Can Your Insurance Agent Work Magic as Your Claims Sorcerer?

While your agent can’t make coverage decisions or cut checks, the answer to the question above is absolutely, “Yes.”  Your agent can (and should) help you with your claims process.  That said, there are some things they clearly can’t do, and some they definitely can.  

As I said, your agent can’t determine whether a claim is covered, and agents can’t determine the scope of damage or the cost to fix it.  So, you won’t see your agent trying to figure out how to fix your roof when a tree falls on it, and they can’t tell you what it will cost to repair your car after a wreck.  It is the insurance company’s job to adjust the loss, determine what’s covered, and make the appropriate payments to you.  It’s also up to the company to defend you in court and pay damages if there are liability claims.

Even so, your agent can help you in several ways if they do their job correctly.  He/she can walk you through the claims process and give you some expectations about how long things should take. They can help you find an adjuster who isn’t being responsive enough. Also, they can go “up the food chain” when things aren’t going as they should.  Agents can also advocate on your behalf if the company takes an action that doesn’t seem to be correct.  Insurance agents often have spent years developing relationships with insurer personnel, which goes a long way when you need a break.  This experience goes for day-to-day claims, but it applies even more so to catastrophic claims.

After Hurricane Michael, good agents spent hundreds of hours advising clients with damage and explaining how things work.  They helped to run down adjusters and bring in supervisors when needed.  They shared tricks of the trade to help claims go more smoothly and quickly.  Agents – the good ones – worked on behalf of their clients for weeks and months after the winds quit blowing.  

Your agent isn’t a sorcerer who can fix any claim problem with a magic wand.  They can do quite a bit for you, though, when you have a claim.  That agent got paid a commission when you bought your policy.  At claim time, they should earn it.