<prompt> Human: Hello everyone,I lost my father a couple of months ago in a terrible house fire. He had a will that he tried to give me a couple of months prior, but because I never could have guessed my childhood home would be completely destroyed in a fire, I ended up having him hold on to it. The only copy of the will was destroyed in the fire. This means that instead of my brother and myself being the recipients of his estate, my brother, myself, and 4 half-siblings are going through probate. I am the executor.I am faced with the decision of hiring a public adjuster to assist us in our dealings with the insurance company. The coverage is a like kind policy at 499,000 for structure and 250,000 for possessions. As far as I understand, we will be given a percentage of the agreed upon amount if we just want to cash out OR we will receive the full amount of agreed upon price if we rebuild house or repurchase items. There is still 381,000 owed on the mortgage of the house and we have been given a value of the land at 250,000. My fathers estate has about 40,000 in other assets and some bills he owes. I have a probate attorney assisting us with this.I feel like I am swimming with sharks at this point. The insurance agent is telling me not to use a public adjuster because he will just take 8 off of the amount insurance will pay. Ive been told by others to hire a public adjuster because the insurance company is trying to save as much money for the company as possible. I have a very reputable public adjuster waiting for me to sign forms so he can proceed, but this is where I am stuck. I have yet to give anyone a layout of the house. The insurance company wants the layout because they are telling me to, at the very least, let them state their amount they are willing to pay out and then if we want to hire a public adjuster we can. The public adjuster is requesting I not give the insurance company anything because it would make his job extremely difficult and he would not be as effective. I am in a position where I need to make the right decision, for the wrong one will cost myself and my family tens of thousands of dollars. Will a public adjuster have the ability to raise the amount paid out by the insurance company in a way that would pay for his fee and then some in my case? The last thing I want to do is to bring this public adjuster in and have him strike out. That would seemingly leave us with the same amount of money we would have gotten regardless of his involvement minus his 8 fee. I am sorry if I left some key info out, but if anyone can help me stand confidently with a decision one way or another it would be much appreciated.  <response>: Not getting an adjustor is like going to court against a lawyer defending yourself. My house burned down in 2012. I can not stress enough--get a public adjuster. A common tactic insurance companies use is to drown you in paperwork. Public adjusters know how to navigate the process and get you the true value of your belongings. For example, my adjustor said that the percentage the insurance company used, while common, was not right for a lot of our belongings. I would have never known this. The adjustor also knew to look for things like antiques and not depreciate them. For example the Stat Wars toater I bought was a collectors item. I would have marked toaster purchased 5 years ago for 20 and probably gotten 10 after depreciation. They looked on eBay and saw that it was selling for 200 and since it was a collectors item got me 200. Can guarantee you will not remember everything in the home. Public adjusters have lists with standard prices that can be used. Yes, the do get a cut of your money, but in my personal experience they paid for their services several times over AND made my life so much easier. 