Loss Adjusters – Introduction
If you have ever made an insurance claim on your home insurance policy, you may have come across loss adjusters and be familiar with what they do. However, if not, don’t worry as we will explain this quickly and simply in our guide.
We work with loss adjusters, including on water leak detection and interact and liaise with them regularly. Therefore, we understand the role they play when they are involved in supporting and leading elements of insurance claims.
This article explaining the role of a loss adjuster is a useful read, especially alongside our previous article explaining the process of making a water leak insurance claim which is worth reading too.
Loss Adjusters – What they do
Generally, loss adjusters are most likely to have been appointed by your home insurance company. Most commonly, their services are paid for by your insurance company, and so no direct cost to you. Major insurance companies in the UK will have established relationships / partnerships with loss adjusting companies. They may also have their own internal staff that perform a similar role in claims handling management.
Example loss adjuster companies you might come across or hear about could include:
- Crawfords (Crawford & Company / Crawco)
- Sedgwick (sometimes known as ‘Sedgwicks’)
- QuestGates
- Woodgate & Clark
There are many different firms, these are just some examples of the larger more common one seen in the UK, although several firms are international in their coverage.
Loss adjusters can often take the lead in helping to manage your claim, especially in respect to some of the following elements possibly:
- Understanding the cause of the property damage.
- Evaluating and assessing the extent and value of the damage.
- Checking what you are covered for on your insurance policy.
- An example could be to check for trace and access cover
- Liaising with contractors (such as us) for different aspects of your claim.
- Acting as a key day-to-day contact for you regarding the process.
- In layman’s terms, they are akin to a project manager for insurance claims.
- In fact, there are Project Managing Adjusters (PMAs) too
Loss Adjuster Benefits
The role of a loss adjustment is a skilled one (more on that later), assisted by detailed training, qualifications and often years of experience in helping to manage insurance claims.
An experienced loss adjuster will likely have dealt with hundreds of claims which can be a great help, especially if it is your first home insurance claim and is a new experience for you.
Other than what we have already mentioned in this simple overview report, there are other benefits of loss adjusters:
- They can be a single / main point of contact for you.
- They will help to manage and co-ordinate aspects of your claim.
- That can include specialist contractors assisting with restoration.
- They understand what you are entitled to on your insurance policy.
- Consequently, they can be a key decision maker during the process.
- Related to this, they can help to expedite the end-to-end process.
On top of this, they have a code of conduct to guide them in their profession. This can include the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) – Professional Conduct Guide. You can see more about this on the CILA Professional Conduct page, which has more detailed resources about the profession and themselves as a body.
We’ll now look more into certain aspects of loss adjusters and the CILA.
Loss Adjusters, Qualifications and the CILA
The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters has a long history. In fact, on their own site, they reference that the loss adjusting profession dates back to historical periods soon after the Great Fire of London, which we are sure many of your know was in 1666.
In more modern history, they have been known as the Association of Fire Loss Adjusters since World War 2 (WWII). Interestingly, they were granted a Royal Charter in 1961. The current CILA name dates from circa 1979.
The CILA provides a valuable governance and leadership role for the loss adjustment profession and, in that role, provides a wide array of training and qualifications to the profession. This includes, certificates and diplomas, plus associate and fellow levels of membership. They have over 4,500 members currently and each year run the CILA Annual Conference.
Loss Adjuster – Specialisms
Something else that you may come across is specialists in specific fields of the loss adjustment profession, this could include areas such as:
- Major and Complex Loss
- Commercial Losses
- Agricultural and Farming
- High Net Worth Services
- Structural Losses (including subsidence)
- Total Losses (e.g. when a property is destroyed)
Loss Adjusters – Summary
We hope you found our guide to the role of a loss adjuster (not to be confused with a loss assessor) useful and informative. Hopefully, it has helped you understand what the role of them is and how they can help you if you are unfortunate enough to need to make a claim on your home insurance or business insurance, they are an intrinsic part of the claims management process, alongside others.
On that topic, we have a great guide to Business Interruption Insurance, plus here are a few other articles you may find interesting to review on a variety of subjects:
- F1 Boiler Fault Code
- Ceiling Leak Causes
- Underground Water Leaks
- Water Leak Upstairs Flat
- Pressure Relief Valves (PRVs)
We also specialist in Commercial Leak Detection work and boiler leaks, helping businesses find water leaks at their property and with water leak insurance claims, we have a number of useful water leak detection tools that can handily help you with some elements of water leaks in your home, including our Water Leak Cost Calculator.
FAQs on Loss Adjusters:
What are the benefits of loss adjusters?
Loss adjusts can be beneficial on home insurance claims such as water leaks, floods or fires at your home or business. They are generally appointed by your home insurance company to help manage a number of aspects of your claim and to act as a decision maker, organiser / co-ordinator and point of contact for you and associated contractors for various elements of your claim.
Why would a loss adjuster be appointed?
A loss adjuster may be appointed by your insurance company when you make an insurance claim for your home or business. They help to manage various aspects of your claim process, in a number of key areas. They are often appointed on larger or more significant claims rather than smaller non-complex ones, these are sometimes referred to as major and complex claims or claims with substantial loss.
What is the difference between an actuary and a loss adjuster?
Although both actuarial roles and loss adjuster roles are both associated with the insurance sector, they are very different roles fulfilling different tasks. An actuary in insurance utilises mathematical, statistical and probability-based calculations to help evaluate the likelihood of a risk event occurring. This can have a link to the premium of an insurance policy. On the other hand, put simply, a loss adjuster manages a number of aspects of an insurance claim.