Overcoming Rugged Terrain

Greg Merrithew, managing director of Arctic West Adjusters Ltd., operates his Northwest Territories-based business in a rugged, challenging environment. You might say he is used to covering a vast amount of territory. He also has experience in tackling unique situations.

His background serves him well for the next frontier of his professional career. As it stands now, when the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA) meets for its annual meeting in August 2011, it seems likely Merrithew will be acclaimed as the CIAA’s president for 2011-12. This is barring the emergence of any challengers, of course. [As of press time, no one else was in the running.]

If Merrithew becomes CIAA president, he said he plans to further the association’s education program and build stronger relationships between the adjuster and broker communities. Also, he intends to help bridge licensing requirements across jurisdictions, creating a temporary license so that adjusters can lend support in the event of a catastrophic event in another province or territory.

Merrithew’s experience as an independent adjuster in northern Canada is unique when compared with his counterparts to the south. He spent his formative years in the Ottawa Valley, about 35 kilometres outside of Canada’s capital city. He grew up in a military family and moved frequently around the world and Canada. As a young adult, he joined the armed forces and was stationed for five years in Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories.

“I completed my five-year commitment to the military, took my release in the Northwest Territories and had no intention of leaving,” he said. “I was about 21 years old at that time. I found what I guess you might call my geographical niche. I just loved living in the North. And to this day, I love living in the North. I have no intention of ever moving.”

Merrithew eventually moved from Inuvik down to Yellowknife. Upon arriving in the town, he checked the local federal government job board. The board had one posting -for an insurance adjuster trainee.

“I didn’t even know what being an adjuster meant,” he says. “I thought it would entail adjusting premiums. I’m okay at math, and it was the only job in town, so I thought I may as well apply.”

Dave Buzzeo, a past CIAA president, interviewed Merrithew and filled him in on the position. As Merrithew learned about the role, he became increasingly intrigued.

Buzzeo gave Merrithew the job. In 1981, he started with Central Adjusters Ltd. in Yellowknife. Eventually, he made partner. By 1987, he and his wife took full ownership. The firm had a substantial change in ownership in 1985, at which point it was redubbed Arctic West Adjusters. Today the firm has six adjusters in total, including Merrithew, and two support staff. The physical size of the firm is small, but it covers a vast geographic area – all three of Canada’s northern territories. The logistics of running his firm in this environment are unique.

For example, Arctic West Adjusters is the sole independent adjusting firm operating in both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Arctic West also operates in the Yukon, where there are two independent adjusting firms (including Arctic West). Merrithew said he is often called in to the Yukon to avoid a situation in which the other firm is handling both sides of a claims dispute. In addition, the sheer span of the terrain presents a whole new set of challenges. Many communities are accessible only by air; some are accessible by sea in the months of August and September.

Unlike in major urban areas, flights into these communities are typically once or twice a week. They often require connections to flights with similarly infrequent schedules. “The challenge is this: for one assignment, we will have one member out of the office for a full week,” Merrithew said. “It’s difficult to schedule this travel, because with a claim, there’s no notice. We have to get someone en route on the next available flight so that they can undertake a rapid investigation of a claim. The longer a damaged property sits, the harder it becomes to investigate or the worse the damage can become.”

Initiating the investigation of a fire claim, particularly when it occurs during the eight-month-long winter, is particularly challenging. Typically the power is shut off, so the adjuster is forced to work in darkness in temperatures dipping below -30 C. Even getting photography equipment to function is a challenge. “A lot of the staff training at the firm centres around overcoming these types of field investigation obstacles,” he said.

Once the assessment is done, the next hurdle is re-building or repairing. These small communities may not have a resident contractor with the necessary skill set. Likewise, building materials may be scarce (and hence expensive). If it’s a partial loss, chances are good the materials can be airlifted in. But for a total loss, materials need to come in by barge. So, for a total fire loss in November in a small isolated community, re-building cannot commence until August of the following year. As a result, claims files tend to have a much longer life. Also, they tend to be much more severe than those of their  southern counterparts.

“Our mantra up here is that we look for unique solutions for unique challenges,” he said.

The Year Ahead

Merrithew’s challenges as incoming president of CIAA may be somewhat more ordinary by contrast. He plans to continue with the implementation of the association’s strategic plan, which was developed roughly two years ago to tackle the issues affecting adjusters across the country.

The plan includes ongoing adjuster education, the creation of a professional designation specific to CIAA members, raising the profile of the association and harmonizing licensing requirements across jurisdictions. “I would like to conclude the education plan by the end of my term,” he said. “Part of the education plan would lead to the acquisition of a Chartered Loss Adjuster (CLA) designation.”

The association is also working with provincial and territorial regulators to develop a temporary licence form. The temporary licence would allow adjusters based in a different province to do adjusting work in a different jurisdiction in the event of a catastrophe.

Getting 13 separate jurisdictions – each with its own ideas about what should be included in the temporary licencing agreement – to agree on a common framework has been challenging, Merrithew said. An additional difficulty is that the issue doesn’t seem to rank high enough on any of the regulators’ radars to really push it through. However, issues around climate change, in addition to recent events like the wildfires in Slave Lake, Alberta, have drawn some much-needed attention to the matter, he said.

Merrithew also intends to work on improving the CIAA’s name recognition in both the wider community and the claims insurance industry. The CIAA’s editorial committee has developed a brochure that will be given to the public in the event of a claim. “It’s a public relations tool, one of a number that we’re pulling together.” And Merrithew plans to reach out to the independent broker community to build and foster a stronger relationship.