Even as the Ashes Cool, the Insurance Pitches Heat Up

The insurance adjuster talked very fast.

Just hours after flames had destroyed his three-bedroom house near La Verne, Don Fritz was hearing a pitch Thursday like he had never heard before.

“Working or retired? Who is the (insurance) carrier?” Steven G. Schulman asked, speaking in a manner that would make auto salesman Cal Worthington sound sedate. Schulman asked his questions as fast as answers could come.

He was one of many adjusters working in neighborhoods hit hard by Thursday’s fires. The insurance middlemen are bonded and licensed by the California Department of Insurance.

Fritz, 66, who is retired from the plumbing business, answered that Allstate is his insurance agent, doing his best to be polite.

“Somebody has to represent your interest,” said Schulman of Dietz International in Los Angeles. “Allstate is looking at paying you the least it can. My company’s been in business since 1928.”

If Fritz would sign on the dotted line, Schulman promised, Dietz would serve as negotiators with Allstate and help him maximize his claim.

“If your impression of us is we seem like ambulance chasers, that’s pretty close,” Schulman said later in an interview. “Unfortunately there’s a real need for our services.”

For 5% to 10% of what Fritz collects from his insurance company, Dietz would ensure him of the highest possible return, Schulman said.

Schulman, who was operating Thursday with a partner out of sleek Toyota Supras with mobile phones, said eight adjusters from his company had already visited many houses damaged by fire or high winds in La Verne, Baldwin Park and unincorporated county land.

Schulman and his partner, Steven Holden, stood in the circular driveway in the 3900 block of Williams Avenue on of the last patches of Fritz’s land not burned. Fritz and his wife have lived in the house for 20 years. On the lawn were dozens of soiled Christmas presents, wrapped and ready to go under the tree that had not yet been bought.

“We do an adjustment analysis,” Schulman explained. “Ever in the military? What branch?” Schulman asked as the answer “Air Force” came. “You ever hear the term: ‘Take the hill.’ That’s what you’ve got to do,” Schulman told Fritz.

“You’ve never met us. You may or may not like us. But you have a very large claim here,” Holden told Fritz.

Fritz fiddled with the business cards the men handed him. A bit flustered, he said, “I haven’t even gotten in touch with my insurance company.”

Schulman handed him a piece of paper, a contract, and said: “By law you can cancel this within 72 hours.” Their references are impeccable, Schulman said.

Remember the fire last year at a mortuary nearby? Schulman asked. Dietz negotiated the claim. The company did the same for some of the tenants in the First Interstate Bank fire in downtown Los Angeles, he said.

After listening to all the talk, Fritz said he really could not commit himself.

“We need to catch our breath,” Fritz said.

He was bothered by an injury to his right knee from a fall he took while trying to fight the blaze with his garden hose. “He’s just getting over heart surgery,” Fritz’s son, Don, said.

As the two adjusters were leaving, Holden turned to the family and looked at the remains of the house, “I’m a salesman. We’re not performing miracles.”