Pacesetter Claims Reduces Adjuster Onboarding Time By 85% With Wingspan

Pacesetter Claims Service is a leading provider of catastrophic and daily property claims adjusting services. The growing insurance services company, which relies on a large network of 1099 independent adjusters to service its clients, partnered with Wingspan to streamline its onboarding and payment workflows while also empowering its adjusters with health and financial benefits.

Challenge

Entering 2021, Pacesetter’s CEO Bill Brassfield was getting feedback from the field that adjusters were having a negative experience because of how painful and slow it was to get onboarded.

At the time, the company’s network of insurance adjusters spanned nearly 3,000 contractors across the country. The company was using a payroll provider to administer payments to its independent adjusters, which required several additional steps and workarounds to accommodate 1099 requirements.

It ended up taking several days in back-office processes to onboard and verify the hundreds of new contractors being added to its network.

While the current process wasn’t fundamentally broken, Brassfield and his team recognized an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market by providing its adjusters with a faster and more convenient experience that would help the company better attract and retain talent.  

Solution

Brassfield and his team began researching 1099 payroll solutions that offered automation to key parts of the onboarding and verification process. During this evaluation, one of Brassfield’s industry peers recommended Wingspan.

“Our contractors drive most of our organization’s revenue, and they’re the backbone of the insurance industry,” said Brassfield.

“We want to keep them happy by offering a high-quality payment experience, one that sets a new standard for how our industry treats 1099 workers.”

The company needed a solution that could handle fast bulk payments and enable them to offload support for its thousands of adjusters. Wingspan’s group-based policy capabilities allowed Pacesetter to set unique schedules and payment rules for its adjusters based on the specific type of work being performed and the worker’s skills and experience.

One of the other reasons Wingspan stood out to Pacesetter was their ability to offer its adjusters access to a range of health and financial benefits, typically reserved for full-time W-2 employees, that included:

• Financial management assistance, including tax management, bookkeeping, invoicing, and banking features
• Medical, dental, vision, and disability benefits
• Access to Wingspan’s support team for advice on tax, accounting, and benefit issues

This would allow the company to boost the loyalty and retention of its contractors while differentiating themselves from other claims adjustment companies in the industry.

“Wingspan was the only platform that allows us to pay our adjusters faster and more conveniently while also providing them with access to health and financial benefits,” said Brassfield.

Results

Using Wingspan, the company’s been able to radically streamline its 1099 onboarding and payment workflows which has resulted in a material impact to its business across many dimensions. In just 6 months, the company was able to:

• Reduce payment errors by 40% because of pre-configured workflow automation
• Spend 85% less time onboarding adjusters because Wingspan automates tax documentation requests and provides a contractor support help desk
• Save $45k on labor and technology costs by consolidating their 1099 onboarding, payments, and compliance functions onto one platform

Looking ahead, Brassfield is excited about the next chapter of the company’s growth with Wingspan in tow. “Wingspan substantially improves the business and personal lives of our adjusters by providing them with critical services and support,” he said.

“Wingspan is a must-have software for any claims business that depends on contractors.”