A Good Claim Is a Closed Claim

A good claim is a closed claim. That is the operating principle Awais Farooq has at Venbrook, and the motto his team works by: Solve Fast, Move Forward.

Awais is Chief Claims Officer at Venbrook. His entire career has been in claims. He talks about it as rewarding work, helping people recover from something that has genuinely traumatized them and impacted their life.

Two things, in his view, drive good claims outcomes: communication and decisioning. Communication with the policyholder, the claimant, the agents, the vendors — every party involved. And decisioning means having everything at your fingertips to make a call and move forward.

The problem he sees is that adjusters pick up a complex file, get overwhelmed by the volume of information, and set it aside. They go for the easier wins. The difficult claim sits there. People call. People complain. Claims organizations need to figure out which files to prioritize, and within those files, how to review everything more effectively.

Regarding nuclear verdicts, Awais says claimants get frustrated with the process, leading them to seek another avenue. When organizations can advocate for policyholders and ensure they receive everything due under their policy, he thinks it avoids a lot of that. Some of it is out of your control. You have to do the right thing, have a method to your approach, and be ethical. And those $100-200 million verdicts on a $50,000 policy — organizations need to be communicating in a way that's effective and understood by the people on the other side.

The standard he works toward: anybody can pick up any file and know where it's at — and move it closer to the goalpost. An adjuster should have an assistant reviewing a 500-page demand letter and whispering in their ear before a negotiation: talk about these things. On top of that, knowing your inventory, what type of claims you have, what your action item is, what to ask for today, what's still pending.

He also tells a story from Hurricane Sandy. An elderly man, a house full of books, two hours walking through the property together. The man withdrew his claim at the end. He just wanted somebody to hear what the books meant to him.

Awais's takeaway: the human-to-human connection will never go away. It is never going to replace looking someone in the eye and saying, "I know what you have been through."

Outside of claims, Awais is passionate about latte art and, in his words, as long as the design is good, the day starts right.

About Claims Conversations

Claims Conversations is an interview series hosted by amaise General Manager Scott Francis. Each episode is a 10-minute, on-the-record conversation with a VP, Director, or Head of Claims about one specific thing that is working in their shop.

Previous episodes

EP. 01 — Dale Diamond, VP of Claims, NAMIC Insurance: "How mid-sized carriers punch above their weight on severity."

EP. 02 — Mark Konerman, Director of Claims: "Resolving complex injury files before they escalate."

EP. 03 — Michelle Raue, Founder of Raue Strategic Advisory: "Use AI to take manual work off and let adjusters actually talk to people."

Be a guest

If your team has changed something that moved severity, cycle time, or BI outcomes in the last 12 months, email scott.francis@amaise.com.