Rising business property insurance costs make recovering full claim value increasingly important for California business owners.
According to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, the average monthly cost of commercial building insurance in the United States reached $2,726 in 2023, up from $1,558 in 2013.
Deloitte projects this could rise to $4,890 by 2030, representing an almost 80% increase from current levels, reflecting the increasing commercial losses California businesses must document and recover.
Both claim adjusters and public adjusters can help business owners with these claims.
A claim adjuster reviews your commercial insurance policy to understand your coverage before visiting your commercial property to photograph and document visible losses. This assessment forms the basis for their damage valuation and initial settlement calculation.
Claim adjusters may request supporting documentation from business owners such as repair estimates and inventory records to process your claim.
Then, claim adjusters calculate settlement offers based on earlier documentations and your policy coverage. They present the initial settlement proposals to you, but you are free to hire public adjusters to review and negotiate from the initial offer received.
Since 1997 Allied has garnered a reputation for taking on and successfully resolving complex and denied claims. We delight in tackling complicated issues and reducing them to easily understandable and persuasive claim submissions. Having trouble with your claim? We’d love to hear about it.
According to the California Insurance Code (CIC), a commercial insurance claim public adjuster is the only professional licensed to represent the policyholder. Their legal duty is to advocate for your interests and maximize your settlement based on policy coverage and documented losses.
Insurance company adjusters, on the other hand, are employees or contractors hired and paid by insurance companies. Their primary responsibility is to the insurer, often focused on limiting the company’s financial exposure.
| Aspect | Public Adjuster | Insurance Company Claim Adjuster |
|---|---|---|
| Hired by | You, the business owner | The insurance company |
| Goal | Advocate for appropriate settlement based on policy coverage | Process claim per company guidelines |
| Payment Received | Percentage of your settlement | Salary from insurance company |
| Expertise | Specialized commercial damage assessment | General claims processing |
Table 1: Differences between a public adjuster and a claim adjuster from an insurance company
California business owners may choose to contact public adjusters after experiencing property damage that interrupts operations, such as fire damage requiring structural repairs, theft creating security and property losses, or natural disasters like wildfires and earthquakes.
You don’t have to accept the initial settlement offer you received from your insurance carrier if the amount is less than what your business needs to recover. A commercial insurance claim public adjuster negotiates with your insurers for you so that your final settlement offer is closer to your actual repair costs.
Their services are even more valuable when it comes to large commercial property damages.
When evaluating and choosing a public adjuster to help you with your large commercial property claims, you’ll need to consider a few factors:
Large commercial claims require engineering assessments, specialized equipment valuations, and comprehensive documentation. Make sure to verify that the public adjuster has handled claims in your property value range.
Damage affecting multiple properties simultaneously requires documentation at each site while maintaining unified claim strategy. Look for public adjusters who can deploy coordinated teams across multiple locations.
Manufacturing requires production equipment valuations; retail needs inventory and point-of-sale documentation; hospitality faces specialized kitchen equipment and health code compliance. You’ll want to confirm that the public adjuster has experience with your specific business type.
State license verification confirms regulatory compliance. Check if the public adjuster understands California building codes, wildfire exposure documentation, and earthquake considerations affecting repair costs.
AlliedPA holds California License #2C02627 and coordinates specialist teams for commercial claims across California industries. Our experience with high-value, multi-location properties spans manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and other commercial operations statewide.
When you work with AlliedPA, you'll move through five key stages from initial damage assessment to final settlement in your commercial insurance claim process.
Step 1: Initial Claim Review and Policy Assessment
We analyze your commercial policy to identify which coverage provisions apply to your specific damage. This stage includes reviewing your building coverage limits, business personal property coverage, business interruption provisions, and any specialized endorsements or exclusions that affect your claim.
Step 2: On-Site Damage Evaluation and Documentation
You'll receive a comprehensive property inspection where we document damage categories affecting your business, including structural damage, equipment losses, inventory damage, and operational impacts. We capture this with photographs, measurements, and detailed descriptions that support your claim submission.
Step 3: Claim Preparation and Submission
You'll get a complete documentation package including damage reports, contractor estimates, engineering assessments (if needed), and financial records supporting business interruption losses. This thorough documentation reduces back-and-forth requests from your carrier, speeding up your claim timeline.
Step 4: Ongoing Communication with the Insurance Carrier
You won't need to worry about handling communications with your insurer; We will respond to coverage questions, provide supplemental documentation, and address damage assessment disputes for you and maintain a transparent, detailed record of communications for reference at any point in the claim process.
Step 5: Claim Resolution Based on Policy Coverage
You'll have access to professional negotiation support and guidance focused on aligning settlement offers with your documented damages and policy provisions. We address coverage disputes, challenge undervalued damage assessments, and push back on incomplete settlement offers to help you pursue appropriate claim outcomes.