TurksLegal Scholarship

The Institute is proud to announce the prestigious 2008 ANZIIF TurksLegal Claims Scholarship. Designed to support the educational and professional growth of ANZIIF’s members and by providing a significant career development opportunity for claims professionals working in Australia’s general insurance industry.

The ANZIIF TurksLegal Claims Scholarship winner will be awarded with an overseas package valued up to $8,000 and includes registration to the 2009 Claims Conference & Insurance Services Expo (Sheraton Seattle & Washington Convention Centre in Seattle, Washington - March 22-25, 2009), four nights accommodation valued up to $1,000, return economy travel valued up to $2,500 and $500 spending money.

The ANZIIF TurksLegal Claims Scholarship runner-up will be awarded an ANZIIF education voucher to the value of A$500.

2008 Scholarship questions

Question 1: Improving customer focus and effective claims management

How a claim is handled may have a make or break effect on an insured’s relationship with their insurer. Consequently, one of the industry’s major challenges is to demonstrate the value of its products to customers by improving their experience of the claims process. On the other hand, it is essential to keep the price of insurance affordable to the widest possible segment of the community. Effective claims management plays a vital role in the achievement of this goal.

Outline the steps which can be taken from a claims perspective which will increase the perceived value of insurance to the public while still achieving effective claims management and sound financial outcomes.

Your response should identify customer expectations at various stages of the claims process and explain in detail how they should be handled in terms of the company’s communications and relevant service delivery.

Your answer should be illustrated with practical examples. For example you may wish to focus your response on large scale disaster response scenarios, however the examples you use may relate to any area you see as relevant.

Question 2: The role of the claims manager in the wider insurance company

Claims people play a major role in providing the services which customers see as central to their decision to purchase an insurance product. They obtain insights in the course of delivering those services to customers that may be essential to other parts of the organisation.

How can claims professionals communicate these insights in a way that is useful to the company and make a positive impact on the wider organisation?

Your response should comment upon the way insights from the claims perspective could assist the company’s operations in, for example risk management, underwriting, marketing or influencing policy wording.

You should identify the insights that a claims professional is in a unique position to offer, how they would benefit other parts of the organisation and the practical steps you would take to drive this information exchange. Your answer should also discuss how organisational structures and technology play a role.

Question 3: Building a better system for disaster claims response

In disaster situations, the government and public look to the insurance industry to protect individual members of the community from the full economic impact of the losses sustained and to assist in returning the lives of large numbers of people to normal as soon as possible in the recovery phase.

As a result, the community has high expectations of the industry at precisely the time it must also grapple with issues of heightened pressure on cost and quality control, speed in assessing large numbers of claims and achieving a fair and equitable resolution of them.

What systems do insurers and the insurance industry generally need to put in place or further develop to improve the industry’s ability to respond effectively to disasters? How can the community’s expectations be balanced against good claims management? Are the community’s expectations of what the industry can do realistic and how should those expectations be managed from an industry perspective?