On The Air With Steve Severaid

President, Steve Severaid, explains the importance of hiring professional help after a fire.

All right. So, well, first of all, good morning, Steve. Hope you're having a great day. Thanks for being here, buddy. Got some questions here I just wanted to ask you, and we'll keep it brief. I won't take too much of your time. But my first question is, how did you get into this whole, what, adjuster? I guess you could say, is that what it... Public adjuster? Public adjuster, thank you. So how did, how'd you get into all that?

Well, I'll answer that two ways. Our company was founded by a gentleman by the name of Sidney Greenspan. 79 years ago, he came out from Philadelphia and brought public adjusting to the West Coast. Didn't exist at the time. And he started building the business. I got into the business about 34 years ago. Just by happenstance, a lot of people who work for our company started out at insurance companies and then come over to represent people as opposed to the insurance companies, kind of like putting on the white hat on that come save the day, people. But I'm unique in that I started in this business as a public adjuster. And I started by counting and writing down dirty, burned up stuff in people's homes and helping put inventories together as to what people lost. And so I was literally digging through debris is how I started in this business, 33 or 34 years ago.

Yeah, that would kind of hit me too, seeing all their burnt belongings.

Yeah, fell in love with the idea that you can make a living doing something that really makes a difference, is impactful for people in their lives. They say losing a home to a fire is second only to losing a loved one. The work that we do and holding people's hands and walking them through this difficult claims process and helping them get their homes restored and get back to their lives, it's pretty fulfilling. And I'm just lucky that I landed in something where I can make a living and at the same time, really make a big difference in people's lives.

That's fantastic. Great answer too. Very detailed. In there, did you say how long you've been the president of Greenspan?

I've been the president now almost three years.

Three years and you're digging it?

Yeah. It's great. Every day is a crazy day.

All right, so biggest question is, why do people need to consider getting an adjuster versus just using regular run of the mill insurance?

Well, the insurance company is going to have a claims team, regardless of whether the policyholder or the homeowner decides to get their own help. Those claims, people that come out, be it an adjuster or a cost consultant or an inventory person, those people all represent the insurance company. They do not represent the homeowner and they have no fiduciary responsibility to get it right or to help the homeowner understand all the ways that they can make a claim. The insurance policy is designed for the homeowner to have to fulfill certain duties and obligations. And if you've never been through this before, how do you really know what those are and how do you get it right? So there's a learning curve attached to it and anybody that's been through the process of losing their home to a fire will tell you that they learned a lot through the process, whether they got help or they did it on their own. They learned a lot, but hopefully that's an education nobody will ever need again, because it's usually nobody happens to nobody. And if it happens, you're unlucky enough that it happens to you. It probably won't happen again. So why would you trust a complex insurance negotiation just to work itself out without proactively getting help from people who do this all the time, thousands of times before and know how to get it right?

Yeah, makes total sense. So what's the time frame for getting with an adjuster?

The best time for somebody to bring in their own claims advocate is right after an event happens. So right away is the best time because we're able to set the stage. There's a lot of decisions that are made, even when people don't realize they're making decisions, they're being asked questions, they're answering them. Where are they going to live? What is life going to look like? It's very hard for people in an emotional state to make sound judgments as to what they should do living somewhere else and what it should cost because they're thinking emergency mode, but not realizing this process can take a year or two years or even longer. And so people trap themselves into some negotiations they don't even know they're in in the beginning. So to have aid and have help from the beginning and know how to properly set up the file for the best results, that's always better in the beginning. Not to say that we don't get involved later, we do. And oftentimes we can still be of value. But to get the most value out of help is to get it in the beginning. And it relieves a lot of stress and avoids a lot of headaches for people too. When you're not sure what's going on and you're trying to feel your way through, that's really stressful. But to have somebody you can trust that you can lean on from the beginning, that alleviates a lot of stress, a lot of burden right away.

OK, thank you. That makes perfect sense. So kind of tying back to the insurance company, you know, like getting a hold of you versus insurance, what happens if someone hears about you and they want to go to you, but they had already contacted their insurance company?

But they're not mutually exclusive. The insurance company will be involved regardless of whether they hire somebody like us or they don't. So that is perfectly fine. The insurance company is still going to be involved. The difference is we step into their shoes and deal with the insurance company and all those people that they contacted initially. We become the mouthpiece for the homeowner in dealing with that insurance company, but they're still involved.

OK, OK. So I guess finally, do you have anything that you'd like to say, you know, for the people that have been affected by the fires?

Well, to the people who have been affected by the fires, first of all, my condolences. This is a difficult time. Some people may lose some family members or some pets. And that's the worst of it. Things can be replaced and they will be. And hopefully have a good insurance program. Don't make any big decisions fast about rebuilding or moving until you understand all your options and your opportunities. Really, that's it. Just education is key right now. Awareness is key. Most people have never heard of a public adjuster before. I would encourage you to go on the Internet, do some research. You can go to the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. It's Napier.org. If you just want to learn more about public insurance adjusters in general, you can certainly go to our website, GreenspanAI.com, and learn more about our company. But do your research. Education is key. You only have one chance to get this right. And it's just too important, too valuable to your family and your family's future to leave it in the insurance company's hands and just trust that it's all going to work out.

All right. Actually, I think I have one more. Is the adjuster field competitive?

There are other public adjusters who purport to do what we do. We're the largest of our kind. There's a lot of smaller people, like one and two men kind of or person kind of shops. But yeah, there are other people out there that do this. And again, I would only talk to somebody who is listed in Napier. There's a code of ethics attached to the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. So if you're going to look at the industry in general, that would be the place I would point to. And I wouldn't speak to anybody that's not involved in that organization.

Perfect.