Dan Kerr asked:




Independent catastrophic claims adjusting or “cat” adjusting is an exciting, lucrative, and relatively unknown occupational niche in the insurance industry. When disaster strikes, cat adjusters or “storm troopers” answer the call to assist insurance policyholders in recovering from their losses. The work is challenging, personally fulfilling and can be surprisingly profitable. Follow these 4 steps to become a licensed, trained, ready-to-deploy cat adjuster:

#1: Obtain Your Adjuster License

It is highly recommended that you obtain an adjuster license as a first step in this career. Obtaining a license demonstrates to hiring companies that you are a legitimate applicant, that you know the basics of claims practice and policy, and that you are legally certified to handle claims in the state you are licensed in. As a general rule, it is best to first obtain a license in the state of your residence. Many states, however, do not require a license to operate as an adjuster. Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are but a few examples. In this case it is suggested that you obtain either a Texas or Florida adjuster license. Both licenses are very well respected and highly reciprocal – meaning you can obtain other states licenses with them without having to take that state’s exam or required coursework. Texas and Florida adjuster pre-licensing courses, which satisfy all requirements for obtaining their respective state licenses, are available in either a classroom or online setting. Course tuition will average $299 for online and $499 for classroom. After the course has been completed and you have submitted your application to the regulating authority, you can expect to be a licensed adjuster in just a few weeks.

#2: Obtain Critical Adjuster Training

For those making career transitions from the residential or commercial contracting industries, supplemental training may prove unnecessary. But for those who have little previous experience with construction, loss analysis, estimating software, and standard methods of repair, it is tremendously helpful to undertake some practical training. Probably the most important training a newly licensed adjuster should consider is Xactimate training. Used by roughly 75% of independent adjusters, Xactimate is the most popular estimating program today. Others, like MSB IntegriClaim, have their place, and may be preferred by particular insurance carriers. Still, Xactimate is accepted by more carriers than any other and is the best place to begin learning software estimatics. Courses, ranging from 1 to 5 days ($400 to $1,200) may be taken and courses taught by actual claims adjusters ought to be preferred.

#3: Find a Job

Becoming an adjuster doesn’t make sense unless there is work to do. While ultimately there is no silver bullet (outside the handy personal contact) for finding work, understanding the employment landscape will go a long way towards helping you land a job.

Understanding Demand
The bottom line is that the demand for independent adjusters fluctuates greatly and depends on the frequency and severity of catastrophic weather events. In 2005 and 2006, in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, finding work as a cat adjuster was almost as simple as raising your hand. 2007, however, saw surprisingly clement weather and did not produce many claims. Adjusting companies consequently could afford to be far pickier in their hiring process. 3 to 5 experience requirements became common and job prospects were bleak for new cat adjusters. At the time of this article, the 2008 storm season has been extremely tough on the Midwest with flooding, hail, and tornado. And with the anticipation of a potentially huge hurricane year, adjusting companies are scrambling to fill their deployment rosters and are relaxing experience requirements in order to do so. Because demand is weather driven, timing is crucial in finding work as an independent adjuster.

Who do I Work For?

It isn’t always correctly understood who cat adjusters work for. Lets clear this up. Technically, and for tax purposes, an independent adjuster is an independent contractor that works for oneself. Work is typically obtained, however, through adjusting firms that in turn contract with insurance companies to handle claims. For example, after Hurricane Katrina, insurance companies didn’t have nearly enough adjusters on staff to handle the massive influx of claims. Acme insurance company, as a theoretical, would then give out 10,000 claims to be handled by Pinnacle adjusting firm. Pinnacle adjusting firm in turn hires individual independent adjusters in sufficient numbers to handle the 10,000 claims. Those adjusters who work efficiently and with little oversight (babysitting) get the most claims from Pinnacle. So, if you are looking for a job as a cat adjuster, you should be looking towards getting on with adjusting firm.

Where do I Look for a Job?

There are several useful adjusting firm directories and social networks that keep you apprised of adjuster job listings. Adjusting firms maintain deployment rosters of qualified adjusters who are eligible for being put to work in the event of a catastrophe. A new independent adjuster should aspire to join as many rosters as possible. The ultimate goal is to have a steady stream of invitations to work which can be accepted or declined at your discretion. Remember, you are your own boss!

#4: Maintain Your Good Standing

Staying on top of Continuing Education (CE) requirements keeps you in compliance with your adjuster license and also gives you a legitimate opportunity to advance your knowledge base and skills as an adjuster. CE opportunities abound in both online and classroom form. Failure to maintain CE compliance can result in very steep penalties and forfeiture of your license. Considering the ease by which most states’ CE is kept this should be easily avoided.

Lenny Johnson asked:




I used to love cats.

Before I had a cat I believed they started off as lovely fluffy balls of fun, who grew into sleek, elegant, and beautifully aloof adults with neat fur and a fantastic hygiene habit. I believed them to be natural French speakers of the animal world, who slept 20 hours a day and enhanced your life throughout.

I had heard the phrase ‘you look like something the cat brought in’ but never quite understood it. Perhaps it meant that you looked like a mouse, or a vole, or something equally cute.

Then we got a cat. My youngest daughter insisted, so, even though our garden is no more than 500 square feet of towerblock roof, with a couple of tired looking shrubs and a lot of water tanks and what have you, we went for it.

Mittens arrived in a cardboard box, and promptly disappeared behind the sofa for two days. When he was eventually brought out, starving, one thing rapidly became clear. He was ferocious. He scratched, and clawed, and bit anything that came near him. He was not averse to leaping out from hiding places at anyone who passed, delivering a grazing scratch, and then running off laughing catty laughs.

A bell was no good. They disappear within a day. He must rip them off their collar and drop them off the edge of the roof, as we’ve never found any of them.

Feeding him stupid is no good. He doesn’t hunt to eat — he hunts out of ******.

We gave him the operation, hoping that with the lack of testosterone he might succumb to a quieter life. It just seemed to enrage him further. (Well, sorry, Mittens, I guess it would.) We tried keeping him in, but I’m not as stony hearted as Mittens, and in the last analysis I lack the iron resolve to forbid a living creature from ever seeing the sky.

We tried putting him on a long leash. A clothes line in fact. But that depended on a collar. And we know what he does with collars.

So we are the proud owners of the Charles Manson of the cat world, and the unhappy owners of Kitty Killing Ground.

Only younger daughter can stroke him, and even she is covered in scratches.

I never turn my back on him — if he was any bigger, or I was any smaller, or showed weakness in any way, he would be on me.

And the daily carnage on the roof is monstrous. I’ve lost count of the number of dead birds. And, let’s be frank here, not just dead — dismembered. In the most grisly way. And they’re not all left on the roof. Bits and pieces of what used to be beautiful feathered fluttering things regularly litter our hallway, drift up behind tables, start to stink under our bed.

Now I really do understand the true visceral horror of the phrase ‘what the cat brought in.’

And I really, really do **** cats.

Robert S Scott asked:




Getting life insurance is a common thing today. Everyone wishes to secure his or her life with a decent arrangement, so that in time of emergency a quality financial assistance can be ensured. And nowadays, it is quite amazing to know that people have similar notions for their pets. Most of the cat owners are now opting for a healthy survival for their loving cats with the facility of cat insurance. The insurance is awarded to the clients on the basis of the age and health conditions of the cat. If your cat is young, the chances of a getting a more profitable insurance program are much brighter. However, in other cases too, the insurance companies have introduced appreciable solutions.

We are well aware of the consistently raising prices of veterinary treatments and products; hence, availing a decent financial solution for a secured survival of our pets is a basic requirement these days. Almost every cat owner is now making a profitable investment in the cat insurance programs to present his cat a much safer life. Right from the cat food to the other necessary products, everything can be easily managed through the option of cat insurance. However, finding a reliable source or insurance company is quite a task for many of the people. An easy way to search for the good cat insurance company is Internet. The owner can simply browse through the net to gather complete information about the various prospects of the insurance programs. Most of the companies designed easy pet insurance schemes with low and affordable monthly premiums.

If in case your cat is already suffering from a problem or a disease then also you can buy the cat insurance program. Many financial companies that are involved in the business of offering cat insurance policies are widely serving monetary solutions for sick cats. You cannot let your cat suffer from the pain and untimely death just on the ground of low financial income. Hence, the insurance policies are customized with suitable and economic objectives to provide a helping hand for giving your cat a new secured life.

Before finalizing any cat insurance policy, it is important for the cat owner to examine various factors in the policies. Just like us, cats also require regular check ups and hence make sure that your selected cat insurance policy covers the charges for the same. Moreover, cats are very prone to certain diseases such as hair fall and allergic reactions, hence, check for the insurance cover that pays for such elementary medical requirements. Most of the insurance deals also offer finances to deal with uncertain problems of foreign body ingestion, bone fractures, accidents, and first time sickness. It mostly happens that the cat runs away from the home or gets lost. In such situations, the additional expense of carrying out advertisements and notices for searching your beloved cat are also paid by the cat insurances. Hence it is advisable to conduct a qualitative research on the various cat insurance schemes so that you can have the opportunity of selecting the best life support for your most valuable pet.

Luke Blaise asked:




Many people trying to find the cheapest cat insurance they can think that saving just a few dollars can make a big difference. However you should really change your thinking if you are only focused on buying the cheapest policy you can find.

Instead, you should focus your attention on finding the policy that has the best value, by best value I mean the most coverage at a reasonable price.

If you just paid for the cheapest cat insurance policy you can find you may not get very much medical coverage. If this is the case, in the end, you actually end up wasting money because more than likely none of the medical conditions that your cat has will be covered, therefore you’ll never make any of your money back.

Because the insurance industry has become much more competitive over the last decade there is actually a wide range of low priced policies that you can buy.

Many of these policies differ by only a few dollars but the coverage that you get can very greatly so it is wise to put in some research to find the best value.

Likely there are many websites that have already reviewed many of these pet insurance policies and have listed them in convenient charts so it saves you hours of research on your own.

Many pet insurance comparison charts that can you see on the internet will list policies by price, but some also give you the option of sorting them by coverage amount.

Tanya Andrews asked:




There are many options on offer for cat health insurance. UK pet owners are fortunate to have a variety of packages to choose from-yet a wide range of choice can be confusing. This basic overview will help you to:

Understand and ask questions about a quote; Assess whether a cheap cat insurance option will provide sufficient protection. Cat health insurance covers all or part of the costs that come up when a pet is ill or injured-vet fees, diagnostic tests, medications, surgeries, and vet hospital stays. Cover comes with a maximum level, a defined period of cover, and an excess, with or without a co-insurance amount.

Three Different Cover Plans

There are three key variations of cover levels:

The most thorough type of cover is called “Life Cover”. This type of pet cat insurance policy will pay vet bills for as long as your pet is ill, subject to a maximum amount for each calendar year. This type of cover is particularly helpful when a pet has a long-term condition such as diabetes. The annual maximum might be expressed as a single amount, such as

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Luis JJ Teixeira asked:




We all know you love your cat dearly, but vets’ bills these days can be a couple hundred pounds for something small. If things go drastically wrong, then you could be looking at bills over thousands of pounds. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could take out insurance for your cat, then you’d have peace of mind when disaster strikes.

Cats tend to be solitary animals, but some behave more like dogs, seeking the attention of their owner on a regular base. However your cat behaves, you love him/her and want to provide him/her with the best that you can. It often happens that the animals in our lives take on human characteristics and we think of them as our children. If you want the best for your children, surely you also want the best for your dear cat.

There are a variety of different types of packages that are available from most insurance companies. You have the option of choosing the cheapest, most basic option, and then you get the vip packages. The latter being more costly, yet offering the most comprehensive cover, and then some. You get to choose what suits you and your pet in terms of cover and thus cost as well.

Cats younger than a certain age (11 years in some cases) will be insured quite easily while those slightly older might find cover a little more pricey and difficult to find. You do get life insurance for cats where your pet will be covered for the rest of his/her life, as long as you stay with the same insurer. This would be advisable especially in cases where your feline friend has a chronic illness.

There may be certain exclusions depending on the breed of your cat. Some breeds tend to suffer from injury or illness more often than others. This may affect the monthly premium rather than the exclusions depending on your needs. Some pet owners feel so close to their pets that they receive compensation when their pet dies. The choice is yours.

With escalating costs of treatments, it is advisable to give your gorgeous cat a guarantee on hid/her life. If you can afford less than

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Eddie Lamb asked:




You probably know very few people who do not own a pet. Most households have at least one type of pet, while a large majority has a mixed variety. Dogs and cats are by far the most popular household pets, with fish and birds coming in afterwards. The good thing about having fish or birds as pets is that they rarely have health problems which would need the attention of a veterinarian. With dogs and cats, this is not true. Cats and dogs have health concerns which can be very costly, so it is a wise financial move to invest in a pet insurance policy.

An insurance policy not only protects your pet, it protects your family from financial hardship. Vet bills can be really expensive in some instances. The minimal cost of the policy will more than justify the expenses you could suffer later.

The same illnesses that plague mankind can also strike our canine and feline friends. It is not uncommon for a dog or a cat to have cancer. There are other diseases which can strike our little friends which can drive up a huge veterinary bill. This is including the chance that your pet would be severely injured in an accident. A pet which had to have an operation and veterinary stay because of an illness or accident could cause the owner to pay thousands of dollars in veterinary care. An insurance policy which covers our little friends would help absorb the impact of such a high medical bill.

Just as you and your family members have regular doctor visits, such as physician and dental visits, your pets have them also. If you had an insurance policy which covered pets, you would be able to cut the cost of your veterinary visits. Preventative care is often covered in most.net and cat insurance plans. This helps keep them healthy so it is less likely they will get sick. It saves the insurance company money over the long term.

While shopping for insurance for your cat or dog it would help if you kept in mind how much money you would like to pay out of pocket for each visit. Your deductible will determine how much your insurance will cost. The higher your deductible, the lower the insurance premium will be. Keep in mind that the typical policy for a pay it will run you less than $20 monthly. This is a very minimal amount, considered that some vet bills for extended care can run up a bill in the thousands of dollars.

If multiple pets, you may be able to get a discount from some insurance companies. While on the topic of deductibles, also ask about a multiple pet discount. Although the insurance policies which cater to pets do not cost much, it is wise to save money anywhere you can.

One of the factors which will help you in finding insurance for your cat or dog is the fact that it has become quite popular over the last several years. Insurance companies have recognized this trend and have scrambled to create policies fashioned exclusively for pets. You may be surprised to find your insurance company offers this type of insurance. Before you go anywhere else, you may wish to inquire with your current insurance agent.

No pet owner will deny that their pet has achieved family status. Since we all love our pets so much, it only makes it easier to justify the small cost of pet insurance. You will be covered should your pet need extended veterinary care, and your pet will be covered should they become critically ill or injured.

Josie K Anderson asked:




Just like people, pets are getting bigger. They may now be domesticated, but our pets’ ancestors were used to scavenging and eating whatever they could get, whenever they could get it. This hunter instinct has been inherited by today’s pets, transforming into a dangerous type of gluttony.

As responsible pet owners it is important to give them a high standard of care, which includes helping your cat to maintain a healthy weight. It’s worth remembering that a fat cat is an unhealthy cat and an unhealthy cat is an expensive cat. While pet insurance can alleviate the strain of vets’ bills a more responsible cat owner should nip the problem in the bud. There are two main ways of keeping your kitty in tip-top condition, throughout its life.

Firstly consider his or her diet. Pets shouldn’t really be given the same food as humans. They also need specific diets depending on their age. A kitten wouldn’t eat the same as an elderly cat, in the same way a child wouldn’t eat the same as a grandparent. Try to buy a brand of cat food that is made of natural ingredients and try to avoid leaving food down once your moggy has taken their fill. Also you may find that your cat might suit several small meals a day rather than one large dish. If your cat has been confirmed to have special dietary requirements don’t forget to check your cat insurance policy. A lot of insurers will help to cover the costs you may incur from your pet’s specific diet.

Secondly, think cat-tivity. It’s not as straight forward exercising a cat as it is a dog, especially if they stay indoors, but it is possible with a little imagination.

Though it may seem like they spend their days asleep cats are mostly active between dusk and dawn. Take advantage of this by enticing them with cat toys, such as fishing rods. Catnip is also known to increase activity in cats – and then there’s ‘cat furniture’. If you really want to treat your kitty look for something with platforms, scratching posts and walk ways, which will keep their mind alert and body in great shape.

Keep an eye on your cat. They should be covered in a thin layer of fat but not to the extent that the shape of their rib cage can’t be seen. Remember, a cat that’s too skinny or too tubby could be suffering from a more serious underlying medical condition. If you’re concerned about the size of your kitty then visit the vet. They will be able to weigh them and advise you.

If your cat is classified as obese don’t panic. Your veterinary practitioner will be able to recommend a particular food and course of action. They may even do a few tests, which will hopefully put your mind at ease.

By following these simple tips you’ll hopefully be able to stop your pet becoming one of Britain’s fatty cats. It’s worth remembering that although the way to your moggy’s heart may be through it’s belly, that could also be the way to a heart condition too.

Terry King asked:




It seems that the cost of treatment at the vets seems to be getting more expensive with every year that passes. Before any vets reading this take offence I know that most vets still offer very good value for the treatment provided.

Personal experience has taught me to avoid nasty financial surprises when owning pets, by taking out pet insurance with a reputable provider.

When choosing a policy there are a number of key things to check for to make sure the policy you are buying meets your needs. Monthly premiums can vary quite dramatically but the cheapest premiums are not necessarily offering the best value cover insurance cover for your pet.

When considering pet insurance there are a number of areas to consider. The most obvious being the cost of the premiums and the size of your budget. Average monthly premiums vary depending on the breed of animal you are looking to insure, age, medical history, age and your location or postcode. The typical range of premiums depending on the level of cover is

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Rudi ONeil asked:




Do you have a cat that you love? Then you are going to want to be able to get it sorted if it is ever taken ill or involved in any sort of accident. With the cost of veterinarian care being astronomical, the only feasible way to be able to do this, is by procuring a cat insurance policy. There are so many things that could happen to your cat that to not get insurance would make you an irresponsible cat -owner.

It is good news that the increased cost of going to the vets has been offset somewhat by the InterNet. The amount of competition that has opened up since the internet started means that a cat owner can now get insurance for cheaper than ever before, and obviously in a far easier fashion than ever before. It is possible for people with all budgets to be able to get a policy that is perfect.

The different things that you can get coverage for are; prescriptions, x-rays, diagnostic tests, illnesses or emergencies, and injuries that your cat sustains. Dependent on your budget you may be of the opinion that all of these coverage elements are essential. If you need to economise then you may want to pick just a couple of ones that you deem as mandatory. Obviously being covered against everything is going to mean that your premium is going to be just about as high as it can be. this is the reason behind so many people choosing policies that offer part-cover. Part-cover reduces the premium cost of a policy substantially.

Always be aware if you are a cat owner, that cats have an a priori ability to develop cancer. With this being the case it is always an option with cat insurance to be able to get cover that protects you against any costs that are accrued as a result of your cat becoming cancerous.

Once you have decided what you do and do not want to be covered for in relation to your cat insurance, you can go on the Internet and get plenty of quotes. the reason for this is so that you can establish a reasonable price for the level of cover that you want. Once you have chosen a company you will need to read the fine-print and terms and conditions, so that you are fully aware of what you are getting.