There’s no way around it – the process for filing insurance claims is complicated. Commercial, residential, or industrial, it takes a wide array of expertise to calculate damage left after disaster. Tom and Tim Simmons, of Mission Property Loss Consultants, help contractors, public adjusters, attorneys, and property owners navigate the process like seasoned pros.
If experiencing a major hurricane or storm isn’t harrowing enough, wait till you try and file an insurance claim on the ensuing damage. Just ask the people left devastated by 2022’s hurricane Ian: even five months after landfall, nearly 40% of claims were yet to receive a payout.
The process is complicated – and that’s just the nature of the beast. When a property is damaged, it takes a wide array of knowledge to not just calculate the right claim, but to also get it paid out in full. Contractors, public adjusters, and even attorneys are often needed to share their unique expertise to just one building’s problem.
If you fit into one of these categories, you know how much the full claims process can take you outside of your wheelhouse. Homeowners and those managing commercial properties rely on professionals like you to make them whole after a disaster – but to focus on what you do best, wouldn’t it be beneficial to have a partner that can help you navigate the claims process as a whole?
That’s where Mission Property Loss Consultants come into play – with unbiased expertise that can fill in the gaps of your service to property-owning clients.
Managed by Tom and Tim Simmons – who quite literally wrote the book on insurance claims (it’s available here, for free) – Mission has helped industry professionals conduct accurate forensic-style investigations that leave no stone unturned in a quest to make homes, commercial properties, and key infrastructure whole again.
$3 billion in damage: that’s how much damage the Simmons’ team have been able to estimate, in less than five years.
Their secret to success lies in a blended knowledge. Working between policyholders and the insurance companies – Mission understands both sides of the game, leveraging that expertise to land on the right solution to the costly and devastating problem of property damage.
“We estimate using the same software as the insurance companies,” Tom Simmons explains. “We know how to properly use the software to estimate a real world cost.”
‘Document, document, document;’ that’s Mission’s mantra. Listing everything – often “in redundancy,” as Tim Simmons puts it – is central to filing a successful claim.
The difficulty of getting the right documentation together often is one of expertise. A contractor may have years of hands-on experience that helps them identify key points of damage – and know exactly how to fix it, but lack the processes and structure needed to communicate and prove these damages (and their extent) to the insurance companies.
In the same vein, an attorney might be able to sink their teeth into the fine print of a particular policy, but lose valuable time trying to get accurate assessments and calculations from the field.
In either case, Mission is the bridge that helps professionals like these cross the convoluted waters of the claims process.
“We significantly improve the documentation,” Tim Simmons says, “so the insurance companies find it easy to notate the damage and see that the estimate is warranted. We give people a better ground and position from which to present their claim.”
The process remains complicated, but Mission has an equally-complex blend of understanding that gives insight to every facet of a damaged property. This dynamic range is written in the backgrounds of Tom and Tim Simmons, a son-father duo.
Tom Simmons – who founded Mission – has experience in both construction and insurance adjusting. Working as an adjuster, he found himself traveling most of the year, gaining experience far beyond the state lines of his native North Carolina. This brought experience dealing with an industry of many nuances, where what applies in one state does not always match another.
All this travel kept Tom Simmons away from his young family, so he transitioned into scaling a roofing company from zero to five million dollars in just over two years. This – along with a brief stint in fire, water, and mold remediation – brought contractor-side experience that allowed him to return to insurance adjusting with fresh eyes on where the industry was going.
“I wasn’t too happy with the state of affairs in the insurance claims world,” he says, “so I founded Mission Property Loss Consultants in 2020 to provide some solutions for some issues that we’re seeing today.”
His father, Tim Simmons, brings his own years of experience to the table. Working with major contracting companies in New York, the elder Simmons wore many hats, from Project Manager to Chief Estimator to Vice President.
Construction systems and materials – those lie in the center of Tim Simmons’ wheelhouse. Most useful in crafting code and cost friendly estimates for repairs, this expertise has also helped Mission create a new service which helps property managers, trying to assess their commercial and industrial real estate, to find where capital improvements are recommended.
Following his career in contracting, Tim Simmons went into insurance adjusting, now going on almost 20 years in the space.
Driving both Tom and Tim Simmons – and Mission as a whole – is a humanity that breathes passion into the expertise.
“Compassion is a big part of our why,” Tim Simmons says.
This heart for helping people goes a long way – when empowered by the dovetail of knowledge that makes up Mission’s service.
To paint a picture of how this expertise comes together, look no further than Mission’s process in estimating $100 million for the construction of an elevated hangar.
2020 saw two major hurricanes hit Louisiana. This brought catastrophe to an international airport. The double-punch of hurricanes Laura and Delta left the airport in desperate need of temporary facilities to house its fleet of airplanes.
Satisfying flood plain requirements (which meant creating an elevated hangar), getting the right soil compaction rates and concrete depth (to support the full weight of a 747), and managing water runoff (a product of the hangar’s elevation) were all elements to consider in the estimate.
With so many distinct factors, the client turned to Mission. The Simmons found this project to be right in their wheelhouse. They came to the scene versed in the latest flood requirements from FEMA and leveraged their team for a deep study of local code requirements. Everything down to the correct tonnage of steel was accounted for.
The $100 million estimate was completed after weeks of thorough investigation – and was unanimously agreed with by two third-party experts.
The insurance claims process will always be complicated – but with the right experts ready to fill in the gaps, contractors, public adjusters, and attorneys alike can get the documentation needed to make their clients whole.
See for yourself the difference Mission Property Loss Consultants can make for your business: visit their website. To glean from the dovetail of experience coming from Tom and Tim Simmons – get a copy of their book, Secrets of Insurance Claims, for free.
