Bill Spell - Public Adjuster

05/12/2026

Take a look at this screenshot. A carrier manager just slashed a $60k project down to $5k and the assigned adjuster knows it is wrong.

When this happens, you—the contractor—are usually the first person the homeowner calls. Suddenly, you are on the defensive.

Your client might see you as the bad guy. They might think you are gouging them. When the carrier lowballs the claim, the homeowner often looks at your bid as the problem. You end up defending your pricing instead of the carrier defending their coverage.

If they don’t think you are the bad guy, they might ask you to defend your quote to their insurance company. You are the best person to do it, right? In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to start arguing about what they owe, coverage exclusions etc. In Texas, doing this on behalf of a client without a license isn't just a "grey area", it can be a felony. Besides, the insurance company doesn’t have to talk to you. They are only required to talk to their customer or their licensed representative.

The Time-Suck is Real

Every hour you spend on the phone arguing with a desk adjuster about "manager edits" is an hour you aren’t on a job site or closing new leads. It’s "free labor" that hurts your bottom line.

This is what I do but with a license to the HAVE to talk to me. While you build and sell other jobs, I get the money for the client so you can build their job later.

Let’s keep you on the job site and out of the legal crosshairs. DM me if you’ve had an estimate gutted recently.

04/08/2026

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Learn how policyholders can identify and work with an ethical public adjuster after property damage. Green, Klein, Wood & Jones explains what to look for, warning signs to avoid, and how adjusters help navigate insurance claims.

01/22/2026

As a Public Insurance Adjuster representing homeowners, I see underpaid and denied claims all the time. Most of the time I get them turned around and paid out properly. Some of these could have been prevented early in the process if certain steps had been taken though. Here is what I recommend doing if you have a burst pipe.

1. Shut off the water. You have a duty to prevent further damage to the best of your ability. If you are leaving the house, make sure you have someone checking it on a regular basis.
2. Call your insurance company or your agent – Give them notice of your loss. Remember, this is a loss from a burst pipe. Your house did not flood. Flood is defined in the insurance world as rising water from outside the home. I know of burst pipe claims that were initially denied because the homeowner reported their house flooded. It’s easy to overturn but causes delays.
3. Document your thermostat setting – Assuming you had power at the time of the pipe break, you need to be able to demonstrate you had your heater running. You have a duty to prevent the loss to the best of your ability.
4. Take pictures/video before you start cleaning up. – This will help determine the extent of the water intrusion and avoid future arguments about why this or that was removed by a contractor who forgot to take pictures as they were working.
5. Keep your damaged personal contents – It is easiest for your adjuster to pay for damaged items if they are able to view the damages themselves.
6. Separate your personal contents between salvageable and non-salvageable in your opinion – Two lists will have to be made when it comes time to get compensated. It’s best to do physical separation early while you are already having to move these things around.
7. Keep the burst pipe – Whether a plumber, handyman or you, yourself, replace the section of damaged pipe, make sure you keep that piece of pipe for the insurance adjuster to view. They will ask to see it. It might not be a claim breaker if the plumber tosses it out but better to have it when they ask.
8. Remove the wet building materials from the home – if wet insulation and drywall are left in place for too long, mold can start to grow. It’s terrible for your health, you have a duty to prevent further damage like mold and most policies in Texas have limits or outright exclusions for mold mitigation. It’s best to avoid it if you can. Most people will have a professional mitigation company do this work.
9. Keep your receipts – Almost anything you do and anything you have to buy as a direct result of this will be reimbursable. The key is necessity and reasonability. Is it necessary solely because of the burst pipe and did you spend a reasonable amount of money. You can’t go stay the night in The Four Seasons if that far exceeds the current standard of your home unless it is the only place with rooms still available and you can prove that.

There’s no way I could cover every unique situation that might arise in one short list but I’m happy to answer questions in the comments if there are any.

Send a message to learn more

12/10/2025

If you have ever gotten frustrated trying to call your insurance adjuster, here is the reason you can never reach them. They are only required to take incoming calls for one hour per day. It's probably the same with most insurance companies. With claim loads in the hundreds, they simply cannot answer all the calls.

12/04/2025

When Insurance Companies Protect Their Profits More Than Your Home

Every homeowner buys insurance for one reason: peace of mind.
You pay your premiums. You expect help when disaster strikes. You expect honesty.

But a recent investigative article out of Oklahoma paints a very different picture of what’s happening behind the scenes at the highest levels of America’s largest homeowners insurance company, State Farm. What it reveals should concern every homeowner in Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond.

This isn’t a story about a roof.
It’s a story about priorities and the shocking lengths a billion-dollar company will go to protect its bottom line.

“This Case Was Not About $1,400”

One Oklahoma family, the Hurshes, suffered hail damage so obvious that contractors could see it from the ground. Their homeowners policy covered accidental damage.
Yet State Farm offered them $1,400. Nowhere near the cost of a roof replacement. Even after a second hailstorm eight months later, State Farm continued to deny or minimize the loss. The Hurshes ended up borrowing against their home to pay $22,000 out of pocket.

When their case finally reached a judge, the court made something crystal clear: “This case was not about $1,400.”

Insurance companies don’t deploy teams of lawyers over a $1,400 disagreement. They fight like that when something bigger — much bigger — is on the line.

A Scheme Designed at the Top — Not a Mistake in the Field

Court filings in Oklahoma allege that in 2020, senior decision-makers at State Farm created a “Wind Hail Model Enhancement Team.” A program specifically designed to pre-deny claims and dramatically reduce payouts on hail-damaged roofs. This means adjusters were told to deny claims before even looking at them.

The petitions allege adjusters were trained to lowball or refuse roof replacements, even when damage was obvious. They also allege that State Farm coordinated with consulting firms and engineering groups to redefine what “hail damage” meant, making it easier to deny legitimate claims.

The goal?
Cut hail losses by 50%.
Not a small improvement. Not more accuracy.
A hard, predetermined number and billions saved nationwide.

This is why so many homeowners, from Oklahoma to Texas and beyond feel blindsided when their valid claims are dismissed as “wear and tear” or “pre-existing damage” or any other reason they can come up with.

It’s not bad luck.
It’s not a rogue adjuster.
It’s company policy.

Why Did State Farm Pay Massive Settlements on Modest Roof Claims?

Here’s where things get really telling.
In an earlier wave of 125 hail-related lawsuits, attorneys forced State Farm to hand over internal documents: training manuals, emails, performance evaluations, and more. The very documents that could prove whether a denial scheme existed.

And what happened after those documents were produced?
State Farm settled every single one of the 125 cases.
Quietly. Individually. And with confidentiality agreements.

One case settled for $3 million on a house worth only $250,000 and damages far less than that.

Ask yourself:
Why would a company pay $3 million to settle a dispute over a roof worth a fraction of that?
Because the money wasn’t the real issue.
The documents were.

Those internal records, the manuals about “how to talk to policyholders,” the internal performance goals, the instructions for reducing roof payouts were never meant to see daylight.
State Farm didn’t settle because the homeowners suddenly “deserved” millions.

They settled because once those documents hit a public jury, the entire business model would have been exposed.
Profit protection disguised as claim resolution.

“Cheating Your First-Party Insureds Is Not a Trade Secret”

That’s what one attorney told the court. And he’s right.
Yet State Farm continues to argue that these documents are “confidential.” They continue fighting to keep them sealed. They continue insisting they did nothing wrong even after their own disclosures caused homeowners to be denied coverage or hit with skyrocketing premiums by other insurers.

Meanwhile, State Farm’s net worth increased from $134 billion to $145 billion in a single year.
Seems like the “cost savings” worked.

What Homeowners Need to Understand

If your claim is underpaid or denied, the problem isn’t you.
It’s not your roof.
It’s not your contractor.
You may be up against a corporate strategy built to minimize payouts not fulfill promises.

When homeowners try to fight this alone, insurers count on them becoming frustrated or discouraged. Many simply give up.

But here’s the truth:
When policyholders push back, insurers pay attention.
That’s why State Farm spent millions settling hail cases the moment internal documents were at risk of becoming public.

This Is Why Public Adjusters Exist

My role, and the role of any ethical public adjusting firm, is to stand between you and a system that often prioritizes profit over people.
You deserve someone who knows the process, understands the games insurers play, and isn’t afraid to push back when the claim handling doesn’t match the promises in the policy.

Homeowners aren’t asking for anything unreasonable.
Just a fair assessment.
A roof repaired when a roof is damaged.
A claim paid according to the terms of the policy, not according to a corporate cost-cutting agenda designed in a high-rise conference room.

Final Thought

One of the homeowners put it best:
“I was foolish for expecting an insurance company to hold up their end of the bargain.”
Homeowners shouldn’t have to feel like suckers for trusting their insurer.
But until companies put people before profits, homeowners will continue to need strong advocates by their side.

If you’ve been underpaid, denied, or told your damage is “nothing,” don’t give up.
Get help. Ask questions. Protect your rights.
And remember:
Your insurance company isn’t your neighbor.
Your advocate is.

Link to article in the Oklahoman here: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/state/2025/12/01/state-farm-hail-damage-lawsuits-oklahoma/87551117007/

11/25/2025

With today's tornado and the ongoing tornado watch, potentially hundreds of homeowners could be affected terribly. Insurance companies don't always get it right and most people don't know what to do when that happens. If you know anyone that needs help convincing the insurance company to do what they should or just doesn't even know where to start, have them get in touch with me. Insurance companies have adjusters looking out for their best interest. Shouldn't homeowners?

10/22/2025

An Adjuster Who Wants to Do the Right Thing

The anonymous adjuster who posted this has verified information from the contractor for the homeowner positively identifying the wood flooring that runs throughout the entire downstairs. His insurance company employer commissioned a report from ITEL to determine a proper cost for this material before they knew the positive identification of the flooring. The ITEL report has a suggested value for the flooring that is less than what the adjuster knows to be true yet his manager is still telling him to stick with the lesser value.

This happens more than you might think. At least three other adjusters who replied to his post have had the same thing happen to them over the years. This is just one of the many games I see played to keep claims costs down.

10/01/2025

A Cautionary Tale
One of my friends showed me a post from someone in their neighborhood, asking if I could help them. The post said:

“For 15 months, I have been fighting my insurance company for Hurricane Beryl damages. Since that time, this is the consequential damage to the living room ceiling. Had they replaced the roof a year ago, they would have had a lot less to pay for. We’ve gone through the appraisal process and the umpire process. The umpire held on to his report for a long time before finally awarding me $21,000 for everything. Needless to say, we’re still fighting with them. My contractor will be out today to put in a temporary fix until it’s all settled.”

I don’t know any more details but I think this person got no advice, or more likely, BAD advice from their contractor.

There are many duties an insured party has as part of an insurance contract. One of the most important is to protect the property from further damages after a loss. The pictures they posted of the “Consequential” damage to their living room looked very similar to the one above. I’m not posting their pictures here. It sounds like they never put a tarp over the roof damage and are only now, 15 months later, going to do a “temporary fix.”

Every insurance policy you will ever see will require the insured party to mitigate or protect the property from further damage. They are required to reimburse the reasonable costs to do so. Failure to protect from future damages could result in an outright denial of the claim. More likely, the insurance company will cover what they think was damages caused by the covered event and leave the remaining preventable damages for the homeowner to pay out of pocket.

Mold growth because you failed to remove known wet drywall and insulation in a timely manner. Preventable.

Belongings stolen and house trashed because you didn’t board up damaged windows and doors. Preventable.

Homeowners and business owners need to know this. Contractors also need to know this. Don’t put yourself or someone else in a worse financial situation by not preventing additional damages.

08/15/2025

There are all kinds of improper things I see when I deal with insurance company adjusters and way more going on than just the cost to repair. This one will hit home for everyone. My client is a post retirement age single mother of a special needs young man. Her home took serious water damage from Hurricane Beryl. Her insurance company agreed to pay her rent at a temporary location while the work is done on her home. As they should. This is called Additional Living Expenses or ALE.

Since she has a mortgage still, the mortgage company gets to hold the money and release it to her as repairs get done. Her mortgage company has seriously slow rolled the release of funds to her for the repairs so she is still not back in her home yet.

We submit monthly receipts for rent so the insurance company can reimburse her. This month, the adjuster told me “I reviewed the file, no additional ALE payment can be extended. Member has maxed out her policy limit of 12 months.”

Naturally, I had already reviewed her policy. I had to explain to the adjuster that works FOR the insurance company that in the event of a natural disaster, her ALE coverage was automatically extended for an additional 12 months.

The 12 month base coverage shows up on page 1 of the policy plain as day. That’s a screenshot of it above. The reference to the endorsement which extends the ALE is on page 2 but it only says “Special Loss Settlement.” Nothing about what it actually does. Seems like that would be something nice to know about. The only way you would know is if you go to page 57 of the document and read the paragraph I screenshot above. Page 57.

I’ve got a lot of problems with this but two BIG problems with it. First, if I hadn’t been around, my client would have assumed what the adjuster said was true and she would now be coming out of pocket for rent and a mortgage. On a fixed income, that means borrowing money she does not have. The adjuster would have been perfectly happy with that. But even worse, consider how many other people with this same policy the adjuster has told that to. I strongly doubt that this adjuster has gone back to any of those people and offered extensions. Will this adjuster continue to tell other people they don’t have any more coverage now that I have called them on it? Is it the adjuster’s fault for not listening during training or did the insurance company intentionally not train them on these finer aspects in order to save money across thousands of claims.

07/30/2025

Turning $9,100 into $62,000

Here is a good example of how I can help homeowners get paid what they are owed for a loss to their home. This customer had an AC drain pan overflow. It damaged some drywall and their flooring. They did all the right things. They reported the loss promptly, mitigated the damages by having a professional mitigation company remove the damaged materials and dry the structure and they cooperated with their insurance company during their investigation.

Their insurance company told them “Your policy carries a $10,000 limit for water damage for claims such as yours.” They paid them $9,100 after applying their deductible. Luckily they weren’t satisfied and sought professional help.

After I reviewed their policy, I determined that the insurance company misapplied their own exclusion. I refuted their application of the exclusion and presented them a package that explained why they owed my client $62,000. If they were never called out on it, they would have been happy to never to correct their error. You know how I know that? Because rather than pay the claim in a standard way, they opted to do it through a negotiated document that requires non-disclosure of all parties.

I see this a lot. Most of the time it is an insurance company not wanting to admit in writing that they owe for something as simple as replacing carpet in bedrooms when the hallway is affected or for painting around corners when there is no trim or other common sense things like that. These are the situations where homeowners and contractors get stuck and the insurance company says its against their guidelines.

The bottom line is that people often need professional representation during an insurance claim process and a lot of times they don’t even know it. If you are a contractor, pull yourself out of the argument. The insurance company thinks you are trying to line your own pockets. Introduce me to your client. I’ll get the client the money they need for the project while you build other projects and keep you in the loop along the way.