Claims
Everythingelse is apromise
A claim is the only moment anyone finds out whether the programme was worth what you paid for it. It is also the only part of this job that cannot be explained away afterwards.
The work starts early
We design
backwards
from the loss
Most claims that fail were lost at placement, not at notification. The wording didn't do what everyone assumed it did, the limit was set against a number nobody had revisited, or an exclusion was accepted because it made the premium work.
So the initial question at placement is never what classes of insurance do you want? It is, what actually happens to this business if that building burns, that contract fails, that system goes down, that person makes that allegation — and will the wordings respond the way you would expect when it does? Once we know the answer to this question, then we work out what classes of insurance are required.
A programme priced down to the point where it stops responding isn't a saving. It's a loss you've agreed to take later, at a moment you won't get to choose.
No surprises
You should know what isn't covered before the loss, not after it.
No programme or insurance policy covers everything, and any adviser who suggests otherwise is storing up a conversation they don't want to have. What matters is that every gap is one you chose, knowing what it would cost you, at a time when you were calm and had options.
That means saying plainly where the cover stops, what the retention will actually do to your cash flow, and which exclusions are worth taking to the market and which aren't. Then you decide. Being unsurprised at claim time isn't a service standard we should promise you — it's what follows from having made the decisions properly a year earlier.
When something happens
What we
actually do
-
You call us, not the insurer
One number, and someone who already knows the business and the cover. We notify properly and straight away — telling the insurer late, or telling them half the story, is one of the easiest ways to turn a straightforward claim into a difficult one.
-
We build the case
The evidence, the numbers, the documentation, and the argument for why the policy has to respond. This is the part that decides most claims, and it's work — not a form.
-
We argue it with the insurer
We manage the insurer relationship, the loss adjuster and the correspondence, and we press where it needs pressing. You are not negotiating a dispute with your own insurer while trying to keep the business running.
-
We stay in it until it resolves
Progress payments where the cash flow needs them, a push up the line when the insurer's position is wrong, and a clear account of where things stand throughout. The aims are practical: protect your cash flow, keep your commercial relationships intact, and hold the insurer to what the cover was bought to do.
Call (02) 9102 0882. If a loss has just happened, notify first and worry about the paperwork second — the sequence matters more than the detail at that stage.
Why this sits with us
Advocacy is
not admin
Every broker will tell you they help with claims. In practice, plenty of that help amounts to forwarding your email to the insurer and forwarding the reply back.
The difference is whether someone will argue against an insurer they also have to trade with next month — and whether they know enough, and are known well enough, to make the argument stick.
Mark Finn has spent three decades in this market, including inside underwriting and agency businesses. Knowing how the other side looks at a claim isn't a line for a website — it's the difference between an argument that lands and one that gets filed.
Next step
Ask the
awkward
question
Pick the worst thing that could plausibly happen to your business and ask whether your current programme responds. If nobody can answer that clearly, that's a problem.