The raging bushfires may be causing distress across NSW and Queensland but there’s no sign of panic at insurance giant Gallagher, as the organisation defers to its carefully constructed crisis plan.
“We have a structured response to any catastrophe like this so, despite the scale of the event, it’s in many ways business as usual for us,” said head of claims Adam Squire.
“Whether it be a bushfire or a cyclone or a major hail event, we’re ready to go, we’ve got our team on stand-by, and our response is practiced regularly.”
Speaking to Insurance Business, Squire confirmed that Gallagher has already activated its claims catastrophe plan, so it can offer expediated support to impacted clients.
“We’ve got large scale resources available to call on, and we can be there to help clients at very short notice,” he said. “We’ve also got fantastic relationships with our insurer partners, who are all geared up and ready to provide the support we expect to see for our clients going through this horrible event.”
While the claims catastrophe plan is currently in operation, Squire said Gallagher is yet to receive a major influx of claims – but the claims that have come in have been substantial in nature.
“We have had a few claims from it, not significant in terms of volume, but significant in that they’re major loss claims and they need a lot of urgency around them,” he said.
“Part of the challenge now is that many of the areas are still restricted in terms of access, but in cases like that, we work with insurers to come up with the best solution to keep the client working or, if it’s a home, to find them alternative accommodation solutions.”
Squire also noted that, while Gallagher is laregely focused on claims right now, the company hasn’t lost sight of its employees, who are also affected by the ongoing bushfires.
“We closed one of our offices in south east Queensland yesterday because it was impacted by smoke from a nearby bushfire, to the degree that we needed to evacuate the office,” he said.
“Many of our people are challenged by the same thing our clients are – they live in the same areas and they’re impacted in the same way – so we’ve got the ability to really empathise with clients because it’s happening to all of us as well.”
