Charity Begins at Home

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The title of this post is an old saying, variously attributed to the British playwright, John Marston, in 1610 and to Sir Thomas Browne in 1642. Needless to say, they weren’t talking about property/casualty insurance. But we are.

In the big picture, the industry faces all kinds of challenges — economic inflation, higher costs, increased difficulties in predicting trends, social inflation, increased competition, high operational costs, declining rates, nuclear verdicts, fraudulent claims, and more. Those challenges are clearly beyond any attempts to control them in the near term. But in the smaller picture, there are things that can be managed much more readily.

Closer to Home

Considering the likelihood that there are at least a few property/casualty insurers still processing their business on green screens, charity can begin at home by upgrading their processing systems to control — if not eliminate — smaller-scale challenges. Those might include but certainly wouldn’t be limited to:

  1. Policy Coverage Disputes: Confusion or disagreements over what is and is not covered under a policy can result in complaints, especially when policyholders discover exclusions that they were unaware of. This problem is easily solved with a system that automates the generation of a Declarations Page that clearly articulates coverages and exclusions.
  2. Delays in Processing Claims: Policyholders may complain about slow responses or delays in processing their claims, which can cause financial strain and frustration. This problem can be solved by automating claims process with company-defined business rules and giving policyholders access to the process through a user portal.
  3. Denials of Claims: Disputes often arise when insurance companies deny claims that policyholders believe should be covered under their policies. See #1 above.
  4. Unsatisfactory Settlements: Policyholders may think the compensation offered by the insurance company is insufficient to cover their losses or damages. See #1 above.
  5. Communication Issues: Poor communication from the insurance company, such as lack of transparency or difficulty in reaching a representative, can lead to dissatisfaction. Not every communication issue can be resolved with your core processing system. But if it offers enough transparency through portals and mobile apps, it can go a long way toward keeping policyholders happy and loyal.

Bottom Line

Is there a core processing system for property/casualty insurance that works miracles? Not yet. We’re still working on it. But in the meantime, you can be good to yourself and to your policyholders with a core processing system that manages the manageable, even as things in the big picture work themselves out.

Charity does, indeed, begin at home.