Inside the carrier
I did staff work inside a carrier’s own claims office and handled losses for at least 30 insurance companies. I also ran quality control, reviewing other adjusters’ claims for the companies paying them. I know what they look for.
THE Insurance Adjuster for the People
Your insurance company has an adjuster. Now you have one too.
Looking out for your interests, not the insurance company’s. Nineteen years handling Florida claims for homeowners, condominium and homeowners associations, and businesses. From 1999 to 2007 I handled claims for over 30 different insurance companies. I know what they look for.
Both sides of the claim
Before I worked for policyholders, I worked for the companies insuring them.
When carriers fail
I handled claims for the Florida Insurance Guarantee Association (FIGA) from 2006 to 2007, after Poe Financial collapsed — the last work I ever did on the insurance side before going straight into public adjusting. Very few public adjusters in this state have worked an insolvency from the carrier side. If your carrier goes under, your claim doesn’t simply disappear.
From daily work to storms
Seventeen named hurricanes and tropical storms, and thousands of everyday losses in between — water, fire, theft, and the rest. My mold work started at Tropical Storm Allison in Houston in 2001, adjusting mold losses for insurance companies. I also have experience writing the remediation protocols for remediation contractors as well — the documents that determine what work a property actually needs and that every contractor on the job has to follow. I’m also FLIR certified and a licensed drone pilot.
Named as the neutral
I have handled hundreds of appraisals for policyholders, as well as handling appraisal work for insurance companies. I have been selected by insurance company appraisers on two separate occasions as the umpire, the neutral who settles an appraisal deadlock — as a public adjuster.
I have testified both for insurance companies and for policyholders, and I have testified in court as an expert witness on estimating damages in large loss claims. I have never changed the way I adjust a loss. If insurance companies paid what they owed instead of fighting every step of the way, I’d still be working for them.
Claims Handled
Different policyholders. Handled by the same person.
Homeowners
Hurricane and tropical storm. Flood. Tornado, hail, lightning and high wind. Water losses. Mold. Fire, smoke and soot. Theft and vandalism … and more.
Multiple types of losses, each with its own arguments and its own traps. Select the link below for additional information on homeowners claims and what to do in the first days.
Commercial & Association
Condominium associations. Homeowners associations. Commercial property. Multifamily and rental portfolios. Golf courses. Business interruption.
Larger limits, layered exclusions, and provisions that decide the outcome before anyone looks at the damage — coinsurance, ordinance and law, sublimits, and the boundary between the master policy and the unit owner’s. Select the link below for additional information on commercial and association claims and what to do in the first days.
After a loss
Dos and Don’ts for any claim.
Dos
- Report the loss the way your policy directs, and make sure it’s recorded. Some policies name your agent, some name the company. Follow yours — and report it in writing or through the online claims portal so there’s a date, a claim number and a record of what you said.
- Photograph and video everything before anything is touched, cleaned or hauled off. Wide shots that establish where you are, then close-ups of the damage.
- Review what your policy requires for emergency mitigation, do what the policy directs and keep every invoice. Check the limit your policy puts on emergency measures before a dryout company starts work, because that cap is usually smaller than people expect.
- Keep everything that documents the claim in one place. Photographs, invoices, receipts, correspondence and your notes.
- Keep dated notes of what surfaces later. Damage that shows up weeks after the loss is still part of the loss.
Don’ts
- Don’t throw anything out, and let nothing leave the property. Cut-out material, cabinetry, flooring, contents — all of it stays until the adjuster has inspected it.
- Don’t make permanent repairs before the damage is documented. Once it’s gone, so is the proof of it.
- Don’t sign anything that transfers your claim or your benefits without reading it in full and knowing what you’re giving up.
- Don’t hand over originals. Photographs, invoices, receipts and records go to the carrier as copies. Originals stay with you.
- Don’t give a number you can’t support. Not on the phone, not in an email. An estimate has to survive being read line by line.
This isn’t everything. Your policy carries conditions and duties that apply after a loss, and they’re yours to meet whether or not they appear here. Read your own policy in full. If something in it doesn’t make sense, call me — it’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, whether or not you hire me.
The process
What happens after I am retained.
01
I document the loss to support your claim.
Photographs, measurements, moisture readings and FLIR thermal imaging where it’s warranted, recorded while the evidence still exists. I’m at every inspection myself, alongside the insurance company’s adjusters and consultants.
02
I prepare the estimate and present your claim as one supported package.
Line by line, priced and documented, with anything I can’t tie to the loss left out of it. One document going to the carrier from your side rather than three that disagree with each other.
03
I deal with your insurance company, their consultants and the deadlines.
The adjusters, the engineers, the reinspections, the correspondence and the statutory clocks are handled by me. Undisputed amounts get requested as the loss accrues rather than waiting for the end.
04
You get a straight answer whenever you ask, and every decision stays yours.
Including when the answer is that nothing has moved. I recommend, you decide. Nothing on your claim is agreed to, signed or settled without you saying so first.
Fees
No recovery, no fee.
If I don’t recover money for you, you owe me nothing. When I do, my fee is a percentage of the recovery, and it’s always within the limits Florida statute sets for public adjusters. §626.854(11)
You’ll see that fee in writing, in your contract, before you sign anything, and Florida gives you a statutory window to cancel afterward. I’ll walk you through both, out loud, before you put a pen to it.
My fee doesn’t come out of your deductible. A public adjuster is paid a percentage of what the insurance company pays, and your deductible isn’t a payment they make.
I also can’t charge you on money the insurance company already paid. Any payment they made, or agreed in writing to make, before my contract is executed is outside my fee entirely. That’s in my contract, and Florida statute requires it — the cap on those amounts is zero percent. I have never charged a fee on money paid before my involvement, and I never will.
Free
A twenty-minute phone call about your loss, whether or not you hire me.
In writing
My fee is stated in your contract, and I walk you through it, before you sign anything.
Nothing
Owed if I don’t recover money for you. No recovery, no fee.
Zero
Charged on anything they paid before my contract was signed.
Never
Taken out of your deductible. My fee is a percentage of what they pay.
The call that matters
If you’ve had a loss, call or email me. Not because you couldn’t handle it yourself, but because the decisions that determine what your claim is worth get made in the first days, and once they’re made they’re hard to undo. It’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, and I’ll tell you plainly where you stand.
You stay in control of your claim. That’s the whole point.