I'm now a senior claims rep with Metro Public Adjustment and heading toward regional manager sometime late this summer or in early fall. What an amazing opportunity to find at the theoretical end of my "working" life. And what an ironic joke retirement at 62 or 65 turns out to be. Many of us seem to be discovering that retirement is just when you stop doing what everyone else wants and get to do what you want -- but not in an easy chair with a remote or on the beach in Florida. I'm really not ready for that.
I'm licensed as a public adjuster. I inspect homes for insurance damage only and represent the insured during the insurance claim process. I'm also an independent contractor, and what I've got is a small business without any need to handle paperwork or pay overhead. Metro takes care of it. I'm working on my own schedule. It's not very time consuming and I'm paid well. The company provided me with all the training, all done in house, to get started.
In less than a year, I've gone from being the person listening to an orientation about property insurance to the person delivering the orientation.
Here's why I choose to do this:
I need the money.
I'm bored.
I'm tired of working for asshats. Not everyone I worked for was an asshat, but they turned up pretty regularly.
I want to work on my schedule, not someone else's, and take time off when I feel like it, not when it is convenient for an employer.
I want to help people.
Anyone can identify with the first four points. The last one is special. With just the three apprenticeship insurance claims I found in order to qualify to work under Metro's umbrella, I've gotten three homeowners insurance payouts of $62,683 so far. Two of those claims are being pushed and negotiated even farther, to get the insurance companies to fully meet their contracted obligations.
I'd call that helping people, especially since in one case an insurance company that initially was going to spend maybe $2,000 to just clean clothes and wash floors in a house damaged by a smoky fire has paid almost $50,000 and counting to fully restore the property to the way it was before the fire. And in two other cases, homeowners who didn't know they had claims got $8,000 and $5,300 respectively for new roofs.
Now I'm handling claims on my own and recruiting and training my own team. I'm working for a company that pays me more of each claim the more claims I bring in. It pays me a fee out of every claim one of my recruits brings in. I share directly in the company's growth and prosperity from the actual business it does.
I wish I'd known about this industry when I was 25 years old. But that doesn't count as a "what if" worthy of beating myself up: Within three years I'll be making more each year than I ever made in journalism, even as an executive editor. And within five years I'll be financially secure for the rest of my life.
Did I mention I'm once again a cheerful person?
Life can be good.
--Bill Watson
