Frequently Asked Questions

Simply put, a PA (public adjuster) helps people (the public) adjust the amount of damages (adjuster) the insurance company has to reimburse. After an event, whether fire, flood, burglary or anything else destructive, the insurance company will send their own adjuster to survey the damages. Since this adjuster is working on behalf of the insurance company, they will typically minimize the amount that was damaged. Public adjusters work on your behalf — not the insurance company.

Technically, you can. However, in most cases it’s not so simple. In order to ensure your numbers are accurate, you need to have at the very least certain skills. These include understanding Xactimate files, the ability to decipher the insurance addendums and requirements, understanding certain building codes, and more. Usually, you will end up getting a much lower settlement number by doing it yourself.. Using a good public adjuster can save you a ton of time and get you a lot of extra money.

That depends. Many states have rules regarding how much a PA can charge. If a PA tells you that there are upfront fees, you need to find a new one ASAP.  When the claim is settled, the PA gets paid from the insurance company.

There are a lot of different ways the PA can get money from a claim percentage. To understand this better, we need to understand the 4 typical checks the insurance company sends:

1. Mitigation checks

This goes directly to the company that mitigated after the loss. In a case of a flood, the company will cut out the wet sheetrock and mitigate the damages. In a case of fire, they will board up necessary windows and doors, and so on. Any reputable public adjuster won’t take a percentage of this money. There are multiple reasons why it’s unethical. Suffice it to say, Royal Adjuster does not take money from mitigation.

2. Building checks.

This is the amount the Insurance Company authorizes for the rebuild of the damaged property. The PA gets a percentage from the rebuild check. Keep in mind that the insurance company will always give you a check even without the PA. However, a good PA will get you much more money, which justifies their fee.

3. Content checks.

This is the amount of money the insurance company authorizes to replace any damaged contents. This can include books, electronics and much more. Once again, you’ll almost always receive money for damaged contents, the job of the PA is to justify his fee by getting you much more money for your items.

4. Additional Living Expenses (ALE).

If you’re unable to live in the damaged location, the insurance company will typically pay for you to relocate during the rebuild process. Again, any reputable PA won’t take a percentage from this money as it’s needed for the relocation. Royal Adjuster will never take percentages from ALE.

This is a tricky question. There are many PA companies that charge only 4 or 5 percent, and you should be wary of them. Any good PA puts in hours of work, and  a low percentage won’t cover their time and costs. 

Our typical number is 10%, although for a very large loss, we might lower the fee a drop.  We don’t negotiate fees, and if a customer wants to pay lower fees, we’ll recommend using a different PA. In this case, you really do get what you pay for.

On very small claims, we typically won’t raise our fees above 10% unless there are extreme circumstances. Our logic is, even if we don’t generate a profit, a satisfied customer is priceless.

Like everything else in life, there are good public adjusters and others that aren’t so good. We decided early on that we wouldn’t say negative things about specific adjusters. It is our opinion that badmouthing the competition isn’t right.

We have worked with other adjusting companies on certain claims and some of them do excellent work. Other places will just get you to sign for the retainer and then you won’t hear from them for weeks at a time. 

One of the toughest claims we worked on was dealing with a client that had already settled with a PA. Their numbers were terrible, and they waited 4 months for a check. We helped this client obtain an additional $24,000 from the insurance company and refused to take any money.

Maybe, but people often recommend their adjusters to other people without understanding their own claim. Here’s an example. Peter loved his PA since the PA got him $32,000 for a claim. What Peter doesn’t know is that the claim was actually worth $50,000 and his PA did almost no work for him. Peter was thrilled to get the $32,000 and is completely unaware that his PA didn’t take his claim seriously. 

Unlike most public adjusters, we’re doing our best to educate people before they make a decision on who to work with — regardless of if they decide to work with us. You wouldn’t hire a financial advisor to invest tens of thousands of dollars without doing diligent research — it should be the same for a public adjuster. The difference between a good PA and a PA that isn’t as good can be tens of thousands of dollars – if not more. We want you to make an informed decision.

No. You should be very wary when you get a guarantee from a public adjuster. It’s impossible to know what the insurance company will offer and making statements like that shows a serious lack of knowledge at best, and purposeful deception at worst. There are even adjusters that offer to give you money upfront. These funds come with strings attached including extremely high interest rates, and sometimes a lien on your home. It would be wise to avoid unscrupulous businesses like these.

According to many adjusters, “If you don’t sign immediately, you might lose everything,” but it’s not true. Depending on the claim type, you have days if not weeks to make your decision. Obviously, in a large loss that requires ALE, you might want to sign up a PA sooner than later. Additionally, if you take too long to open a claim, the insurance company can deny your claim.

Despite what many companies will tell you, you absolutely can start a claim without a PA and then hire one. Again, we don’t recommend doing this in most cases, but it’s not going to ruin your claim. There are times we suggest a client call the company themselves, for example if the limit is likely to be hit. If you’re not sure what to do, you can always give us a call and we’ll help you out.

When signing with a PA, you should read the contract carefully. There are many companies that will bill you for any fees they incur, which to us seems a bit unethical. 

One example is the fee to have someone write up the contents list and replacement costs. This can cost upwards of $500, and is usually paid for by the PA. If the claim is small, some companies will discuss openly with the client and come to a fair resolution. We believe that passing all expenses onto the client is just wrong.

That really depends on the state. In NY, you’re allowed to cancel within 3 business days.  After that time there are a few other options for you. Most reputable companies will allow you to cancel after that time assuming they haven’t put a lot of time or money into the claim.

If your PA is really doing a horrible job, you should put your complaint into writing and email them. Most PA companies will respond very quickly to a written complaint. The typical complaints to a PA company are as follows:

1. They aren’t staying in touch with you
2. They aren’t putting any work into the claim
3. They are making mistakes with the claim

Any of the above issues should be dealt with immediately since they can really hurt your claim. Again, putting all communication into writing is key – you need to have written proof of all issues.

Actually, you probably can’t. Once you sign a PA, the insurance company will not usually discuss the claim with you. They would rather deal with a PA since it’s business and not personal. This is standard practice.

There is no set time. There are three elements involved in most claims. The client, the PA and the insurance company. The insurance company isn’t in any rush to settle, since the longer it takes for the claim to be settled, the longer the money stays with them. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for PA companies take their time, usually because they have a few big claims. Clients also can have difficulty getting the information required.

At Royal Adjuster, we push the claims along quickly. A typical insurance claim using a PA from start to finish can take about 4 months. We’re proud to say that we’ve closed claims in less than 6 weeks. We’re talking check in hand. 

We accomplish this thanks to our electronic database that reminds us about every claim every day. If the insurance company is stalling, we’ll get on their case. We push things along as fast as possible, and if the client is having issues with location pertinent information, we’ll go out of our way to assist.

In most cases, the insurance company will hold back a percentage of the building and/or the contents until you prove that you’ve either purchased the items or paid for the construction. A good PA should be able to reduce this percentage, and if they don’t, the holdback can be over 80% of the funds. Royal Adjuster typically gets this number down to under 25%.

Getting the holdback money shouldn’t be difficult, it just requires a bit of organization. We’ll help you get this recoverable depreciation. Using our custom App, we can help you organize the items, and our dedicated recoverable depreciation team will be in contact throughout the process. Although most public adjusters disappear once they’re paid, Royal Adjuster will be there to help from beginning to end!

Checks for mitigation are usually made out directly to the mitigation company (as they should be). Checks for contents are made out to the homeowners. If there is more than one homeowner, both will be on the check. Checks for the building will be made out to the homeowners and the mortgage holder(s). This can include one or more banks. Checks for ALE are usually made out to the homeowners.

That’s not a huge problem, just don’t endorse the check yet. Most companies have a process that will sign over the check very easily, whether at a local branch or via expedited mail. If the check is above a certain amount (every bank is different), they might request an inspection before and after the work. Since they are part owners of the home, and this is well within their rights. We at Royal Adjuster can help you get these checks endorsed very quickly, thereby enabling you to get the work started ASAP.

In most cases, no. Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to contact your accountant when you have these questions.

It’s not a great idea for a couple reasons:

1. The insurance company rewards the broker for the less claims he has. We have met many brokers who push their clients not to open a claim using various excuses. “You probably won’t win” or “They might throw you off insurance.”
2. If it is a large claim, the broker will pass off the claim to an adjusting company that agrees to give him a percentage of the claim. While technically legal, this usually causes serious issues for the client. Since the PA is getting a lot less money for their work, they tend to cut corners to maximize their profit.

Possibly! It depends on what you signed and what you were offered. You should certainly give us a call and we’ll take a look and see what we can do to assist you. Obviously, there’s no fee unless we recover additional funds.

Any reviews, good or bad, are left on the site. Unfortunately, false reviews are very common in the PA space. We only want to post reviews from those that have actually used our services. 

If somehow a customer was unhappy with our level of work, you can read all about it. If you go to Yelp, you’ll read reviews about us from people that we’ve never helped. We guarantee that every review on our website — good or bad — is from a real, live client.