What’s the role of the insurance adjuster in my claim?
Answer
The insurance adjuster is the single person, typically that’s assigned to your case, your claim, and their job is to make sure you’re getting everything you’re entitled to. And that’s, of course, the ideal. Of course, the insurance adjusters also have in mind that they—their employer, the insurance company—they’re a for-profit business, and that can mean often that if something’s, let’s say, a close call in terms of whether you’re entitled to it or not, there’s a lot of incentive, whether explicit or implicit, for the insurance adjuster to do perhaps what’s in the insurance company’s best interest financially as opposed to yours. So that’s sort of both sides of it. Many of the adjusters do a wonderful job handling claims, but a lot of the times they serve their own master—the insurance company—and that often means you’re not getting what you’re entitled to or you’re not getting it as promptly as you should. And that’s why there should always be not only an insurance adjuster, who’s ultimately an employee of the insurance company and doing what’s in the insurance company’s best interest, but you should also have your person watching over your claim, and that’s your lawyer.