The Insurance Council of Australia will host a second round of face-to-face bushfire claims consultations in Harcourt, Alexandra and Euroa this September, four months after the first round in the same three towns, with claims volume from the January bushfires now barely higher than it was back in May.
Insurers first visited Euroa, Alexandra and Harcourt over three days in late May, when more than 4,700 claims had been lodged. ICA director of mitigation and extreme weather response Liam Walter said insurers have now received more than 4,860 claims totalling almost $600 million, a rise of only around 160 claims over roughly three months.
That plateau suggests most eligible policyholders have already lodged a claim; the ongoing challenge is resolving them. The $600 million figure sits below PERILS' independent industry loss estimate for the same event, which had reached $810 million by April as more claims data matured, a reminder that insurers' own received-claims totals and modelled industry-wide loss estimates measure different things and can diverge materially.
Financial counselling services, including Anglicare Victoria and Primary Care Connect, will be on hand alongside insurer representatives and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority at each session, which run from September 15 to 17.
Walter said the industry's return to these communities "will likely not be our last," even though policyholders can also reach their insurer by phone or email at any time.
For brokers with clients in these or similarly bushfire-affected regional communities, the repeat visits are worth flagging directly: eight months on from the fires, the active work has shifted from claims lodgement to claims resolution and dispute handling, and clients still navigating total-loss assessments or disputed settlements may benefit more from these in-person sessions than from waiting on a phone queue.
