Claims Newsletter Monday 3rd July 2023

Claims News

Sedgwick, a leading global provider of technology-enabled risk, benefits and integrated business solutions, has launched a new power and energy division in the UK, under the leadership of industry veteran David Ward. The division will focus on claims affecting the energy and power sectors, with the capabilities to serve traditional power plant, infrastructure and oil and gas providers as well as handling emerging claims trends in the renewables space. These include wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, biofuel and hydrogen power. (Sedgwick, 22/6/2023, Sedgwick, 'Sedgwick launches power and energy division in the UK')

The anti-fraud team at international law firm DAC Beachcroft has so far assisted insurance broker Clegg Gifford & Co in rejecting more than 1,000 fraudulent motor trade claims. The rejections, thanks to implementing a new approach for detecting fraud in partnership with DAC Beachcroft four years ago, saved Clegg Gifford more than £7 million in compensation that would otherwise have been paid to fraudulent claimants. Described as a “cradle-to-grave strategy” for managing claims and detecting fraud, the approach uses innovative identification methods, in-depth data analysis, early investigations and proactive evidence-gathering. (Billy Simons, 27/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'DAC Beachcroft and Clegg Gifford save £7m+ with counter fraud partnership')

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) has published its annual report and accounts for 2022, revealing that Operation Tutelage helped seize more than 123,000 uninsured vehicles last year. Under Operation Tutelage, MIB works with police forces across the country to check vehicles against police systems and the Motor Insurance Database to see whether they are insured. If not, a letter is sent to the registered keeper encouraging them to insure the vehicle. (Billy Simons, 21/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'MIB annual report reveals impact of Operation Tutelage')

Lemonade believes it has broken the UK record for the fastest claims payment. The process, from review to payment, took just two seconds, according to the insurtech—with no paperwork. On 29 May of this year, Federico, a Lemonade customer, locked his bike on a street while he went to buy food at a supermarket in Bloomsbury, London. When he returned 15 minutes later, he discovered his bike had disappeared and that his bike chain was cut. Federico filed a police report shortly after and opened his Lemonade app to file a claim. At exactly 19:08 and 45 seconds, he submitted his claim after chatting with Lemonade’s claims bot, AI Jim, providing the relevant information and a short video of what was stolen. (Billy Simons, 20/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'New UK record? Lemonade pays claim in two seconds')

Zurich Insurance has joined Flood Re’s Build Back Better (BBB) scheme to help reduce the impact of future flooding on homeowners. The scheme will enable eligible Zurich customers to access up to £10,000 to pay for the installation of flood resilience measures when repairing their properties after a flood. According to the Association of British Insurers, the annual cost of flood damage across the UK is currently £700m—a figure that is expected to rise as the climate crisis worsens. (Billy Simons, 19/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'Zurich expands support for flood-prone customers')

Lloyd’s insurer and reinsurer MS Amlin has launched a new claims triage process. The new process embeds an artificial intelligence model, which assesses and assigns claims based on certain criteria and proprietary scoring algorithms, into MS Amlin’s claims workflow. It is the result of a new partnership with Genpact, a global professional services firm that is working to upgrade MS Amlin’s internal processes and improve its client service. (Mark Dugdale, 14/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'MS Amlin launches new AI-powered claims triage process')

Legal expenses insurance and assistance provider ARAG has reported another positive result for 2022, its thirteenth successive year in profit. During the year, ARAG’s overall gross written premium under management increased by 18.5% to £60.6 million (2021: £51.4 million). Strong growth in its before-the-event (BTE) legal expenses insurance and assistance business drove this increase. (Mark Dugdale, 12/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'Strong BTE growth pushes ARAG past £60m mark')

Cover Genius has reached the milestones of selling more than 25 million insurance policies that protect more than 14 million customers. The insurtech, which co-creates solutions for embedded insurance protection with businesses such as Booking Holdings, Intuit, Ryanair and SeatGeek, made the announcement alongside news that it has expanded its executive team to address its continued growth. (Mark Dugdale, 7/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'Cover Genius reaches big milestones and prepares for further growth')

GT Motive, the creator of a global claims and estimating platform, has partnered with Davies to strengthen its cloud-based estimating solutions. The partnership has seen the two organisations share industry observations, technology and expertise to help develop slicker processes and less manual intervention for GT Motive’s estimatics platform, with the aim of providing more choice for insurers and the supply chain. Davies, as a large third-party administration operator providing automated and technology-driven services across motor claims, has been championing the latest emerging solutions across the industry. (Mark Dugdale, 5/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'GT Motive and Davies forge partnership to develop estimating platform')

WTW is partnering with Clyde & Co to offer clients the law firm's climate liability expertise. Designed to support clients in managing the impact of physical climate risks and their transition to net zero, and to position themselves to benefit from the opportunities presented by climate change. (CIR Staff Reporter, 29/6/2023, CIR, 'WTW and Clyde & Co in climate liability partnership')

Freight crime in Chile was up 450pc y-o-y in 2022, with incidents of theft up an estimated 27% on pre-pandemic levels. This is amongst the findings of joint analysis from TT Club, BSI SCREEN, the Logistics Association of Chile, and the crime investigation unit, Signum Services. The report notes that pandemic-induced measures such as quarantine, restrictions in movements, curfews and had the effect of reducing the number of cargo theft incidents for much of 2020 and 2021; but that it bounced back "with vengeance" once Covid-related restrictions were removed. (CIR Staff Reporter, 27/6/2023, CIR, 'Freight crime in Chile up 450pc')

Marsh McLennan is working with the Ukrainian government to support it with access to war risks cover. As part of the support, it will provide services on a pro-bono basis to design and deliver a risk data platform that will allow insurers to assess and underwrite war risks with greater confidence. The announcement follows the launch of the London Conference Framework on War Risk Insurance for Ukraine by UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. As part of that announcement, the Ukrainian government committed to sharing detailed information with the insurance industry to enable effective and targeted risk modelling to rebuild its commercial insurance market. (CIR Reporter, 26/6/2023, CIR, 'Marsh McLennan supports Govt of Ukraine with war risks cover')

WTW has launched a new Property Rebuild Assessment Service, powered by Kroll’s Property Insurance Valuation Platform. The new tool allows clients to access a range of valuation capabilities from an online risk rating or valuation of their building reinstatement costs, compared with today’s values, to a data valuation based on the specifics of their property. (CIR Staff Reporter, 20/6/2023, CIR, 'WTW partners with Kroll on Property Rebuild Assessment Service')

In further news...WTW has announced the availability of its updated Cyber Quantified modelling tool. Amongst other upgrades, the new version allows organisations to interactively model network outage risk and data breach liability. Available for clients to licence via WTW’s Risk IQ platform, the tool now offers a cyber risk profile feature that provides extensive information on control objective strengths and weaknesses; and a modelling methodology that uses cyber scenarios to better capture the changing risk landscape and tailor the financial damages caused by an incident to a company's operations. (CIR Staff Report, 19/6/2023, CIR, 'WTW announces Cyber Quantified modelling tool improvements')

Brokers using AEGIS London’s online quote-and-bind platform, OPAL, now have access to OPAL Claims for all product lines, including its Wind Deductible Buy Back product. OPAL Claims allows brokers, coverholders and MGAs to submit FNOL notifications directly to TPAs and offers a recently developed status tracker to provide progress visibility. (CIR Staff Reporter, 5/6/2023, CIR, 'AEGIS London expands OPAL Claims offering')

Tokio Marine Kiln, has established a standalone Cyber and Enterprise Risk division. Led by Laila Khudairi, the new division comprises cyber, technology and intellectual property specialisms. TMK has been writing cyber risk since 2006 and launched its flagship policies – Cyber CTRL and Cyber CTRL Physical Damage – ten years later. The team recently collaborated with TMK’s Life Sciences team to deliver IntelliMed; thought to be the first life sciences product to combine cyber and intellectual property cover with life sciences coverage under one policy. IP remains a strong focus under the leadership of Aoife Woulfe, Head of Intellectual Property. (CIR Staff Reporter, 5/6/2023, CIR, 'TMK establishes standalone Cyber and Enterprise Risk division')

Aon has announced a partnership with Praedicat to develop new tools for clients seeking to transfer and mitigate complex and emerging liability risks, including those associated with climate, microplastics and nanotechnology. Praedicat’s technology uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to scan millions of scientific and academic data. (CIR Staff Reporter, 2/6/2023, CIR, 'Aon and Praedicat in emerging risks partnership')

Operational risk association ORX has launched a greenwashing toolkit to support global banks and insurers create a greenwashing scenario, responding to the rapidly growing regulatory and societal focus on climate-related transition risks. The Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, which publishes its Green Claims Code, found that 40% of green claims made in the UK could be misleading and is looking at routes to enforcement. Similarly, the FCA is also due to introduce a greenwashing rule later in the year, while the three European supervisory authorities – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – published a call for evidence on greenwashing in October last year. (CIR Staff Reporter, 1/6/2023, CIR, 'ORX launches greenwashing toolkit to help tackle ESG risk')

Movers

QuestGates Ltd has appointed David Perry as Major Loss Development Director. David brings a wealth of experience to QuestGates Ltd and has been involved in the insurance industry and loss adjusting sector for over 40 years. During this time he has managed teams of Loss Adjusters and Major Loss experts in Glasgow and throughout Scotland. (QuestGates Ltd, 23/6/2023, QuestGates Ltd LinkedIn)

Insurance broker Lockton has appointed Clarissa Franks as its Head of UK P&C Retail. Franks brings more than 15 years of experience to her new position. She joins Lockton from Marsh, where she held several senior leadership positions. Most recently, Franks was the Retail Placement Leader for Marsh UK and Ireland’s three client-facing divisions—risk management, corporate, and commercial—with responsibility for placement strategy and execution. (Billy Simons, 29/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'Lockton appoints new head of UK P&C retail')

Law firm Clyde & Co has appointed Medical Negligence Specialist Louise Jackson as a Partner in its Manchester office. Jackson, a skilled practitioner of defendant clinical negligence, joins from law firm Browne Jacobson. (Billy Simons, 26/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'Clyde & Co appoints medical negligence specialist')

Allianz has appointed Serge Raffard as its new Managing Director of Personal Lines. He takes over from Steve Treloar, who has decided to leave the insurer to pursue new opportunities. Raffard has been with Allianz since 2018 and is currently the Group Strategy, Marketing, and Distribution Officer. Before this, he was the Group Strategy Officer. (Billy Simons, 19/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'Allianz appoints new personal lines managing director')

DAC Beachcroft has appointed complex and large loss injury claims specialist Sara Lowther as a Partner in its national casualty practice. Lowther, who joins DAC Beachcroft’s Manchester office from Clyde & Co, has spent more than 18 years working with international insurers and corporate clients to resolve complex, high value claims. (Mark Dugdale, 13/6/2023, Claims Mag, 'DAC Beachcroft appoints new complex injury partner in Manchester')

Canopius Group has launched its new Cyber Incident Management Team, available to support Canopius cyber policyholders worldwide. The service is led by team leaders across all three of Canopius’s international business units – Brendan Helleman in London, UK; Ellen Brookes in Sydney, Australia; and Steven Wesolek in Chicago, US. The trio of Regional Team Leaders are joined by six additional team members, spread across London, Sydney and Chicago. Collectively, the global team provides a 24/7 incident response service to policyholders, bringing experience from diverse backgrounds including cyber security, corporate relationship development and the military. (CIR Staff Reporter, 29/6/2023, CIR, 'Canopius announces nine-strong cyber team')

Howden has appointed Rowan Douglas as CEO, Climate Risk & Resilience. With more than 30 years of experience in the re/insurance industry, Mr Douglas was previously with Willis Towers Watson where, prior to his departure, he led the Climate and Resilience Hub. Previously, he served on the board of Willis Re as CEO of its analytics division, founding the Willis Research Network. From 2011 to 2016, he served on the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science & Technology and was awarded a CBE in 2016 for Services to the Economy through Risk, Insurance and Sustainable Growth. (CIR Staff Reporter, 27/6/2023, CIR, 'Douglas to lead Howden's Climate Risk and Resilience division')

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