Most public adjusters work on contingency, meaning they collect a percentage of whatever the insurance company ultimately pays you, and nothing if the claim is denied or you walk away before settlement. That structure is not an accident. It is meant to put the adjuster's financial interest on the same side of the table as yours: the bigger and faster your payout, the bigger their fee, so there is no incentive to drag out a claim or settle low. But "contingency fee" does not mean the same thing in every state. Some states cap the percentage by statute, some ban the contingency structure outright, some regulate only how the fee is disclosed, and some barely regulate it at all.
How contingency pricing actually works
In a contingency arrangement, the public adjuster's fee is a percentage of the amount your insurer ultimately pays on the claim, calculated after the settlement is reached, not before. If the adjuster negotiates the insurer up from an initial lowball offer to a much larger final payment, their fee grows with it, which is the entire point of the model: they are paid to fight for more, not to process paperwork. If the claim is denied outright and there is no recovery, a standard contingency contract means the adjuster is paid nothing for the work they already did.
The rules in AdjusterAlly's six launch states
The percentage a public adjuster can legally charge, and whether they can charge a percentage at all, is set state by state. Here is what the law actually says in the six states AdjusterAlly currently covers:
- Florida: caps public adjuster fees at 20% of the claim payment, dropping to 10% during the year after a Governor-declared emergency (Fla. Stat. 626.854).
- Texas: caps the total commission at 10% of the claim settlement, with a narrow exception if the insurer pays the full policy limit within 72 hours of the loss being reported (Tex. Ins. Code § 4102.104).
- California: has no statutory percentage cap; the contract must disclose the fee basis and the fee cannot exceed the improvement over the insurer's prior offer (Cal. Ins. Code 15027).
- Louisiana: bans contingency fees for public adjusters entirely; adjusters may only charge a flat or hourly "reasonable fee" (La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 22:1703).
- Colorado: has no statutory percentage cap outside a declared catastrophic disaster, when the cap becomes 10%; upfront fees, retainers, or deposits before settlement are barred in every circumstance (Colo. Rev. Stat. 10-2-417).
- North Carolina: caps public adjuster fees at a flat 10% of the claim payment on every claim (N.C. Gen. Stat. 58-33A-60).
