As prudent companies, you have already considered and ensured that you have insurance policies in place to meet any number of exceptional and unforeseen circumstances. For the most part, you know the insurance is in place, you mention it to your teams now and then but generally, business continues as normal and the presence of the insurance policy is pushed to the back of your minds.

Then comes that day you anticipated when you purchased the policy. You have an unpaid overdue and need to file a claim. You contact your dedicated account manager and you then start the process of filing a claim.

Here, we take you through the process of filing a claim, and all the way to securing that all important claim payment. What to expect and tips to make the claim process altogether a fast and simple process.

1.      Filing a claim

The claim filing can be done online through your dedicated EOLIS portal. At policy inception, the list of documents to be filed with your claim would have been made available to you. Try and include as much as you can

TIP: Include what documents you have. If you don’t have something then explain this in your claim form. Don’t waste valuable time or resources trying to get hold of something that is no longer in your possession or doesn’t exist.

2.      Assignment

Once your claim is filed on the EOLIS portal, the claims team receives an automated message telling them to open the claim. Ensuring a policy is in place, the amount of cover (if any) available for the Buyer and ensuring that the debt amount is above the deductibles in the policy are some of the primary checks that take place at this stage.

Once the claim is opened, it is assigned to a Claims Assessor.

TIP: General rule is that the greater the value of the loss, the more senior the person within the insurance claim team who will be analysing your claim

3.      Initial Contact

When the claim is assigned to a Claim Assessor, they will review the documents sent and get in touch with you within 5 working days. The initial review will highlight the following:

a.       Any initial concerns we noticed. We will request your assistance in clarifying the same

b.       Provisional calculations of the Insured Debt

c.       Details of any additional documents or clarifications we need

TIP: The initial communication will be through email. At the bottom of the email, you will find the mobile number of the Claim Assessor. Call the assessor directly if you need any clarifications. This will save a lot of time and speed up the assessment of your claim.

4.      Assessment

The Insurance Policy you purchased is a contract between you and the Insurance Company. To pay the claim, the Claim Assessor has to go through your Insurance Policy and make sure that you have done everything you promised to do in the contract.

Rejecting a claim is always a last resort option for the claim assessor and they will try and assist where they can to ensure a claim is paid.

TIP: Be open and transparent with the Claims Assessor because the earlier an issue is identified, the sooner it can be discussed and where possible, a solution found. Also don’t be afraid of asking your Claims Assessor what you need to show to rectify any breaches of the policy. The Claims Assessors are highly experienced and are best placed to share best practices with you.

5.      Resolution

The best part of any Claim Assessors job is releasing the payment to the Insured. It means that they can close the file and make a customer very happy.

The job of the Claims Assessor ends when they send the instructions to the Finance Team to release the payment. Before this step, they may ask you to reconfirm the outstanding amount and detail any recovery action you have taken.

TIP: Prior to the end of the waiting period, liaise with your Claims Assessor to ensure that they have everything they need to release the payment without any delays.

6.      Closure

In reality, the Insurance file is not closed until a full recovery is made from the defaulting party. Therefore, even after a claim payment, you may still hear from the Insurance Company asking you for an update on any recovery action.

TIP: Put processes in place whereby you inform the insurance company as soon as you get any recovery from the defaulting party. The added benefit is that if you make a recovery, your loss ratio will decrease and this will be reflected in your next premium payment.

Halima Ravat, Claims team leader Allianz Trade in Middle East