Angus Tucker

Like most people who have become successful in adjusting, Angus Tucker did not set out at first to become a loss adjuster. “I expect there are very few people who, when they’re at school say ‘I want to be a loss adjuster’… most would be more likely to say ‘what is a loss adjuster?’” he chuckled when I spoke to him recently at the CILA offices in London.

Born into a family with a long history of farming in Maidstone, Kent, Angus considered continuing this tradition and went as far as applying to The Royal Agricultural College, although he admits he had no strong convictions about what he wanted to do when he left school. At his interview, sensing that he was not 100% committed to farming, his interviewer suggested a course in Estate Management, and it was this that led him indirectly into loss adjusting. “When I graduated, I then had to do 15 months of practical work, before I could take my final practical exam to get my RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) qualification” he explains. Needing to find a job to get the necessary practical experience, and unable to find one in Estate Management, Angus began to search elsewhere. The advert in a small local paper that he answered, which he describes as “very cryptic”, did not even mention loss adjusting, instead listing, amongst other things, surveying, accountancy, law and insurance. “I had everything but insurance from the estate management course, but I thought anybody could learn about insurance”. The company turned out to be Robins, Davis and Little, and, successful in his interview, he started work for them in 1975, and thus began a career in adjusting which continues to this day. He remained there for over 25 years. “It was at least 25 years, because I know at Robins in those days, when you were at work for 25 years you got a very nice carriage clock, and I got the carriage clock. I got mine the year after Graham Burgess got his, so we’re about to have a President and a Deputy President who’ve both got Robins carriage clocks, which is probably fairly unique”. He describes moving on after 25 years as daunting – “even going for the interview was daunting because I’d only had one interview in my life… although I had got the job, so I had a 100% success rate!”.

Now a director at Grant Thornton, Angus sits within the forensic department, and assisted by forensic accountants, works on “claims quantification, calculation, that sort of thing”. It’s work that he says he finds very appealing, citing the practical nature of the job, involving lots of time out of the office dealing with people in the real world, as a major part of the appeal. He paints a picture of work that is a far cry from the dull monotony of some desk jobs: “the one thing you never are is bored… sometimes you’re angry, you’re frustrated, you’re upset, but you’re never bored though, and I think that’s very important in a job. I’ve never, in all the time I’ve done it, woken up in the morning and thought ‘this job is so boring, I don’t want to go to work today’”. However, the excitement of the job can also lead to a heavy workload, especially in the wake of a major disaster. He recalls how, after Hurricane Ivan devastated the Caymen Islands in September 2004, he was called out there at 12 hours notice to assist “for a few days”. In the end he was there until Christmas, working 3 week stints before flying home to have Sunday with his family, and then flying back out again on the Monday. He recalls the experience as being “a real adrenaline type thing”, even if it did place a strain on his family life. On a lighter note, like most in the profession he has some amusing tales to tell from his work out in the field. He recalls with amusement the time he encountered a land drainage system that had been installed in Greenwich. The design used perforated plastic pipes which absorbed the water before carrying it away. “well, to prevent damage in transit, the whole of the pipe was shrink wrapped… and they hadn’t taken the shrink wrapping off before they put it in, so they had a complete land drainage system that was impervious to water!”.

In addition to his regular work as an adjuster Angus has been involved in Institute work since the late 1970s, starting out in the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) in Maidstone, before progressing on to the main CII Council. He then became involved with the CILA in the late 1980s, eventually becoming London and Home Counties Representative on the CILA Council. While acknowledging that it’s not the sort of work for everyone, he says it’s something he enjoys. “I think you’ve got to enjoy that sort of work to do it. And I do, I enjoy working with my colleagues on council, working with other people in the profession. I really enjoy working with the ABI, working with people like AIRMIC, on various government committees that we sit on with the flooding and other things, and I just find that really challenging and very exciting work”. One of his major roles in recent years has been rewriting the CILA Charter, a job that has been going on for nearly 2 and a half years. At one point he made the rather tongue in cheek suggestion that Council should be abolished altogether in order to make decision making quicker and easier. “funnily enough that wasn’t accepted” he smiles. Asked about the challenges facing the profession, he identifies succession planning as something he will need to focus on as President. “There are still a lot of very, very good technical loss adjusters around… [but] they’re more people coming toward the end of their careers than the beginning… and I think insurers are starting to realize that the question is who is going to be dealing with the really complex major technical claims in 15 or 20 years time?” “We have to identify how we can appeal to people and get new recruits coming into the profession, and give them a good, well rewarding profession.”

Outside of adjusting, Angus lists his main interests as cars (both racing and classic cars), music and skiing. “I’ve always been a petrolhead. Having grown up on a farm, I had very basic motorbikes, bolting round the farm when I was 10-12, and by 12-14 I was driving tractors around, driving lorries on the farm… I was also involved in the workshop, stripping them down, rebuilding, so I just grew up around that and had an interest”. For many years he was involved in British Championship Kart Racing, taking part in gruelling 3-6 hour endurance races, with his team winning several races, including his last. Now that he has “retired”, as he puts it, the racing tradition is being carried on by his son Alexander, 11, who has been kart racing for the last two years. Also a classic car enthusiast, he has owned a totally rebuilt E-Type Jaguar and a replica C-Type Jaguar, the car that won the 1953 Le Mans 24 hours race. Spare time however, is at a premium: “as a loss adjuster you tend to not have much time for a lot of outside interests”. Fortunately, with a career that he finds both interesting and rewarding, this is not a problem.