Eric Hartwell interview
Date: 11/10/2005Contact: Joan Barrett/800-690-0070
When Eric was 9 years old, his father, Jerry Hartwell, moved his family to the Eureka area, where his father accepted an adjusting position with the independent adjusting firm, Rooney and Anderson. Jerry Hartwell passed on more than a respect for the business of insurance claims to his son; he also instilled in the young Eric a love of the outdoors that continues to this day.
Eric studied for a degree in Range Management and after graduation, worked for the Bureau of Land Management for 3 years. In search of greater career opportunities, Eric left government work and he started with Capital Insurance Group (CIG) in the Ferndale office as a field adjuster. From the northern-most part of California, he relocated to Monterey for a couple of years and then to Fresno and Bakersfield. Eric has been a branch claim manager in the Sacramento office for 8 years of his 18 year career with the same carrier.
Along the way he acknowledges his mentors, Kelly Taylor (now with CSE) for creative thinking and a different perspective. Tom Cox, still the manager of the Ferndale office, at one time held the unique position of being both underwriting and claims manager for that office. He taught Eric to view independent agents as a “team member” and involve them in the investigative and claims handling process.
Eric always tries to ‘pay forward’ the good mentoring that he received in learning field work to the employees that he oversees. He recognizes the importance of “teaching the process” and he considers himself fortunate to have an experienced and capable claim staff. He responded to an observation that the morale among the staff seems unusually high by stating that “CIG tries to do the right thing and look for sections within the policy where coverage would apply.” “CIG strives for a good relationship with the agents by doing it’s best to provide a good claims experience for the policy holder.” Because CIG does not have a direct repair program, adjusters try to avoid referring policy holders to any particular contractor. Eric points out that there are many good contractors within CIG’s Northern California Claim Branch territory, and Eric and his staff, recognize and appreciate the quality of the construction vendors servicing their territory. Eric views the relationship between contractors and adjusters as a partnership and places a high value on those contractors with a customer service and communication focus.
In providing his view from a regional company perspective, CIG writes coverage in California, Oregon and Northern Nevada, Eric notes that the market seems to be settling into a more reasonable attitude toward water damage claims. The levels of submissions are slowly returning and he feels that carriers are less concerned about exposure than in the past. CIG has added a claims intake office in Reno, NV that handles the smaller claims in order to free up the field adjusters’ time to devote to their larger claims. Eric says that this innovation has allowed for a higher level of service to all degrees of damage claims. The CIG book of business is growing and the claims naturally increase along with that situation, but he feels that the situation is well in hand.
From his family, Eric learned the love of outdoor activities and still takes every chance to be outside. He regularly walks to work and enjoys weekends backpacking with friends. Communing with nature also means a break from the materialism and stress that has become so common in the pace that we all live in. Eric loves to take his family camping, the children are 4 and 6 years old and Eric hopes that they inherit their Dad and Grandfather’s love of nature.