When you submit a claim to your auto insurance company, there is one person that plays a very important role; yet it’s possible you’ve never heard of them. The person we are referring to is known as the insurance adjuster. He or she is hired by the insurance company to determine the merit of your claim and the amount of your settlement. In short, they decide how much money you will receive. Sound important? It should. An insurance adjuster wields an extraordinary amount of power in the claims process.
Though you should be aware of the significance of the insurance adjuster, you shouldn’t be intimated by the thought of working with one. Insurance adjusters are not out to get you or make your life difficult. They seek to resolve your claim as efficiently and fairly as possible.
It is easy to fear what you don’t understand. The insurance adjuster may sound threatening if you don’t understand who they are and what they do. To that end, let’s discuss the purpose of the insurance adjuster and their role in the claim settlement process.
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They Determine If You Have Coverage For Your Claim
An insurance adjuster has to determine if the auto insurance company is liable for your claim. We mean liable in this sense to mean that the claim you are submitting for is included in your insurance policy.
Auto insurance companies will not pay for coverages you haven’t purchased. It is essential to determine the claim is included in the scope of your insurance policy. The insurance adjuster will thoroughly examine your policy. They then compare what is included in your policy with the details of the accident or loss. For example, if you are at-fault in a car accident, and submit a claim for property damage to your own vehicle, the insurance adjuster will determine if you have collision coverage and what the limitations are.
To accomplish this, the insurance adjuster may inspect the police report from the accident, interview witnesses, speak to doctors, retrieve medical records and review various other sources of information. By doing this, the adjuster can establish the validity of the claim and what the insurance company is responsible for. Not an easy task, but an essential one for the insurance company. The details and facts of the accident must match up with what the insurance has pledged to be responsible for.
They Make Sure The Costs To The Insurance Company Are Reasonable
Once the insurance adjuster has decided that you had coverage for your claim, they next work on the amount of your settlement. Included in this are repair costs/part replacements, medical bills, lost wages, and other miscellaneous expenses.
In order to determine the total amount the insurance company must pay, the adjuster will evaluate all bills and costs. They may consult with auto body repair shops and determine what the price tag will be for certain replacement parts. It’s possible that the adjuster may offer (in some cases demand) less expensive parts are used in order to reduce what the insurance company will owe.
Basically, the insurance adjuster must account for what auto insurance company has to pay for (i.e. what’s in your policy) but reduce the expense as much as reasonably possible. This is their responsibility – to lessen the burden of the settlement for the auto insurance company.
This is not to say the insurance adjuster will try to rip you off. It means that when presented with a cheaper, yet still perfectly acceptable alternative (like the cost of a part or a certain auto body shop), the insurance adjuster will pursue it in order to keep costs down for the insurer.
Again, it is important to note that you will still get what you are owed, but the insurance adjuster has try and keep the costs as reasonable as possible for the insurer.
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They Will Inform You Of Your Settlement And How They Decided On It
Once a figure has been decided on, the insurance adjuster will inform you of the amount of the settlement. They cannot produce a number from thin air; they have to demonstrate how they reached this conclusion. Included could be the cost of any replacement parts, what your vehicle was worth at the time of the accident, and other similar amounts.
Once you have accepted the settlement offer, the insurer will write a check (to you, the auto body shop, or whoever is due the money).
Again, the insurance adjuster is not someone to be feared. Even though they work for the insurance company, look upon them as an ally. They will help you receive what you are owed. Be as forthcoming as possible and give them all the information they request. This will make the claim process as smooth as possible and help eliminate any problems.
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