The Importance of Velocity in Umpiring
With todays article, I’m hoping to talk a little about the Umpire role in our industry. Our company gets calls often to help settle disputes in need of umpiring. When dealing with appraisals, it’s common to have disputes. One parties appraiser estimates differently than the other, leading to different values, and gumming up the work of the entire job, for everyone involved. This is when the umpire is brought in. The umpire is a third party selected by the carrier, as well as the insured appraiser, and is typically paid for by both parties, to give sort of a “sudden death” ruling, meaning the appraisal ends when any 2 of the 3-member panel sign to award an amount. Once that award is assigned, then it's final.
Many times, the claims process can be a fickle thing. The people involved have their own ideas, motivations, or interests going into it, and everyone is out looking to make money. Ideally there’s a balance here, between making everyone happy, and getting an amount of money they think they deserve, but sometimes it just isn’t the case. This kind of situation, you want to get an umpire out there right away, before any ugliness comes from this disagreement.
When that umpire comes out, acting as a third estimator, and gives their estimation, it’s not long before the payouts happen. This is a subject I want to make sure people understand, is the speed at which things start happening once those rulings are dished out.
One of the biggest issues that happens with our industry is delay in which things get done. It feels sometimes like the smallest things can lead to the job coming to a grinding halt, and that hurts everyone involved, whether it’s the contractors, the estimators, or the insured. Everyone is suddenly standing around waiting for this job to pick back up, which is completely unnecessary. It’s honestly a discredit to the work of the anyone who drags out that process, including an umpire who handles the situation with delay. When we get the call to do umpiring services, it’s common to be done with the job, and the estimation turned in, within days. While there’s a benefit to having the infrastructure that we do, the knowledge, and the connections that we do regarding the industry, we would be working just as quickly without these things. We do this because in the back of our heads, we know we’re doing this for the benefit of everyone, including the insured.
There’s a saying in the industry that says “we bow at the alter of velocity.” This is something everyone in this industry should take to heart, as it does nothing but benefit yourself, and those around you. We all make up this claims tribe, which can work as a well oiled machine if we allow it. When we do work that way, the insured is happy, everyone gets along, and people get paid.
To those of us who are called upon to be umpires, staying unbiased should go without saying, but still feels like it occurs occasionally. We are called upon based on image of trust, and the last thing you want in this industry is that trust to be broken. I like to think we're above that, and the claims tribe understands the stakes with each umpire job.
I get called out to umpire hundreds of conflicts a year, and want to thank everyone who extend that trust to our system of velocity, and understand that we are here to help during those matters as needed.
Please visit my website, The Unbiased Umpire, if you require umpire services. Also be sure to check out the companion video to this article, Unbiased Insurance Claim Umpire
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