A National Public Adjusting Firm
Changes and immense growth are happening for C3 Group and the restoration industry. Announcements of mergers, collaboration, education, and national expansion kicked 2021 off with a bang. So, what exactly does this all mean for for the entire industry?
C3 Group Acquisitions
Listen to this Bull “L2TB” is an educational podcast for the restoration industry.
C3 Group began discussions in late 2020 with a Georgia based Public Adjusting firm, Allgood Adjustments. Allgood, owned and operated by Desiree Fleming and Mathew Mulholland, serviced an average of 600 residential and commercial claims per year. Allgood began making changes to exclusively handling commercial claims when talks began with Matt Behrens and C3 Group.
Matt Behrens was first attracted to the firm because of Mulholland’s online podcast, Listen to this Bull. The podcast’s purpose is the sharing of educational content within the industry. Something that C3 Group continues to prioritize and strive for.
With Behrens’ and Mulholland’s shared passion for education, C3 Group began a sponsorship program for Listen to this Bull allowing ‘L2TB’ to become its own entity. This gives Mulholland the ability to focus solely on the educational aspects he enjoys and the industry lacks.
Public Adjuster Education
The National Claims Institute to offer classes by years end.
Sharing the mindset that education is crucial to the Public Adjusting industry is Frank Dalton, owner of one of the largest residential Public Adjusting firms in the country, Coastal Claims.
“Education is so important,” Dalton said during his discussion on Listen to this Bull with Behrens and Mulholland. “We have something important in the works. In-person learning and virtual education. Hoping to have classes open before year’s end.”
C3 Group and Coastal Claims are very diligent to maintain continued education for their employees and industry compliance allowing constant improvement on claim processes. This commonality brought Behrens, Mulholland and Dalton to discussing the need for training and growth in education for their industry. Behrens explained his views on the absence of education within the Public Adjusting industry:
“Our industry tends to hold on to their ‘secrets’ and never really share their knowledge. We specifically set out almost a decade ago to learn this business and TEACH others how to do it also. Bottom line, the industry needs more of us. It needs less ego and more discussion on adequate education, data and process. Less flashy sales and more actually doing what the job requires.”
What the educational piece entails has not yet been announced in its entirety. However, the industry can look forward to more regarding an educational outlet from the National Claims Institute (NCI).
Building a “One Stop Shop” to Service Claims.
[left] Mulholland, Dalton, Behrens, and Remington Huggins of Huggins Law on set of the American Contractor Show discussing upcoming growth for the restoration industry at SVG’s Win The Storm 2021 conference in New Orleans, LA. At Storm Venture Group’s Win The Storm 2021 event in New Orleans, LA. a large announcement was made.
In the Public Adjusting industry it is difficult to find a company that can fully service both residential and commercial insurance claims. Typically, a public adjusting firm specializes in either one or the other. This leaves something to be desired for contractors wanting to utilize a firm to handle their entire book of business.
C3 Group and Coastal Claims (now abbreviated to C2) have decided to create a national cooperation to benefit the industry. “This entire collaboration is about processing and servicing all claims,” Behrens stated. C3 and C2 will collaborate on claims, both residential or commercial, to ensure they are properly serviced by the appropriate adjuster.
Dalton discussed the collaboration with C3 and why they chose to pursue it:
“I feel taking on commercial claims would have done a disservice to our client base and Behrens not wanting to take on residential, it was like the stars just aligned to have an entity that can handle it all. The worst thing we could have done would have been to find another large PA firm in Florida and connect with them. The purpose is to spread out and mobilize properly.”
So What Do You Mean By National?
The purpose of this collaboration is, again, servicing claims properly. For this to happen effectively, both companies will have residential and commercial claim handlers licensed in every state. This will give the ability to mobilize and correctly investigate each and every property loss as needed. The goal is to adequately service any claim, from a small supplement to millions of dollars, correctly and efficiently.
C3 and Coastal Claims are building a streamlined process for contractors to send any claim they may need assistance on. Mulholland noted his observations of the past and how this collaboration will be different:
“The key here is servicing the claims properly. There are plenty of large PA firms that have gone nationwide and claim that they can actually do this thing. They take on every claim under the sun and a year or two later disappear because they fizzled out. They took too many claims on and they didn’t have enough people to service the claims correctly. I know that this is something that we are all very cognizant of.”
With the insurance companie’s ability to strong arm their clients and their representatives, this collaboration gives the industry a chance to come together as one to work towards one main goal; to adequately represent policyholders and ensure clients receive fair claim settlements.
Behrens explained his reasoning he believes there is a need for national collaboration. “We want to help!” Behrens said. “Right now the industry is mostly a bunch of mom and pop shops. We want to help clients, the policyholders, contractors and each other to really make this industry flourish.”
Did You Say Help Other Public Adjusters?
With all of this building and growth for the restoration industry, there is still an opportunity for those that would like to be involved. It is typical for people to be well versed in one or two aspects of any industry. Public Adjusting is not an exception to that. C3 Group and Coastal Claims find it extremely important within their own companies to place people in the correct places. This allows their employees the opportunity for growth and to excel in what they are good at and also enjoy.
Dalton clarified how other Public Adjusters could be involved with this collaboration. “We’re not looking to have people work FOR us, it’s WITH us. If you like your brand then great we want to help you build that and make it known everywhere. You do not have to lose your identity to work with us,” Dalton said.
With a collaboration of firms and people working together to build a foundation for the industry, the potential is endless.
Behrens spoke about what he wants out of this collaboration. “We want to work together,” Behrens said. “We are a collaboration that can really help pretty much anybody. No matter what part of the process you love, we can find a place for you in this program.”
If you would like to be involved or want to know more, C3 Group and Coastal Claims would enjoy the opportunity to discuss what you can gain from being a part of an industry-altering change that is so desperately needed.
