I firmly believe that education and training are essential for all insurance professionals, and perhaps most importantly for claims adjusters because they are the ones who are the first in line to interpret insurance coverage language on the primary level. They have the initial opportunity to voice a “nay” or “yay” when a claim is filed, investigated, and consequently accepted or denied.

However, property and casualty (P&C) insurance is situational, which makes the correct application of coverage even more difficult and complicated. I am constantly amazed when I see adjusters who are part insurance expert, part contractor, and part legal expert (although of course they cannot offer legal advice). They are the ones who best combine their years of training and education with the valuable knowledge that can only come from experience.

The FC&S staff has a lot of dialogue with its adjuster subscribers, some of whom can describe a plumbing system in complete detail, using the correct terminology for all of the pipes, connectors, and other items that make up the system. In addition, there are those who know there was water damage but really can't describe where the water came from or what caused the leak. Although the FC&S staff is first to proclaim that each claim must be looked at in its entirety and the details of the situation considered, there are certain questions that are consistently asked about by agents and adjusters—leading us to adopt certain general principles about these most frequent of questions.