Do You Want Professional Claims Handlers – Educate Them!

Education is Essential to Every Claims Operation

Read this full article and more than 2950 posts at my blog, Zalma on Insurance at https://zalma.com/blog. Posted on January 24, 2020 by Barry Zalma

There are more jobs available in the United States than there are people looking for work. When an insurance company is able to hire a person to be an insurance claims handler it is not unusual to find that person knows nothing about insurance or insurance adjusting. It is essential that every insurer train its personnel – both the new and the experienced – to keep them all providing professional service or lose business to those insurers that provide excellent, fast, fair, and professional claims service.

Excellence in Claims Handling from Barry Zalma

The Excellence in Claims Handling program provides everything a person or entity presenting a claim needs to effectively present the claim and provides the insurance claims person with everything he or she needs to properly represent the insurer.

The insured, risk manager, or corporate counsel will be able to present a first party property claim – whether a fire, theft, or windstorm or some other insured against cause – with little difficulty and professionalism and present a sworn proof of loss acceptable to an insurer.

The insurance claims person completing the course will be able to conduct a thorough investigation of the policy and claim. The insurance claims person will also be able to assist an insured to fulfill all of the promises made by the insured to the insurer and the insurer to provide the indemnity promised by the insurance policy.

The series of courses was designed so that the student can obtain the needed information easily while he or she sits down in the morning for a first cup of coffee or any other time in the day in short, easy to consume lessons. For instance, “Insurance and Claims” is made up of three modules and 27 lectures while “Investigating the Property Claim” is made up of four modules and 65 lectures. You can review each course, each module and each lecture at the links below.

Each person completing the course will be able to claim that he or she is a professional first party property claims person ready to provide excellence in claims handling and be ready to resolve any claims problem that arises for the benefit of the insurer and the policy holder.

The materials are available from Zalma’s Insurance Claims Library or will be presented by Barry Zalma to your people live or by webinar based on the books in the Claims Library.

The Compact Book of Adjusting Property Insurance Claims – Second Edition

A Manual for the First Party Property Insurance Adjuster

The insurance adjuster is not mentioned in a policy of insurance. The obligation to investigate and prove a claim falls on the insured. Standard first party property insurance policies, based upon the New York Standard Fire Insurance policy, contain conditions that require the insured to, within sixty days of the loss, submit a sworn proof of loss to prove to the insurer the facts and amount of loss.

The policy allows the insurer to then, and only then, respond to the insured’s proof of loss. The insurer can then either accept or reject the proof submitted by the insured.

Technically, if the wording of the policy was followed literally the insurer could sit back, do nothing, and wait for the proof. If the insured was late in submitting the proof the insurer could reject the claim. If the insured submits a timely proof of loss the insurer could either accept or reject the proof of loss. If the insurer rejected the proof of loss the insured could either send a new one or give up and gain nothing from the claim. Suit on the policy would be difficult because the policy contract limited the right to sue to times when the proof of loss condition had been met.

Insureds and insurers were not happy with that system. It made it too difficult for a lay person to successfully present a claim. The system, as written into the standard fire policy seemed to run counter to the covenant of good faith and fair dealing that had been the basis of the insurance contract for centuries. Most insurers understood that their insureds were mostly incapable of complying with the strict enforcement of the policy conditions. To fulfill the covenant of good faith and fair dealing insurers created the insurance adjuster to fulfill its obligation to deal fairly and in good faith with the insured.

The Second edition adds new material from 2018 and 2019, is easier to use and more compact than the original.

Available as a Kindle book.

Available as a paperback.

The Compact Book on Adjusting Liability Claims, Second Edition

A Handbook for the Liability Claims Adjuster

This Compact Book of Adjusting Liability Claims is designed to provide the new adjuster with a basic grounding in what is needed to become a competent and effective insurance adjuster. It is also available as a refresher for the experienced adjuster.

The liability claims adjuster quickly learns that there is little difficulty with a claimant (the person alleging bodily injury or property damage against a person insured) if the claim is paid as demanded. The insured may be unhappy if the claimant’s claim is paid as presented since most do not believe they did anything wrong or fear an increase in premiums charged for subsequent policies.

The adjuster must be prepared to salve the insured’s emotions, explain why in the law and the policy it was appropriate to pay the claimant and that the settlement is in the best interest of both the insured and the insurer the adjuster represents.

The adjuster knows, and must be prepared to explain to an insured, that if a claim is resisted or denied the claimant will be unhappy, will probably file suit. If not promptly settled the claimant’s lawyers will rake the insured over the coals to prove that the insured is liable for the claimant’s injuries. The litigation will take time, effort, and money to establish the extent of the injuries and who is responsible for the injuries. Failure to settle promptly can cost the insured his or her reputation and will certainly cost the insurer much more than the claim could have been resolved for had it been resolved before the claimant retained a lawyer.

Available as a Kindle book

Available as a paperback.

California Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations

A Guide to Insureds, Public Insurance Adjusters, and Lawyers to Properly Investigate and Adjust Insurance Claims

This book was designed to assist insurance personnel who do business in the state of California. It will assist all insurance claims personnel, claims professionals, independent insurance adjusters, special fraud investigators, private investigators who work for the insurance industry, the management in the industry, the attorneys who serve the industry, public insurance adjusters, policyholders and counsel for policyholders working with insurers doing business in California. All insurers doing business in California must comply with the requirements of the Regulations or face the ire of, and attempts at financial punishment from, the CDOI. That punishment is now questionable and limited because some courageous insurers fought the CDOI and succeeded before an administrative law judge who limited the right to punish. Regardless of difficulties in assessing punishment the state of California requires all who are involved in the claims process — even if only tangentially — to be trained with regard claims handling in compliance with the Regulations and attest to completion of such training under oath. To avoid the annual training the claims person can submit a sworn document that avers that he or she has read and understood the Regulations. Reviewing this book and the Regulations set forth below should be sufficient to comply with the training requirements of the Regulations. It is necessary that insurance personnel who are engaged in any way in the presentation, processing, or negotiation of insurance claims in California be familiar with the Regulations. Counsel for insurers and policyholders should also be familiar with the Regulations since they set a minimum standard for claims handling in the state.

Available as a Kindle book.

Available as a paperback. 

? 2020 – Barry Zalma

This article, and all of the blog posts on this site, digest and summarize cases published by courts of the various states and the United States. The court decisions have been modified from the actual language of the court decisions, were condensed for ease of reading, and convey the opinions of the author regarding each case.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 50 years in the insurance business. He is available at https://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.

Over the last 51 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Go to the Insurance Claims Library 

Subscribe to e-mail Version of ZIFL, it’s Free!

Read last two issues of ZIFL here.

Go to the Barry Zalma, Inc. web site here.