Claims Conference Asia 2014 attracts cream of claims professionals

The conference heard from a diverse range of speakers ranging from risk managers, to insurers, brokers, reinsurers, service providers and trade associations.

Lars Henneberg, vice president, head of risk and insurance AP Moller-Maersk, pictured below, opened the conference by giving insights into how he had gone about reducing premium spend through leveraging its bulk buying potential external market premiums to $142m from $239m. 

He spoke in-depth about the consequences of a 2011 'mega claim' - the Gryphon which took two and a half years to settle and cost the insurance industry $900m.

A business interruption panel included Brian Whitmore, managing director, Asia, BELFOR; Danny Ooi, regional claims manager, SCOR Re and Norman Kwan, managing director, East Asia, MDD. Panelists discussed how CBI claims could be improved both before and after a claim. More pre-loss planning, project management and encouragement of transparency is needed to help the claims process.

A panel on the claims management outlook and customer service was hosted by Rudolf Frei, managing director, IBNR Insurance Consulting, and had Neil Thomas, head of claims, Asia, Willis Group, Lucia Sun, senior claims specialist, Ace and Ritu Thakur, regional director, customer services, Axa Asia. Panelists discussed how to produce the "wow" in claims service. Thakur said it is hard to produce the wow factor as it was often just what the customer expected in the first place. 

Jack Jia, director, fraud investigation and dispute services, EY, gave a presentation on 'transforming claims through predictive analytics'. For more see here.

After lunch, Duncan Howorth, CEO JLT Asia, gave a keynote on the dominance of Asia in the insurance market going forward, see more here.

Then Allan Yu, governing committee member, Hong Kong Federation of Insurers chaired a panel on employees' compensation, with Sun Lai, managing director, TRM (HK), Evelyn Yan, direcor of claims services, Aon Hong Kong and Harry Wong, director and general manager, Hong Leong Insurance.

Yan expressed concern that some clients' premiums were still rising despite improved claims' history. All agreed that more co-operation was needed between insurers and hospitals to ensure a smoother return to work for employees to help reduce costs for this loss making sector.

Hannah Purves, claims director, Markel International, pictured below, presented an overview of the recent state of the marine liability market.

Neil Thomas, head of claims, Asia at Willis hosted a panel with Sydney Soo, head of claims, Asia Capital Re, Chris Kershaw, managing director, global markets, Peak Re, Damian Reid, head of human resources, general insurance, Asia-Pacific, Zurich and Mark Greenwood, regional director, Asia & the Middle East, Chartered Insurance Institute, pictured below. The participants discusssed the importance of education and experience for claims professionals and how to nurture the right environment for staff.

The conference was completed by James Curbeam, director of global claims administration, Las Vegas Sands who said he wanted his insurance partners to "show common sense and the right attitude to claims".

Attendees can access slides at www.claimsconferenceasia.com

The Claims Conference Asia 2014 was sponsored by BELFOR, Chartered Insurance Institute, EY, ISO, MDD and Total Rehabilitation Management.