Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Harris.
Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always had a heart for objectively serving others, as a general contractor for over 20+ years, I helped hundreds of people achieve their goals, whether it was renovating kitchens and bathrooms, building additions, installing new roofs, and my favorite historic renovations, or building someone’s dream house from the ground up. I was formally introduced to the world of homeowners insurance during the 2013 winter ice damns that impacted over 200,000 homes in the New England area. I can remember insurance adjusters from all over the country flocking in to assess the damages and try to mitigate damages and losses on behalf of the policy holders. As a Contractor, I spent months meeting with independent and carrier adjusters, trying to explain how extensive the damages were and what the cost would be to fix them. I had dozens of people reaching out to me with similar stories of how their claim was being underpaid or denied even when their neighbor had their claim paid for, in some cases by the same insurance carrier. I clearly saw a huge disconnect between Adjusters and Contractors, in part the problem simplified was that insurance adjusters were for the most part not contractors and had a very limited understanding of building construction, and contractors were not adjusters and had no understanding of insurance contracts/policy.
Four years later, I decided I would make it my life’s mission to become an expert in the insurance field and moved to Florida which in my opinion is the insurance capital of the country. This is where the concept or idea, an unrealized notion of NAPAICC (North American public Adjusters, Insurance Claims Consultants) was conceived. While working as a lead project manager for a local Tampa Bay general contracting and restoration company, I formed a close friendship with Gemayel “Jay” Mareus dept. Supervisor for the mold & water mitigation services. We both were frustrated with the politics of being part of an insurance system that utilizes preferred contractors to exclusively work only for carriers, managed by national TPA’s or third-party administrators, like Alacrity, or Contractor Connection or Sedgwick. The idea is that as a preferred contractor, you would never have to advertise or compete on bids for work against other contractors, instead we would receive assignments directly from an adjuster but managed by one of the TPA’s who would take up to 5% as a fee from both the carrier and the contractor. Our estimates were controlled by the carrier’s estimating guidelines, which dictated what type of repairs would be approved or not. This often resulted in the use of subpar materials and poor workmanship from our subcontractors, while the GC aimed for 32%-42% percent profits on each job, which was guaranteed to be directly paid by the insurance company who assigned the claim.
Recognizing that as a contractor, I was now serving the best interests of insurance company not the homeowner, I decided to seek a better understanding of the problem by becoming an insurance adjuster. I took an online course which allowed me to test in for my 620 all lines insurance adjuster license, a requirement for working for a big insurance company.
In December 2018, I was hired by a national carrier located in downtown St Petersburg FL and started their extensive training program on January 5th, 2019. The program consisted of approximately 20 new adjusters most freshly out of college, and many are still good friends to this day. After three months of training which I considered a great experience, I was assigned to a desk to start adjusting claims. We were tough to read and understand policy, write estimates from reports and photographs obtained from inspections. How to recognize potential subrogation and potential fraud which would be investigated by the SIU department. The company I worked for seemed to have unlimited resources on educational seminars geared toward teaching over 100 employees to include management on how to put simply, underpay the claim, pick apart or reject local contractors estimates, and find policy exclusions in order to deny claims in its entirety. On average a daily desk adjuster has at any given time 50 claims or more. As fast as we closed them new ones came in, or the underpaid ones came back for supplementation. I remember thinking to myself this is the hardest I’ve ever worked for such little money, just to minimize losses and increase profits for my employer. The most common reaction most of us receive from an insured was “why the hell am I paying insurance !!!” I was promoted to a field adjuster assignment within a year of starting a small pay increase and additional benefits, but the job was essentially the same. Mind you understanding insurance policies is no small thing and it took me a long time reading hundreds of policies, making hundreds of coverage decisions, and being screamed at by the policyholder more times then I can count before I realized things. 1) I became an expert in understanding homeowners’ insurance policies 2) I was already an expert in understanding residential and commercial building structures 3) My job provided a greater benefit to the carrier than it did the policyholder. 4) I was good at my job. 5) upper management controlled how effectively I was able to do my job.
In November of 2020, I once again met with my old friend “Jay” who had left the company we met each other at, also obtained his 620 Insurance license, became a state-licensed mold remediator, and was also extremely frustrated at the system he served. We spent the evening discussing what we could do to actually serve the best interests of the average homeowner who had paid their premiums for years just to have a claim denied or underpaid by the same system we both served for so long. When I suggested starting up a Public Adjuster Firm, we both laughed at the notion. Public Adjusters were always viewed as incompetent greedy people who looked to capitalize of other people’s misfortunes. In the eyes of the Insurance Company, they are public enemy number one. Most are just good at sales and bully adjusters into just giving more money to a claim. In most cases, Public Adjusters have to contract out everything from expert reports to people who write overinflated estimates and then expense all the costs directly to the homeowner leaving them drastically underpaid and still unable to make the needed repairs.
Between November 2020 and march of 2021 Jay and I created a new business model that would benefit the insured 100% and not the Insurance Carrier or their preferred vendors. We decided to utilize all of our combined expertise by writing the most accurate and professional estimates of damages ourselves, and in housing our expert mold testing and reports, at zero cost to the clients. We committed to only representing clients who actually needed our services and to recognize that sometimes Insurance companies make good decisions, that we would have to not only acknowledge but also explain to any potential client.
In April of 2021, I took yet another state exam and obtained my 320 Public Adjuster License and we rolled out NAPAICC INC. Since then, we have represented dozens of new clients via word of mouth, no advertisement other than our website and Instagram. We are both members of FAPIA (Florida Association of Public Adjusters) and very active in community events and outreach. We strive to do things differently than other firms, always maintain a level of fairness and objectivity. We have taken on client pro bono and have in some cases reduced our fees to benefit the Insured. In seven months, we have expanded to three states, and am about to start a book of business in Hawaii which would be our 4th state. Recognizing that Florida is the bread and butter of this company, we also know it’s an overly saturated marked, and there are other states that lack policyholder representation. Jay and I both are active in supporting people like Hillary Cassel who is running for state representative and hope to help with needed legislative changes that will help Florida Homeowners by speaking in Tallahassee. We have sat down with dozens of law firms from Miami to Orlando and Jacksonville to discuss what we see as needed changes in this industry. NAPAICC INC is helping Roofers and mitigation contractors by educating them on new laws and best practices that help better protect the consumer. Our approach to insurance claims is exactly the same as the insurance carriers, to investigate the claim, verify coverages, and negotiate a fair settlement on behalf of all policyholders. We do not see this as an adversarial relationship, we are in fact partners with insurance companies, with the common goal of providing great customer service while helping adjusters correct mistakes made during the claims process.
NAPAICC INC is excited to implement in 2022 an innovative idea that in this industry has never been done before. Starting January 1st, we will take %10 percent of all company profits and reinvest them into the Insurance Companies we settle claims with by becoming corporate shareholders, and thus allowing us to become a voice of change within the carriers on behalf of the people they serve. Our goal by the end of 2022 is to have a presence in 13 states within the US. NAPAICC INC has no loans no debts and has been entirely started with our success and confidence of properly settling claims.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Its taken over 20 years of struggle to acquire the knowledge and skillset to even start this company, with that said since we started in April 2021, it’s been a surprisingly smooth road, as we are finding there is a tremendous demand for our services.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
NAPAICC INC Basically stands for North American public Adjusters, Insurance Claims Consultants, which was way too long of a name to brand so we came up with the anacronym NAPAICC.
What sets us apart from other PA firms is we do not view our role in the insurance claims process as adversarial, in fact we see ourselves as advocates for the policyholder, and partners with the insurance companies, by helping in their investigation to ensure a fair equitable outcome for the policyholder.
What matters most to you?
Helping people who cannot help themselves. I have always had a passion of service over self.
Contact Info:
- Email: claims@napaicc.com
- Website: www.napaicc.com
- Instagram: NAPAICC
