Some fire insurance claims, water damage insurance claims, or vandalism insurance claims seem to be obviously underpaid. When that occurs, insurance policyholders start looking for qualified professionals that can help quantify the amount of the underpayment that they suspected existed but don’t know how to articulate themselves. Many claims, however, don’t seem to be obviously underpaid; and so unsuspecting policyholders don’t think they have a reason to independently audit the estimate produced by their carrier. If you do not have your estimate audited, you risk not collecting the dollar amount (often up to thousands) that should have been paid but wasn’t, because you didn’t think to or know how to ask for it. If you don’t know how to audit, don’t plan on having the carrier volunteer to bring the underpayment amount to your attention.
Also Read: What Can a Public Adjuster Do for You?
In our experience, 90% or more of insurance carrier-generated estimates are underpaid. On small claims, we almost always find some underpayments. Those underpayments can be up to several thousand. On larger claims, the underpayments can also be common—frequently underpaid upward of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In our experience, insurance carriers usually underpay claims because of: new adjusters, overworked adjusters, or even seemingly nefarious reasons. Their focus is regularly to settle claims as quickly as possible to reduce their caseload. When this occurs, it ultimately can be at your expense. Claims can be invisibly underpaid in a variety of ways. Sometimes they are underpaid by completely omitting line items that should have been paid, partially paying line items that are listed, or only paying for a smaller area to be repaired than what should’ve been covered. Underpayments can also occur by using wrong or outdated fee schedules for your neighborhood.
When you hire ClaimMax Adjusters to audit the carrier estimate, you dramatically reduce your risk of a claim underpayment. You have nothing to lose. Call our office to schedule a complimentary estimate underpayment audit. If we identify a potential underpayment and there is still no recovery when you hire us, there is no fee payment risk to you.
