I didn't set out to become a public adjuster. I became one because I first needed a public adjuster myself.

It Started With a Denied Claim of My Own

In 1980 I owned an audio, video and sound-equipment business. We provided equipment and services for bands, Chamber of Commerce events and other productions. Because of what we had invested, we made sure the business and the equipment at our premises were insured.

Then we were burglarized. Someone backed a truck up to the business and took a large share of our equipment. The insurance company denied the claim. Their position was that our policy only covered the equipment while it was away from the premises, not while it sat at our own business. We believed that was the opposite of the coverage we had bought.

Our attorney told us that before going to court, we needed a public adjuster to properly inventory, document, estimate and present the claim. We hired McGonigal National Adjustment Service. While they handled our loss, I helped put the claim together: the estimates, the documentation, the file. I found I liked the work, and I was good at it.

Learning the Trade

The burglary left me without the business I'd had. Not long after, a flood hit Louisiana, and I was offered a chance to go to work handling claims. I took it, and spent the next several years working flood claims and other property losses.

Barry McGonigal taught me to account for a loss one item at a time, with a chair, a yellow legal pad and a pile of damaged property. That lesson still shapes how we build every contents claim.

Going Out on My Own

In 1983, Hurricane Alicia struck Houston. By then I had about three years of public-adjusting work behind me, and I decided it was time to represent policyholders under my own company. I founded Crisis Insurance Comp.

In 1991, that work became Insurance Claims Consultants. Everything we do still traces back to that burglary in 1980, and to knowing what it feels like to be the policyholder holding a denial letter.

Helping Write South Carolina's Public Adjuster Law

When I began practicing in South Carolina, there was no public-adjuster licensing structure. Some took the position that the work could amount to the unauthorized practice of law. When an insurance company refused to meet with me, I sometimes had to obtain a power of attorney from my client just to keep representing them.

I became directly involved in building a clear legal framework for the profession. My attorney, Fleet Freeman, Esq., was a mentor to me and an exceptional lawyer. I spent a great deal of time in his office working through the proposed provisions, discussing how they would play out in real claims, and pushing for language I believed needed to change. Fleet was incredibly wise, and he had a lasting influence on the moral compass I've run this business by.

One provision mattered to me in particular. The law barred public adjusters from profiting from businesses connected to a claim. I agreed with preventing conflicts of interest, but the principle had to apply fairly. If a public adjuster couldn't profit from related claim work or referrals, contractors on the claim shouldn't be allowed to build the same arrangement from the other direction. I pushed for that to be addressed so the rule didn't work against public adjusters alone.

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