Insurance Adjusters Detail Pressure to Undervalue Claims to Senate Committee

Ethical Obligations of Adjusters

• 💡 Property adjusters like Clifford Millikan and Nick Schroeder describe their ethical obligation as accurately assessing damage and applying it to the insurance policy to indemnify the insured for the full value.
• ✅ This means their estimates must be honest and true to what they observe on-site.

Interference from Insurance Companies

• 🎯 Adjusters report being pressured by vendor oversight teams within insurance companies to change their damage estimates.
• ⚠️ These reviewers, often lacking the on-the-ground expertise of the adjusters, dispute findings like hail damage and reject estimates, sometimes without clear justification.
• 📉 Adjusters feel these reviewers do not share the same ethical obligation to accurately assess damage.

Delays and Tactics

• ⏳ Adjusters believe that delays in processing claims and removing them from cases are intentional tactics to discourage policyholders.
• 🧩 One adjuster was removed from a case, and the policyholder had still not received an estimate a month later, suggesting the reason for removal was not efficiency.
• ⚖️ This is described as a "battle of attrition" where delays and lack of communication wear down consumers.

Fear of Retaliation

• 😨 Both adjusters expressed fear of not receiving future work from insurance companies if they do not comply with the requested changes to their estimates.
• 🗣️ Despite this fear, they strive to remain truthful about their findings, even when facing pressure.
• 📸 Disagreements with virtual examiners who only see photos, compared to the adjuster's on-site inspection, often lead to adjusters being pulled from claims.

Call for Federal Intervention

• 🏛️ Senator Andy Kim highlighted the need for federal government intervention, as state-level oversight has been insufficient.
• 🚫 Witnesses report a lack of prosecutions against insurance carriers for fraud at the state level, suggesting potential regulatory capture or resource limitations.
• 📈 There is a call for the federal government to investigate and prosecute cases where consumers are being cheated by insurance companies.