Auto Adjust

When Alf Strudwick began his insurance claims career in 1966, his colleagues at the time were supporters of the Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association (OIAA).

Strudwick, now OIAA president, saw the value of the association all those years ago and still does today.

With his one-year term as OIAA president ending in June, Strudwick recalls being hired almost 49 years ago by a firm then known as Marine Office-Appleton and Cox Corporation (MOAC), now part of CNA Financial Corporation “As a 17-year-old, it became very clear to me… it was very important to get out there and network with the OIAA,” Strudwick says of his early days at the company, which he joined right out of high school.

OIAA’s Professional Development and Claims Conference, scheduled for February 4 in Toronto, is one such event designed to foster networking and education. “It generally involves every aspect of the all-lines business, so you have accident benefits, you have property, you’ve got liability, you’ve got investigative – whatever tools you need to do your job,” he says.

Strudwick originally got active with OIAA as the president of the association’s Barrie, Ontario chapter during the 1980s, and remains in the area today, where he manages the Barrie office of Matrix Loss Adjusters Inc. (He has also held various other roles with the OIAA, including chapter delegate for Georgian Bay, secretary, treasurer and 1st vice president, before assuming his role as president last June.)Born and raised in the Beaches area of Toronto, he recalls how during his final year at Monarch Park Collegiate, business managers came to the school and spoke to students.

“They had a banker come in and an insurance person come in, both very receptive to hiring anybody in the class,” he says. “I had interviews with the bank and then the insurance company. I listened to the banking (presentation) and I thought, ‘Ah, gee, that sounds a little boring,’ and then when I listened to the insurance presentation, I thought, ‘Gee, that sounds kind of interesting.'”And so it was that Strudwick was interviewed on a Friday in 1966 and accepted an offer to start working the following Monday. His first job at MOAC was in the mailroom, after which he spent three years doing claims examining and marine survey.

“Probably one of the highlights of my entire life was being a young kid at 17, and going down to the docks in Toronto and inspecting damaged cargo shipments,” Strudwick says. “It was very, very cool for a young guy to be doing that stuff. I fell in love with it pretty early.”

After three years at MOAC, Strudwick worked more than a decade as a staff adjuster, first at Prudential Assurance Company from 1969 through 1971, before heading to Central Mutual Insurance Company from 1971 until 1974, and then landing in Barrie at The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company (acquired by The Travelers Companies Inc. in 2013) from 1974 to 1980.

He remained in the area, later opening and managing the Barrie office of Ronald F. Thompson Insurance Adjusters Ltd., before moving to the local office of Matrix Loss Adjusters, which he has managed since 1998. Today, he handles a variety of personal and commercial claims, including slips and falls, bodily injury and fires.

FAST LANE

The business of claims was instrumental in cementing another of Strudwick’s interests: cars. He has spent much of his spare time fixing and racing cars, relaying that when he moved to Barrie in 1973, he owned a 1936 Ford. “Because of the business I was in, I started seeing a lot of wreckers and body shop people,” he says.

Strudwick has updated somewhat since then. Currently the owner of a 1956 Pontiac Pathfinder, he says that he bought the vehicle for $150 in 1980 and rebuilt it. “My race car shop at home, I had it geared up,” he says. “I could pull engines by myself and pull (transmissions) regularly.”

Strudwick’s knowledge of vehicles “always helped immensely” in working on auto claims, he suggests.

“When they know you’ve got a car interest, it is always a lot easier to talk to them, because they know that you know what you are talking about,” he says of auto firms, such as body shops.

“I have been involved in some sort of motor sports all my life and probably always will be to some extent,” Strudwick says.

In the 1950s, for example, stock car races were held twice at year at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds in Toronto.

“I am old enough now that I can tell people this and they won’t believe it,” he says. “As an eight-year-old, I would hop on the streetcar and go down to the CNE, all by myself, stand underneath the bleachers with a hot chocolate, and watch the cars go around the track.”

As an adult, Strudwick has worked on cars, and driven them in races.

He showed up one day to work on a claim at a garage which had burned down in nearby Orillia, Ontario. “I personally hadn’t (raced) for a good 20 to 25 years,” he says. “I walked in there and I said, ‘I’m Alf Strudwick, an adjuster,’ and he said, ‘I know exactly who you are. You drove the green and white ’68 car,’ and I said, ‘Oh, okay, you’re a racing fan.'”

GEARING UP

These days, Strudwick and other independent adjusters are gearing up for other challenges, including when different carriers have different policy wordings. Because of the competitive market, most carriers have personalized their policies so much, and this has created some challenges, he suggests.

In the past, “you could handle a claim a little more from start to finish on your own, but now with everything so personalized… it’s a little tougher to help people as easily as you could before.”

Expectations from some clients for such things as service outside of traditional working hours is also creating some challenges, Strudwick suggests.

“We, as an industry, have promoted 24-7 service handling, which is certainly not a bad thing,” he says, but adds it is “just a little tougher nowadays, I think, to satisfy somebody.”

As well, there tends to be more claims professionals handling one file, especially for auto claims involving both injuries and vehicle damage.

By the time a claim gets to him, there has already been five or six different people handling the file, he points out. It is important to explain to the claimant, even if that person has talked to a few other people, and inform that person in writing that the adjuster is “acting for your insurance company.”

While many things have changed over his five decades in property and casualty insurance, one thing that has not is the value of OIAA to claims professionals, Strudwick contends.

“As a 17-year-old trying to get into the business, and getting involved in the claims department and with these examiners that attracted me into the examining position, they were all heavy supporters of the OIAA,” he says.

“If you want a career you have to invest in yourself,” Strudwick emphasizes.