When Michael Balarezo emerged from the basement workplace of his Boulder, Colo., dwelling in December 2021, smoke plumes from the close by Marshall Fireplace have been seen from his driveway.
Balarezo, his spouse and daughter swiftly stowed emergency clothes, delicate paperwork and toys into duffel luggage and loaded them behind their automotive.
Eighty-mile-per-hour wind gusts whipped particles by the air.
The smoke thickened and restricted visibility to distances shorter than half a soccer subject.
“And we are saying bye to our dwelling,” Balarezo stated, “as a result of we predict it’s going to go in flames.”
When the flames subsided, the home was one of many fortunate survivors within the Balarezos’ neighborhood. Soot and ash flooded into the house by doorways believed to be opened by emergency personnel, although. The whole principal stage and upstairs bed room wanted to be gutted.
Two years after leaving, Balarezo and his household moved again in. It took quite a lot of time to work with all of the events wanted to get every little thing fastened, he stated. A former insurance coverage claims adjuster himself, the method gave Balarezo a brand new perspective on how a lot policyholders undergo when catastrophe strikes.
He described the expertise as chaotic. Household arguments erupt over how a lot time repairs are taking, he stated. Stress arises when policyholders surprise why the decision is dragging on and why they haven’t heard from their insurance coverage firm. Residing in a townhome, Balarezo spoke of points that may floor when alignment is required with neighbors on contractors and providers.
“It’s nearly like working a full-time job on prime of the full-time job that you’ve got,” he stated of the restore course of.
The concept for Adjusto, his new contents claims platform, didn’t hit Balarezo till the very finish of this declare. He and his spouse advised their daughter that they might lastly return dwelling. After listening to the information, she started sobbing as all of the feelings of the earlier two years have been launched. She was joyful it was over and able to transfer on.
“That second, it hit me actually exhausting, personally,” Balarezo stated. “She shouldn’t should undergo by all of this. And it made me understand that she witnessed mother and pop arguing and combating over the declare. She witnessed mother and pop speaking with the insurance coverage firm or with the adjusters, making an attempt to determine how we are able to transfer ahead and being aggravated.”
All of the stress impacted her. And Balarezo didn’t suppose that was truthful.
“That second is after I thought, ‘I really feel like I can do one thing about this,’” Balarezo stated. “Somebody ought to do one thing about this.”
He felt the time was proper to mix his policyholder expertise, adjuster know-how and decade of software program engineering experience. Adjusto was fashioned in April 2024 and was publicly introduced in March 2025. The software program is presently in beta and is slated for launch in July.
Balarezo stated Adjusto’s software program supplies quick, correct and automatic private property valuation for carriers, MGAs, TPAs and adjusting companies at scale. The AI-powered platform introduces “new methods for adjusters to collaborate with policyholders to resolve claims shortly whereas constructing belief,” he stated.
Skilled Background
Balarezo turned an all-lines claims adjuster after faculty. His future father-in-law labored as head of an auto salvage staff, and he tipped Balarezo off to a gap at Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance coverage.
Balarezo loved the investigative nature of the job. He favored digging into claims throughout his three years within the function.
“Additionally, I loved the truth that I bought to assist individuals as a part of my day-to-day [duties],” he stated.
Balarezo finally pursued his dream of changing into a software program engineer and moved to Silicon Valley to construct automation options for corporations together with Google, Amazon and Disney. Nonetheless, he carried the teachings he discovered in insurance coverage with him.
Balarezo recalled working extensively to defend auto insurance coverage policyholders in third-party arbitration throughout his time as a claims adjuster. He’d evaluate police studies, have deep conversations with affected events and provides the method his all till the very finish.
Seeing issues by can also be a core tenet of software program engineering.
“As a result of [in] software program engineering, you fail lots, in a short time,” Balarezo defined. “And also you type of want this resilience to simply carry on going. And it ended up proving to be a ability that I discovered in adjusting that I used to be capable of put into apply as a software program engineer professionally.”
He launched Adjusto and returned to insurance coverage 12 years after leaving Oklahoma Farm Bureau. To his shock, not a lot had modified. He spoke with many adjusters and different trade people to grasp the issues they confronted, and he discovered that among the processes he was accustomed to have been precisely the identical.
Adjusto
Earlier than forming Adjusto, Balarezo got down to establish actual issues that claims professionals face. He took paid break day from his job to attend insurance coverage trade occasions to grasp ache factors and make connections. In the meantime, he additionally reopened his outdated phonebook and started reconnecting with contacts from his adjusting days and interviewed neighbors who had struggled to settle claims.
Balarezo and his staff discovered {that a} lack of transparency is eroding policyholder belief. They famous the frustration that policyholders really feel about delays and the expectations they’ve of how claims needs to be settled. And the Adjusto staff acknowledged the necessity for improved knowledge accuracy and valuation within the claims course of.
The brand new AI and automation software program is designed for use by anybody who providers contents claims. That features carriers, MGAs, TPAs, unbiased adjusters and different contents specialists. Balarezo stated the corporate brings a science-based strategy to its answer, which is deeply rooted in knowledge science, machine studying and statistics.
“We prefer to concentrate on constructing options that truly are supposed to clear up the precise issues,” Balarezo stated. “I feel there’s too many instruments out there that simply full duties however don’t truly resolve the problems of claims.”
They actually don’t assist adjusters construct belief with policyholders, he stated, and the standard of the information and responses again to policyholders want a “large quantity of enchancment.”
He stated that general, the claims course of and expertise are damaged. The Adjusto staff believes that the contents claims area is concurrently some of the under-innovated and high-friction areas in insurance coverage.
“We floor crucial info sooner to the adjuster,” Balarezo stated. “We automate what doesn’t require human consideration, and we create transparency throughout the board so that everybody from policyholders to carriers can transfer ahead with readability and confidence.”
Adjusto goals to show moments of potential friction into trust-building alternatives for adjusters, which finally turns into reducing churn and growing loyalty. The platform is designed to be intuitive, pleasant and quick, Balarezo stated, releasing up house for adjusters to concentrate on empathizing with policyholders and rebuilding that belief.
“I feel that’s the massive factor that tooling is lacking right this moment,” Balarezo added. “Adjusters largely can’t actually belief the output that comes out of it. I’ve had conversations the place adjusters actually have to return after which redo their work as a result of the automation that’s constructed into it simply isn’t correct. It’s not clever.”
Go Deeper
Claims of any measurement and scale can profit from the Adjusto software program, Balarezo stated.
He defined that the Adjusto staff thinks of itself as a thought chief, associate and trusted advisor to the corporate’s shoppers. They deeply perceive enterprise construction and course of, he stated, they usually additionally perceive the wants of smaller corporations.
“What meaning is for us, we very deliberately constructed our software program in a approach to match straight into an current tech stack with minimal friction,” Balarezo defined, pointing to Adjusto’s seamless integration and fast onboarding. He later added that Adjusto is “right here to be a associate and assist modernize. We’re able to roll up our sleeves and assist lay the groundwork for the longer term.”
Subjects
Catastrophe
Natural Disasters
InsurTech
Wildfire
Claims
Tech
