Yes, adjusters are ‘adjusting’ to fast-paced Nat Cats

Canada’s costliest year on record for NatCats is forcing claims adjusting firms to get creative about managing workloads, say Crawford & Company (Canada) president Greg Smith and Cortney Young, vice president for Platforms Solutions & Contractor Connection Canada.

Beyond leveraging adjusters from various regions across Canada and staying in touch with carriers to cope with claims volumes, they say they’re “optimizing the use of non-adjusting resources for site inspections, admin support, and other service functions.”

For example, Smith and Young point out, many files they’ve worked on could be handled without travelling to loss locations.

Plus, emerging technologies are helping with customer service and remote adjusting.

“In the realm of digital claims intake, we have tools in place with key customers that allow us to receive new claims electronically and distribute them to adjusters quickly,” Smith and Young say, adding this is an improvement over traditional file setup and assignment processes.

Newer claims systems also provide clients with details like the names and contact information of adjusters assigned to their files. And in-house mobile tools let adjusters send photographs, reports, and other documents from a loss location through a tablet or smartphone.

At the same time, the increased frequency of NatCats mean adjusters have to spend weeks and even months deployed away from home, adding to strain on personnel.

“We often see a pattern where the initial response is strong, but diminishes over time due to stress, and this is something we are alert to,” Smith and Young tell CU.

“We offer employee support through wellness programs sponsored by the company [such as] on-demand employee assistance programs, and virtual healthcare options to help individuals proactively manage their wellness.”

 

Claims challenges: Summer of ’24

This summer’s sheer volume of claims and rapid occurrences of NatCats created stressors for claims handlers that were exacerbated by challenges unique to each event, the adjusters tell CU.

For example, when adjusting Jasper’s wildfire, claims specialists coped with delayed site access while waiting for the all-clear from first responders, making the job more difficult. Also challenging was the need to source limited accommodations and travel in and out of the affected area daily. Plus, the fact that claimants were evacuated to places far away from the loss areas created further stress, Smith and Young say.

Flooding in Quebec, particularly Montreal, combined with the congested urban location to slow travel time to sites for adjusters and restoration contractors. “The urgency of water mitigation requirements to minimize damages compounds these challenges,” Smith and Young say, as do “restrictions around licensing and language requirements.”

For floods in Toronto and other Ontario regions, the primary problem was repeat flooding that led to two separate loss events in the same home. And there have been major delays in the wake of Calgary’s hailstorm which have “created longer shelf lives” for some claims.

 

Feature image by iStock/MHJ