· 8 min read

Making $200k/year as a catastrophe insurance adjuster

Making $200k/year as a catastrophe insurance adjuster
Photo by NOAA / Unsplash
Please, introduce yourself and your business.

I'll go by J for this interview. I'm 31 years old and have been an Independent Catastrophe adjuster for just under 3 years as of now. We're fondly (and not so fondly at times) referred to as storm chasers in the industry.

In a nutshell, Insurance companies have X amount of days to answer claims that come in.

Usually they have staff guys on payroll that can handle that working m-f, 8-5. When a large storm/hurricane/tornado/flash flood/wildfire/Etc hits an area they will deploy a team of Independent Catastrophe adjusters into the area and that's where i come in.

Usually they text me and ask me if I can arrive in a city within the next 48 hours and if I agree that's the start of me working. Once I go into work mode I do about 100 hours a week.

It's a smorgasbord of calling insured, scheduling appointments, climbing steep/high things with my rope and harness and accessing sketchy areas and unsafe conditions. I love every minute of it.

How did you start your business? 

I sort of fell into all of this. In my younger years I sold advertising, was a registered broker selling speculative investments, and even had a few construction oriented businesses of my own and it all kind of led me to fall into this.

To be honest though I was in the finance industry pretty deep and hated being tied to a cubicle. I found out about some people who were making a lucrative living in this and jumped ship, left my decade in the finance industry in my late 20's to chase a dream of financial liberation and storms.

How much revenue was your best year? (include margin if possible)

My best year last year my 2nd full year and i made about $210,000 of what's considered w2 pay stub  work (independent adjuster but i've opted to get taxes taken out bc it's just how my life is structured rn and i would like to have more gross income than write offs RIGHT NOW. that will change one day).

I paid about 75k in taxes that year, got about 15k back in returns and my expenses on the road maybe ate up 20k.

I wasn't living as frugally as others and have done some restructuring, airbnb's and hotels are a lot of that and since then i've bought an RV to save funds. it's not about how much money you make it's about how much you take home.

When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?

The "oh shit" moment for me was the end of 2022/beginning of 2023. I was in South Carolina working some pipe bursts from an arctic freeze that settled over the states and got offered to go out to California for like triple the pay I was making in SC (which was a little bit).

And that's when i realized i'm in the game. All this work to make myself a niche adjuster and all the grinding was starting to pay off. By the end of march beginning of april i had already made over 6 figures working. Winter time was the slow season for us also so I felt on top of the world.

What was your childhood like? Were you slinging candy on the playground?

I grew up less affluent and not wealthy by any means. Most would consider us poor. I'm a first generation mexican-american. I was raised by my grandmother who was an orphan in Mexico and lived on the streets. She got pregnant when she was 12 so the economic opportunities that a lot of people may have were lacking but there were plenty of opportunities to learn.

My grandpa passed away when i was 8 and he was abusive verbally, physically, and abused substances. My grandmother is a hard worker tho and got her GED, and now is retired and owns multiple properties. In her own right she's my idol and very successful and taught me the tenants of hard work that i carry with me to this day.

It has been a very challenging journey though I wasn't slinging candy and was slinging other stuff. I went to rehab as an inpatient for substance abuse when I was just 12 years old, I started growing up super quick then. I graduated high school by the time I was 16 and then ventured into the world. That included a few run-ins with the law that I thought were going to end my adult life.

Money has always been the sail to my boat and controls where i'd go, but sometimes that leads you into rough waters.  We grow up quick in my family though and i handled whatever came my way, not always with a smile but with determination to get past it. Anyways, i always let people know that i was a bad kid, but it made me into a good compassionate adult. i promise.

What has been your best marketing marketing channel?

Believe it or not, social media. I try my best to be active on reddit/X (Formerly Twitter)/FB to reach out and be involved in the adjuster and independent adjuster communities.

I landed the highest paying and most enjoyable company I've been contracted with by a facebook post right before hurricane Ida. A lot of people don't like social media or find it a waste of time, i believe a lot of the people that share that sentiment just aren't using it right.

How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?

I've always had an entrepreneurial drive and it stems from my lack of respect for authority and authority figures.

I don't like being told what to do if it's menial or pointless. On the spectrum of pointless you can find validity in many things you do, and with this career path i've found it.

What is your biggest overhead expense?

It was housing, Hotels and air bnb's across the country. I was on the road last year for about 301 days last year, about 275 of those were while working over 16+ hours a day.

Like i mentioned earlier though i got a little RV for me and my puppy and we're going to hit the road hard and stack up as best as we can. Hopefully this expense is a fraction of what it was, but will still likely be my highest overhead.

What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?

The understanding of the value of the days/hours/minutes and seconds along with the reality that nothing in this world is permanent. I believe it's a skill to understand those things and how to allow them to help dictate your decisions.

Those 8 hours a day and 40 a week just aren't cutting it for me. I'm more valuable, my life is more than what they were offering me and the blessing to be able to realize that and mold it into my own form of success is a skill I find much more valuable than rope and harness training or something of the sort.

What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week? (I think a lot of people hear entrepreneurs “work,” but may not understand what that means on a day-to-day basis.

if you're not networking you are not working am i right? hahaha what i mean is i like to think that i'm always networking with high caliber individuals in my field. but like tbh the day to day for a catastrophe adjuster is wake up and take my puppy out to potty. My dog chases storms with me.

We do everything together. I've usually got to inspect some homes that day and I create a visual and written report of the damages along with writing an estimate.

That means I wake up at 6am and get my pup and paperwork ready for the day. Out the door by 7am and on roofs or inspecting damaged properties until about 1-2pm depending on what part of the country i'm in and how the suns fighting me, i then go back to the hotel/airbnb and write paperwork on a little laptop for the rest of the night or until i'm done often on large catastrophes that means until i fall asleep at my laptop. Sleep is needed but scarce.

If I have light work or simple work that day, sometimes I can write all my reports and estimates while in the field and make it home by 6 or 7 and be done. But those days are rare. I practice risk and stress avoidance of trying to do everything i can as soon as i can, and trying to do anything i can to make tomorrow easier not harder. 

I love to tell people I have a dream job though I get to travel with my puppy. We were through about 28 states last year.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?

oh gosh, a litany of things. I tell people this job is like drinking water out of a fire hose you can only intake so much at a time and they just keep blasting you w more and more and more.

But one day, one random day you wake up and you get excited to take a drink you wake up asking for the fire hose and that's when you make money.

The world of entrepreneurship can be misleading. Many people think it’s always easy and always glamorous. What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?

The hardest challenge to overcome is the isolated feeling of being alone when on the road. i was on the road for over 300 days last year, day in and day out everyone i speak to is loaded. i mean that in a sense that all questions have a desired outcome that benefits them.

No "how ya doing today", no hugs from  your loved ones, no seeing your family on holidays, after a particularly long or hard week no one to vent too bc most people don't understand. No physical contact with someone who just genuinely cares about  you.

There are times I haven't had a hug or skin to skin contact with anyone who truly loves me for 6 months. Sometimes that may not seem too crazy but 180 days feels really long at 16+ hours a day.

Many people don’t know where to start in the business world, they feel stuck. They may want to start a business to become their  own boss and create their hours. What is your best advice for someone who feels completely stuck?

Just do something. Whatever it is, take the first step. Don't get stuck like I almost was. I was in the finance industry making a little 6 figs and thought I had life figured out.

I took the plunge and now make so much more, have so much more time liberated, and have learned so much. So whatever it is you want to do just take a step, then another, then another and when you come to the edge don't look down or around... Just jump. No one will be there to catch you and the free fall to either success or failure will be the most liberating feeling you've ever felt.