Adjusters and Appraisers


These two concepts are commonly confused and exchanged erroneously. In order to describe the function of ISDA, an independent appraiser, we need to shed additional light on these terms.





Appraiser

According to The Law Dictionary online, an appraiser is

Appraiser

A person appointed by competent authority to make an appraisement, to ascertain and state the true value of goods or real estate.

Hence, the concept of appraiser derives mostly from the ability of determining the true value of goods.

Appraisers are expected to be impartial. In fact, Investopedia further adds

Their opinion about the real and fair value of an appraised asset must be unbiased by using observations as well as relevant statistics, facts, and other information.

By James Chen, found in Investopedia - Appraiser

Furthermore, Law Insider's Dictionary describes as Independent Appraiser as

... a Person with no material current or prior business or personal relationship with the Advisor or the Directors and who is engaged to a substantial extent in the business of rendering opinions regarding the value of Real Property or of other Assets of the type held by the Company.

In this way, the value and responsibility of independent appraisers is directly associated with their ability and trustworthiness for producing impartial estimates. From this perspective, the great advantage on hiring an appraiser is to serve as catalyst and expedite the insurance claim.

Independent Specialty Damage Appraisers (ISDA), will assist you with determining the damage value on a variety of goods and assets for insurance claims or any other purpose you may have. Please visit our home page at https://www.isdappraisers.com for more details.


Adjuster

Generally, the concept of adjuster is directly associated with an insurance company. In fact, The Law Dictionary online defines an adjuster as

An employee of an insurance firm who examines a specific claim to determine the cost to the firm.

Since the adjuster is not expected to perform in an impartial manner, we must then mention the concept of Public Adjusters. The latter's main concern is not the insurance company. The Law Dictionary online, further states.

This person is an insurance adjuster who works for the person who pays the insurance premiums and not for the insurance company.

Therefore, a public adjuster is the person that determines the value of the loss for the policy holder.


The Great Value of an Independent Appraiser

Engaging an independent appraisal instead of waiting for disputes between the insurance carrier and the claimant empowers the latter with strong argumentation at the time of submitting the claim. In reality, insurance carriers will most likely hire an independent appraiser themselves to resolve disputes. Furthermore, many differences addressed with this approach are substantially more likely to avoid lawsuits at the cost of an arm and leg, and with turtle speed resolution times.

The appraiser will also bring elements of concern that may drag disagreements, which also helps the claimant or the insurance carrier analyze them a priori.

A policy holder with an open insurance claim most likely wants to avoid bottlenecks and collaborate to expedite payments. Under these situations, your best solution is to hire an independent appraiser like ISDA.