The biggest enemy of recognizing exposure is our own biases.

How flipping the perspective, empowering adjusters to own their files, and holding real checkpoints on litigation keeps social inflation from turning an ordinary claim into a nuclear verdict.

Kim Moody is Vice President and Head of Claims at Golden Bear Insurance Company. In the 9th episode of Claims Conversations with Scott Francis, she talks about reducing social inflation and nuclear verdicts through early recognition and proactive claims handling.

Flip the perspective

Kim's starting point is uncomfortable on purpose: "The biggest enemy of recognizing exposure is our own biases." Adjusters and leaders naturally read a file from the carrier's side of the table, which is exactly how exposure hides in plain sight. Her fix is to flip the perspective and ask what story the plaintiff's attorney will tell a jury about this claim, using these facts, this handling, and these notes.

Once the file is read that way, the gaps show up early, while there is still time and leverage to do something about them.

Push counsel toward resolution, not more discovery

When a case is in litigation, Kim expects defense counsel to have a plan for resolving it, not just a plan for continuing it. She pushes back on the reflex to answer every question with more discovery. Additional depositions and additional experts can be the right call, but they should move the case toward a number and a date, not simply extend the runway and the spend.

That means asking counsel directly: what does this next step change about our valuation, and what is our path to resolution?

Let adjusters own the file, not the diary

A file worked strictly by diary dates gets touched on schedule and understood by nobody. Kim wants adjusters empowered to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and own the outcome. That includes questioning the reserve, questioning counsel, and raising a concern up the chain before it becomes a problem.

Ownership is also a retention story. Claims professionals who are trusted to think stay longer and get better faster than those trained to process.

Real 30/60/90-day checkpoints

On active litigation, Kim sets genuine 30, 60, and 90-day checkpoints rather than rubber-stamping status updates. Each checkpoint asks whether the valuation has changed, whether the plan is still the right plan, and what specifically will be different by the next one. Files that cannot answer those questions get attention now instead of on the eve of trial.

Mentoring the next group

Kim spends real time mentoring newer claims professionals, and she is candid that judgment on severity is learned rather than taught in a manual. Walking a younger adjuster through why a file feels wrong, and what she would do about it today, builds the pattern recognition that catches the next one earlier.

The box of cookies

She also shares a memorable mediation story from Louisiana, where a box of cookies helped settle a claim. It sounds like a small thing, and that is the point: mediation is a human process, and a gesture that lowers the temperature in the room can do more for a resolution than another round of position papers.

Emotional intelligence, on both sides of the file

For Kim, the through-line is connection. Emotional intelligence, with claimants, with counsel, and with her own team, is what makes the difficult conversations productive. Outside of work she is a wildlife photographer and an avid fisher, which she notes takes the same patience and attention that a good claims file does.

What to apply on the next file

Take your three largest open litigated files and write, in a paragraph each, the story the plaintiff's attorney would tell about them. If that paragraph is more persuasive than your defense plan, you have found your next action.

About Claims Conversations

Claims Conversations is an interview series hosted by amaise General Manager Scott Francis. Each episode is a short, 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 & Advisor, Raue Strategic Advisory: "Use AI to take manual work off and let adjusters actually talk to people."

EP.04 - Awais Farooq, Chief Claims Officer, Venbrook: "A good claim is a closed claim."

EP.05 - Mike LaFond, Assistant Vice President of Claims, Pekin Insurance: "Take notes like it's gonna be read aloud in court."

EP.06 - Sherry Merber, Chief Claims Officer, Palms Insurance: "It's all about the people."

EP.07 - Briana Ford, AVP, Head of Excess Claims, Xceedance: "Collaboration, early and often."

EP.08 - Manny Manuelidis, Senior VP and Chief Claims Officer, Atain Insurance: "You've gotta move at the speed of light."

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.