Damaged vehicles may be resold or just sold for salvage. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Back at the beginning of my insurance career, I was a total loss claims adjuster. Outside adjusters would give me the files on vehicles they had determined were total losses, and I would call the insureds to settle the claim. Once settled, the salvage had to be disposed of, and thus began my career in used car sales. Yes, you read that correctly, used car sales.
The damaged vehicles went to the salvage yard that sold them for the company once we had obtained the salvage titles. We would send the titles we received from the insured to the department of motor vehicles and they would issue a salvage title in the name of the company, then we would send the salvage title to the salvage yard so they could sell the vehicle. That was the easy part. However, not all claims involved vehicles that had been in an accident; many vehicles were recovered thefts.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Christine G. Barlow, CPCU
Christine G. Barlow, CPCU, is Executive Editor of FC&S Expert Coverage Interpretation, a division of National Underwriter Company and ALM. Christine has over thirty years’ experience in the insurance industry, beginning as a claims adjuster then working as an underwriter and underwriting supervisor handling personal lines. Christine regularly presents and moderates webinars on a variety of topics and is an experienced presenter.
