Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: a public adjuster works for you, not the insurer, and is paid a percentage of what you recover. They are usually worth it on a large, complex or disputed claim and rarely worth it on a small straightforward one. Most states do not cap the fee at all — and of the states that do, some only cap it during a declared disaster, which is exactly when you would be hiring one.
What they actually do
The adjuster who arrives after a loss normally works for the insurer. A public adjuster is licensed to represent the policyholder instead: they document the loss, prepare and price the claim, and negotiate the settlement. They are paid from your recovery, typically as a percentage, which aligns them with a larger settlement and is also the reason the fee needs checking.
The fee caps, and the disaster twist
This table covers 10 states. It is not all fifty, and the honest reason is below it rather than buried — we publish the states we could verify from their own statute and no others.
| State | Standard cap | Declared-disaster cap | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | No cap | — | Cal. Ins. Code § 15027 |
| Florida | 20% | 10% | Fla. Stat. § 626.854(11)(b)1.-2. |
| Maryland | No cap | — | Md. Code Ann., Ins. § 10-411(b)-(c) |
| Nevada | No cap | — | Nev. Rev. Stat. § 684A.030(2) |
| New York | Set by regulation | — | N.Y. Ins. Law § 2108(p)(1), (s)(2)(A) |
| North Carolina | None generally | 10% | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-33A-60(d) |
| Ohio | No cap | — | Ohio Rev. Code § 3951.02 |
| South Carolina | No cap | — | S.C. Code Ann. § 38-48-80 |
| Texas | 10% | — | Tex. Ins. Code § 4102.104(a)-(b) |
| Washington | No cap | — | Wash. Rev. Code ch. 48.17 (e.g., RCW 48.17.475) |
Six of the ten set no percentage cap at all. California, Maryland, South Carolina, Nevada, Ohio and Washington all license public adjusters and regulate their contracts, but none of them limits what the adjuster may charge. If you assumed a cap protects you, in most of these states it does not — the written contract is the only thing that does.
The two disaster rules run in opposite directions
This is the part worth knowing before a storm, and it is routinely left out:
- Florida lowers its cap during an emergency. The normal ceiling is 20%, but for claims arising from an event under a gubernatorial state-of-emergency declaration it drops to 10%, for claims made in the year following the declaration.
- North Carolina only has a cap during one. There is no general statutory percentage limit; the 10% ceiling applies specifically when a catastrophic incident has been declared by the President or the Governor.
So in Florida the disaster makes the cap stricter, and in North Carolina the disaster is the only thing that creates a cap. Two neighbouring coastal states, opposite structures. This is the clearest possible illustration of why a national rule of thumb is useless here.
The 72-hour rule, in two of these states
Texas and Maryland both bar a percentage commission where the insurer pays, or commits in writing to pay, the policy limit within 72 hours of the loss being reported. The logic is sound: if the insurer immediately paid everything the policy allows, there was nothing for the adjuster to negotiate. In Texas the adjuster may still charge reasonable hourly compensation.
When one is worth hiring
- The claim is large relative to your ability to absorb an underpayment. A percentage of a much better settlement beats all of a poor one.
- The claim has been denied or badly underpaid and you cannot work out why.
- The loss is complex — extensive structural damage, a large contents inventory, or additional living expenses over a long displacement.
- You physically cannot do the documentation. Claims are won on inventory and evidence, and after a total loss that work is enormous.
And when one is not: a small claim where the fee consumes the benefit, a claim the insurer has already paid in full, or a claim you have not yet submitted at all — file it first and see what happens.
Before you sign anything
- Check the licence with your state insurance department. Disaster areas attract unlicensed operators.
- Read the percentage and what it applies to — the whole settlement, or only the increase they obtain? That single distinction can double the fee.
- Check the cancellation window. Texas requires a written contract with a 72-hour rescission period; other states have their own.
- Never pay up front. North Carolina forbids taking anything of value before settlement, and a demand for money in advance is a warning sign anywhere.
- Ask whether the emergency rate applies if you are claiming after a declared disaster.
Coverage, stated honestly. We attempted 25 states and verified 10 from official statute. The rest are not listed because we could not read their statutes directly: several state legislature sites render only through JavaScript or require an internal document identifier, several returned HTTP 403 to automated access, and the one general-purpose statute mirror that would normally cover the gap was blocked for the entire session. A state’s absence from this table means we did not verify it, not that it has no cap. Your state insurance department is the authority.
New York appears as capped because its statute delegates the maximum to regulation rather than stating a percentage; we did not verify the regulatory figure, so no number is shown for it.
Related: the insurance audit · why your policy form decides who proves what · what federal aid does not cover.
General information drawn from the Internal Revenue Code, IRS publications, FEMA and NFIP materials and state statute, not legal, tax, financial or insurance advice. Insurance is regulated at STATE level and policy wording controls – your own policy, its endorsements and its exclusions decide what is covered, and no page can tell you what yours says. FEMA and NFIP figures change and every figure here is year-labelled with its source named. We are not an insurer, an agent, a broker or a public adjuster, and we sell nothing on these pages.