Vote with your feet on claims and ditch underperforming insurers, say risk managers

Nordic risk managers seem fairly satisfied with the claims service they receive, but say much of this is because they insist on certain standards up front, advising fellow risk managers to do the same and vote with their feet when choosing an insurer. However, there were some concerns raised over settling claims satisfactorily in multinational programmes. Lennart Edström, vice-president – group risk management at AB Electrolux, said claims work well today because he is “pretty demanding” on the level of service he receives. “We demand to deal with one, dedicated team regardless of where the claim is. The insurers have responded well to that so I can’t really complain,” he said. Fellow Swede Anders Esbjörnsson, director of group insurance at construction firm NCC Group, is also happy with claims, and again said much of this is down to upfront work. He said there are enough insurers with good claims service for buyers to ditch any that do not come up to scratch. “When we buy insurance cover, choosing an insurance company that has a history of proper claims handling is perhaps the most important criteria. Put simply, if we are in doubt over the claims quality and history of an insurer they would fall out of our programme. We have so many good options that there is no reason why any insured cannot do this. So my advice to fellow insurance buyers is: vote with your feet when it comes to claims,” said Mr Esbjörnsson. Melinda Johansen, general manager of group risk management at Denmark-based engineering group FLSmidth & Co, said the level of claims service depends, in part, on the type of loss. Small frequency claims are easily automated so work well, she continued. But for larger claims, and those involving multinational programmes in particular, insurers’ networks are still an issue, the Dane said, adding that insurers could do more to make things run smoothly. “If it is a global programme, that should extend to global claims handling where we can rely on a level of service across the world rather than different standards depending on the country in which the claim hits. I think you still have to be on top of insurers when it comes to claims. Depending of course on the sophistication of the customer or broker, I think you still have to set the tone and expectations of the insurer. I don’t see them being very proactive,” said Ms Johansen. In agreement with other Nordic risk managers questioned, Ms Johansen said solving these problems requires upfront work from the insured. “To give them credit, I do see insurers being positive when brokers and customers themselves are proactive on claims. So they will respond if you are prepared to make the first move, but you often need to force the issue,” she said. Tapio Huovinen, director of risk management at renewable wood biomass company UPM, said for claims to run more efficiently, systems need to evolve that allow different parties to access the same information at the same time “Broker, loss adjuster, client and insurer should be looking at the same data, or parts of the same data,” he said.

Vote with your feet on claims and ditch underperforming insurers, say risk managers

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