Insurers do not trust brokers with settlement authority to handle low claim, high frequency claims and make the process faster and more efficient.
This is according to Claims Central executive general manager
Darren Trott. He told
Insurance Business TV that anecdotally insurers seem opposed to delegated settlement authority.
“I see people sticking to the same way of doing things without giving consideration to making things easy for the end customer or broker. I have often heard the saying ‘we couldn't trust brokers with a settlement authority’ and I challenge that."
Trott says insurers should follow in the footsteps of
QBE Australia in delegating settlement authority to brokers for small straightforward claims.
“Brokers are trusted financial insurance advisers. If we can trust brokers to generate premium income for insurers surely we can use their ability to understand the products and to determine low value, high frequency claims that simply make the claims process faster and more efficient for everybody concerned.
“For the life of me, I don’t understand why other insurers haven’t adopted this kind of initiative.”
He says settlement authority is also good news for brokers as they can demonstrate their true value when a claim arises.
This is not the only area where insurers are lagging behind. Turning to technology, Trott explains that insurers should introduce technology into the claims process. Underwriters use technology, allowing providing quotes for clients and close sales online but insurers are yet to embrace it.
“Major insurers in Australia still require policyholder to download PDF files and complete claim formals manually, scan and send them back,” Trott says. “That might have been cutting edge technology a decade ago but today it just doesn’t cut it.”
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