WORK FROM HOME AS A DESK ADJUSTER
In this video, learn:
what we mean when we say "desk adjusting"
how you can earn really good money as a desk adjuster
how to find a desk adjuster job
how to get good at the kind of work that you can do from home in your PJ’s
More of a reader? Catch the video transcript below.
work from home claims adjuster jobs
What is a remote desk adjuster
When we say “desk adjuster,” basically what we’re talking about is somebody who takes the entire claim, or part of a claim and handles it remotely from their desk or from their computer.
For our purposes as independent adjusters, there are a few different types of desk adjuster roles:
Writer-scoper program desk adjusters
A desk adjuster can be someone who handles the writing part of the claim. If somebody is out in the field, climbing roofs, taking photos, scoping damage, they will send that up to the desk adjuster through some kind of app or an estimating software like Xactimate (depending on how that field adjuster is deployed) for them to be completing it. So essentially you are splitting the role of the claims adjuster into two: field work and desk work.
The desk adjuster can be located anywhere. They could be in the same town, or 2000 miles away working remotely.
Desk adjusters can work in a call center type setting—a facility or building an IA firm or carrier has set up for adjusters to work out of, providing you everything from phones to computers and having you clock in and out of your role.
But there are also desk adjuster roles that allow you to work from home, where you can start and end your work day whenever you want, as long as you get the work done.
As the desk adjuster, you write an estimate based on the scope and photos that the field adjuster provided.
This is what these days is commonly called a writer-scoper program and a lot of I firms are moving to this model because they can kind of split things up and give the arguably easier part—the field part—to a less experienced adjuster, saving the estimate and file completion aspect for the more experienced adjuster.
A desk adjuster who’s writing up claims will often be the one responsible for making coverage decisions. They may look at what the field adjuster has sent up, analyze the policy, and determine whether or not the insured has coverage for the damage, and to what limits.
Or it could be that they just write the estimate and then it gets sent on to the carrier for them to be making the coverage decision, and putting in the call with the insured to say “hey, here’s whether your claim is covered, and by how much.”
So there’s a bunch of ways this particular role of desk adjuster can work out.
Handling your own claims remotely
Theoretically you can also be your own desk adjuster. Say you’re on a hurricane and are assigned 70 claims. Your managers/the carrier might have a big meeting or send out an email that says something like “Hey, if you have any claims that sound like their not going to be more than $2,500, try to close it over the phone.”
This has come up a bunch of times in my experience, especially on big events. It’s preferable for you to close on the phone to get some money into the insured’s hands and to reduce your field work so that you can get to the rest of the waiting customers faster.
So technically you’re your own desk adjuster. You’re calling the homeowner, talking to them for a few minutes…they tell you that 3 sections of their fence blew down and you close that claim right there on the phone, writing up your estimate and saying:
“Based on what you’ve told me over the phone, it sounds like the grand total for all that damage would be around $2,000. You have a $500 deductible. We’ll send you a check for $1,500.”
In this scenario, I would also say, “If you find more damage or if you have a contractor come out and they say there’s no way they can fix it for that, call me back and if I need to come out there and scope it, I will.”
So you always want to give the insured the impression that their needs are going to be met first and that you're there to try and take care of them no matter what their claim ends up being.
Because does happen sometimes where close a claim over the phone and then the contractor comes out and finds that another tree hit the backside of the house and knocked it off the foundation or something. That’s going to be bigger than $2,000.
Somebody is going to need to go out and meet with the contractor, get photos, measurements, etc.
So in that way, you can be a desk adjuster by handling a claim straight over the phone or via email.
Staff adjuster remote desk work
On the carrier side, or staff adjuster side (which I’ve also done) you will primarily be a desk adjuster.
A lot of the claims that you do, you’ll be instructed to try to close the file over the phone. They are always looking for ways to reduce the cycle time of a claim and so I’ve had them tell me things like:
“If you’re talking to the insured on the phone and they have water damage in a room, have them pace off the room with their feet, and then find out their shoe size and get the measurements that way. Get them to take photos with their iphone or do a FaceTime with them and scope the loss, then send them a check.”
So you’re doing your best to handle everything you an from the desk. There’s a certain amount of efficiency to it, obviously.
But what it all boils down to is that if I’m a homeowner and I purchase homeowner insurance, if I have a claim at my house for something, I want somebody callign me right away, within 24 hours of me filing that claim. I want someone to be able to answer my questions, make a coverage decision, and hand me a check.
That would be the ultimate customer experience for me, preferably the day after I filed the claim.
What is cycle time and why does it matter as a desk adjuster?
When you hear companies talk about cycle time, they’re talking about the amount of time from when the homeowner files the claim until the time they have a decision made on their claim or money in their hand.
Typically, the clock stops when you’re settling up with the insured either in person or on the phone. Then it’s time to get that claim uploaded back into XactAnalysis or back to your IA firm or whoever so it can be further processed and the check can be written, the estimate printed, and a big carrier packet mailed to the insured. Some IA firms or carriers consider this the end of the cycle time.
As independent adjusters, our goal is to shorten the time it takes us to be able to give the homeowner a decision on their claim and what the next steps will be. As far as I’m concerned, that’s when the clock stops for us.
If somebody drops the ball somewhere after me, then that's not technically my problem.
It can become my problem. If the homeowner calls me back and says, “Hey, you said it was gonna be here in a week and it's been 14 days, where's my check?” Then I'm gonna make it my problem. I'm gonna start calling around and looking in XactAnalysis etc. to see where things might be tied up.
Other types of remote desk jobs
Remote File Reviewers
Another way that you can be a desk adjuster is to become a file reviewer.
A file reviewer is the person that looks over the claim after the field work and desk work have been done, whether it was done by one person or split between a scoper and a writer.
This person is on the IA firm side, and they are the sort of gatekeeper or quality control between the IA firm and the carrier. They make sure the file checks off all the boxes. It’s not full of typos, everything is accounted for on the estimate, everything is clearly labelled and they have all the photos they need to represent that claim accurately.
They are often the last step before sending the file up to the carrier, making sure it is up to the quality standard that the IA firm wants to reflect back to the carrier.
File review, generally speaking can be done by an extremely inexperienced person, or somebody who has zero knowledge of claims, but it can also be left to people who do have a lot of experience but have retired from the field.
They maybe don’t want to travel and do field claims anymore but still want to work.
Technically speaking, a file reviewer is responsible for making sure everything that needs to be in the file is in there. You don’t have to be super experienced to say “Hey, we’re missing a risk photo (the front overview photo of the house that needs to be in every single file ever).”
Or “There’s no activity diary entries for contact, which is required by the carrier.”
So for the inexperienced file reviewer, they can simply go down the checklist, see if anything is missing, and then send the file back to the adjuster letting them know what else to include to make sure sure the file is ready.
For an experienced file reviewer, they will actually be looking through your estimate for errors.
They will say “hey, everything looks good on your roof estimate, but for siding we don’t need these line items here and you forgot to include these other line items. Looking at your photos, it looks like like there’s something that should be detached and reset in order to do that repair process…”
This more experienced person can help the original adjuster to hand in a more accurate estimate and complete file.
Generally, the inexperience file reviewers are only brought in during the biggest of events.
I’ve been a file reviewer on hurricanes before after I’d had years of experience and had people calling me up to chew me out, saying that file reviewers know nothing because I’m telling them that they missed these five things on the checklist. They get bent out of shape and it’s likely because they’ve had other file less experienced reviewers telling them to fix things they didn’t really understand.
Quality assurance remote desk role
So similar to our file reviewer, you have your Quality Assurance desk workers, or QA.
So QA are your more experienced adjusters going through your file pretty much in the same way a file reviewer does, but they are going to be more a more traditional quality control role.
They are going to rescope the entire loss, call the homeowner, do their own estimate based on the carrier’s strict estimating guidelines and then hold up your file to compare.
They will find any instances where you may have overwrote, underwrote, or missed covering something and they will speak to the insured about the level of customer care.
So they will go through and grade you and do a complete assessment of your handling of that claim and give a performance review.
QA roles are generally reserved for people on the carrier side who have a lot of experience. If you’re on a deployment and you’ve been there for two weeks you might get a call from someone saying something like:
“Hey, this is ______ from Acme Insurance Company. I’m a quality assurance guy. I looked over a few of your files and there are a few things that we need to change.”
They may have you fix it or they may fix it for you.
Either way, don’t worry about it, just don’t do it next time. Make sure in the future to include whatever was missing this time.
A lot of firms will also have a QA person. They need a lot of adjusters to scope and write all these estimates but they really only need a few to be reviewing or doing QA.
How to get hired for remote desk work
Finding work from home desk adjusting jobs
So want to talk a little bit about how to get this kind of work and what sort of skills you need to cultivate as someone who is new to claims adjusting in order to land and be successful in this kind of work.
Anyone wanting to find themselves in a remote desk adjusting role is usually going to need to have some field experience and get licensed and trained in the traditional way first, whether this is through an all-in-one adjusting school or an independent adjuster certification program like Fast Track To Deployment.
You’ll also want to spend some time networking with IA firms, getting on their rosters, getting deployed by them as a field adjuster first.
The work you do as a field adjuster will make you a better desk adjuster because you’ll have already had to dig into policy and be able to see things from the field adjuster’s perspective and vice versa.
You’ll be able to see the field from the desk and understand what other adjusters are doing to make their files look better and in some cases have opportunities to help people in the field to be more effective and save themselves time in the future.
So the desk role really gives you the opportunity to be a much more well rounded adjuster if you do decide to go back out in the field.
But getting started with field deployment is the easiest way to be developing relationships and earn yourself the reputation of being someone who gets it. If you can show them you have good cycle times, a good quality file, good customer service, the IA firms and carriers are watching for those metrics and can see when a new person seems to be getting it vs something who isn’t.
If they see that it’s clicking for you, they will want to help you and mold you to be better, because they desperately need people to do this kind of work. They are shorthanded, believe it or not.
People who are failing at it, not turning in their work, not answering their phone, or what they do turn in looks terrible…this person is never going to find themselves in a desk role. Or even on another deployment because one of the ways you can be fired from a storm is for them to just stop assigning you claims.
So being able to prove yourself and what it takes to scope a loss, take photos, understand what makes sense to get photos of and what doesn’t, and even writing up estimates while you’re in the field…this is the best way to gain the foundation you need to become a desk adjuster.
The same can be said for being ready to take other roles where you’re not the first point of contact for the insured like file review, bureau manager, field support, QA…
Becoming a field adjuster is really the ground floor for all of these and something I highly recommend.
Get my free Road To The Storm Guide to get your complete guide to getting started as a field adjuster.
Can you become a desk adjuster without field experience?
That being said, you don’t necessarily need to become a field adjuster first these days in order to get a desk adjusting role, especially one where you’re just the writer.
You’re still going to need some understanding of construction and the restoration process—if there’s damage to the bottom of drywall, baseboard, and carpet, you need to know how a contractor use customary and resonable construction methods and materials to tear all that stuff out and put new back in so that it looks exactly the same as it did pre-loss.
So whether you get that knowledge in the field or pick it up some other way (maybe you were a contractor yourself, a ServPro, or Service Master, or with a water mitigation company) you can still get involved in writer programs where you’re working remotely.
A lot of IA firms are going to train and help you with this stuff. They are not going to give you total losses right out the gate—just simple claims to get you started.
You do need to have a bit of understanding of policy if you’re going to be making any coverage decisions. Licensing is a really good crash course in understand policy, especially doing CE credits (continuing education) because you can dig into all sorts of different topics.
But if it were me, I would say “well, I don’t know a whole lot about condo claims…here’s a 4 hour condo-specific CE training. I’m going to dive in.”
There are lots of condos throughout the country and their policies are very weird and confusing, and sometimes frustrating, especially to new people.
So learning condos (for example) would open up a new avenue for you because not everyone is going to want to do condos. When your manager calls you up and is scrambling to fill that role, he’s going to be getting a lot “I hate condo” which is not the answer they wanted to hear. But if you step up to the plate and say “yes, I’ve already taken some CE training on condos and did some legwork of my own. I’ve handled a few condos in the field and want to jump on that team and do these remotely” this kind of thing happens all the time.
When it comes to getting hired for Quality Assurance, unless there’s a major event withs of thousands of claims that they need to just throw warm bodies at in the field and behind the desk, you’re generally going to need a lot of experience before you can jump into these roles.
You're going to need to have done the field role, AND have been a desk adjuster, AND probably have been a file reviewer as well because while you’re not a manager, you are going to be critiquing everyone’s work and helping them get their files sorted out, so you need to have experience in every aspect of handling the claim.
Preparing yourself for hire as a remote desk adjuster
So I want to talk about how to get really focused, and get dialed in training for a desk adjusting role.
As I mentioned previously, being a field adjuster first before you do anything else is probably the best preparation, but it’s not the only way.
So there are few different ways you can get training:
attending an all-in-one adjusting school
I would recommend going to a traditional hands-on school, like Mile High, Vale National, Veteran Adjusting School, CATI etc. (I share a list of all the best ones and where to find the most up to date info on them in my free complete Road To The Storm Guide.)
Or to take and pass the Fast Track To Deployment Independent Adjuster Certification Program online which is currently honored by our partner firms: Pilot, Crawford, CCMS, Pacesetter, Alacrity, and Sedgwick.
Also, any of the IA firms that have come out with their own hands-on training programs that go above and beyond just carrier certifications would be a good bet too.
The best thing you can for these is to call up the toll-free number on their website and ask if they offer training for new adjusters and to what degree? Basically, can you come to them knowing nothing and have them train you in everything you need to be deploy-ready? If not, let them know whether your goal is to do field or desk work and ask them what you have to do in order to get trained in that.
And they will tell you, because if you’re on their roster, they are going to want you showing up on an event already knowing how to do the work.
Even if you do go to an IA firm training session, like a carrier certification, you still want to show up at the bare minimum having used Xactimate, installed it on your computer, practiced it, taken trainings with it, maybe even gotten a level 2 or 3 certification so you have some fluency in it.
Suggested resource:
Field-ready Xactimate
If you’re looking for a low cost, beginner Xactimate training that teaches you everything you need to know to get up and running with the latest version of Xactimate, check out Field-Ready Xactimate.
Haag Certified Reviewer Program
This Certified Review Program is something new that Haag has come out with in the last few years or so, where you can earn up to four levels of certification for inside adjusters, estimators, file reviewers, and underwriters.
So the first three levels are just to get you started and then the fourth drills down more into individual role training to help you expand on your expertise.
It says certified reviewer, but it's basically a desk adjuster.
So they're gonna teach you construction, damage identification, software, some policy—this is stuff that you're gonna need to know as a desk adjuster, right?
I've audited this training and I've talked to Ryan, who's the president of Hagg Education and they made this specifically with help from the industry…from carriers and IA firms, contractors, etc. so this is something that will fully prepare you for those desk adjuster roles.
It kind of covers everything and honestly, from what I saw when I audited the training, I think it would be good for field adjusters too who maybe don’t have time or want to do something a little more self-paced from home.
Haag has geared it towards people who have never seen this stuff before but who want to get into desk specific work.
So I would say short of sitting around waiting for a field deployment, I would jump on the Haag Certified Reviewer Program. It’s not very expensive and I did manage to work out a coupon code for you to help a little bit with the cost as well.
Use code ADJUSTERTV to get a discount on anything at https://haageducation.com/.
Virtual Assist
The other way I think that you can gain a little bit of experience is to start doing virtual assist stuff, which is really just the scoper part of the whole scoper-writer thing. And you’ll need to learn both roles, right?
So if the only thing you can get right now is the scoping aspect, walking around to people’s houses with your phone, taking photos, and maybe you write a scope or you settle assist…you’re going start building experience on scoping losses.
You will only have to speak to the insured if they are home, which is a really good way to ease yourself it.
And rather than having to wait until hurricane season for your big break, you can get started right away.
So how available is this kind of work?
As far as the yearly cycle goes for claims work for adjusters, basically summer is the high time. When spring storm season starts up, it’s ON. And usually right in the middle of the country—in a box that goes from front range of Colorado over to Ohio/West Virginia area east and wise wise, then from Canada (including Canada) to the southern border in Texas.
So spring storm season is always going to produce something. Someone’s always going to get hail, and it can hit some really populated areas (I was told one time that Texas costs insurance companies more than the next five hail states combined.)
Denver and surrounding area is pretty heavily populated and they get a lot of hail, they get tornados, high winds, wildfires…
Then you got into the Midwest and you’ve got Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville and so on (and everything in between.)
So a lot of places get bad weather in the spring. Then just as that starts to taper down, hurricane season kicks up. It officially starts end of May—we’ve had earlier than that and later, but those are outliers.
But as far as I’m concerned, Hurricane season doesn’t start until middle of August. Apart from Sandy, every hurricane I’ve ever worked happened between the middle of August and the middle of October. If you look at the stats, 80%+ of hurricanes that do any damage to the US mainland occur in September.
So those are our catastrophe claims right? Which are obviously going to fall off in the wintertime.
You can have late hail storms or tornados, blizzards, snow storms, icestorms. etc. so there is still some Cat work to be had, but the vast majority of claims are going to be more wind and daily type stuff.
They aren’t going to be farming out daily claims to scoper-writer programs necessarily because daily claims can get pretty complex, pretty quickly.
But Crawford has We Go Look for property and auto and Crawford Inspection Services for roof inspections where they’ll say “we need someone to diagram and measure this roof, and take photos” and they will send a virtual assist person.
Pilot has Adjusters On Demand.
Pacesetter has the EVO platform.
A number of firms have told me that they hire out of their virtual assist rosters and they are always keeping an eye out for good people who are going it well.
So I would say call every IA firm who’s roster you’re on and ask them what they have for virtual assist or other opportunities because it’s not always going to be on their website. And ask to speak to HR if that person can’t answer that question for you.
Got to the conferences and meet people in person: NACA, Crawford’s Catastrophe Con (You can find a list of conferences I recommend you new adjusters attend in the complete Road To The Storm Guide.)
Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. The industry really is moving pretty quickly and the people who are going to capitalize on the opportunities are the ones who put themselves out there and start getting to know the folks at the IA firms who do the hiring.
Because you know what? Those people are the ones who have to scramble to find adjusters like you.
When one of their carrier clients makes the big demands for people to do this kind of work, let it be you.
