insurance adjuster

Here is a mistake many people make without knowing it. Something bad happens, a fire, an accident, a burst pipe, and the moment the insurance company sends someone round, the person receiving them relaxes and thinks the hard part is over. They stop taking photos, they throw away damaged items, they answer questions casually because they assume this visitor is on their side. That visitor is the adjuster, and while many adjusters are fair and decent, their job is to protect the insurance company's money, not to be your advocate.

An adjuster's real work is to investigate your claim, work out what actually happened, check it against your policy, and put a figure on what the company should pay. Some are employed directly by the insurer. Others are independent and get called in for bigger or more complicated cases. Either way, they are trained to ask questions that calmly limit how much gets paid out.

Say a trader in Ariaria market in Aba has a shop fire and her stock of shoes is destroyed. She calls her insurer, and an adjuster comes to assess the damage. If she has not kept receipts, photos of her stock, or a proper inventory, the adjuster may value her loss far lower than what she actually lost, simply because there is little evidence to argue with.

In the United Kingdom, someone whose home insurance covers a flooded kitchen will meet an adjuster too, usually a loss adjuster appointed by the insurer, sometimes a separate loss assessor hired by the homeowner to push back on the first figure offered.

For Nigerians abroad sending money home for a relative's car or shop, it is worth knowing that if that asset is ever insured and something happens to it, someone locally needs to meet the adjuster prepared, with documents, photos, and receipts ready, more than a good story.