Introducing Russell D. Longcore

Hi, folks! I'm Russell Longcore. I'm an insurance adjuster living in Marietta, Georgia. I've been in the insurance business since 1973, and the most recent 15 years, I've been in the claims adjusting side of the business. I learned a lot about insurance as an agent. But, I learned to most about insurance when I began to adjust claims.

Insurance is all about the claims side of the business. Wouldn't you agree that nothing else matters than getting your claim paid IN FULL?

Most of the people for whom I’ve adjusted claims had never had a property or casualty insurance claim before. Most of those same people had NEVER read their policy, even after filing the claim. They had no idea what the claims process was, and they relied on me...the adjuster…to walk them through the process.

It is for you, and people just like you that I wrote a book entitled "Insurance Claim Secrets REVEALED!" I show consumers how to take control of their insurance claims, and add hundreds or even thousands more dollars to their claim settlements.

Most times, people who have had a loss are on the raw edge of emotion. Isn’t is natural to be fearful in a situation where you don’t feel you’re in control…where you don’t know what will happen next, and you’re scared you’ll be “ripped off?” Most everyone has heard a story from a relative or friend about an insurance claim that went badly.

People like that need solid advice and a strategy on what to do to get their claim paid.

They need to understand the claims process completely so that they are not at the mercy of the insurance company, the claims adjuster and the claims examiner.

They need to be paid every dollar that they are entitled to collect.

They need to have peace of mind knowing that their claim was handled correctly.

Insurance companies rely upon the ignorance of their own policyholders. So do many claims adjusters. An uninformed policyholder will rarely argue with an adjuster, because they don’t know what they don’t know.

Let me repeat that phrase so you can think about it long and hard.

MOST POLICYHOLDERS OR CLAIMANTS DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW.

They don’t know what is in their insurance policy, and they don’t know the claims process, and that lack of knowledge can cost them thousands in settlement dollars and all of their peace of mind.

Everything that you must do to file a claim is in your insurance policy. WHAT’S MISSING IS HOW TO DO IT.

Think of it this way: I hand you a blueprint for a small house, and tell you, “Build this house over there on that lot.” I’ve told you WHAT to do…I’ve even given you a document that tells you what must be done. WHAT’S MISSING IS HOW TO TAKE THAT BLUEPRINT AND BUILD THE HOUSE.

Do you know how to pour concrete or lay cement blocks?

Do you know how to install shingles?

Do you know how to install electrical wiring?

You may build a house, but it probably won’t look anything like what’s on that blueprint.

If you’ve never built a house before, you won’t know what to do first…or next…or last.
House building takes experience. Or it takes very detailed instructions on how to build a house…step by step with no steps left out.

If you have NO EXPERIENCE in house building, then you must either rely on someone who does have that experience, or you must follow step-by-step instructions…or some combination of both.

That principle is exactly the same in filing an insurance claim of any type. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the United States, or Canada, or Brazil, or Japan, or Panama, or Germany, or France, or Egypt, or South Africa, or China, or India.

It doesn’t matter if your claim is a Homeowner, or Auto, or Commercial Property, or Liability, or whatever kind you may have. If you have NO experience in filing a claim successfully, and getting every dollar you’re entitled to collect, then you must rely on either someone who does have that experience, or you must follow the step-by-step instructions IN THIS BLOG OR THE BOOK…or some combination of both.

Insurance companies can increase their profits on your lack of knowledge.

I believe that what you don’t know can hurt you…it could even change the course of your life for the rest of your life. I believe that your lack of knowledge about the claims process could change the destiny of your children’s lives and generations into the future.

For example, consider a family who owns a home. The house burns to the ground, and everything they own burns with it. The family didn’t know that they had to keep their home insured to value, and did not have enough coverage. So the insurance company hits them with a co-insurance penalty that reduces their settlement by a big percentage. The family did not do a good job of taking inventory of their contents, because now they are forced to do it from memory, as the contents are now ashes. The contents are not insured for replacement cost, and the contents portion of the policy is settled for Actual Cash Value, or depreciated dollars. Their choice is to either take money out of savings, children’s college funds or their retirement savings to pay the difference. Another choice…if they don’t have any savings, is to simply rebuild or buy a smaller house and replace their belongings with a lot less belongings. That is, after paying off the mortgage of the house that burned.

Or, they could just rent a house forever.

Mom and Dad have their lives permanently altered for the rest of their lives. Because of the fire, there’s no money for college, and the children don’t go to college.

Everybody in that story suffered because Mom and Dad were not prepared. Even the grandchildren yet unborn will have their lives affected because their parents did not get a college degree, and that affected their parents’ ability to earn a higher income.

You see? One loss, not properly handled, can affect your destiny and your children’s destiny, and generations to come. You may accuse me of melodrama, but this stuff happens regularly.

In this blog, I'll make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

Remember the scene in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” where Dorothy and her friends are standing before the Wizard? He’s making big noises, and shooting off fire, and scaring them silly. Just then, Toto tugs on a curtain off to one side, and reveals a rotund little man behind that curtain throwing switches and moving levers. At this point in the story, Oz thunders, “PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!”

The insurance claims process is a lot like that. The companies don’t want their policyholders to question the claims procedure, or figure out that it can work very differently from the way that it looks. Insurance companies and claims adjusters want policyholders and claimants to be compliant and trusting. That decreases the size of the settlements, and increases the profits of the insurance companies.

I’m going to be your “Toto.” In this blog, and in my book, I’m going to pull back the curtain and show you how things really work. I’ll show you how you can take control of your insurance claims and your policies, and add hundreds…even many thousands of dollars…to your insurance claim settlements. These are dollars that you are ALREADY entitled to collect from your policy.

Dorothy had a little dog and three friends that helped her get to the Land of Oz. That was her team. Let’s stop for a minute and think about teams.

I started playing baseball on the Pee Wee League team in Kent City, Michigan, in the summer of 1962. I was 8 years old. I was always a second string first baseman, because my cousin Thomas was better than me at everything…hitting, running, fielding. All of the kids on that team were from that little village of about 600 people in West Michigan, and we had been playing together since kindergarten.

We won the league championship that year…and the same boys kept playing together as we got older. Our coaches were Don Kik and Pete Imkamp, and they administered discipline and love in equal doses to a bunch of small town boys.

We won every championship every summer until I was 14…Pee Wee League, Little League, Pony League, Junior Varsity. The summer I turned 14, we moved to a bigger town (a whopping 2,500 people) where my Dad had a construction business. As a sophomore in the spring of 1969, I finally became a starting first baseman. I played on the Junior Varsity at school, and that team won the conference championship.

I never knew what it was like to play on a baseball team that was not the champion. But remember, I wasn’t the star on any of those teams. I was an average player on a championship team.

But I still got to share in the glory…just like a star.

Have you ever been on a sports team? Did you play Little League baseball, or Youth Soccer, or football, or basketball? If you did, you know how important it is to have great players on your team.

You also probably remember how painful it was when your team lost.

Friends, the stakes are way too high when it comes to handling an insurance claim.

You cannot afford to have your team lose now.

When it comes to your insurance coverage…no matter what kind of insurance…you need to have a team. But…

WHO DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has well trained adjusters who are experts in the claims process.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has well trained claims examiners who are experts on reading and interpreting YOUR insurance contract.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has staff attorneys that can answer their questions if a legal issue comes up in your claim. The company will hire the best trial lawyers money can buy to defend the insurance company in court if your claim goes to trial.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has Training and Compliance experts to make sure that the claim is handled correctly, and according to the state statutes where the loss occurred.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has forensic engineers at its disposal, who will make engineering inspections and write reports for them.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has forensic accountants at its disposal. These are accounting experts who can evaluate a complicated loss, like a luxury home or a business income loss.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has personal property replacement companies at its disposal. These companies give super low prices to insurance companies on everything from automobiles to electronics to jewelry, and everything in between. You’ll probably have to pay retail.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has salvage companies at its disposal, in order to take damaged goods and sell them, thereby recovering some of the money the insurance company paid in your claim.

ANYONE LIKE THAT ON YOUR TEAM?

The insurance company has private investigators at its disposal. These people will perform background checks, neighborhood interviews, public records searches, even conduct surveillance of YOU at home and at work.

BUT, WHO DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR TEAM?

DO YOU EVEN HAVE A TEAM?

DO YOU THINK THAT YOU MAY BE AT A HUGE DISADVANTAGE?

Keep reading…your disadvantage is just about to disappear!!!

If you have an insurance claim problem right now, and need some direction on what to do, please write to me. I'll do whatever I can to help you.

If you have a story about a claim you've had that didn't go the way you think it should have gone, post it here.

We are going to explore all kinds of claim strategies. Hang with me and I'll help you work through your claims, and I promise you'll collect hundreds or even thousands more dollars in your claims settlements.

Come back soon!!