Insurers Accused of “Brainwashing” Employees Against Public Adjusters
Have you ever felt that insurers are unnecessarily hostile towards public adjusters?
It may not be in your head. New research shows insurance industry training may be “brainwashing” insurance company employees against public adjusters.
According to Chip Merlin of Merlin Law Group, insurance company adjusters are “brainwashed” to think public adjusters “are not to be trusted.”
As proof, Chip cited his recent experience at a conference. He asked a room full of adjusters if their training involved role-playing of public adjusters. 20 people raised their hands.
Insurance companies purportedly use role-playing in a number of ways to train new adjusters. They role-play restoration contractors, public adjusters, and others involved in the process, for example, to ensure insurance company adjusters are prepared for claims in the field.
Chip, however, claims this training went beyond friendly role-playing and accuses insurers of fostering a negative “cultural belief” about public adjusters.
As further proof, Chip cites documents like “How to Be Assertive and Effective When Dealing With Public Adjusters” from the Property Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB), which paints public adjusters as adversaries to be “managed, avoided, or defeated.”
Insurance Company Adjusters Taught to Treat the Public Adjuster as a “Distrusted Evildoer”
In the insurance world, there are two main types of adjusters:
- Insurance company adjusters, who are salaried employees of your insurance company. These are the people who arrive on scene when you call your insurer about a burst pipe or fire. They represent your insurer’s best interests and often want to protect their employer’s bottom line by paying as little for your claim as legally possible.
- Public adjusters, who are licensed insurance industry professionals representing policyholders. They work for you – not the insurer – and want to maximize the value of your claim by ensuring you receive every penny owed to you based on your insurance contract and the type of loss.
Naturally, these two parties have a conflict: insurance company adjusters want to limit payouts, while public adjusters want fair payouts.
According to Chip, however, insurers take this conflict too far. Some paint the public adjuster as a “distrusted evildoer,” for example, and “brainwash” employees about public adjusters.
As proof, Chip interviewed Chris Faber, who holds a CPCU designation. Faber previously worked for insurers like Mercury and Farmers before becoming a public adjuster.
Faber claims role-playing – as contractors or public adjusters – was a normal part of adjuster training, but there was an overall brainwashing element to the training:
- Faber claims that role-playing training involving public adjusters was designed to create a perception in the minds of company adjusters that a public adjuster could never be trusted.
- Public adjusters were seen to always be greedy, for example.
- Faber even claims company adjusters were taught that the actions of public adjusters always bordered on insurance fraud.
In other words, company adjusters were allegedly learning that public adjusters were the enemy of the insurance company. They were purportedly being taught that they were dishonest individuals designed to throw havoc into the claims process.
Licensed Public Adjusters Are Required to Act Honestly
It’s not fair to label all members of any legitimate profession as greedy or dishonest.
This is true in public adjusting. As Chip points out, virtually all public adjuster associations require professional and honest actions in their codes of ethics.
Furthermore, most states have a specific licensure process for public adjusters. As part of that licensure process, public adjusters must abide by certain rules and regulations – from passing an exam to acting with honesty on claims.
Insurance Companies are “Hardwiring Distrust” Into Insurance Claims, and Everyone Loses
There’s nothing wrong with using role-playing as a thought exercise. It’s an effective training tool because it puts new employees – like rookie company adjusters – in a situation that feels real.
As Chip points out, however, asking new adjusters to play a greedy or dishonest public adjuster doesn’t teach negotiation skills. Instead, it fosters a culture of distrust and makes the claim process worse:
When you put a young claims adjuster in a room, hand them a script, and tell them to play out a negotiation where the ‘public adjuster’ is greedy, dishonest, and obstructive, you are not teaching negotiation skills in the abstract. You are hardwiring distrust into the culture of claims.
This negative culture creates multiple problems. Policyholders pay the price with delays, posturing, and unnecessary disputes. Claims adjusters learn not to value open communication. And the insurance industry as a whole loses credibility.
Because of these problems, Chip concludes the brainwashing of young adjusters is a “stain on the industry and urges the industry to do better:
But make no mistake. The brainwashing of young adjusters to view public adjusters as villains is a stain on the insurance industry.
Public Adjusters Aren’t the Enemy: They Hold Insurers Accountable
Insurance companies often like to paint public adjusters as the enemy.
Some insurance companies loop public adjusters in with fraudsters and scammers. They link them to kickback schemes designed to inflate claims without due cause.
None of these things are true, of course. Public adjusters:
- Fight for fair payouts for clients, including ordinary homeowners and business owners.
- Hold insurers accountable.
- Take concrete action against insurers who deny claims without good cause or fail to investigate claims adequately.
- Ensure policyholders like you receive every penny you are owed for a covered loss under the terms of your insurance policy.
- Manage complex or costly claims from start to finish to make life easier for policyholders. Find a Public Adjuster
Can’t we all be friends? Insurance company adjusters and public adjusters may be at different ends of the insurance process, but that doesn’t mean we have to be enemies.
You can read Chip Merlin’s full blog post and follow-up response here.
