QuestionRichard,
I am just starting out my career as a auto claims adjuster. I have been handling claims for around 6 months now and have come a long way since I started. My first question is what advise do you have to someone who is just starting out their career as an adjuster? What are some things that you wish you had focused on more when you first started in insurance?
My second question is when handling a Pro-Rata Settlement, do you have an easy equation for handling this-or do you know of any online simple calculators where you can punch in the amount of limits and damage and get an easy calculation for how much each exposure is getting? It is a pain to go through all the exposures and trying to get that % exactly right.
Thank you for your time.
AnswerHi Jonathan,
Congratulations on your new carrer. About the best thing I can tell you is to always remember that the people you deal with every day in handling claims are looking to you for help, advice, information and compassion. They have been involved in a traumatic event, are often confused and do not understand the process. You should take the time to listen to people, let them vent. Then once you have done that, explain the entire process. Let them know what to expect, when to expect it and then follow through. If you donn't know something, dont fake it. Simply say you don't know but you will get them an answer. It is easy to become cold and jaded when you are handling an inventory of 300 or more claims and you have irrate people calling you all day long yelling at you. Just remain calm and remember that it is up to you to calm them down and set the correct tone. Always seek outside confirmation of the things you are taught by your company. Just because they are large multi-billion dollar corporations does not mean that they are always correct.
As for the pro-rata settlement question; I have known adjusters who have 10 or more years experience who still can not figure it out. I'll do my best.
First you total all claims presented. Then you divide each individual claim into the total. The resulting percentage that each claim represents to the total of claims presented is the percentage of the available coverage that each claim receives.
So if you have a $10,000.00 coverage limit and you have 3 claims presented that total $14,000.00, the formula would look something like this:
1) $6500.00 ./. $14000.00 = 46.4% X($10000.00) = $4640.00
2) $4700.00 ./. $14000.00 = 33.5% X($10000.00) = $3350.00
3) $2800.00 ./. $14000.00 = 20.1% X($10000.00) = $2010.00
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$14000.00 $10000.00
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
