Three Kinds of Adjuster, Three Different Jobs
| Adjuster type | Works for | What they actually do |
|---|---|---|
| Field / staff adjuster | The insurance carrier | Physically inspects the property and builds the original damage estimate |
| Desk adjuster | The insurance carrier | Reviews paperwork, photos, and supplement requests remotely, no site visit |
| Public adjuster | The homeowner (for a fee) | Negotiates the claim on the homeowner's behalf, sometimes disputing the carrier's own adjuster |
Knowing which one you are dealing with changes how you should approach the conversation. A field adjuster you can walk the roof with in person. A desk adjuster you will only ever reach through documentation, phone calls, and the supplement itself. A public adjuster is not your adversary, but they are also not automatically your ally; they answer to the homeowner, not to you.
Being Present for the Field Inspection
When it is possible to be on-site for the field adjuster's inspection, be there. It is the single highest-leverage moment in the entire claim, because it is when the original scope gets set, and anything the adjuster misses at this stage becomes a supplement fight later instead of an easy addition now. Point out damage in real time, walk the roof together if the adjuster allows it, and take your own photos and measurements independently of whatever the adjuster records.
Roofing line items made up over 25% of all residential insurance claim value in 2024, and 38% of US homes showed moderate-to-poor roof condition via aerial imagery analysis in 2025, with those roofs carrying roughly 60% higher loss costs (Verisk, via Insurance Business Magazine). A field adjuster working fast, on a high volume of claims after a storm event, such as the more than $5.6 billion in hail claims State Farm alone paid out in 2025, can easily miss condition-related damage that a trained rep standing on the same roof will catch. That gap is exactly what a supplement is for, but it is far easier to get it into the original scope than to fight for it afterward.
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Book a Roofing CallWorking a Desk Adjuster Through Documentation
A desk adjuster never sees the roof. Everything they know about the claim comes from what you and the homeowner submit. That means the quality of your photos, measurements, and itemized supplement requests is the entire conversation. Vague or incomplete documentation gets a vague or incomplete response, or a flat denial. Specific, itemized, well-photographed documentation, submitted in the same Xactimate line-item format the carrier uses, gets reviewed and approved far faster.
Treat every desk adjuster interaction as a paper trail, not a phone negotiation. Follow up phone calls with written summaries. Keep a record of every submission and every response.
When a Homeowner Has Hired a Public Adjuster
A public adjuster works for the homeowner and gets paid a percentage of the claim settlement, which means their incentive is to maximize the payout, the same broad goal your supplement process has. Coordinate with them rather than working around them: share your scope documentation, be transparent about what you found during inspection and tear-off, and let them run their negotiation with the carrier without your team also freelancing a competing conversation. Two uncoordinated parties arguing with the same carrier tends to slow the claim down for everyone, including the homeowner who hired the public adjuster in the first place.
What this means for you
- Field adjusters set the original scope on-site and are the highest-leverage moment in the claim. Be present, document independently, and speak up in real time.
- Desk adjusters never see the property. Everything is documentation, so treat every supplement submission like the entire case, because it is.
- A public adjuster works for the homeowner, not against you by default. Coordinate documentation instead of running a competing negotiation.
Sources
The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.
- Insurance Business Magazine, Verisk 2025 US Roof Report data
- State Farm Newsroom, State Farm paid over $5.6 billion in hail claims in 2025