Glenn Navarre, Allied Insurance supervisor
Date: 4/25/2007Contact: Joan Barrett/800-690-0070
Glenn Navarre, like many adjusters working for 20 years or so, started at GAB. In 1885, the Western Adjusting and Inspection Company was formed to adjust losses for a group of fire insurance companies. After the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, the General Adjustment Bureau (now GAB Robins North America) was formed and grew nationwide in the 40’s and 50’s. For years, GAB was the training benchmark for insurance adjusters, a place to start in the business and learn the complexities of insurance adjusting. Glenn was just one of many adjusters who benefited from the training received from the independent adjusting company.
Glenn was raised in Olympia, WA and after completing high school, his family moved to California and Glenn has never looked back, or returned to Washington. He was a Criminal Justice major at CSUS but didn’t want to pursue police work. Law school wasn’t interesting either but he liked the investigative aspects of following through on insurance claims in casualty as well as property. He found the background helpful as he started as a multi-line adjuster for GAB. After three years, he went to Hanover Insurance as a property adjuster. Another three years later, he joined Republic Insurance and stayed for five years until Allied Insurance became his new employer. He is now a property supervisor for Allied and has a full complement of adjusters on his team in Northern California and Reno. “I like to do ride-alongs with my adjusters,” Glenn says, “it keeps me in touch with what challenges they face with customer demands and management demands on their time and resources.”
Glenn has a pair of Scottish Terriers and the active and intelligent animals take up a lot of Glenn’s free time and keep him company as he works on the landscape at his house in Citrus Heights. Glenn has citrus trees and ornamental shrubs in his yard and enjoys maintaining the yard and pool. From the first look at the neighborhood, he felt at home there and enjoys the quiet surroundings and the friendly neighbors. He is planning a renovation of the mid-century modern house and will complete many of the updates himself.
When the hurricanes wreaked havoc on the South and Southeast several years ago, Glenn headed for Florida to work as a team leader for 3 weeks. As the weeks turned into months, Glenn worried about the dogs in a kennel and was very grateful when his co-worker, Keith Pearman and his wife picked his dogs up and brought them into their animal friendly home to join the Pearman pack. Everyone did fine; Glenn had some adventures being evacuated multiple times. The CAT team started in Atlanta for training on the Nationwide software system and moved to West Palm Beach until Hurricane Ivan moved in and the teams were sent to Dallas until that storm blew over. Then Hurricane Jean came to town and the group hurried to Naples. Finally, the hurricanes blew out and the adjusters could concentrate on adjusting the damage they left behind. After a 3 month deployment, Glenn was glad to be home where he stayed until the San Diego wildfires and that assignment really was for 3 weeks, as advertised.
Technology has changed the job of insurance adjusting, Glenn says, ‘for the better and the worse. The estimating systems save time, they are definitely more convenient for the adjuster but the same systems invite scrutiny of the tiniest aspects of the repairs.” “Adjusters can do much, much more than before- it’s not unusual to have the loss estimated and a check presented to the homeowners right then and there. On the other hand, the bar has been raised and expectations are higher than ever before. Claims are settled in days, not weeks, and it puts tremendous pressure on the adjuster to have intimate knowledge of construction methods, computer skills, policy coverage and people skills. It’s a lot to expect of one person.”
“The field adjuster position is a better job these days,” Glenn continues, “with adjusters working from their home offices, they spend 2 days a week in the office and the rest in the field; it’s the best of both worlds. There is both solitude to get the maximum amount of work done and socialization in the office to avoid feeling unconnected.”