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Host Georgie Simister is joined by Andrew Pedler, Vice President at Reserve UK, to explore how claims has moved beyond processing to become a driver of trust, profit and innovation.
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What is Insurance Technology: Fact or Fiction??
Host Georgie Simister speaks with key insurance industry figures to separate fact from fiction in a world of insurance, debunk industry myths and explore the game-changing innovations shaping its future.
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Is claims boring or does underwriting just have better PR? Welcome to Fact or Fiction with Artificial hosted by me, Georgie Simister. This is the podcast that separates fact from fiction in the world of insurance, debugs industry myths and explores game changing innovations shaping the future. It seems that most people start their career in claims then swiftly move on to something more exciting like underwriting or broking. But not today's guest.
Speaker 1:So today, I am joined by the wonderful Andrew Pedlar. He's vice president of Reserve UK. So Andrew began his insurance career in claims sixteen years ago, and he spent twelve of those years working his way up at Liberty Mutual. And now he leaves Reserve in The UK. Part tech company, part TPA, which has recently raised a Series B of over $25,000,000 In today's episode, we will explore how the role of claims has changed, how we can think about claims in a different way, and what the future of the market looks like.
Speaker 1:Welcome.
Speaker 2:Hello. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:It's alright. How are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm good. Thank you. I'm good.
Speaker 1:Good. Right. Well, first podcast guest back after the summer, so I'm really excited to be joined by you today. Let's kick things off with just establishing what is the difference between a TPA, a third party administrator, and claims.
Speaker 2:So very little in some circumstances and a lot in others. So we handle claims in the same way that an in house insurance carrier would. Mhmm. The difference between a third party administrator and an in house claims team is we are the third party handling claims on behalf of a carrier or a client. So they delegate your authority to us.
Speaker 2:A good way to think about it is we are like an MGA for claims. Slight differences or side nuances is insurance carriers tend to outsource certain sort of claims or certain types of claims to TPAs. So, usually, your high frequency, lower severity claims and also your more traditional classes of business, like your property, casualty, liability, motor type claims. Carriers for the most part, or particularly in the London market, tend to keep those more specialist lines like energy, marine, aviation, political risk stuff in house. So there's a certain type of claims that are outsourced to a TPA.
Speaker 2:But apart from that, we are just like any other claims department, the regular roles that you would expect. We are just a third party that handles claims.
Speaker 1:And does it differ your UK claims to The US market?
Speaker 2:The... Or different regulations Right. And different requirements. So the two markets are very, very different. But being a TPA in the London market or The UK general market or The US, very little difference, I guess, in kind of structure.
Speaker 2:Again, with the dynamics between being a TPA or being a in house claims team, it doesn't really matter too much. I guess the difference is handling claims in The US versus handling claims in The UK. Mhmm. So one main difference is you have to be a licensed adjuster in The US, for example. You don't in The UK.
Speaker 2:We rely more on experience, knowledge, and then some industry wide qualifications like the CII, ACI exams.
Speaker 1:Okay. Right. So let's talk about careers in claims then. So people often start their career in claims, and then they move. You haven't.
Speaker 2:And I'll be quite open and honest as well. When I was considering a move into the insurance market or an insurance career, I wanted to be an underwriter. I can't really remember why I wanted to be an underwriter, but it was clear that if you... At the time, anyway, if you were talented and you were at an insurance, you wanted to be an underwriter. And I started working in claims, and, frankly, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:I read history at university, so I've always liked
Speaker 1:Being boring?
Speaker 2:Yeah. End of end of podcast. I... I'm actually boring. It's it's not a PR issue at all.
Speaker 2:And much more so, I I generally like the way the the way the policies were constructed, the words within them, and what that meant for the outcome of come of claims, particularly the larger multinational claims, I found genuinely very interesting. So I started my career in reinsurance. So we're looking at things like event aggregation, language, the unities test. I found that particularly fascinating, so I really, really enjoyed it. And I was offered the opportunity quite a few times both in my prior companies and then with other companies within the underwriting space.
Speaker 2:I generally didn't... It just wasn't attractive then. I didn't like the idea of quite literally pricing risk. It it just wasn't a bit of of interest to me. And I also think that the dynamic around how much authority you get, not just from a financial authority perspective, but what's expected of you as a junior claims handler, I think, is quite high.
Speaker 2:So quite early on in the role, even though you have... You might have a zero financial authority in terms of what claims payments you can make. You're still talking to policyholders. You're still speaking to brokers. And then your authority enhances quite quickly or increases quite quickly to where you are you are responsible for quite a large claims portfolio quite early on, and I enjoyed that empowerment.
Speaker 2:I won't say that isn't there on the on the underwriting side, but certainly on the claims, you know, I really I really felt that. Also, when I started in the market, I can't believe I'm now a person saying when I started in the market, it makes me incredibly old. But there was still a claims person at the box in Lloyd's, and effectively, what that meant... Like, where you're a placing broker and you go up to the underwriting box and you and you broke your risk. On the claim side, you would have your claims broker coming up to you on the on the box at Lloyd's or and or in the offices with a claims file, still a paper file, and they quite literally broke the claims to you.
Speaker 2:And you may have not have seen that claim before. So you were required to sit there while a broker who is often quite experienced, and they definitely knew if you were a junior claims handler, and you had to adjust the file while they're watching you. And they're asking you questions, maybe keeping you distracted while you're hand... While you're handling the claim. And, obviously, you can take it away and take legal opinion, etcetera.
Speaker 2:But for the for the small type claims, you're sitting there, and you had to think quite quickly on your feet while handling that, and I really enjoyed that dynamic. I do appreciate, though, as I've moved kinda outside of the Lloyd's market, this... My answers would be very, very different, but I'm... I have to talk about my own experience and then why I really enjoyed the claims side of the industry.
Speaker 1:Okay. So you moved from Liberty to Reserve, so you've gone from a carrier to a TPA. That's quite unique, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is. A few people were surprised going on to the TPA side because TPAs are considered a vendor or a service provider. In fact, they're not considered a service provider. We we are a service provider. That is entirely what we're there to do.
Speaker 2:So there are some connotations around that. But I was really excited to move to a business, well, one that had a certain approach to handling claims, but also to move to a business where claims were unambiguously the revenue driver. Mhmm. So the driver of our business is providing claim service and claims technology. Whereas if you're working for an underwriting company, claims are part of the organization.
Speaker 2:So all of our budget, all of our tech budget gets spent on claims. So in terms of what comes first, where's the prioritization, our prioritization is claims technology.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And with my background, I used to head up claims innovation with market and that real focus in claims tech. I wanted to work for a company that was resolutely focused just on claims Yeah. As we've established because I like claims.
Speaker 1:So why do you think there is the perception that it's not that as attractive as being a broker or an underwriter?
Speaker 2:I think twofold. I think, at the time, claims was a less attractive role within the insurance industry. And I think that's because it was far more of a back office function. So in terms of you weren't going out there in in the market, it wasn't that relationship driven. You're sitting kind of either behind a screen or with, you know, with a paper file and adjusting the claim.
Speaker 2:It was very myopic in the roles and responsibilities. I think that's really changed over the last five to ten years in terms of what is expected of a claims team, now much more involved from a business development perspective, a client service perspective, trending analysis, analytics tech. I think that role has grown. And then, dare I say, I think that for some businesses and some lines, the underwriting role or the role of an underwriter has either shrunk or bifurcated into different roles. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So... And I'd be interested actually. I know we're not supposed to do this, but I'd be interested in your opinion Mhmm. Because you have sections of that underwriting role that are either now fully automated or augmented with tech on top of it. So quite for some underwriting roles now, I'm thinking of insurance, I guess, like I guess, like, key perhaps, a lot of that is tech based, which is by definition, I suppose, of a back office role.
Speaker 2:So I think the dynamics have changed as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think it has. And I think as we look at the way tech will develop as well in the next couple of years, I think there's no doubt the role of an underwriter will change. There is people kinda talking that the role of the underwriter could become a bit more like an actuarial role, is interesting. But, yeah, I think the more that there's tech being involved, it takes away some of the administrative tasks
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But it also means that, I guess, you have better access to data to make better underwriting decisions. So I do agree it it has changed, and it will continue to change.
Speaker 2:I think so. And I think it's it's happened at the same time. So the... I'd say the claims are always expanded in certain ways at the moment, and they may contract in the same way actually as the underwriter has done. So that might be quite interesting to follow the two.
Speaker 2:But I do think that original idea of the underwriter who did everything, that did the the sales, the relationship, something that did the claims processing as well, actually, it was that kinda holistic, omniscient style, personal role. And I think that dichotomy of that paradigm rather has changed.
Speaker 1:And so do you think the role of the claims handler, they're getting involved earlier on in the process?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So 101100%, I think you... There's an expectation now that claims teams are part of the sale. Again, in diff... Again, in different lines.
Speaker 2:You're you're more homogenous, high risk. That's not the case. If you bought your insurance via an aggregated website, you're not gonna have a relationship with your claims handler or your claims team. You might do from a tech perspective, but you're not going to have that personal relationship. But on the larger claims, absolutely, you're going out and you're meeting people at point of placement, and that's a materially different change for a claims handler and actually also a different skill set.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So quite frankly as well, the the idea of then having ten, fifteen years ago claims people doing things like, I guess, podcast speaking, keynotes, etcetera, That's very, very different. It wasn't it wasn't considered part of that role. You weren't the the spokesperson of an organization. And I think now we...
Speaker 2:You're seeing a lot more of that, which is a great opportunity, I think, for future claims professionals coming in. And maybe when people are coming into the insurance market, they won't have the same opinion I did that I had to be an underwriter for some unknown reason.
Speaker 1:Are you the one that's driving that change then?
Speaker 2:No. There are actual new talented people in the in the market.
Speaker 1:But you're on the podcast. You're doing different keynotes.
Speaker 2:I'll I'll I'll I'll absolutely take it. But... No.
Speaker 1:Pioneering the future of clones.
Speaker 2:Indeed. I like it. I've been my new tagline. No. I think I'd probably...
Speaker 2:I'd leave it a trend setter, but I definitely rode my prototypical. I tend not to have any particular new ideas myself. I'm quite good at kinda riding either waves or changes in industries or norms, etcetera. So I think for the people coming in now, there's a real opportunity to do something completely different.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And I think if anybody gets the opportunity... Want... Well, to speak to you, but also to see your boss, CJ, on stage. He is a fascinating person.
Speaker 2:That's probably worth touching on as well because the people entering the claims industry are different. And a lot of that is tech, I guess, where you've got the the merging of what is a tech company, what is a claims company, and we're we're case in point there. Are we are we tech? Are we claims? What what organization are we?
Speaker 1:What are you?
Speaker 2:That's very different. There are actually... In fact, the the correct answer to that question is there are two parts of Reserve. We have Reserve Technologies, we have reserve claims analysis. Reserve technologies, we have our AI engineers building tech for us and for the market.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And then we have reserve claims analysis, which is the TPA. Mhmm. So, technically, we are both, but we're... At heart, we're a claims company.
Speaker 2:But then, like you say, our CEO is CJ. He has a background in tech and then moved on to building a claims tech company and now within... Is within claims. Whatever perception you have of a traditional claims adjuster, you know, CJ isn't here, or we're not here at reserve.
Speaker 1:As we know that you love claims so much, if you could change one thing about claims, what would it be?
Speaker 2:I change the name.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Quite literally, the the the name claims for two main reasons. One, I don't like the negative negative connotation of the word claims. So if you've bought something, and in this case, an insurance product, why do you have to then claim or ask or plead for it to do something? Shouldn't your product just do what it's supposed to do and it should pay out? Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I'm way oversimplifying that because there are a bunch of different reasons why you need to present your claim in a way that affords coverage onto the policy, obviously. But that... Just the negative connotation of you having to ask for something, I think, is fundamentally wrong. And if we look about the reputation of... In the insurance industry in general, I think part of that is the case.
Speaker 2:So when you have a claim, a lot of people worry. They think, oh, is my current claim gonna be covered? I bought this insurance policy. That shouldn't be a worry. You should think, oh, I've had an accident.
Speaker 2:Great. I've got an insurance policy. I'm okay. And for a lot of people, that... That's not the relationship they have with the industry, and I think part of the...
Speaker 2:Of that is the terminology of the word claim. Claim claim words. Words are very important. We need to be careful the way... What words we're using and how we're using them.
Speaker 2:So I would change the word claim. Mhmm. And then I know I mentioned this before, but also the word claims department suggests that the claims department just handles claims. So that... All they're doing that, you know, a 100% of the time, and that's just not the case.
Speaker 2:We have client relationship teams solely for claims. We have claims analytics teams, claims MI teams, claims data teams, claim trended analyst, predictive analysts, predictive analytics functions. So there's much more than quite literally just handling the claim. So I don't even think that the terminology is correct from a what does the department do perspective. I would rather change it to the product response team
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Or even... Maybe even the service team. But just the the idea that you... That we are there as a department to respond. And I think that's a much more powerful message to the policyholders.
Speaker 2:Interestingly, actually, Reserve, our US teams do call their claims handlers claims resolution specialists. K. So kind of... You're kind of getting there. You're pushing in that direction, and that's well received in that market.
Speaker 2:So I do wonder if that's gonna come to The UK at some point. I think that would be a big change for insurance in general, not just claims.
Speaker 1:You can pioneer that one as
Speaker 2:well. I will I will pioneer.
Speaker 1:And bring it over here then.
Speaker 2:Change it
Speaker 1:to you.
Speaker 2:You know what? I I could... Apart from... We could change it. Everyone's got name.
Speaker 2:I can see... So when is the market ready? When will it be understood? Do... Are people gonna understand now?
Speaker 2:Because it takes a long term time to change people's habits. Right? So if if I suddenly change all our claims handlers' names to resolution specialists or product response teams, are people gonna understand it? But I think there's a journey, and we can definitely be, and I'd like to be one of those companies who are kinda pushing that change.
Speaker 1:So, like, the whole point of insurance is to protect yourself in the event of something happening and put yourself into a position as you, like, as you were before in Tempity. Very
Speaker 2:good. You come up with claims.
Speaker 1:So we kind of have touched on it, but, like, claims is so important. Like, that's the whole point of an insurance policy is that you get your claim paid if something does happen. Why is it, like... Where is it going wrong? Why is it not being received like that?
Speaker 2:I think two fold. One, I'm gonna I'm gonna slightly disagree.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Not not a a real disagreement, but in terms of the... People always say that claims is the product Mhmm. Or claims is the shop window. Now, upon the fact that they are cliches, claims is not the product. Risk transfer is the product.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And that can mean a a number of different things. The the the the literal transfer of risk from one balance sheet to to the other. A claim is something that happens, but say on average, one out of 20 policies has a claim. We're not trying to sell... Say to people, well, 19 of you, if you didn't make a claim, you didn't have a product.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Some of this is semantics, but I like the product the product is risk transfer to me. And also, yes, claims is a shop window, but you're involved much more than I on the underwriting and the placing side. How often in the buying dynamics are claims in the London market the driver of either choice of carrier or the product you're selling? How much does that word come up in the in the conversations when you're selling an insurance product?
Speaker 1:So for me, in my my previous role, when I was directly, like, selling Mhmm. It was... We would always say that we're on a rated paper because we were like, we have the backing, we pay the claims, whereas some other people, if you had a claim, they weren't gonna pay it. So you... You know, if we...
Speaker 1:Even if if we were competing directly on price, we wouldn't try and leverage that. But I would say that it was overlooked, like, all came down to price.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And I've been maybe a little bit facetious but because the dynamic massively changes when someone... Anyone's got an issue with a claim. Mhmm. Then the whole conversation change, which is all about claims, all about the quality of the claims team.
Speaker 2:But it's still something that a lot of people hope might not happen. Yeah. So it doesn't come to the fore as much as it should. But, again, that is hugely changing. And, again, if we go there more to the composite or the general insurance markets, that claims round is much more important.
Speaker 2:So you have companies, I guess, like Direct Line, LV, they do a lot of work selling their claims proposition, and I think that's I think that's different. But I think we as an industry need to do a lot more to push that to come to the forefront, and then I think we'll have a better relationship with, again, insurance insurance in general because it's so integral to it.
Speaker 1:So looking at reserve, so congratulations. You did a series b funding recently. It was two months ago?
Speaker 2:So it came out, I think, two or three months ago, but was actually at the end of last year.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:We just decided not to anyone.
Speaker 1:What is Reserve doing differently to others?
Speaker 2:First of we're really good at handling claims, obviously. But on a more serious note, there aren't that many claims companies that are funded by VCs. Mhmm. And we were the first or at least one of the the very first, and we are certainly the first new digital TPA to the market. So we had a big first mover advantage, which really helped.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And I think the other point is that our cofounders, so I mentioned CJ CJ Prisibel, and other cofounder Martha Drylin, they've done it before. So this isn't their first time. They've either founded... I don't if that's the right verb.
Speaker 2:They've founded or found found companies before or built them or taken them to IPO. So it's something that they have done they have done previously. In fact, our CTO is the same. And I think that makes a difference because you have a stronger relationship with your your VCs. You've done it before.
Speaker 2:You know what you're doing. You know how to build companies. Yeah. So we're not making maybe the same mistakes that other similar stage companies are. So for example, we are just over three years old, and we now serve over 25 carriers, over a 100 MGAs, and we've just gone over 450 people globally across The US and The UK.
Speaker 2:So that's huge growth. At one point, we were... We may still be, as you probably check, the fastest growing Insurtech in the world. Wow. So that's a that's a big statement.
Speaker 2:We're certainly the fastest growing claims
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Company in the world. I think a lot of that is down, frankly, to our to our founding team. And then I think the other part is we then replicate that mentality across the organization. So our claims teams and our claims leaders have an average... Our late leaders have an average of twenty plus years of experience, and our claims teams have an average tenure of ten plus years.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So we think that the better claims outcomes are gonna be driven by experienced claims managers using cutting edge technology, not just the tech itself. Mhmm. So we want proper people who know what they're doing and then assist them with all the technologies and the controls that can help drive better claims outcomes. And that's an ethos across our organization, across data, AI, tech.
Speaker 2:We want serious people handling claims because it's really it's really, really important. Yeah. And I think that sets us apart as well. And in terms of the the series b funding, we are looking to utilize that to grow into other markets and to continue increasing our tech utilization and upskilling to keep using, you know, the the best technology in the market.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And the tech that you use at the... Like, how are your claims handlers using the tech at the moment? What's it look like in practice?
Speaker 2:Initial idea or thought process is that we were gonna upscale our claims handlers to understand really how to use large language genres themselves, to do their own kind of prompt engineering and drive it forward forward from that perspective. We think now instead it sits a lot better behind the scenes. So we don't necessarily need our claims teams to know the intricacies of AI that's operating across the organization. Instead, we should be using it to make their job a lot easier. So similar on the underwriting side, we're removing that administrative burden.
Speaker 2:So all of our claims information should be entered not by a claims handler. We want the AI to be able to structure that information, so you're providing better quality data back to underwriting teams. And then it's those controls that you put around the claims process. So we, for example, have large language models that are reading the entirety of our claims files, not just extracting data, though, but picking out key aspects of that claim that might go wrong. So you might have heard that 80% of indemnity is caused by 20% of the claims.
Speaker 2:So what you want to be doing is you want be relatively focused on making sure that you don't make mistake on those 20% of the claims. So we'll be reading through the claim file. We'll pick now anything that has a propensity to escalate, so your complexity factors. So on a auto account, pedestrians, media in interest, serious injuries, etcetera. And then across a wider remit of claims, you're pulling out things like time limited demands.
Speaker 2:In The UK, part 36 offers, quarter bank offers. In The US, Stowers demands, policy limits demands, things that can really go wrong in a claim unless they are addressed as early as possible. So we use a lot of technology to highlight those claims and then make sure that we... They are actioned and reportable in time. So effectively, we've made it institutionally hard to make mistakes.
Speaker 1:How does tech change the tone of the claims experience, not just the speed?
Speaker 2:I think here, like to look at other industries and what they've done with technology. And the best example, although a cliche, but it's a good one, is the Uber experience. So people always think that Uber gives a better customer experience because of the speed. Mhmm. It's not it's not true at all.
Speaker 2:What they did is they looked at the current pain points of the current taxi cab ride service, and the pain point was uncertainty. Uncertainty twofold. You didn't know when that taxi was coming. So they said they they said they're gonna arrive at 08:00. But you're there.
Speaker 2:You're outside thinking, it gonna come? Is it not gonna come? I've got a plane to catch. This is an anxious time for me. So what they did is they obviously gave you a map and a time frame.
Speaker 2:So it didn't really matter if your if your Uber was ten minutes faster than your standard taxi. It was the certainty of knowing it's arriving and then being able to track it. Same thing as a Domino's pizza tracker. So what what effectively they did is they took the anxiety of what could be an anxious transaction or situation. Technology can do that for claims.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So the most anxious part of a claims experience is knowing, am I covered, and when am I gonna get paid? So if you can use technology to be operationally more transparent and let the policyholder know what's happening with your claim at any time, you're changing the entire tone or relationship of that experience, and technology does that.
Speaker 1:What does getting claims right really mean for the customer trust in the insurance industry?
Speaker 2:I think it's absolutely huge because of the important role that claims plays within the insurance process. Now insurance as a product is not going anywhere. So quite frankly, the world wouldn't go around without insurance. So there would be no innovation. There'd be no building infrastructure.
Speaker 2:There'd be no transatlantic flights. But people's relationship with insurance is often predicated on their expectation around what happens when they make a claim. So I think if we can improve that paradigm within the market, we're gonna be able to materially change people's relationship with an insurance product. And I think that's a huge opportunity, and I think a lot of that sits within claims teams and claims organizations. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So if you were to kind of say one thing to a a broker and an underwriter, what is one thing that you wish that they really understood about claims?
Speaker 2:I don't want to put words in otherwise a broker's mouth, but I've always thought that there's an expectation, particularly with pricing or looking at claims, that the claim settlement amount or the amount of which has been paid on a particular claim or a particular portfolio is always going to be that amount. Mhmm. And I'll explain that slightly differently. So I think people think that a particular type of claim will settle for a particular amount irrespective of what the claims team or what the claims handler does. So maybe they think...
Speaker 2:They they might think that a liability claim has a settlement range or a value range of between a 100,000 and 250,000. Depending on the... What a claims handler does in terms of their interaction with the the legal team, with the policyholder, with the third party claimant, or if they make a mistake, so if we're thinking claims leakage, that 100 to £250,000 range, maybe they've priced that in, could quite easily be 1,000,000, 5,000,000, or 10,000,000. Yeah. Now the impact of that, I think, is always not understood to the degree that it should be.
Speaker 2:And if we think about... Say the Lloyds market in general. If we look at the Lloyd's market combined ratio over the last five or ten years, kinda swings between really good year of 80%, bad years, have had some bad years recently of above a 100%. But for the benefit of my poor math, if we say that an average combined ratio is 90%, if you have 1,000,000 of claims leakage, you have to write 10 times that in premium to make that profit back. Now if we're talking about m g...
Speaker 2:MGAs in The UK market, and there's three or 400 MGAs in the in The UK market, what's the size of an average MGA, GWP?
Speaker 1:2 mil?
Speaker 2:So it could be 2,000,000, 5,000,000, 10,000,000, depending on if you do... If it's an average or mean Mhmm. Median. Say it's 10 say it's 10,000,000.
Speaker 1:It definitely isn't two. That's
Speaker 2:It could it could be two it could be 2,000,000 with the scale and the new size and the start up. Yeah. Well, think of it in in... Of an MGA start up. You're not writing 10,000,000 of business.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. But you have... If you have one claim with significant leakage, think of the amount of premium that you have to write. And I don't think that underwriters or brokers view claims in that way. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And I think if they did, if we stopped calling it claims or loss and we thought about claims in terms of premium, I think that changes the whole market dynamic.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yeah. It's an interesting way to look at it. And, yeah, in my previous role, one thing that they tried to do was to get people to report claims as early as possible because of the expenses that would rack up if they... I think it was...
Speaker 1:There was this statistics that if a claim isn't reported within within half an hour, it goes up by however much percentage. So it's definitely an important message that needs to kind of... Everyone needs to understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's it's absolutely huge. And that's... So in particular, in motor claims, the... How quickly...
Speaker 2:Not only you get the claims reported, but how quickly you identify the third party information, huge swing in your outcome. Now I'm not saying... When I say that people don't realize that, they obviously do. To your company and underwriters, they absolutely know that that is important. But I think there's an expectation that a lot of people do it well and...
Speaker 2:Or a lot of people do it poorly. I think the swing people don't understand or they don't think about it in in that way.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Okay. Crystal ball. Mhmm. What is the future of claims?
Speaker 2:I think that the future of claims looks like the future, I think, of most industries, financial services or otherwise. The impact of AI is going to increase. It's gonna materially change how we operate, how we do things. I think, ultimately, anything that can be done on a screen is going to be serviceable by an AI, agentic or otherwise. I don't even think it's up for question.
Speaker 2:Now if it's desirable, it's it's up for question. But whether or not that that's going to happen, I I don't think there's a there's a question now. I do think, though, that claims is going to be one of the last roles that has less of a human touch, and I think that's because of the emotionality and the scale of the problem when you have a claim. Yeah. So when you have a claim, a a serious claim, I'm talking about serious personal injury, serious risk to your business, that is often the most distressing time that you're gonna have as a personal organ...
Speaker 2:Organization. They quite literally could could mean if your organization could continue or or not. Yeah. And at that time, you're going to want to speak to a person. You're gonna wanna speak to a person and say, am I alright?
Speaker 2:Am I okay? And I think that's what... That's gonna be required. I think when you're purchasing insurance, is that as important? If the AI can accurately price your insurance product, do you really need to speak to someone in time and need?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:So it's clear that you are obviously very passionate about claims, and you do make it sound exciting, some might say.
Speaker 2:Claire.
Speaker 1:But can you give me and the listeners your thirty second elevator pitch on claims and why they are actually the most exciting part of insurance?
Speaker 2:Okay. Very quickly, and I'm gonna slightly skirt out of this. I'm gonna say, coming to insurance in general, it's a great market. It's a great career. It is very interesting.
Speaker 2:It's completely different depending on what type of insurance that you do. It is a force for social good. We can do a lot more with it. There still remains a lot of under insurance in the world globally. If we can address that, we can help a whole lot of people, which is incredibly important at the moment.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And then I I think from a claims perspective, you are quite literally there to help someone in in their time of need. It is good. It is good good getting to a claims resolution. It's a lot more about just looking at a policy and saying, you know, yes.
Speaker 2:This is covered. No. No. No. It's not.
Speaker 2:It's much wider than that. So please do consider claims as part of your insurance journey, career. And, look, I'd, yeah, love love people to come and approach either me or Reserve or, you know, through through this podcast if they wanna find out more.
Speaker 1:Are you hiring?
Speaker 2:We are hiring.
Speaker 1:Well, there
Speaker 2:we go. We are always hiring. So There
Speaker 1:we go.
Speaker 2:You always do.
Speaker 1:Reach out and get themselves a job job with you.
Speaker 2:Do.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, and thank you everybody for listening to the podcast. Feel free to reach out if there's somebody that you would like me to talk to or a myth that you would like us to debunk. But, yeah, it's clear from this conversation that claims aren't boring.
Speaker 2:Claims are not boring. There we go.