Sometime in 1973, I participated on a council recommending a curriculum for insurance studies at Miami-Dade Junior College (now Miami Dade College).
Insurance agents, brokers, risk managers, adjusters and other insurance representatives participated, and we created a list of what we thought would be a good background for anyone considering an insurance career. The National Association of Insurance Women, South Florida Claims Association, the local CPCU Chapter, and the Risk & Insurance Management Society were also present.
Those in marketing (agents and brokers), believed that business courses in marketing, accounting and statistics would be helpful. The risk managers strongly suggested some engineering background. Clerical skills (including typing) were important (this was before PCs); fewer men knew how to type beyond the "hunt and peck" method. And some medical knowledge was deemed a necessity.
Other topics included subjects such as gemology (Florida was famous for "jewel thefts"), construction, tort, agency, contract and statutory law, human relationships and similar social sciences, and a healthy dose of economics. Journalism – the ability to investigate, separate truth from fiction, and report the findings in a logical format – was another recommendation.
What are the adjuster's topics today?
Now, some 44 years later, one seldom hears about anyone taking specific classes to become a claims adjuster. For many in the field it is "just a job," something to do until something better comes along. When I arrived at our corporate home office in 1978, one of my assignments was to attend "career day" sessions at local universities. I always ended up following the brokers, agents and risk managers who told of big money, being important people, and how easy it was because they had a big staff. "Big pay" enthralled the students. Then I would get up and tell about the excitement of claims adjusting, rushing to the scene of disasters and wrecks, including fires or death; attending trials and hearings; working with the police investigating crimes and accidents; finding the right engineering expert for a complicated case; tracking down jewel and art thefts; and handling aviation and ocean marine claims. All of these were part of an independent, multi-line adjuster's job.
"Wow!" the group would gasp, "That sounds like what I'll like to do, not that boring stuff that the other speakers did." But then came the question: "How much does that job pay?" Compared to the salaries and commissions of agents, brokers and risk managers, not a whole lot. Plus there was the drawback of having a 24/7 call-out requirement. Getting up at 3 a.m. to go to the scene of a client's truck wreck in the rain or snow quickly loses its glamour.
Back then most adjusters had at least an undergraduate degree, and while many still do today, it seems an adjusting career has lost much of its luster. Now investigations are "farmed out," with insurance medical examiners visiting the injured, obtaining and studying the medical reports. The "art of negotiating" is a skill that must be learned gradually — there is no single easy lesson for mastery. The same is true of other adjusting skills such as investigation and evaluation, and especially for reporting. It's now often the insurer's attorney who takes command in insurance litigation. What should the adjuster's curriculum be in 2017?
On a personal note: This August marks this writer's fiftieth year in the claims and risk management business. It has been a wonderful and exciting career, and I hope readers will find their own careers as exciting.
Ken Brownlee, CPCU, is a former adjuster and risk manager based in Atlanta, Ga. He now authors and edits claims-adjusting textbooks. Opinions expressed are the author's.
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