Adjusting for Harmony

Conquering the quietude of Canada’s softening market is a challenging quest currently fed by the constant flux of auto insurance, erratic environmental disasters such as the recent Alberta flooding and little else in terms of catastrophic claims bolstering the buzz of insurance adjusters. “At the moment only a few weather related issues have occurred, keeping some CIAA members in some areas of the country busy,” Craig Walker, incoming president of the CIAA, notes. “However, there hasn’t been one catastrophe yet, so adjusters aren’t as busy as they have been.”

Business volumes still appear to be escalating according to Walker, however they are not moving up markedly. “We (CIAA) are hoping that with the general economic climate that things will continue to progress and that our members will experience some increases in business,” Walker says.

The insurance industry has seen a reduction in claims volumes allowing insurers to pump up premium profits, Walker, director, casualty and professional indemnity division Maltman Group International, adds. “This has allowed insurers to catch up and get back into a profit situation,” Walker says. “I think that there’s been a softening in the premium side of things and I suspect that over time claims volumes will go back up but going back up to the levels they were three or four years ago is hard to anticipate.”

In response to industry conditions and growth interest, there has been a move towards consolidation through merger and acquisition providing insurers with an in-house adjuster capacity that Walker says they will want to utilize before they go to outside providers. “At the same token, many insurers have downsized their staff,” Walker notes, “so if they have a volumes increase, especially if they see a spike in claims, they’re going to need to access outside service providers.”

And adjusters are in a position to respond. While insurers have notably been consolidating and growing through acquisitions, Walker says adjusters have been doing the same, establishing an even playing field so that as the pool of insurers shrinks, adjusters have also consolidated to reach a capacity where they are solid enough to respond to the needs of their expanding clients.

Walker’s plans for the CIAA, which build on the initiatives implemented by past CIAA presidents, mimic this idea of solid expansion and increased coast-to-coast reliability of members.

HARMONIZING COAST-TO-COAST

In order to ensure nationwide harmony of its members, the CIAA’s review of PIPEDA (slated to begin January 2006) will highlight the provincial regulations unique to both Alberta and B.C.. Walker says because these provinces have their own provincial regulations they might not be harmonized with the other CIAA adjuster members. “If all our members aren’t harmonized we have to deal with different regulatory levels,” Walker says. “That has an impact on expediency of claims adjustments nationwide and it affects how we do our business.”

Walker says it may hinder the association’s ultimate goal to achieve nationwide license reciprocity. This status boasts the benefit of allowing members to move across the country, while maintaining their original licensing status – a tactic that will potentially see the CIAA becoming the Country’s primary adjuster response “team” for provincial and private claims.

“It’s (license reciprocity) been a challenge because each province controls its own insurance act,” Walker notes, “so there’s been some difficulty in terms of getting some coordination to make that happen.”

However, Walker boasts that he continues to plug away and is implementing the first few steps towards seeing the CIAA’s plan for nationwide license reciprocity come to fruition.

“It becomes a matter of making sure there is agreement across the country in terms of what it takes to create equal levels in each province,” he explains, “so it makes it easier; when you move you don’t have to start over again or go through a licensing exam.”

This will make the claims process much more efficient, a benefit for all parties involved from the provincial level all the way down to the individual policyholder.

The CIAA’s provincial chapters will be mandated this year to ensure that they all move toward this initiative. Walker says part and parcel with this initiative and one of the first steps in laying the groundwork is developing continuing educational requirements for all members of the CIAA.

ENHANCING EDUCATION: CONSISTENT QUALITY

Walker, who began his career in the general lines sector of the adjuster profession and moved on to master specialty lines such as professional indemnity, host liquor, environmental impairment, ski hill and sexual abuse liability, understands the intricacies of the entire scope of the profession.

“If an adjuster is not educated in current trends or basic insurance and policies, then the individual can’t deliver the product properly,” Walker says. “You have to have a knowledge of what product you’re working with in order to be able to deliver to an insured what they are entitled to and what the insurer has written the policy to cover.”

Being able to consistently offer this on cue for provincial and private claims is an necessary step towards self-regulation. Walker further explains education is an imperative step towards the cross-country harmonization, enhanced profiling and quality control of CIAA members.

“Not all provinces have a continuing education requirement in order to maintain an adjuster’s license,” Walker notes. “Now, in CIAA, in order to ensure and create reliable, consistent quality of adjusters across the country, we are considering bringing in a continuing education requirement that members must participate in to maintain their CIAA membership.”

This is a giant step for CIAA and a huge leap for adjusters nationwide, in terms of potential profitability and consistent workflow. With this reliable level of enhanced membership standard in hand, Walker plans to approach provincial regulators and present the association’s basic platform. “We will approach regulators and say ‘We think that this is reasonable, we’d like you to adopt this so we can move it forward,’ and this will be one of the first steps towards developing a high minimum standard,” Walker claims.

Technology will be part of the continuing education platform as, according to Walker, it has become an integral tool amplifying the necessity of the independent adjuster in the field. “Anything that gives an adjuster an edge should be built on and advanced,” Walker advocates. “IT speeds up the insurers receipt of all vital information and this provides a more expedient settlement or payment to an insured.”

Digital photography, laptops and blackberries are all examples of technological tools that the CIAA can make more accessible to members, and they are tools he says can aid in the efficiency of data transmission while in the field and they are now widely used and accepted by the courts.

In situations where expediency is the key, technological tools will allow the adjuster to better deliver the product, a tool that is facilitated by the CIAA through mandatory courses and basic membership benefits.

PROFILING AND PROVINCIAL PARTNERSHIP

In addition to Walker’s strategic plan to raise CIAA’s level of professionalism through education initiatives, he also poses tactics to raise the organizations overall profile of CIAA with regulators. Walker believes that if regulators recognize the potential of the CIAA’s services, then the organization will be well on its way in the journey towards self-regulation.

“Included in our plan to educate regulators as to what our expectations of members and our overall status is, we also want to try, on a provincial basis, to be contacted by the regulators as soon as they are faced with issues regarding adjustment of a loss or delivery of a product.” Walker says. “So, if there is somewhere we can help and provide v
aluable input we will have prior notice and be available on cue to initiate our services to best fulfill their needs.”

Currently, Walker claims the CIAA has a very good working relationship with the majority of provincial regulators and this, he hopes, will build the basis for his plan to become the first contact regulators will approach regarding an adjusting situation.

“This part of the plan will be initiated in the Fall,” Walker says. “We will start by contacting every province. This initiative is a national one that will be facilitated and delivered by our regional chapters, with the assistance required of the national executive.”

Walker adds that provincial CIAA representatives will reinforce what the CIAA is, what their standards are and what the expectations of its members are. “That way provincial regulators will know that they can approach our body of members anywhere and know what the minimum standard is as opposed to risking inadequacy from outside agents that are not part of CIAA.”

This consistent dialogue initiative has already been instigated by, in many cases, what Walker describes as “a solid level of trust” that exists between the CIAA and most provincial regulators.

For example, regarding the recent Alberta floods, the CIAA already had in place a reasonable relationship where the provincial government had to implement its disaster relief plan. Walker says Alberta, Manitoba and the Maritimes present unique opportunities where the CIAA can approach provincial governments and solidly present the organization as an ideal primary source for immediate assistance when catastrophic, generally weather-related, incidents occur.

“We’d like to make arrangements with the provinces before hand rather than after the incident has happened,” Walker explains that this tactic has already proven positive. “There is a history where CIAA has responded to various disaster situations as far back as the Mississauga train derailment and the Barrie tornadoes, so we offer a wide variety of experience.”

The CIAA, Walker says, also boasts the benefit of nationwide response capabilities. Anywhere personnel is required is just a phone call away, a call that will provide all the necessary manpower to do whatever it is the CIAA has been slated to do.

Walker’s strategic plan, which he hopes will eventually seal the circle of the self-regulation premised by past presidents, is reminiscent of his own unique background.

“My father was in this business and was brought into it by Fred Maltman who is the founder of the firm I am in now,” Walker says. “My dad set up his own operation in Oshawa and hired me … I left and came to Maltman’s in ’87 so now, coming back full circle, I’m one of the owners of the firm my father came to business in.”

Craig Walker, who has served as president of CIAA Ontario and also boasts memberships with OIAA, International Federation of Adjusters Association and the Insurance Institute – where he also sits on the academic committee – is the first president of the CIAA whose father also sat as president.