We recommend having a conversation with our office about the claim before you file it. We recommend you call directly to the insurance company so you can give your statement, and if you need to rent a car or have someone come out to repair the property, it can be done in a timely fashion.

A claim, in the simplest terms, is a formal request to your insurance carrier to pay for a covered loss — a fender-bender, water damage in the basement, a stolen laptop, a fire. The paperwork side of that is straightforward. The part most people get wrong is what they do in the first hour after a loss. Hicks’s recommendation is to call our office before you file with the carrier. Here is why that order of operations matters, and what actually happens once a claim is in motion.

Call us first, then the carrier

Calling our office first is not about adding a step. It is about making the call you place to the carrier a better one. We can look at your policy, confirm the loss is covered, walk through how the deductible will work, flag whether the claim is even worth filing, and tell you what to say when the adjuster takes your statement. A five-minute conversation with us often saves hours later. Once you are ready, you file directly with the carrier so you can give your statement firsthand and the file gets opened immediately. If you have not had a recent policy review and want to know what is covered before something happens, you can request one through our personal insurance quote page or just reach our contact form.

The steps of a typical claim

1. Call our office. We confirm coverage and walk you through what to expect.
2. Document the loss. Take photos and video before any cleanup or repair. Save receipts.
3. Call the carrier directly. Give your statement clearly and stick to what you know.
4. Get a claim number. Save it. Every future call will reference it.
5. Meet the adjuster. They may inspect in person, by video, or by photo upload.
6. Receive a settlement offer. Review it with us if anything looks off.
7. Repairs or payment. The carrier issues payment, sometimes directly to a vendor.

Most claims follow that arc. The wrinkles tend to come from gaps in coverage that surface mid-claim — water backup, flood, jewelry limits, replacement-cost versus actual cash value — which is why an annual policy review matters. We dig into that more in whether home insurance covers water damage and actual cash value versus replacement cost.

Rental cars and emergency repairs

Two of the most time-sensitive things in any claim are temporary transportation and emergency mitigation. If your car is undriveable after an accident and your auto policy includes rental reimbursement, the carrier can authorize a rental within hours of the claim being opened. If a pipe burst and water is still spreading, the carrier can dispatch a mitigation company to extract water and begin drying before damage worsens. Both of these only happen quickly if you have called the carrier and given a statement — which is why we push you to file the claim directly rather than relaying it through us. Rental and roadside coverage details vary by policy, so it is worth knowing what your current policy actually includes before something happens.

The fastest claims we see are the ones where the customer called the carrier the same day, gave a clear statement, and had documentation ready. The slowest ones are the ones where the customer waited a week and tried to piece together what happened from memory.

What to say (and not say) to the adjuster

Be factual. Describe what happened, when, and what was damaged. Do not speculate about fault, do not guess at dollar amounts, and do not agree to a settlement number on the first call. If the adjuster asks a question you do not know the answer to, say so. The adjuster’s job is to evaluate the claim fairly, and a clean, factual statement helps that go faster. If you feel the offer is low or coverage is being misapplied, that is the moment to call us back. We have direct access to the carrier on your behalf and can work with the adjuster directly through your assigned CSR.

After the claim closes

Once the claim is settled, two things are worth doing. First, review whether your coverage performed the way you expected. If something was uncovered or a limit was too low, this is the moment to fix it for next time. Second, ask whether the claim will affect your renewal pricing. Sometimes it will, sometimes it will not — and we can tell you in advance. For business owners, the same logic applies on the commercial side, where commercial coverage and umbrella protection are worth reviewing after any significant loss. If you are running a business and want to start that review, our commercial insurance quote page is the fastest way in.