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Police officer to a public adjuster
After retiring from public service as a police officer, Robert Iovino began working in the insurance industry. Realizing he still wanted to help people, Iovino became a public insurance adjuster and launched Iovino Appraisal Service in West Warwick, RI, in 2015.
When a catastrophe strikes a property, such as fire or water damage, homeowners and commercial property owners may file claims with their insurance companies. Insurance adjusters appraise damages, and their reports help determine what amount the insurance policy covers.
Iovino explained the different types of insurance adjusters in Rhode Island. “Now, there are three types of licensed adjusters licensed in the state. The first adjuster is known as the company adjuster. They work directly for the insurance company, and they represent the interest of the insurance companies. The second type of adjuster is known as an independent adjuster, and they also represent the interest of the insurance company. And the third type is a licensed public adjuster. We're also known as private adjusters. As a public adjuster, we do not work on behalf of the insurance company. We don't represent their interests. Our job is to represent the interest of our client, the property owner who is the insured, and to make sure that they get paid everything that they're entitled to per the language of their policy and the type of loss. We are licensed by the state and monitored by the Department of Business Regulation, and there are rules and regulations within the insurance commission that we must follow. In certain states we must take continuing education classes as well.”
The business owner shared how he landed in the insurance industry. “I'm a retired police officer by trade. When I first retired, I went into insurance, and I worked in a special investigative unit for insurance cases that needed to be looked into in greater detail. I did that for about seven and a half years. And I left that in 2010 and went to the mitigation side of the business, working for a restoration company that dealt with residential and commercial cleanup, such as fire and flood damage.”
Iovino said that he gained expertise in property restoration. “I spent three and a half years learning and getting licensed in all the facets of that business. My certifications include IICRC certification, mold certification, lead certification, and asbestos certifications. During that time, I started to work with public adjusters, and I was intrigued by that side of the business.”
Then, Iovino experienced a serious injury, which motivated him to launch his own business. “In 2015 I broke my spine. After getting out of the hospital and through rehab, I decided I was done working for anybody else. I opened my public adjusting office in late 2015.”
When asked what compels him to work as a public insurance adjuster, the business owner said, “It gives me the ability to still work with people and help people who need assistance when they are down. When I was a police officer, I was there to help people who were in trouble or in need of assistance. It's a completely different career, but my business gives me the ability to meet new people and help them. At the end of the day, it's just a rewarding career. I've been to clients' weddings and their kids' weddings. I've unfortunately have been to funerals too. It's a business where we take it seriously, and we build long-term relationships with our clients.”
Iovino shared examples of helping clients. “We handled a claim for an attorney. She had filed her own claim and was trying to work with her insurance company. It was a water loss. A water pipe had broken inside the wall on the second floor between a bedroom and the bathroom, causing damage to both of those rooms as well as damaging the kitchen, pantry, living room, and dining room on the main level, all of which had to be completely gutted. The insurance company paid her $17,000. Now, if you picture that water damage in all those rooms, $17,000 is nowhere near enough. It took us eight and a half months of fighting with the insurance company, but we got her $114,000, and she was finally able to complete the repairs to the home.
We represented a client that had a large loss in Cranston, where the insurance company paid $600,000. This is another one that took 11 months of fighting, but we got the insured $1.3 million. Now, not every claim is large like that, and not every claim can have such disparities. I mean, we may have a smaller claim where the insurance company wants to pay $20,000, but we may be able to get them $35,000 or $40,000.”
When asked about how Iovino Appraisal Service has grown, Iovino said, “We handle close to 350 claims a year. We have three public adjusters and two other staff members.”
The business owner discussed what he thought property owners should know about insurance claims. “In most insurance policies, there's usually a statement that says something close to ‘in the event of the need to file an insurance claim, the insurance company's responsibility is to assign an adjuster who represents the interest of the insurance company, not yours. You have the legal right to hire someone to represent your interest.’ And most people think that they need to hire an attorney. But a lot of people don't know what a public adjuster is or that there are advocates, public adjusters that can help them. And we work through a commission that the states have put in place. If we're able to get the client a settlement, our fee is 10 percent. It can never be higher, but we can adjust it lower. I do adjust mine for military personnel, active and retired law enforcement, active and retired firefighters, and active and retired first responders.”
Iovino has lived in Rhode Island all his life and appreciates the small state. “It's close-knit, and Rhode Island has always been a very tight state where everybody knows everybody. And I think that's really what helped me build my business because I wasn't going to go out and chase claims. I structured the business to be built by referrals. Ninety percent of our business comes from referrals. The other ten percent is through advertising.”
The business owner added that in addition to Rhode Island, his office is licensed in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and North Carolina. “Those are other areas that we cover. And the reason we do is because we have clients that have either moved to those states or have secondary homes in those states or properties that they own. If one of our Rhode Island clients owns a property in another state, and they need coverage for it, we're licensed in those states.”
For more information about Iovino Appraisal Service, LLC, check out their BBB Business Profile. To learn more about BBB and read more stories like this, visit Behind the Business Stories with BBB in Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT.
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