Los Angles will be the location for NAPIA/CAPIA insurance West Coast Seminar. NAPIA, the National Association of Public Adjusters, has teamed up with the California Association of Public Insurance Adjusters to provide this one day seminar to public adjusters on March 23, 2011, at the Marina del Rey Hotel. This seminar promises to be filled with practical and helpful educational presentations including:
- “Public Adjusting Practices”
- “Industrial Hygiene Data, Sampling Strategy, Analytical Methods and Interpretation”
- “Public Wind Damage on Structures”
- “A Primer on How to Prepare for and Complete an Appraisal”
- “Proof of Loss and the Road to Bad Faith”
- “Cause, Estimate and Depreciation in a Building Loss — A Case Study of Reiters Marina”
The seminar will provide six continuing educational credits for all SPPAs and CPPAs and CE credits have been submitted to California and other states.
The seminar will be opened by Clay Morrison. I wrote about Clay’s story in my post, “Membership in Professional Organizations Helps a Small Public Adjusting Firm Achieve a Big Result”.
Tony Astone from The Greenspan Company/Adjusters International (AI), will present the closing seminar, “Cause, Estimate and Depreciation in a Building Loss – A Case Study of Reiters Marina.” The AI webpage provides a great catalogue of real losses called “Case Studies” that explain how their adjusting helped policyholders. Each case study provides background information on the loss, the challenges faced in securing payment, the solutions or the strategies used to obtain a proper claim payment, and the outcome of the case. I particularly like these case studies because the details of the losses matter a great deal but are often omitted from court opinions and orders.
AI did a case study for a fire loss that occurred at the Village Baptist Church in Marin, California. The fire was a result of a malfunction in the electrical wiring of the Church’s sound system. It destroyed the main sanctuary, just one wall was left standing, and also damaged the school buildings and office areas. The carrier accepted coverage for the loss but the scope was inadequate to repair the property. Greenspan/Adjusters International identified four main issues in this loss.
- Could the parties agree to the scope of damages and return the property to its pre-fire condition?
- Balancing the needs/ code/ policy limits and policy conditions, what was best for the Church?
- As part of the reconstruction, the Church faced costly upgrades related to codes and ordinances. Could they all be covered?
- While the Church was out of commission, where could the worshippers gather?
AI addressed these issues by thoroughly investigating and working the loss. A detailed scope of the loss included the expensive church pews, custom stained glass windows and the required code upgrades. The carrier had evaluated the pews as personal property of the Church, AI explained these pews should be included in the estimate to repair the structure.
The code upgrades seemed to be the most involved issue with this loss. AI hired a team of engineers to evaluate the code issues. The engineers determined that the foundation needed to be brought up to code, a sprinkler system had to be added to the property to meet code, and other code upgrades were required for the parking lot, bathrooms, and entrance areas. The work required to return the property to its pre-fire condition was so extensive that the Church needed demolish the fire damaged building and rebuild a brand new one on the same site
The Church was able to continue operating during the claim investigation. AI presented a claim for extra expense coverage that allocated payments for the Church to rent another location for services. The claim was settled when AI helped the Church secure a payment of more than triple the offer from the carrier.
I expect the case study presentation by Tony Astone at the NAPIA/CAPIA Insurance seminar to provide an equally detailed look at the specific issues encountered in the Reiters Marina loss, complete with the strategy his firm used to adjust the claim for the insured. Learning by example is a great opportunity for public adjusters, and I am sure this seminar will be very informative and engaging. More information for this seminar is available here.
