I lately shared a submit titled “Public Adjusters Want To Elevate The Bar For Admission If They Need To Be Seen As Professionals,” which sparked a vigorous and insightful dialogue. I’m really grateful for all of the partaking responses and concepts which have been shared.
In essence, I echoed within the submit a sentiment shared by Brian Goodman, the Normal Counsel of NAPIA, and Steve Badger in a presentation they made this week on the First Social gathering Claims Convention: the necessity for public adjusters to raise the requirements for acquiring a license. It is a matter I’ve usually introduced up in my ethics speeches to varied public adjusting associations. I’ve privately raised it with public adjusting leaders.
The main focus of the submit, Donice Krueger, who occurs to be my higher half and a Licensed Public Accountant, raised an intriguing query. She puzzled if policyholders are conscious that hiring somebody with a public adjuster’s license would possibly typically imply entrusting their claims to somebody who may not be totally competent for the duty. As an example this level, Donice, with out prior expertise in public adjusting, studied for about 4 hours utilizing a guidebook and efficiently obtained a Texas public adjusting license.
This revelation led to varied reactions, with some shifting the dialog as to whether insurance coverage firm and impartial adjusters must also have larger necessities. Others recommended that the main target ought to be on eliminating dangerous actors throughout the insurance coverage trade. One attention-grabbing perspective was that some would possibly see it as a viable enterprise mannequin to acquire a license with minimal competence after which delegate the precise work to others, primarily a “bait and change” strategy.
This brings us to a elementary query for all public adjusters who care deeply about their occupation: Will we need to enable the licensing of people who is probably not totally competent to deal with claims on behalf of policyholders?
I suggest that the reply ought to be simple – both “sure” or “no.” It’s a matter of deciding whether or not we view public adjusting as an important and revered occupation that calls for stringent entry requirements or if we’re content material with a system that probably permits unqualified people to signify policyholders.
I invite everybody within the public adjusting group to replicate on this and take into account what steps we will take to make sure the occupation is held within the excessive regard it deserves. Your ideas and options on this matter will not be solely welcome however important for our collective development and enchancment—me included.
I recommend that these on this matter additionally take a couple of minutes to learn The Professionalism and Ethics of a Property Insurance coverage Adjuster.
Thought For The Day
Your life doesn’t get higher by likelihood, it will get higher by change.
Jim Rohn