'Window of opportunity' and sum insured discussed at Claims Club Asia

The audience of claims professionals at brokers, reinsurers, insurers and service providers gathered at EY's offices on 13 February in Singapore, and heard from Brian Whitmore, managing director, Belfor Asia; Phillip Taylor, managing director, Asia-Pacific, MDD and Sydney Soo, head of claims, Asia Capital Reinsurance. 

Whitmore talked about the stark gap spent on restoration expenditure by insurers between Germany and East Asia. According to Belfor, in Germany for every $1m of gross written premium, approximately $1830 is spent on the restoration of commercial and industrial property.

In East Asia for every $1m of GWP, $56 is spent on restoration. This means insurers are paying an extra $380m in costs each year in East Asia. 

Whitmore told the audience there is a window of opportunity within a week of a claim to help stabilise and restore the value of a property through restoration. Whitmore's presentation is available [ASSET_HREF_ERROR].

MDD's Taylor reminded the audience that when setting the sum insured, clients and insurers needed to be forward looking by 12 months in advance regarding financial statements rather than making assumptions on last year's available financial data. Taylor's full presentation is available [ASSET_HREF_ERROR].

In a panel discussion, Soo and Taylor spoke of some of the challenges around large claims in Asia. Taylor is concerned that loss adjusters and accountants are being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements by large companies, such as power companies, that are hampering their claims work.

Taylor warned there is still a large knowledge gap at smaller insurance firms and companies around claims across Asia. He said it was paramount service providers and larger firms took time to help explain some of the intracacies in claims.

Asia Capital Re's Soo said an increasing number of insurance professionals are being used by insureds to represent them in claims' disputes leading to a rise in legal insurance costs for insurers and reinsurers. Although Soo understood the rationale for seeking such advice, he argued the quality of it was paramount.

The presentations from the first Claims Club Asia meeting of 2014 are available here.

All meetings and details of how to join the club are available at www.claimsclubasia.com. Also look out for the Claims Conference Asia on 20 March in Hong Kong. More details are available here.

The sponsors of Claims Club Asia are BELFOR, EY, ISO and MDD.