Adjusting

by Antone P. Braga

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After adjusting claims for several insurance companies, I found one thing the same. Nearly everyone with a claim had very little idea of how to prepare and adjust their claim. They more or less relied on me to do that for them. This kind of service beyond the contract is still typical. I think advertising together with the feeling of misplacement that most people feel after a disaster, has a lot to do with the phenomenon.

I worked for several large insurance companies, moving from one to the other, trying to get a better position and salary. They were all pretty much the same. So long as I could make the public happy, and at the same time show my company that I had protected its interest, I qualified as a good adjuster. It didn't seem to matter I acted to represent both sides at the same time, in the same transaction. How did I manage to accomplish that interesting juggle? Simple--it was my job to make company inspired settlements with policyholders who lacked fundamental information and adjusting skills. Of course I felt I treated people fairly. However, I couldn't very well help policyholders deal more effectively with me. That was not my place.

Knowledge is leverage. The more you know, the more you have adjusting power. The real trick in adjusting is to get a good result quickly as possible, with little trouble as possible. It is the continued fate of unknowing, unprepared policyholders to deal ineffectively. Their lack of ability, I am sure, is due in part to attitude. However, lack of information and understanding are the real culprits. It is difficult to imagine doing something in an area of which you know little or nothing, no matter how simple the task. This scenario has repeated itself down through the ages. So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long is he determined not to do it; and consequently so long is it impossible to him that he should do it. --BENEDICT SPINOZA

To adjust is to negotiate. An adjuster is a negotiator. Think about that for a moment. This simple fact seems the most difficult for policyholders to realize. The dictionary defines the word adjust: To settle or bring to a satisfactory state, so parties are agreed in the result: to adjust our differences; to bring to agreement, to determine the amount to be paid, as in settling an insurance claim.

Typically in the past, only the person representing the insurance company has been considered the adjuster. Historically, the policyholder has been considered--for lack of a better word--the adjustee, or the one receiving the adjustment. If you can't imagine yourself as an adjuster, it is probably because of the word itself. When adjusting is foreign to your background, education and experience, it only follows that you would have difficulty assuming that role.

We are all adjusters, in all our dealings. You are an adjuster in your own right when you have bargaining power and are prepared to deal from a position of knowledge and strength. This mental image is important for all your negotiations. The winning combination in adjusting is having an organized, methodical, self-confident approach and at the same time an awareness that compromise often plays an important role. Actually, winning in adjusting is not the act of one party driving the other party to defeat, as some would believe. The perfect adjustment occurs when the enlightened needs of both sides are met to the satisfaction of both sides.

In order to arrive at an adjusted settlement, each side has its own needs to satisfy. The less you know, the more you are apt to meet the needs of the person with whom you are adjusting. This is one important reason to understand your needs. If you don't know what to expect and how to get it, you may become satisfied too easily.

No one knows the outcome of an adjustment beforehand. Therefore, it is impossible to anticipate to what extent either party will give in to the needs of the other. Bargaining power becomes the main ingredient in adjusting. It usually comes about naturally as facts come to the surface. The more you know, the more you know to what extent you must adjust your needs. Likewise, it is easier to satisfy needs that are not completely known to the person with whom you are adjusting.

Adjusting is a matter of give and take, and unless you are dealing from a position of strength, you will probably give too much.

A company adjuster facing a knowledgeable policyholder usually realizes that the claim adjustment will be a cooperative effort. Also, this mutual respect may more likely lead to mutual agreement.

The quickest way to the best settlement for both sides is through cooperative enterprise. If both sides enter on a cooperative basis, there is a strong likelihood that each will strive for common goals. These common goals may have different values to each side, but their existence provides a channel for dialogue. Dialogue is an exchange of opinions or ideas--the free interchange of different points of view. It is through this interchange that each side can recognize its strengths and weaknesses and accordingly, make claim adjustments.

Probably the most difficult aspect of acting as one's own adjuster, is in having to enter the realm of the unknown at a time following a disaster. Psychologically, most people are not up to the task under these circumstances. It is very common to see people in a state of shock, confusion and helplessness. Those who are objective, informed and prepared, are more inclined to be emotionally level and competent.

The time of a personal disaster is not the time to be thinking about all of this for the first time. Think about it now and take comfort in the knowledge that you are able to protect your interest without feeling at a loss, if the unthinkable does happen to you. Preparedness rules.