Can California Wildfires Be Your Big Break?

The episode delves into the complexities of starting a career in insurance adjusting amidst the significant wildfire season in California. We discuss the barriers for newcomers, including licensing challenges, competition with veteran adjusters, and alternative paths to gain experience within the industry.

• Overview of current wildfire events and implications for new adjusters 
• Licensing difficulties in California for aspiring adjusters 
• The impact of vehicle mobility on wildfire claims 
• Competition from veteran adjusters for wildfire-related claims 
• Seasonal challenges affecting job availability in winter months 
• Opportunities for new adjusters through programs like IA Path 
• Encouragement for newcomers to pursue experience in daily claims

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Hey, pathfinders, welcome back to the Independent Adjuster Podcast. This is your host, chris Stanley. Hope you are doing phenomenal this winter 2025. Today I want to talk to you about wildfires, and can wildfires give you your big break. There are a lot of wildfires going on right now. We're just getting over this massive fire in Los Angeles, california. Really scary stuff. I was only about two hours east of it, near Joshua Tree National Forest when it or National Park when it broke out, and so a lot of scary stuff. There was a lot of heavy winds and the winds continue even now, and there's a new fire threat.

Speaker 1: 0:59

So I keep getting emails and calls about hey, seems like there should be work for these wildfires. Can I get work as a new adjuster? Can I get my big break this way? And so I thought, hey, let me answer it for you guys on the podcast, for you in the email and for anybody else who might have this question later on. So here are a few points that I think are important.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Number one well, even before I get to the points, let me back up Getting your start. Big summary here. Big spoiler in California wildfires especially, but any wildfires probably unlikely. And now I'm going to back that up, why I think that is. This is just my opinion. This is not fact. I am only sharing what I know as an imperfect human being, based on my experience, knowledge, relationships with other people, conversations I've had and just what I've observed. So this isn't the gospel truth. This is my opinion, so you know where I stand. So if you wish you had been in the industry 15 years and kind of understood how this all worked, hey, you can take what I have with a grain of salt, compare it with what you see and come up with your own conclusions. But here's what I think getting started with wildfires is probably not going to happen.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Number one California has licensing rules that are really difficult. They're really hard to get a license in California and it says you need two years experience to get that license. So before you can ever handle claims, you're going to have to get a license in California. It's not reciprocal with other states and all that. So unless you're getting an emergency license, which sometimes does happen they are issuing emergency licenses right now, but still it's that much harder to get a job there, to get a deployment, because if you have a license already, huge advantage. If you don't and you need an emergency license. Well, now, only people who are operating through emergency licenses and willing to give you a shot will give you a shot, versus if you already had a license. It's a lot easier. So that's number one.

Speaker 1: 2:57

Number two vehicles are mobile. So if you're looking to get work by cars and residential is not available, or you don't want to climb on a roof or whatever the case may be, vehicles tend not to get damaged in general very much in a fire because they're mobile. They can leave when there's an evacuation and the family gets out. They usually don't leave a car behind, so not all the vehicles get damaged. It's similar to a hurricane A lot of hurricanes where it hits the hardest. A lot of times there's not a ton of cars, simply because people move them, and so for that reason, in my perspective, I don't see a lot of cars getting damaged by wildfires and that a huge need for people in auto is needed. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just my opinion.

Speaker 1: 3:45

Number three veterans dominate the wildfire work. So how? Especially residential? Now, if there's residential left, that's what you're left to contend with. If there's not a lot of auto claims and I'm correct on that assumption then, veterans, you're working for that property residential claims and to get started in property residential claims is hard anyways. It's competitive, it pays really well, so everybody wants to do it. So all the veterans are wanting that work. Because property residential claims operates on a fee schedule, so the more damage, the more they get paid. Well, wildfires when a house goes up in fire, the thing's gone, so it's a really high claim, takes longer to do, and so those adjusters make more money. So the veterans who love wildfire claims from what I've seen, because they make a lot more per claim, so it's more competitive that way the veterans really want to do that.

Speaker 1: 4:41

And then, number four it's the slow season. January and February are always the slowest season, whether it's in daily cat whatever. So all those catastrophic adjusters and heavy hitters who have been waiting for work have this work now available to them and they're jumping at it. So that means the new guys and gals probably aren't going to get the shot. That would happen is if this happened in the middle of August, when everybody's already working doing hurricanes or hailstorms and then a wildfire breaks out. Might have a better shot then, but in this situation I think it's very unlikely that you will see work come out as a result of a wildfire in California in the winter, my thoughts Okay. So what should you do then? If you're new and you're like I just am done waiting on weather events. I thought this would give me a shot and now I'm just frustrated because Chris is right I'm not getting work, I'm not getting any bites, it doesn't seem like I'm going to see anything and I don't want to have to wait till April, may, june for the hailstorms to really ramp up so I get a shot, or for the hurricanes in the fall.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Listen, you can get started without experience right where you're at At IA Path. We help people get started with daily auto claims experience-free. So if you haven't explored that option, I invite you to give us a call at 844-4-IAPATH or email help at IAPATH and we would love to help you. We'd love to explain to you our philosophy and how you can get started without any experience in a quicker amount of time than you ever thought possible. We see people getting work in as little as 30 days from the time they start our program. So if that's something you're interested in doing daily claims, starting in daily claims don't have to stay there. You can go on to catastrophes, but if you want to start with daily claims, so there's work for you year round. Check out IAPathcom or give us a call 844-4-IAPath. We'd love to talk with you and until next time, keep walking your path and claiming your life.