The Art of Adjusting® Podcast

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Negotiation gets blamed for a lot of bad claims outcomes, but the real culprit is usually something simpler: weak investigation and unclear documentation. We sit down to share negotiation lessons we’ve learned across thousands of insurance claims and why “because I said so” collapses the moment a claimant, attorney, contractor, or public adjuster pushes back.

We walk through the signals that tell us when it’s time to negotiate, when it’s too early, and when the other side is quietly preparing for litigation. From liability and bodily injury to property c...

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Evidence used to be a handful of photos and a recorded statement. Now it can be a doorbell clip, a dash cam angle, a neighborhood app thread, body camera footage, satellite history, and a metadata trail that tells you exactly when that “proof” was created. We dig into what that shift means for real-world liability investigations and why the best adjusters stay curious, skeptical, and organized even when the tools get smarter.

We talk through practical ways insurance adjusters are using AI in claims adjusting without handing over the steering wheel. That...

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Adjusters are expected to be objective, but is true objectivity even possible when every claim requires judgment?

In this episode of The Art of Adjusting® Podcast, Bill and Chantal explore how confirmation bias, anchoring, and preconceived notions can influence claim investigations. They discuss the importance of distinguishing facts from inferences and opinions, challenging initial assumptions, and evaluating favorable and unfavorable evidence by the same standard.

From police reports and witness statements to prior adjuster notes, even seemingly reliable information can influence how a claim is investigated.

Can a...

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Are your claim notes actually documenting the claim—or are they just repeating information that already exists somewhere else in the file?

In this episode of The Art of Adjusting®, Chantal Roberts looks at what makes a claim note useful and why simply copying and pasting an email into the notes may not be enough.

A good claim file should allow someone to reconstruct what happened, but that includes more than communications and activity. Your notes should also document what the information means to the claim, what you intend to...

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Independent adjusters are part of the claims process—but what exactly are carriers buying when they hire one?

Bill Auten takes a practical look at the independent adjusting business, from property adjusters working on fee schedules to liability investigators billing by the hour. He explains how carriers use IAs to add temporary capacity, fill geographic gaps, preserve evidence, conduct field investigations, and free staff adjusters to focus on the work that most needs their expertise.

The episode also goes inside the economics of independent adjusting: fee splits, expenses, utilization, ov...

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One missing piece of evidence can turn a clear claim into a costly argument, and it usually happens fast. We break down the idea of the “million-dollar file” and why the most important decisions often get made on day one, long before depositions, experts, or mediation show up.

I walk through what strong evidence retention looks like in real investigations: identifying what actually matters, moving quickly to preserve it, and avoiding evidence spoliation claims that can damage credibility and limit defenses. We talk about practical realities too, like confirming who owns an i...

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The quickest way a claim goes sideways is not a coverage dispute or a tough claimant. It’s one small word that sneaks into our thinking and hardens into “truth” before we’ve earned it: assume. We talk candidly about how assumptions show up in real insurance adjusting work and why they lead to extra work, bad decisions, and sometimes lawsuits when new facts surface later in discovery or deposition.

We get specific about where bias starts, especially in the first loss notice. Agents and insureds may write a convincing narrative using ev...

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Episode 100 lands with a twist: we’re finally recording together in person for the first time. After years of remote calls, we sit down with cake, swag, and a live “peanut gallery” to tell the origin story of how The Art of Adjusting Podcast grew from random conversations into a claims adjusting show that now reaches thousands of listeners.

We talk about how we actually met, starting with LinkedIn and a shared love of old-school noir, then moving to Clubhouse during COVID when live audio rooms felt like talk radio for insura...

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Multi-line adjuster, generalist, all-lines, specialist, mono-line, GA, TPA, IA, carrier claims. We hear these labels all the time, but they don’t mean much until you map them to real work, real stress, and real career options.

Bill Auten and Chantal Roberts dig into whether multi-line adjusters are “still a thing” and why the answer depends on where you work. Big carriers often push specialization because training thousands of people across multiple lines is expensive and hard to control. Smaller carriers, mutual insurers, and independent adjusting firms still need people who can ju...

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People hear “recorded statement” and assume it’s a trap. We don’t see it that way, and if you work in claims adjusting, you shouldn’t either. Bill Auten (Auten Claims Management) and Chantal Roberts (CMR Consulting) lay out what a recorded statement is really for: a clear, professional record of what happened that helps you investigate the claim, preserve evidence, and make the right call on liability, coverage, and damages.

We get practical about preparation before you ever hit record: knowing your claim file, planning your roadmap without clinging to a scrip...

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A “quick” injury claim can turn into a compliance puzzle the moment Medicare or Medicaid enters the picture and if you miss it, the consequences can be expensive. We get practical about CMS, Medicare Secondary Payer rules, and what adjusters actually need to do on day one so a settlement does not blow up later.

We walk through the Big Five identifiers we ask claimants for, why people understandably get suspicious, and how to explain the request without sounding like a scammer or hiding behind acronyms. Then we translate the jargon: Sect...

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Bad faith doesn’t usually arrive as one dramatic blow-up. It shows up as a slow drip of little things: the voicemail that never gets returned, the approval that sits in someone’s queue, the vague diary note that makes sense only to the person who wrote it, and the template letter that accidentally says more than it should.

We talk through the practical warning signs we see when a claim is headed toward escalation, complaint, or litigation. We dig into how understaffed claims departments force adjusters into triage, why vacation sche...

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Memorial Day weekend has a way of turning “just one quick favor” into a full-blown claim file. We start with a simple scenario: you borrow a friend’s car to grab ice and something goes wrong. From there, we unpack permissive use, when auto insurance follows the car versus the person, and why household access to keys can quietly expand who counts as an insured under the policy definition.

Then we shift into uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage, where your own carrier can end up acting like the at-fault carrier. That o...

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A lawn mower throws a rock through a car window. A kid hops a fence to grab a baseball near a backyard pool. A trampoline turns one “fun afternoon” into a catastrophic injury demand. Summer liability claims love to masquerade as simple, and that’s exactly when adjusters get burned by policy language.

We dig into the fundamentals we rely on when analyzing homeowners liability and similar third-party claims: who qualifies as an insured, what “resident relative” really means, and how a live-in partner or a college-aged child can create instant coverage i...

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Spring doesn’t just bring warmer weather, it brings a whole new wave of claims problems: roofers canvassing neighborhoods, frozen-pipe losses getting repaired, and construction crews breaking ground. We sit down and get specific about what adjusters and policyholders need to watch for when repairs start, because the repair work itself can create brand-new damage. When that happens, you may be looking at two separate dates of loss, a first-party property claim, and a third-party liability claim against the contractor, all at the same time.

We also dig into why “just file...

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Spring storms don’t just damage property, they scramble the story of what happened. One day it’s hail. The next it’s wind-driven rain. Then a ceiling stain shows up weeks later and everyone argues whether it’s a new loss, wear and tear, or “damage creep.” We walk through how we actually sort these files out in the field, especially when the insured sees one big problem but the evidence points to multiple incidents, multiple deductibles, and a timeline that has to be proven with photos and attic inspection.

We dig into...

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Frozen pipe losses are one of those claims that look simple on the surface, right up until the policy language and the facts start fighting each other. Today we walk through the biggest freeze-claim mistake we see: treating a burst-from-freezing pipe like a routine accidental discharge loss and automatically excluding the pipe repair, even when freezing is the covered cause of loss. If you adjust homeowners insurance (HO3) or commercial property claims, this is the kind of detail that changes the whole outcome. 

We also get practical about the condition that t...

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A slip on ice can look like a small accident until you see what it turns into on a claim file: multiple defendants, competing contracts, fading memories, and a fight over what the weather actually did at one exact address. We get into why snow removal contractors are often treated like the default villain, and how a solid liability analysis starts with the boring stuff that saves you later: reading the policy, reading the snow contract, and tracking who promised what to whom.

We talk through common contract trigger language like...

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Ever felt your file work turn into a courtroom minefield? We sit down with a clinical neuropsychologist who coaches witnesses to break down why depositions are adversarial even when they sound friendly, and how adjusters can protect credibility without oversharing. From honey and vinegar to the Columbo “play dumb” tactic, we map the playbook plaintiffs use to trigger fight-or-flight—and the tools you need to stay calm, concise, and consistent.

We draw a sharp line between fact witnesses and corporate representatives, explaining why mixing roles creates contradictions that haunt future cases. You’ll...

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Winter brings more than snow and high heating bills. It brings puffback claims, chimney fires, frozen pipes, temporary heating setups, and a steady stream of liability questions.

In this episode, William and Chantal break down common winter-related losses and what adjusters should be looking for from day one. They discuss oil furnace puffbacks, improper fireplace and wood stove installations, frozen pipe damage, and the risks tied to space heaters and overloaded power strips. The conversation moves beyond surface-level handling and into the investigative mindset required to properly document cause, identify potential...

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Storm clouds don’t just darken the sky, they raise the duty of care. We dig into how snow, ice, fog, and heavy rain change what “reasonable” looks like behind the wheel and at the claim desk. From multi-car pileups to slow-speed parking lot crashes, we break down how to evaluate negligence when the surface and sight lines won’t play fair, why “I was going the speed limit” can still be careless, and how to separate traffic citations from true liability.

We trade real-world scenarios that every adjuster recognizes: black ice that loo...

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A slick floor, a hard fall, and suddenly everyone asks the same question: who pays? We open the claims toolbox and walk through slip and fall cases step by step, showing how quick evidence work, clear liability analysis, and smart communication shape the outcome. From icy sidewalks to grocery spills, we explain the differences that matter and the proof that sticks.

First, we dig into scene preservation and notice. You’ll hear why photos and security video are gold, how floor-walk logs can narrow exposure, and when a “storm in progress” protec...

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Want a practical blueprint to avoid bad faith and close cleaner files? We dig into the real-world habits that separate defensible claims work from patterns that draw regulator heat and lawsuits. Starting with a crisp definition—negligence is a mistake; bad faith is a repeated choice—we map how state rules, NAIC Model Acts, and administrative codes shape your everyday decisions on property, auto, liability, and workers’ compensation files.

We share the seven claims handling standards that keep you on track: prompt preliminary handling, documented procedures and training, tailored investigations, plain-English commun...

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Holiday cheer meets claim chaos, and we’re here to make sense of it. From overloaded outlets and dry Christmas trees to frozen pipes and black ice, we walk through the winter risks that drive property, auto, and liability claims—and how smart adjusting turns messy losses into clean resolutions. We share practical tools adjusters can use right now: when to call a cause-and-origin expert, how to preserve cords, sockets, and devices for subrogation, and what chain-of-custody documentation should look like to avoid spoliation fights.

The conversation digs into policy nuance arou...

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We rethink “rules of the road” from an adjuster’s view, showing why left-hand turns aren’t always at fault, how point of impact changes everything, and when last clear chance controls the outcome. Practical field tips help you collect better evidence, weigh foreseeability, and assign fair liability.

• left-hand turns, control of the intersection, point of impact
• duty to yield, duty of reasonable care, last clear chance
• comparative negligence across merges, passes, and hills
• weather and visibility shaping foreseeability and speed choice
• truck wide-right turns and squeeze hazards
• evid...

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🎧 Spotify Episode Description 

Episode 82: Giving Thanks — Bill’s Back!

This Thanksgiving episode is all about gratitude. Bill returns to the podcast, and we share what we’re thankful for — from the people who make our work meaningful to the everyday wins that keep us going in the P&C claims world.

Whether you're driving to a loss site, reviewing files, or heading home for the holiday, take a moment with us to reflect on the good stuff.

💛 What are you grateful for th...