Independent adjusters cautioned to check with brokers about policy coverage

Independent adjusters should never make assumptions about coverage in a policy, John Farthing of Cunningham Lindsay International cautioned delegates attending the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA)’s Annual Conference in Victoria, B.C. Any questions or doubts can be cleared up by making a quick call to the insured’s broker, Farthing added in a speech he made to the conference on Aug. 27.As an example of the danger involved in assuming coverage, Farthing cited a commercial insurance case he worked on, in which he assumed the insured had purchased coverage under a business policy. Testing his assumption, he called the broker and found out the insured had denied the coverage when it was offered. Had Farthing not cleared up any doubts about coverage, the insurance company could have been on the hook for the claim, which might have amounted to millions of dollars, he noted.