Should I hire a public adjuster?
Honest answer from one who won't take every case.

I'm a public adjuster, so the obvious bias is that I should tell every policyholder to hire one. But that's not how we run our practice. We turn down cases regularly — when there's no realistic upside for the policyholder, when the carrier is already offering the right number, when the claim is small enough that representation doesn't make economic sense.

Here's the honest answer to the question.

The simple test

You don't need a public adjuster on most claims. You need one when there's a meaningful gap between what the carrier is offering and what your policy actually owes.

The size of the claim doesn't determine this. We've turned down clients on $500,000 offers because the carrier's estimate was already accurate.

The question isn't "is my claim big?" The question is "is the offer fair?"

Six situations where hiring a PA almost always makes sense

1. The carrier's estimate is meaningfully lower than the actual cost to repair

If you've gotten 1-2 contractor bids that are double, triple, or more than the carrier's offer, that gap is almost always recoverable. The carrier isn't lying — they're using a different (cheaper) estimating methodology that has known limitations.

2. The carrier denied the claim entirely

Most denials are reversible. The denial cites a specific reason; that reason can be challenged with the right documentation.

3. There's complex damage with multiple causes

A storm causes wind damage, the wind drives water in, the water creates mold. Under efficient proximate cause doctrine — the standard in most states — the dominant cause that set the chain of events in motion determines coverage. If wind initiated the loss and wind is covered, the downstream chain is generally covered with it. But getting that right requires forensic causation analysis that carriers often skip, and many policies contain anti-concurrent causation language that further complicates coverage. The result: legitimate multi-cause claims get underpaid because the causation work is technical and most adjusters don't do it.

4. The damage involves matching or code upgrades

If you have a partial roof replacement situation where matching is impossible, or if your jurisdiction's code requirements meaningfully exceed the original construction, there's almost always recoverable money in the gap between the carrier's first estimate and what's actually owed.

5. The claim is commercial

Commercial policies are more complex, the stakes are higher, and carriers are more aggressive. Business interruption, code-upgrade coverage, ordinance & law, lost rents, multifamily matching across units — these are technical issues where a single missed scope item can mean six figures.

6. You're overwhelmed and the claim is stalled

Sometimes the recovery is sitting there but the back-and-forth has stalled because the claim feels endless. A PA shows up, gets organized, and moves it forward. Even on a properly-handled claim, this can be worth the fee just to get your time back.

Three situations where you probably don't need a PA

1. The carrier's estimate matches the contractor estimates

If you've gotten 2-3 contractor bids and they're roughly in line with the carrier's offer, the carrier got it right. Pay your deductible, do the repairs, move on.

2. The claim is very small

Public adjuster fees are a percentage of recovery. On a $5,000 claim, even a perfect outcome doesn't move the needle enough to justify representation. Threshold varies by state and complexity, but typically claims under $10,000-$15,000 don't economically justify hiring a PA unless they've been wrongly denied.

3. The claim is a coverage dispute that turns on legal interpretation

If the disagreement is about what the policy legally means rather than what the loss actually is, you may be in attorney territory rather than PA territory. (See our article on public adjuster vs. attorney.)

What it costs

Public adjuster fees are a percentage of the recovery, regulated by state law. The percentage varies by state and the type of claim. Resolution Claims Consulting works on contingency only — there's no upfront fee, no out-of-pocket cost, and we don't get paid unless we recover money for you.

The fee is the same number whether you hire us at the start of the claim or after the carrier has already issued a denial. But the recovery potential is usually higher when we're involved earlier — earlier means more documentation, more leverage, fewer mistakes baked in.

How to decide

Send us your policy, the carrier's correspondence, and 5-10 photos of the damage. We'll review it, no obligation. We'll tell you straight: yes, hire us; or no, you don't need us. If we don't think we can recover meaningful additional money for you, we'll say so.

The thing not to do is wait. Time degrades documentation, runs out deadlines, and gives the carrier more leverage. The cost of waiting is sometimes the difference between a recovery and a loss.