Five decades of knowing what cars are worth.

Robert L. McDorman's career began the way most legends don't: with a bucket and a sponge. As a teenager washing cars at a dealership, he learned the first article of what would become his doctrine — that every vehicle has a true value, and that most people never find out what it is.

A car man “to the bone” who bought and ran his first automotive business in his early twenties, Robert took a small auto parts, automotive paint store and engine machine shop operation that had been in business for over 30 years with $21,000 in monthly gross sales to over $110,000 monthly — in just eleven months.

In his thirties he owned dealerships of his own. The industry noticed: National Quality Dealer of the Year, and Certified Master Dealer recognition by his early forties. He spent decades on the selling side of the automotive business, learning vehicle valuation the way monks learn manuscripts — by hand, daily, without shortcuts.

In his fifties came the heresy — his, against the industry. Reviewing total-loss settlements, he found a pattern: insurance carriers systematically undervaluing what policyholders were owed. Not through malice, necessarily. Through a process nobody was checking. The errors always seemed to lean one way, which is the kind of coincidence an honest scale doesn't produce.

In 2017 he founded Auto Claim Specialists in Fort Worth — a bonded and insured public insurance adjusting firm that works exclusively for policyholders. Because a dispute needs evidence, and evidence needs someone who has spent forty years knowing what cars are worth.

What followed was a decade of advocacy that ended with his name attached to one of the biggest consumer advocacy laws in Texas history — the story told in The Doctrine. He would tell you the miracle is just math.

As an acknowledged public insurance adjuster, retail automotive leader and turnaround expert, Robert frequently speaks and conducts seminars on diverse automotive industry-related topics, including compliance, lending, and industry ethics. He is an NIADA Certified Master Dealer and Certified Auto Appraiser and has won the prestigious NIADA and TIADA Quality Dealer Awards, along with numerous other awards. The Texas Department of Insurance licenses Robert as a Public Insurance Adjuster. Exceedingly active with these and other industry associations and numerous civic organizations, Robert is committed to giving back to his industry and his community.