| For founding Members only not open to affiliates of founding members Step 1 State Public Adjusting Licensing Test Training has all you need to pass your state test including down loadable PDF sections on ISO policies which is what you are tested on and audio voice over’s on mp3’s that you can down load or listen on our website. Course comes with information to complete your paper work for license including an in house bonding agent. We have eight practice tests with 400 questions that are in the national state tests. Step 2 Homeowner Policy & Scope we go over in fine detail with the most up to date information on ISO policies including audio on site and down loadable mp3’s. There are two videos one on policy workshop and one training inspections for insurance purposes. We show you what it takes in the home with paperwork then submitting a claim to the insurance company. We provide questions and answers on coverage from a great third party authority to aide you with your documenting letter writing. You will know the fifteen things you must do with your first meeting with the homeowner
Step3 Homeowner’s Estimating & Scope we start with building estimating & scope with three sections first section tools, measuring, masonry, and framing second section roofing, siding, doors, windows, ceilings, and walls third section Cabinets, molding, stairs, decorating, flooring, fencing, heating, air conditioning , plumbing, and electric. With six videos and a workbook you will be up to speed with estimating. We train you how to use Simsol the premier estimating software for public adjusters, plus go into detail with perils and scope. You will receive a discount certificate for annual subscription of Simsol of twenty dollars a month. We also have around 500 pages on detailed resources in all areas of estimating. New have major help aides in completing contents and loss of use. We have detailed training in fire and water restoration and national disasters. Step 4 Negotiating Gambits & Tactics will educate you on what it takes to turn the tables on the insurance adjuster and having them fear you. How to set up and document every claim you work on so it is prepared for a court case if needed. We have for youtemplate letters to your client, insurance adjuster and their supervisor as well. We give you gambits and tactics to make you a master in negotiating claim and for other thing for your business. You will have a deeper understanding on bad faith and how to use it. We will show you how to make lenders pay promptly to you client or take on the risk by federal law and do this without an attorney, and so much more. Step 5 Goldmine Marketing is not only teaching you how and where to start but changing how you think in your commitment in your business. Money in starting your marketing in most cases is limited for most. We believe that you should only pay after you have been paid from the claim. So we will show you how to have other professional’s open doors for you and help build your brand. We do this with Contractors of all kinds, Realtors, lenders, Real Estate Investors, and home inspectors. By using short sales, REO’s and using home inspection for insurance purposes. We also show how to build a website that you drive traffic to it and using speaking with homeowners association to set up inspections that lead to claims. Plus we will show you how to have leads emailed to you daily. Step 6 EPA Mold Class is here to help expand your knowledge base in dealing with mold challenges found with storm and water claims. Not so you can perform the work but evaluate the challenges and demonstrate the additional costs to the insurance claims. This is also a great tool in helping homeowners that maybe dealing with health problems in getting them the loss of use challenges paid for. Lead Removal Course with HUD Guide Lines has powerful attributes in expanding a claim using the information with the federal laws can take a $7,000 claim and turn it into a $17,000 claim in a heartbeat. Homes built between 1948 to the late 1970’s have lead and having the proper knowledge can make all the difference. This is one of those courses that pays for itself thousands of times over. Asbestos Information Step 7 Residential Certification Test Step 8 Commercial Policy & Estimating Commercial Policy Break Down Annalists This Endorsement Changes The Policy Business Income Loss Defined Net Income Plus Continuing Expenses Commercial Estimating Estimating Case Project Files Water Damage Training Fire Damage Training Simsol Software Additional Estimating Resourses Commercial Adjusting Law Library
Association Employees Only
| |
Testing to see if subscribers receive e-mail from form posts as they should |
| |
Please help us defeat S 2472 with your contribution to the AAPIA lobby fund. Working together we can continue to fight the imposition of a 12.5% fee cap in New Jersey.
Fee caps appear on the surface to be for the benefit of the homeowner, but instead serve to limit the homeowner’s access to a public adjuster and a fair insurance settlement on small and average sized claims. Fee caps discriminate against the average consumer with a small loss, putting the interests of “Wall Street” over “Main Street.”
Join our effort to defeat S2472 by making a contribution today!
About NJ S2472
https://stops2472.com/sample-page/about-new-jersey-s-2472/ |
| |
It seems that construction, in general, is the easiest and cheapest business to get into and the most expensive and difficult business to stay afloat in. Literally, any person can print out business cards, have enough nerve to hang out at HD listenting to people's conversations, introduce himslelf and get work. Some of those guys morph into succesful business, but most don't. Hence, this discussion. If this forum lives on there will be countless numbers of this thread as there have been in the past. I have now taken the approach of Judge Shmails (sp?) form Caddy Shack when the young aspiring caddie was trying to brown nose for the scholarship and I quote "The world needs ditch diggers too". You will never convince the guy who figures his materials and labor costs and then adds the $200.00 bucks a day he wants to make that there is more to running a business than that. He will have to go broke...more than once, usually to change his ways unless he is extremely lucky and has a friend/mentor that has been where he is and forces him to look at the big picture. I have a very close contractor friend who just had the 'I don't have any overhead" conversation with me less than a week ago.
Without taking a break I informed him of his $20,000 worth of equipment, cell phones, biz cards, gas, insurance, tools, the shop mortgage, the shop insurance, the shop phone, etc. He laughed and said, well, I have to pay those things anyway so I don't look at it like that. My response was simple. What he really doesn't want to look at is the time, money, and effort it takes to operate a REAL company with proper legal structure, filings, organization, advertising, etc etc etc. Owning your own shop is more than just getting to fish when you want to. Most of us who come from the sales side really could probably make comparable if not better incomes as a salesman for someone else with absolutely no responsiblility or liability. We do this because we are always chasing the proverbial carrot and have a desire to create and succeed, and develop our businesses to be the real deal. I am constantly trying to educate myself on how to run this business more efficiently for greater profits. This forum is a great place to feed that desire to educate, but open minds are a must, even though the majority of us as business owners are probably Type A's who know it all anyway. |
| |
Posted: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:55:43 -0500
If you’re unfamiliar with the insurance process, there are two questions one must address after a loss: (1) whether the damage is covered under the insurance policy; and (2) whether the amount of damage exceeds the deductible. If you answer yes to both of these questions, your insurer should send you a check for your damages.
On several occasions, I have worked with clients who were told by their insurance companies that although their property sustained damage caused by a loss covered by their insurance policy, the amount of damage was below the deductible. Policyholders in this situation come to me when they sense something fishy going on, namely, that the amount of damage is more than the insurance company estimates. Unlike their insurers, policyholders know their properties intimately; they know what their property was like before the loss and can better assess the full extent of damage.
Most property insurance policies have an appraisal provision that gives the parties a method to resolve a dispute over the amount of damages. Depending on the circumstances, I sometimes suggest that my clients invoke the appraisal provision. An appraisal will not guarantee that an insured will receive insurance proceeds. Sometimes the appraisal process results in a $0 award. However, in other instances, an insured is awarded a large sum through the appraisal process, even as high as hundreds of thousands, and yes, even millions of dollars. When this happens, clients often ask whether the large appraisal award can be used as evidence that their insurer breached their contract when they represented the amount of damages was below the deductible. Their argument makes sense intuitively: in their eyes, their insurer lied to them about the damage or amount of loss. But are Texas courts persuaded by this argument? No.
When presented with this argument in Breshears v. State Farm Lloyds, the Texas Court of Appeals for Corpus Christi—Edinburg stated the following:
The Breshears argue that because the appraisal award was greater than the initial payment made by State Farm, State Farm was in breach of the contract as a matter of law. However, they overstate the effect of appraisal decisions: an appraisal decision is intended “to estop one party from contesting the issue of the value of damages in a suit on the insurance contract, not to facilitate this type of liability. The Breshears may not use the fact that the appraisal award was different than the amount originally paid as evidence of breach of contract, especially when the contract they claim is being breached provides for resolution of disputes through appraisal.1
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas recently cited this portion of Breshears in Mag-Dolphus, Inc. v. Ohio Casualty Company,2 indicating agreement with the Texas appellate court. Based on these and other similar cases, it’s pretty clear that an insured cannot use the outcome of an appraisal award as evidence that their insurer breached their policy.
|
| |
Hi Members
Our launch for adjuster TV starts at the end of Nov. so I have a link for you to get involved
So click it and fill out the information.
http://www.thecompletementor.com/Audio/adjuster%20TV/teamconnect.htm |
| |
GEBHART: Insurance companies need to adjust how to treat policy holders
Published: Saturday, February 25, 2012
By ED GEBHART
Times Columnist
I wish I had met Paul DeFinis a few years back. If I had, our entire kitchen floor might look like it had been installed at the same time. As it is, one-half of the floor looks like the original, and the other half looks like it was an afterthought.
The “afterthought” portion is what the insurance company agreed to replace after a malfunctioning dishwasher flooded the kitchen. If we had called DeFinis, I don’t think that would have happened.
DeFinis is a Licensed Public Adjuster. A Penn State graduate and former Ridley Park resident, he works with the Acclaim Adjustment Agency in Philadelphia. For many years, he was on the other side of the fence, working as an adjuster for a couple of major insurance companies.
His first exposure to insurance company adjusters came when he worked in his father’s auto body shop in North Philadelphia. “I saw first-hand how insurance companies and adjusters treat the consumers, and I didn’t like it,” he said. “I wasn’t interested in the physical side of my dad’s shop, but I did want to learn the insurance business.”
His experience is exceptional, from boat damage in Ocean City to heavy equipment in Georgia to covering a seven-state area, plus the District of Columbia, where he worked on claims from the Chinese and Italian embassies. He’s been involved with everything from hot air balloons to motorcycles to tractor trailers.
About 15 years ago, he decided enough was enough and started a public adjustment company.
“I always wanted to be on the side of the consumer because I did not like how insurance companies operate,” he said. “They don’t treat the consumer fairly. They try to underpay claims every chance they get.”
If the insurance company can’t dismiss the claim outright on a technicality, they’ll settle for the least amount they can offer and still be able to sleep at night. He can cite many examples.
“Last year, a church in Chester suffered heavy roof damage because of high winds,” he said. “The insurance company tried to deny the claim on a technicality. Had it not been for our involvement, the church wouldn’t have gotten a thing. Instead, they got sufficient funds for a new roof, plus repairs to restore the chapel to pre-storm condition.
“A gentleman in Ridley Park suffered extensive damage to his home when a pipe burst in the family bathroom. Initially, the insurance company denied the claim. After we investigated, the insurance company paid thousands to restore the bathroom and make necessary repairs to the living room.
“After a house fire in Glen Mills, a previous client recommended that the homeowner contact me. I had the house boarded up, placed the family in a hotel suite and began to negotiate. Nine months later, their house was restored — better than ever — and the family never had to pay any money out of pocket.
“I could go on,” DeFinis said. “An attorney and his wife hired me after their insurance company denied their claim for roof damage. What a joke! There were shingles all over the place. Now the insurance company has agreed to reopen the case. If a satisfactory agreement is not reached, the company will face an unfair claims practice in court.
“We won‘t hesitate to go to court,” he added. “In court, we’re successful about 95 percent of the time.”
According to DeFinis, public adjusters work on a contingency basis — usually a 5 to 25 percent fee, depending upon the loss. “Usually, we can get the homeowner two to three times more than they can get on their own, even after subtracting our fee. If their claim is too small, we’ll give them free advice, plus a policy analysis.”
He warns that policyholders should be particularly wary in the event of a major fire.
“The insurance company will come out right away or the next day at the latest, before you can hire a public adjuster,” he said. “They want you to think they are there to help you. This is a big mistake. First, you must really know your policy. Many consumers do not. We do. We study policies and policy update all the time. A consumer may not know how much damage a fire can cause. We do.
“Some policies state that you must have a written estimate of damages or you will forfeit your right under the policy and you just then allow the company to write their own estimate.”
By the way, Paul, is there a statute of limitations on this sort of thing? To tell the truth, Sharon still isn’t all that happy with the kitchen floor. How about I refer you to our insurance agent?
I’m sure he’ll love to hear from you.
(For more information on insurance adjusters, log on to www.philadelphiaclaimspublicadjuster.com or call DeFinis at 610-721-4199) Ed Gebhart is a retired public relations executive. His column appears Sunday.
|
| Skip Calendar
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|---|
| |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
| 5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
| 12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
| 19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
Today Thursday, 23 May 23 |
24 |
25 |
| 26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
This association’s mandate is to train support public adjusters and start as many people willing to aide the American public.
|
