Insurance claim timeline needs fixing, insurers told

afr.com:

Insurance customers want more frequent and clearer outlines about how their damage claims are progressing and timelines for conducting repairs, the industry’s association has admitted.

“Customers [also] expressed their desire for one claim manager throughout the process to avoid the need to tell their story to several claims managers,” the Insurance Council of Australia said in its new Catastrophe Report, released on Wednesday.

East coast flooding in 2022 triggered almost $6 billion in insurance claims.  Getty

The assessment came after the council’s involvement in more than 47 meetings with customers, including at town hall events, following disasters in the past financial year.

The report is the latest raising issues about fallout from disasters, with insurers legally obliged to handle claims efficiently, honestly and fairly.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, while noting some good practices, in a review last month said insurers could improve five areas including the resourcing of claims and complaints handling.

The Insurance Council’s report confirmed this year had so far been relatively calm, compared to the massive east coast flooding disaster of early last year, which has triggered almost $6 billion in claims. It comes as insurers report better profitability and potentially face a drier El Nino period in Australia.

The council continued to lobby, however, on areas it said could be improved such as better government risk-mitigation processes and reductions of state taxes on insurance.

“The more benign weather conditions we have experienced through 2023 should not provide false hope that the issues of worsening extreme weather risk have gone away,” Insurance Council chief executive Andrew Hall