When faced with ethically challenging claims decisions as an insurance adjuster there are some key questions you need to ask.

 

Ideally your employer will provide you with a safe environment that encourages you to ask ethics questions and helps you get the right answers.

When making a decision or solving an ethical problem, we should take these 4 steps.

1. Get the facts.
2. Evaluate alternative actions from the various moral perspectives.
3. Make a decision.
4. Act and then reflect on the decision later.

Once we have ascertained the facts, we should ask ourselves 5 questions when trying to resolve a moral issue.

1. What benefits and what harms will each course of action produce, and which alternative will lead to the best overall consequences?
2. What moral rights to the affected parties have, and which course of action best respects those rights?
3. Which course of action treats everyone equally, except where there is a morally justifiable reason not to, and does not show favoritism or discrimination?
4. Which course of action advances the common good?
5. Which course of action develops moral virtues?

Of course, this method does not provide an automatic solution to moral problems; but it’s not meant to. It is merely meant to help identify most of the important ethical considerations. In the end we must deliberate on moral issues for ourselves, keeping a careful eye on both the facts and on the ethical considerations involved.

For years, many jurisdictions have required that insurance adjusters be professionally licensed and most of those states also require that adjusters maintain their licensure by engaging in ongoing continuing education (CE). The “majority rule” is 24 hours of CE in every license period. The most common denominator among all jurisdictions that require CE is that at least two or three CE hours must be in the category of “Ethics”.

It is through this requirement that professional and regulatory entities have worked to remind the insurance and claims community of the ethical obligations and responsibilities placed on adjusters during claims handling.

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The Matter Of Ethics CE course from AE21 will equip you to know how to make ethical decisions. Not only will this course fulfill your CE requirement for ethics, it will provide you with the knowledge and perspective you need when you are confronted with decisions on what the right thing is.

This course is all about an adjuster’s responsibility for ethical behavior in claims handling. In this course, you will learn various definitions and perspectives on ethics, actions that constitute ethical behavior, and actions that do not. You will learn practical dilemmas that one may face throughout a claims career and the issues to consider when making decisions that guide your actions in dealing with those dilemmas.

When you complete this course, you will:

1. Understand various perspectives governing behavior, what is considered proper ethical behavior, and some of the moral requirements of claim handling.
2. Identify professional standards of conduct.
3. Understand the requirements of good, and poor, claim handling as prohibited by the various Unfair Claims Practices Acts of Texas, Florida, North Carolina and others.
4. Understand issues presented in trying to ethically balance the sometimes-diverging interests of policyholders, claimants, and insurance carriers.

You’ll gain all these objectives while working your way through our user-friendly and engaging online course. You can enroll in A Matter of Ethics at our eLearning platform HERE. If you already have an account with us, simply log in and select the course from the course catalog. If you do not already have an account, begin by creating an account and selecting your licensing state. You will then have access to our full course catalog for your state of licensure. For more assistance with creating an account and purchasing courses, please watch THIS VIDEO.

For additional Ethics CE credits, you may also want to check out our CE course The Ethical Practices of an Adjuster.

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