Math Mind Monday: Insurance Claims Adjuster

This week our Math Mind comes all the way from Iowa. Meet Scott! Scott holds a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University. Let’s hear what Scott has to say about how he uses math in his career as an Insurance Claims Adjuster.

“I use math all day every day. I use it to compute estimates, to compute loss settlements, depreciation, and co-insurance penalties. I use A LOT of geometry to add up square footages of damages. For example, square footage of siding on a home or square footage of roofing in a specific area. I also must find cubic feet occasionally for concrete calculations. I have to know how to calculate the area of a triangle, trapezoid, rectangle, and a square. I also must be able to add in my head quickly. If I cannot reach something with my tape measure (say a wall of siding where the top of the wall is too high) I can then measure the individual laps of siding and then count them down and multiply. Ex: 4” laps and there are 15 laps = 60” =5’. It’s also important for me to know how to convert inches into decimals so I can add them. Ex: 5’8 + 5’6 = 5.66 + 5.50 = 11.26

I frequently use a drone to identify if a building is damaged or not. The drone enables me to do this safely from the ground. The drone takes a series of high-resolution images that are uploaded to a cloud-based software, so I can then look at the roof in 3-D to see if it is damaged.

My suggestion for students struggling in math are to try and look at things from a more visual standpoint. I struggled with algebra but was proficient in physics and geometry. As a visual learner, I attempt to look at problems from a graphical or geometrical view. I would advise students to try to view things visually where possible and not get frustrated. “ (Scott, personal communication, October 31^st, 2018)