Loss adjuster

By MARK STORY

Name: Stephen Kay

Age: 35

Job title: Loss adjuster

Working hours: Five days a week 8.30 to 5pm, on call.

Employer: GAB Robins New Zealand

Pay: Entry level $30,000 through to $100,000-plus for senior specialist adjuster.


Qualifications: Previous trade or insurance experience will assist. Staff are then encouraged to sit the Chartered Loss Adjusters qualification which involves three to five years part-time correspondence study through the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF), and five years practical experience in the role.

Career prospects: Loss adjustment management, risk manager, senior insurance roles.

Q. What do you do?

A. As a member of the specialist commercial division of GAB Robins, I investigate commercial losses including engineering, technology, marine, financial and major property losses. Loss situations are many and varied. One day I could be attending a fire, the next a burglary, then a product recall where a company's goods have been contaminated with micro-organisms.

Following the notification of loss I'm appointed to collect necessary facts on how the loss occurred, who's responsible, and report them back to the principal (usually an insurance company) together with estimates of loss value.

If the claimed damage is deemed to be covered by the insurance policy, my role is to assist the insured minimise the loss, to measure and adjust the loss as per the insurance policy wording, and to pursue recovery from any responsible parties. I also help negotiate claim settlements to find solutions that are acceptable to all parties.

Q. Why did you choose this job?

A. I applied for this job three years ago after working for 10 years within the food manufacturing industry. I saw an advertisement on the internet looking for someone with an inquisitive mind and a processing or engineering background. After going through the interview stage and talking to several senior loss adjusters at GAB Robins, I was convinced that it would be a job I'd enjoy. What attracted me to the job was the variety both in terms of claims and locations, autonomy of being able to self-manage claims, and the level of commercial experience I was looking for.

Q. What skills do you need to become a loss adjuster?

A. You need to be inquisitive and have a high standard of written communication. That's because you have to translate detailed technical information into simple, unambiguous facts.

Strong listening and verbal communication skills are also important to establish the trust needed to help claim settlement. As we measure the value of losses financially, numeric and accountancy skills are helpful.

Q. What is the best part of your job?

A. I enjoy solving problems, investigating a loss situation and fitting the pieces of the puzzle together to find out what happened and why. When losses are large and complicated, a team of specialist adjusters is brought in to investigate the circumstances.

While expert findings may only solve one part of the puzzle, the loss adjuster must review and check that these findings logically and practically convey the full picture of the loss.

Q. What is the most challenging part of your job?

A. Developing solutions agreeable to all interested parties where situations that are grey rather than black or white. Personalities and politics may interfere with the settlement process.

Q. What sort of training do you get?

A. Theory is learned at the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) through correspondence papers over a period of about three to five years, depending on the speed you want to work at and whether you're degree-qualified. GAB Robins pays for all fees associated with these courses and also pays a bonus after passing each exam. Practical on-the-job training at GAB Robins includes a formal mentoring system whereby senior loss adjusters review your work and offer suggestions for improvement.

This is the best environment in which to learn because you see senior adjusters operate in the workplace in different scenarios. You can then use that opportunity to bounce ideas off each other on how best to approach the loss.