Claim Specialist Overview
Working as a Claim Specialist
Claims specialists work for insurance companies and investigate insurance claims for damaged property, health issues, or business failure. The process and review claims, manage settlements, prove liability, and check insurance coverage. They create the documentation of insurance cases as well.
Claims specialists are responsible for assessing damage and loss, and as a consequence, they contribute to helping people get back on their feet after a crisis. For this reason, many people find working as a claims specialist a rewarding job.
You need to have an up-to-date knowledge of state and federal insurance policies, be organized and disciplined, have great communication skills, and experience in settling negotiations. With all of this in place, successful claims specialists make around $55,000 a year.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a claim specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.78 an hour? That's $39,064 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -13,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Claim Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many claim specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, math skills and computer skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a claim specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.5% of claim specialists included customer service, while 11.3% of resumes included insurance companies, and 9.1% of resumes included communication. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the claim specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most claim specialists actually find jobs in the insurance and health care industries.
How To Become a Claim Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a claim specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.5% of claim specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.4% of claim specialists have master's degrees. Even though most claim specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a claim specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a claim specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on claim specialist resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a claim specialist. In fact, many claim specialist jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many claim specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as claim processor or claims representative.
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Claim Specialist Jobs
Claim Specialist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a claim specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as claims adjuster, progress to a title such as office manager and then eventually end up with the title practice manager.
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Average Salary for a Claim Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Geico Insurance Claims Specialist In Training Claims Specialist In Training | Geico Insurance Geico Insurance | 11/26/2020 11/26/2020 | $39,36111/26/2020 $39,361 |
G4S Risk and Claims Specialist Risk and Claims Specialist | G4S G4S | 11/25/2020 11/25/2020 | $50,00011/25/2020 $50,000 |
G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. Risk and Claims Specialist Risk and Claims Specialist | G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. | 11/24/2020 11/24/2020 | $50,00011/24/2020 $50,000 |
Randstad Insurance Claims Specialist Insurance Claims Specialist | Randstad Randstad | 11/24/2020 11/24/2020 | $29,21811/24/2020 $29,218 |
The Ohio State University Dental Claims Specialist Dental Claims Specialist | The Ohio State University The Ohio State University | 11/21/2020 11/21/2020 | $43,82711/21/2020 $43,827 |
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Claim Specialist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Claim Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Claim Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Claim Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Claim Specialists
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
4. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA
5. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
6. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY
7. Boston University
Boston, MA
8. New York University
New York, NY
9. Maria College of Albany
Albany, NY
10. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN
Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Claim Specialist
Top Skills For a Claim Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.5% of claim specialists listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and math skills are important as well.
- Customer Service, 17.3%
- Communication, 9.9%
- Insurance Companies, 9.7%
- Medical Records, 6.7%
- Complex Claims, 4.3%
- Other Skills, 52.1% See All Claim Specialist Skills
Best States For a Claim Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a claim specialist. The best states for people in this position are Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Claim specialists make the most in Delaware with an average salary of $59,961. Whereas in Connecticut and Rhode Island, they would average $59,482 and $58,213, respectively. While claim specialists would only make an average of $55,839 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Delaware
$59,962
Avg. Salary
2. Michigan
$49,867
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$58,213
Avg. Salary
How Do Claim Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Claim Specialist Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ claim specialists and discovered their number of claim specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that State Farm was the best, especially with an average salary of $39,299. Nationwide Mutual Insurance . follows up with an average salary of $47,912, and then comes Allstate with an average of $40,890. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a claim specialist. The employers include Allianz of America, EQUIFAX, and Expeditors International of Washington
Claim Specialist Videos
