and Kennedy's policy, then convinced the insurer that the damage was not the result of a sinkhole.

The company paid for the repair.

Anika Myers Palm can be reached at apalm@orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-5022