What about a Marine Claims Adjuster?

While looking for different ways to break in to the marine accident investigation world, my mom sent me a link to a job opening at Travelers insurance in Seattle. The opening is for a position called "Claim Rep, Liability - Ocean Marine." A number of the required duties seem to parallel the duties of an accident investigator. They list the following duties:

Investigate each claim through prompt contact with appropriate parties such as policyholders, accounts, claimants, law enforcement agencies, witnesses, agents, medical providers and technical experts to determine the extent of liability, damages, and contribution potential. Take necessary statements.

Of course a difference between being a claim rep for an insurance company and being an investigator for the NTSB is that at NTSB you are trying to learn what happened so that it doesn't happen again. At Travelers you are trying to figure out what happened so that you can reach the "fairest" monetary settlement with your claimant.

I did a little reading into the business of marine claims representatives. I found a short article, linked below, encouraging marine claims reps not to underestimate the importance of using experienced marine surveyors. I guess one of the positive aspects of this job is that you could enter the field with minimal experience in the maritime world, and through interacting and employing various marine experts as contractors, you could learn a lot about the marine accident field.

I applied for the job with Travelers in Seattle. Their employment website is a complete disaster, but I was able, after some struggle, to get some form of my resume send off into that great internet abyss. A phone call back would be quite interesting. I'd love to talk with someone at their office about who they are looking for, what people actually do in this position, among other things.

DOCUMENTS

• Claims Education Magazine: Article on Marine Claims Reps