Finding a Fit

While he might have felt as though he was the round peg in the square hole, relying on his own talents has served Pat McFadden and Quelmec Insurance Adjusters well. “I thought I would rather live or die by my own talents than live or die by someone else’s whim,” McFadden, president of Quelmec, says of going out on his own. He figured he would be better off just doing his own thing. And he might have been right, given that after 27 years, the company is still going strong.

Quelmec was founded in 1983 and by 1987, there were three equal partners. It remained this way until early 2000, when the stress of spearheading the provincial government’s 1998 ice storm compensation program caused one partner to leave the industry entirely. Shortly thereafter, the other partner decided to spend the last few years of his career outside of the independent ranks, leaving McFadden as sole proprietor of the business. Along the way, Quelmec opened up various sub-offices and even a rehabilitation firm, bringing in some minority partners. Realizing that small branches are difficult to manage and make money on, however, McFadden sold off the offices and rehabilitation firm. Today, he has one office in Ottawa and one in Hull, Qué.

Trials and tribulations

While being in its 27th year is a testimony to the people in the firm, it has not been without its changes and challenges. When the company first started out, it was not uncommon to be handling windshield claims and low deductibles. “You’re doing a little bit of everything for insurers and, predominantly, 99 per cent of your business is for insurers,” McFadden says of the past. “You’re doing very little within self-insured retention and self-insured entities.”

The greatest evolution, he says, is that as a local firm the company is more focused and specialized in what it does; it adapts to what the industry really wants of independent adjusters. “When you look back, there was always trending towards insurers favouring local regional firms and then national firms — it sort of yo-yoed back and forth for years,” he says. “But the product was generic — it wasn’t price driven and it wasn’t commoditized. When you look back to the late ’80s, it was all about the talent base.”

Now, smaller regional firms like Quelmec are more focused and more specialized. “We’re doing more risk management claims and analysis-type service for clients directly,” he says. “So with the advent of higher self-insured retentions, what we find is that we’re working more and more with the client and less and less with their insurers on many accounts.” Over the years, Quelmec began specializing in construction claims, professional liability claims, directors’ and officers’ liability, publishers’ liability, self-insured retention programs. “If you’re going to be a small firm and you want to maintain price integrity and not compete on a transactional level, then you’d better develop specific expertise,” McFadden says. “That’s what we see more and more of and that’s where a good part of our business comes from.”

For Quelmec, the key is being focused, professional and service-driven. “You’ve got to service the client to death,” he says. “There’s not an infinite amount of clients that are willing to pay the price point that we want, so you had better be able to give them unparalleled service and the results that they need.” The service philosophy starts where the rubber meets the asphalt -what does the customer want? It is about determining how you can create a situation where everybody wins and then building the organizational structure from there, not from the top down. “It’s all about taking care of the individual or corporate entity that has had a significant event occur in their life,” he says. “You can’t always cover the loss, but you can treat people with dignity and respect. My yardstick is that if a claim is declined, I want the customer to say ‘thank you.’ They may not like the message, but they should appreciate the level of service and professionalism.”

McFadden is happy to report that neither he nor his adjusters are prone to “dropping the ball.” “We’re handling very specialized files and we’re doing them well, and that allows us not to drop the ball because of the expertise we have developed over the years,” he says. “I never get complaints about our adjusters, their service, or their professionalism. That’s one of the things that we strive for. We just don’t make a lot of mistakes; we have the experience behind us.”

Office life

The staff certainly accomplish that goal as they stay the course yet continue to challenge themselves professionally. Because of this desire to continuously take on new challenges, no day at Quelmec is like the last. “Our day starts with what’s going to be cool that comes through the door,” McFadden says. Most of the staff have been working at Quelmec for between 10 and 27 years, allowing for a nurturing and drama-free environment, making it easier to take on new challenges. Of course, having a pushover for a president is always ideal, as well. “If I could change one thing, I would be tougher,” McFadden laughs. “My attitude is, even though I’m the sole proprietor, we work in a very cooperative and collaborative way. Even in business decisions, I seek input from staff. Many heads are better than one by a long shot.”

McFadden says he’s like the sweep in a dragon boat -he steers the boat in the direction the rest of the crew says it should go. “It’s not autocratic; it’s very collegial and collaborative,” he says. “And if you can’t convince me of anything . . . then you are not very good at what you do because I am such a freaking pushover!” One thing he holds very dear to his heart is the fact that he has never had anybody whom he has worked with that he is no longer friends with. “I hope there’s not a person in the world that can say, ‘I was mistreated when I worked at Quelmec’,” McFadden says. “That’s just the way I want to live my life.”

This extends outwards to his CIAA brethren, as well. One of Quelmec’s clients is a province-wide entity and in many instances, when it does not make sense to send an adjuster from Quelmec to cover a field assignment, McFadden will call up a CIAA member firm and have them be their eyes and ears. Because Quelmec is a small firm, this allows them to handle the claims without having to send a senior adjuster to cover the event. This means McFadden does not have to worry about bringing on more staff when there is generally a lack of strong technical adjusters available. He likes being a firm of under 20. “I do what I want, when I want, where I want,” he jokes. “The benefit of being a small firm is that we do it our way, that’s the bottom line.” He has the team with whom he wants to work rather than the team with whom he’s forced to work. Furthermore, when an opportunity is presented, he can adjust on a dime if the idea makes sense and respond quickly without having to flow it past a plethora of upper management.

McFadden is able to continue to motivate his staff, not only through challenging and exciting work, but through a better commission structure, employee awards and other incentives. This means that Quelmec sees little to no staff turnover, allowing for a stable and professional work environment in the office.