Vanessa Maher (pictured) joined Liberty Speciality Markets in 2001 and, in the nearly two decades since, has maintained a variety of roles across the company. Currently senior vice president of claims and digital for the Asia-Pacific region, she told Insurance Business that her longevity at Liberty is due, in part, to a crucial factor: that when it comes to company-shaping decisions, “claims has an equal seat at the table.”
“It’s quite a unique insurance company in that the claims team that I lead has a definite say when it comes to client attraction, retention strategies, analysing trends in claims and much more,” she commented.
This is a point of emphasis for Maher, who is a long-term advocate for the claims team’s ability to add value throughout the entire duration of a policy – not just at the point of claim. Key to achieving this is really getting to know your clients, she said.
“To really add value, we have to establish an understanding of the nature of the risks that they’re facing, and look at the specific policy wordings to identify any potential gaps in cover,” Maher noted, adding that each client relationship is unique and needs specific attention paid to it.
“In my experience, flexible claim offerings are generally preferred by clients with more sophisticated in-house systems,” she said. “On the other hand, certain clients can benefit more from being led throughout the entire process. Regardless, it’s important to remember that a key element of insurance is stepping up and paying claims when necessary to give clients that necessary peace of mind.”
This will be particularly important as we enter a hardening market that is “long overdue”, according to Maher.
“There’s been sustained underpricing of premiums for a while now and a hard market is probably necessary,” she said. “Factors such as climate change, shrinking capacity in the D&O insurance space and more have affected this, and it’s obviously been accelerated by COVID-19.”
“As the market hardens, some clients will want to restrict their insurance payments, while others will want to spend more to make sure they’re covered,” Maher added. “It’s clearly a priority to understand where exactly your clients fall on this scale so that you can help them attain ongoing viability as a company.”
Looking forward, the digital transformation of Liberty is something that Maher is keen to see continue not just in the claims department, but across the whole company.
“A silver lining, so to speak, of COVID-19 is that it’s opened up many people’s minds to what can be done in the digital sphere,” she remarked.
“At Liberty, we’ve traditionally had a strong focus on internal operational efficiency, and so we’re really focused on getting more out of the data that we capture so that we can provide better services to brokers and policyholders.”
As the industry moves towards a digital-first approach, Maher cautions that particular attention still needs to be paid to maintaining contact with clients.
“We’re seeing a shift away from face-to-face interactions and towards automation, and so we need to recognise the opportunity, but also the drawbacks, of transitioning to a digital environment and having less direct contact,” she said.
“The ability to deliver client-specific advice is a priority.”
