Claims adjuster jobs are found in insurance and insurance-related industries. Most of these jobs require a certain level of experience or expertise in a specific area, such as automobile or property damage. Claims representatives comprise a good portion of claims adjuster jobs and are responsible for investigating claims and offering a fair resolution in an efficient, expedient, and fair manner. These positions require the ability to work with policy holders while evaluating and settling claims based on information that is either provided or discovered through investigation. Claims adjuster jobs include staff adjusters, field staff adjusters, independent adjusters, and public adjusters.
Some claims adjuster jobs involve working for a specific insurance company and handling claims only for that insurance company in return for a salary. Staff adjusters, known as carrier claim representatives, typically work for small to mid-size insurance companies and are usually based out of a corporate home office or a field office. These staff claims adjusters typically handle the administrative paperwork, gather proof of loss materials, coordinate witness information, deal with underwriting concerns, and issue the claim payment check. Field staff adjusters have similar responsibilities but work from a home office or field office.
Smaller and regional insurance carriers will typically sub-contract claims adjusting services from independent adjusters. These independent claims adjuster jobs involve setting up and handling the investigation of claims and providing any other general adjusting services to an insurance company. Independent claims adjusters generally work in remote areas or where larger insurance companies may not yet have established a regional presence. These adjusters may handle a claim from start to finish but usually require several authorizations from the insurance carrier to proceed and complete the entire process.
Public adjusters provide a means of resolving an insurance claim. This need for claims resolution came about due to the long, complex, and confusing appraisal clauses found in insurance policies in the past. Today, these appraisal clauses have been revised and provide a means for minimal cost dispute resolutions that allow both sides to use independent appraisers in evaluating the actual cost of damages. Public claims adjusters are still used today but may be seen by the insurance carriers as unnecessary, as modern day policies are now written in simple terms and usually give the benefit of the doubt to the insured.