Public Adjuster vs Insurance Adjuster: What’s the Difference?
When something goes wrong and it’s time to file an insurance claim, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.
It’s the job of the insurance adjuster to act as a detective. They gather and analyze information with the objective of gaining a better understanding of the claim.
Then, the insurance adjuster uses all of the information they were able to gather to determine an amount of money that the insurance agency will pay out to the policyholder for the claim.
Insurance adjusters are commonly conflated with public adjusters, who also conduct investigative work with the goal of determining a fair amount of money to be paid out for a claim.
As you can see, on the surface they both do the same thing. The difference lies in who they are working for.
The difference between an insurance adjuster and a public adjuster
To understand the difference between the two adjusters, it’s helpful to think of the roles of two opposing attorneys.
Both the prosecutor and the defense attorney study the facts of the case, interview clients, and present an argument. The defense attorney goes through this process focusing on the facts that make his client look as innocent as possible, while the prosecutor focuses on the facts that make the defendant look guilty.
The way an attorney analyzes a case depends on who they are representing. If they’re hired by the defendant, the way they view the case is naturally going to be different than if they were working for the state.
Likewise, because insurance adjusters are hired by insurance companies and public adjusters are hired by policyholders they evaluate claims through different lenses.
Insurance adjusters
Insurance companies are in business to make a profit. This means that they want to pay out as little as possible in claims. When an insurance adjuster evaluates your claim, they are working on behalf of the insurance company. Therefore, insurance adjusters will be looking to evaluate the claim at the lowest possible dollar figure.
They won’t always evaluate damages at a fair price and they certainly won’t go out of their way to look for additional expenses that the disaster may have incurred.
They can do this because policyholders are usually overwhelmed by the circumstances they’re dealing with and assume the insurance adjuster has their best interest in mind.
As a result, insurance adjusters can prevent policyholders from receiving the full value of their case.
In one of Cleveland Public Adjuster’s previous cases, an insurance company was only going to pay a policyholder 10% of the value of their claim ($25,000 of the total $250,000 in damages!).
Public adjusters
To level the playing field, policyholders can hire a public adjuster.
Again, a public adjuster carries out all of the same investigative work that an insurance adjuster does (or *should* do rather!); the difference is that they’ll be investigating the claim with your best interest as their top priority.
This means conducting a more thorough investigation of the case in order to guarantee policyholders receive the maximum possible payout.
It’s not uncommon for public adjusters to negotiate payouts for policyholders that are 5x higher than the amount they would have received on their own. In the case discussed above, after eight months of negotiation, Cleveland Public Adjusters was able to get the insurance company to agree to a payout of more than $200,000.
This is why it’s important to hire a public adjuster. Too often policyholders assume insurance adjusters are working on their behalf when they’re really working for the insurance company.
Additionally, repeated requests for documentation along with other methods of drawing out the claims process can cause policyholders to give up on a claim prematurely.
A public adjuster deals directly with the insurance company and handles the claim from start to finish. They can complete the process faster than an individual would be able to – because of their experience – and alleviate stress for policyholders.
Cleveland Public Adjusters Can Help You Realize Full Value On Your Claim
Here at Cleveland Public Adjusters, we understand that the claims process can contribute additional, unnecessary stress during chaotic times.
We work on your behalf to negotiate with insurance companies and ensure you receive the maximum value of your claim. Historically, we have a strong track record of helping policyholders achieve stellar results.
“We would never have gotten this result on our own,” Jodi says. “Trusting Cleveland Public Adjusters was the best decision we could have made for the business, the owners, our employees, and the community we serve.”
– Jodi Roesner, Hotel Manager in Toledo, Ohio
To learn more about how we can help, see our services page!