Our Claims division is among the strongest in the industry, with our experts averaging over 20 years of experience managing and resolving claims issues. We work in close partnership with you and our underwriting teams to provide solution-oriented guidance and feedback to create and define loss prevention strategies and optimize the underwriting process.
Our expertise is available to Munich Re clients to help solve a wide range of claims challenges. We can help you to:
- ensure the adequacy of your reserves
- better manage catastrophic injury claims
- analyze treaty commutation claims
- successfully resolve coverage issues
- review policy exclusion language
- improve settlement evaluation and negotiation processes
- enhance effectiveness of a claims unit through due diligence reviews, claims and operational audits and similar activities
Consulting Services and Seminars
Consulting services and seminars are available in the following areas:
Casualty Claim Seminars
Our claim professionals partner with University of Wisconsin Graduate Business School to offer basic and advance programs in casualty claims handling which are designed to increase the level of expertise and skill among primary carrier claims departments, thereby improving primary insurer loss experience while highlighting our value-added services. The intention is for the program to be very practical and hands-on. Our goal is to share information about decision making and principled, fair claims processes; not only doing things right, but doing the right thing.
The seminars look to provide knowledge filling the common gap often found in current claims departments between the experienced adjusters and the newer adjusters. That is, rather than a continuous age distribution, many departments appear to have a group of older adjusters with greater expertise and a second group of younger, less experienced adjusters. The ultimate retirement of the first group may leave some departments short on expertise. The participants in this program are expected to return to their jobs with the ability to share their new knowledge with colleagues.
Construction Defects Claims Management
Construction defects claims against builders have soared nationwide in recent years. Because the cost of defending these types of claims has become a significant problem for insurers, we have a construction defects specialist on staff to assist our clients. Our actuarial and claims consultants can help clients to quantify their ultimate construction defects liabilities, establish dedicated construction defects claim units, develop claims-handling “best practices,” and create litigation and case management strategies, all of which can result in significant cost savings.
Developing Exposures
As a leading reinsurer, we have the opportunity to view developing exposures from the diverse perspectives of our clients. Exposures we are currently monitoring include: advertising liability/intellectual property, toxic mold, and genetic engineering. Our claims consultants can be invaluable resources to our clients who need up-to-date information on the legal, insurance, reinsurance and contractual issues surrounding developing exposures. Our claims professionals are often teamed with underwriters, actuaries, and contract wording specialists to help clients develop comprehensive solutions as new issues arise.
Asbestos, Environmental, Other Latent and Mass Tort Claims Management
Our A&E, Other Latent and Mass Tort claims staff brings two decades of experience in managing, evaluating and resolving these difficult and complex exposures. They share their experience with clients and can assist them in a variety of ways, including:
- Seminars on all aspects of these claims
- Analysis and evaluation of claims operations, processes and procedures
- Coverage issue analysis and defense
- Exposure and reserve analysis assistance on a single claim, group of claims or entire claims portfolio
- Assistance with claim and / or litigation management strategy
These services will help you to more efficiently and effectively manage these high-impact claims.
Litigation Cost Containment
By improving your company's lawsuit management processes, you can lower litigation expenses and claims costs, and help avoid surprise verdicts. Our claims professionals assist clients by: conducting on-site reviews of litigation control, data collection and reporting procedures and making recommendations for changes; and providing hands-on trial strategy assistance.
Negotiation Skills Training
Our "Negotiation Skills and Techniques" workshop provides in-depth analysis of the claims negotiation process by examining a variety of successful techniques, strategies and negotiation psychology. Attendees gain experience and confidence through hands-on participation in staged negotiations. The goal of the workshop is for attendees to effect more favorable settlements, thereby containing loss and expense dollars for their companies.
Policy Language Reviews
Our claims specialists, experienced in evaluating coverage issues, will assist clients in reviewing proposed or existing wording of policy forms and agreements. We will offer comments, suggestions and practical insight on contract language. The process includes comparisons with other available contract language and culminates in a meeting with the client to discuss our findings. Our comments, suggestions and recommendations should be viewed as an additional resource for consideration by the client company and are not to be considered as a legal opinion or a substitute for legal counsel.
Property Catastrophe Claim Management
- Pre-loss planning and modeling
- Logistics and management of cat claim office
- Adequate staffing and appropriate compensation
- Identification of qualified independent adjusters and experts
- Reporting requirements
- Closing the cat office
- Lessons learned
Medical Claims Services
Best Doctors® Catastrophic and Legacy Case Services
Our catastrophic care program improves the medical and cost outcomes of high acuity, legacy claims and workers' compensation catastrophic injuries. We achieve optimum results by using the top medical experts from Best Doctors® consulting services.
Types of injuries suggested for referral include:
- Traumatic brain injury, including skull fracture and anoxic brain damage
- Paraplegic/quadriplegic
- Severe burns, electrical contact burns
- Multiple trauma
- Amputations
- Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
- Severe orthopedic conditions, cervical and low back pain/injury, carpal tunnel syndrome and related compression neuropathies
- Chronic pain
- Long-term legacy cases and unresolved and medically unstable cases
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