One of the problems we’ve been encountering of late is decision-making delay by both insurers and their adjusters. There have, of course, been moves in the claims business to reduce staff levels, and anecdotal evidence is that many adjusters are under greater pressure than they find it easy to cope with. It’s ironic that these delays are becoming evident at just the time that the provisions of the Enterprise Act on damages for delay are coming into force, something we shall be dealing with in later posts on this site.

It is, of course, self-evident that delays can cause at best irritation and at worst distress to businesses suffering the cash flow effects of a major loss. We have developed techniques for analysing possible future losses beyond just immediate cash flow shortfall for businesses that may be entitled to damages under the Act. But it’s an area where pressure needs to be applied quite firmly on the adjuster and on the insurer.

We have always valued our relationships with the brokers who generate our clientele, and enjoyed working in partnership with them. We strongly believe that any claim is a process that should involve the broker, the professional who knows the client’s business in a way that helps us inestimably at the beginning of a claim. The broker has access to the management of the insurer to an extent not always available to us, and we expect that such commercial clout will become more and more called on as case handling becomes more problematic and inefficient. We have yet to see what financial and operating effect the possible exposure to contractual damages arising from delay will have in practice, and we shall be watching this closely. We welcome feedback from all our readers.

One of the problems we’ve been encountering of late is decision-making delay by both insurers and their adjusters. There have, of course, been moves in the claims business to reduce staff levels, and anecdotal evidence is that many adjusters are under greater pressure than they find it easy to cope with. It’s ironic that these delays are becoming evident at just the time that the provisions of the Enterprise Act on damages for delay are coming into force, something we shall be dealing with in later posts on this site.

It is, of course, self-evident that delays can cause at best irritation and at worst distress to businesses suffering the cash flow effects of a major loss. We have developed techniques for analysing possible future losses beyond just immediate cash flow shortfall for businesses that may be entitled to damages under the Act. But it’s an area where pressure needs to be applied quite firmly on the adjuster and on the insurer.

We have always valued our relationships with the brokers who generate our clientele, and enjoyed working in partnership with them. We strongly believe that any claim is a process that should involve the broker, the professional who knows the client’s business in a way that helps us inestimably at the beginning of a claim. The broker has access to the management of the insurer to an extent not always available to us, and we expect that such commercial clout will become more and more called on as case handling becomes more problematic and inefficient. We have yet to see what financial and operating effect the possible exposure to contractual damages arising from delay will have in practice, and we shall be watching this closely. We welcome feedback from all our readers.