The Independent Touch

Well after midnight, on the morning of Monday, September 29, 2003, Carol Messervey huddled with her family in their darkened Halifax home waiting for Hurricane Juan to blast its way across the Nova Scotia coast. Like many in the area, their power and telephones had been knocked out, at one point their only contact with the outside world being the car radio. It was nearly two a.m. when Messervey, her husband and daughter headed to bed. Her head had barely hit the pillow when her pager signaled that it was time to head into the Bedford offices of Marsh Adjustment Bureau, where she has worked as an adjuster since 1978.

In all that time, Messervey and other East Coast adjusters had not experienced the likes of Hurricane Juan, a category-two tempest which ultimately led to eight deaths and more than $110 million in insured losses. She arrived at an office with no power, no computers, no phones other than cellular and pagers. “All I can say for adjusters is, we hit the ground running,” Messervey recalls. “We provided the best service we could for clients.”

This meant dealing with many claims within days, she adds. In fact, when a camera crew showed up at her offices ten days after Juan, she had to tell them honestly most of the critical work had already been done.

SHRINKING MARKETS

Hurricane Juan, along with the forest fires and flooding in B.C., provided independent adjusters with a stage on which to demonstrate their value. Messervey, who is set to become president of the Canadian Independent Adjusters Association (CIAA) at the association’s convention this fall, says independents need this kind of exposure to appeal to an increasingly smaller pool of insurer clients, reduced by withdrawal and consolidation. The recent hard market has dwindled the client base even further. “It will never be the same for independent adjusters as it was five or 10 years ago. The pool of clients is certainly shrinking,” she observes.

In response, many adjusters are looking for new markets, such as targeting risk management clients in specific industries. This plays into the increasing specialization seen in adjuster ranks. “There is still room for the general adjuster,” Messervey says, but “that requirement has decreased over the years and specialization becomes more and more crucial as time goes on”. Messervey herself specializes in accident benefits, bodily injury, rehabilitation, casualty and products liability claims.

Independents must also push to the fore their technological advantage. Messervey, who reminisces about the time when digital cameras were new on the scene, points to the massive development in back-office systems and email/wireless communications now in wide use with independents. Insurers can benefit from the technology in use by independents without actually having to make that costly investment themselves. “It’s a big plus for independents. [Technology] allows you to be in the field and stay there,” she says. But, she cautions, technology can never replace the “human touch” necessary in adjusting.

In 2004, the association has helped its members’ profile and added to their workload by acting as liaison with the Nova Scotia government after Hurricane Juan. The CIAA coordinated and adjusted claims for the provincial government relative to uninsured losses for private residences, farms, wood lots and fisheries. Claims were distributed to member firms from a central office set up by the CIAA in Halifax. This year, with indications of a heavy fire season in B.C., a rise in membership in that province would allow CIAA to take on such services there for the provincial government.

PROFESSIONAL QUALITY

The biggest advantage Messervey sees for independents is their professional status, particularly those who choose to join the CIAA and thus maintain its standards. Building on this, a major theme for the association in the year ahead will be the push for self-regulation by independent adjusters. This concept has been bandied about for several years, but for the past three years CIAA has had to turn its focus to the new federal privacy legislation.

Now self-regulation is back on the front burner, and CIAA is aggressively planning its strategy to become the self-regulating body for the profession. The first step will be to target the regions in which to begin pushing for status. Bearing in mind that insurance is regulated at the provincial level, Messervey says the association is on the cusp of confirming two provinces where self-regulation will be sought. CIAA will also look at hiring a consultant or lobbyist to work on its behalf.

While an expensive proposition to pursue, self-regulation promises many advantages for the association and adjusters. It will allow independent adjusters to promote their professional status and will ensure those entering the profession attain a high level of standards, for example in the form of continuing education requirements. It will also elevate the CIAA’s status as the provider of those educational credits.

At the same time the CIAA seeks self-regulation in select provinces, it will look at reciprocal licensing to ensure all provinces will maintain the same standards. Furthermore, the association will continue to lobby against unlicensed adjusters, pushing its public relations campaign for the use of licensed adjusters, Messervey states.

The CIAA has a strong model on which to base its future lobbying campaigns, coming off its recent success in securing “investigative body” status under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The status, confirmed just recently, but retroactive to the beginning of the year, expanded the ability of adjusters to collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of claims investigation.

This victory is something Messervey hopes will drive membership growth moving forward. “All independent adjusters have benefited from the actions of CIAA. We hope that might encourage them to see the benefits of becoming members.”

Yet, the CIAA’s privacy role is far from complete. With the recent news that Alberta’s provincial privacy legislation will supercede the federal act, Messervey recognizes the association will have to respond with education for adjusters working in that province on the new rules.

AUTO COMPLEXITY

The educational agenda of adjusters will also be filled with new auto insurance legislation in various stages of implementation across the provinces. Messervey says in her home province, the legislation implemented in October of last year has kept adjusters on their toes understanding new definitions around minor and serious injuries.

At the same time, however, injury caps have reduced the number of claims to handle, something which could come back to bite insurers. “Plaintiffs’ lawyers are sitting on some of these [minor injury] claims”, having claimants go through the treatment process and then later seeking to have injuries classified as chronic, she observes. “Some insurers are being far-sighted and saying if we are aware of claims, let’s investigate them”, rather than pushing them through the minor injury framework and to see them later surface as serious injury claims.

Legislative change will feature heavily in the CIAA’s national convention agenda in September, which Messervey says highlights the increasing focus being placed on professional development and education by the association. Along with full educational offerings at the convention, the association has also created a “mentoring” section on its website for adjusters to share their expertise with one another. As well, national firms are opening up their doors to allow peers to take part in seminars.

DIGGING DEEP

Messervey says an inquisitive mind and a desire to learn are the most important characteristics an adjuster can possess. To that end, she has devoted much of her career to continuous learning. Prior to becoming an adjuster, while doing support staff work for her current employer, she began taking Insurance Institute courses. Messervey now presents seminars for others, through Nova Scotia’s Ins urance Institute, the Continuing Legal Education Society of Nova Scotia, and other relevant bodies.

Along with her role as director, partner and shareholder in employee-owned Marsh Adjustment Bureau, Messervey has been actively involved in many industry groups, including the Insurance Claims Association of Nova Scotia, the International Association of Arson Investigators and the Advocacy Committee of the Brain Injury Association of Nova Scotia.

Like many, Messervey admits, “I didn’t grow up thinking I’d become an insurance adjuster”. However, she sees the continuous challenges and lack of routine as the highlights of a profession she remains proud to be part of. “Independent adjusters are not a dying breed at all. They will always be needed.”