Public adjusters play a vital role in handling insurance claims, but many people would be hard-pressed to explain what one does on a daily basis. With recent winter storms affecting hundreds of thousands of Texans, it's more important than ever to pick the adjusters who will work best with you.

In February of 2021, a winter storm hit Texas hard, resulting in widespread damage to homes. One of these homes belonged to James and Jill Baine, a couple based in The Woodlands. The storm brought immense water damage to the couple's 3,600-square-foot home due to frozen pipes bursting.

Having never filed a claim before, the Baine's had a tough time navigating the complex process. After their insurance company started clearing away and tallying up the damage, they received an initial estimate of $450,000, far below the claim value. This was due to an incorrect assessment of the couple's custom-built house.

After contacting a financial broker and being directed to Jansen/Adjusters International, the Baine's received their full settlement claim of $910,000.

"It's better if we get involved on the front end before the insurance company has an opportunity to cement their feet into that claim and allow them to produce all their own numbers," CEO Art Jansen said. "Our goal is to prepare our estimates first so that the insurance company uses our estimates as a template to prepare theirs. This makes a claim settle quicker with a higher recovery."

According to Jansen, it's important to note there are three different types of adjusters: staff adjusters, who handle claims specifically for the insurance companies that employ them; independent adjusters, to whom insurance companies outsource claims adjusting; and public adjusters, who only work for the policyholder and is what Jansen/Adjuster International falls under. Public adjusters are the only type of adjusters who work solely on behalf of the policyholder and never for an insurance company.

Jansen/Adjusters International handles multiple types of claims every day. Once a customer is engaged, the first thing Jansen does is assign one of his adjusters to the file. Then, he assembles a support staff who will help prepare the claim.

"I'll assign a building estimator to the claim, a contents inventory team, and a CPA if necessary to support that loss," Jansen said.

It can be difficult to choose a public adjuster due to the sheer volume of firms to choose from. However, having a public adjuster should result in a higher recovery, a faster settlement, and eliminating the hassle of handling an insurance claim. Jansen accomplishes these three things daily.

"The fact that we've done this for 44 years now means we should be able to do it much more effectively than somebody that hasn't ever handled a loss on their own," Jansen said.

Jansen/Adjusters International handles all types of first property claims, including fire, flood, vandalism, windstorm, hail or theft. The firm adjusts losses from residential losses up to multi-million dollar commercial losses, with many clients having been with the firm for 30 to 35 years.

To contact Jansen/Adjusters International about a claim, please visit their website here.

The above story was produced by Community Impact's Storytelling Multi-Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.