The insurance industry’s claims stakeholders are confronted with familiar but newly urgent challenges as they prepare to gather in Sydney for the Claims Leaders Summit on May 12. The Middle East conflict with its surging fuel prices and global supply chain issues is adding burdens to the claims process but the fundamentals remain crucial. Communication - not technology or product innovation - is the variable that will decide whether brokers and their customers emerge from this cycle with their reputations intact.
Susan Donaldson (pictured), CEO of Steadfast Claims Solutions and chair of the Summit, said that while the external pressures on claims have rarely been greater, the lever brokers have most control over is the oldest one in the book.
"The biggest challenge in claims has always been, in my opinion, and will always be communication: setting really clear expectations early, speaking plain English, speaking in transparent dialogue consistently throughout the claim," she said. Donaldson’s division operates as a third-party administrator for Steadfast and non-Steadfast agencies.
Her central argument is that brokers, claims professionals, loss adjusters, suppliers and insurers are not separate links in a transactional chain but a single delivery team standing behind a single promise made at the point of placement.
"We are all there delivering on the same promise that was made," Donaldson said.
The operational backdrop is sharpening that argument. Donaldson said Steadfast Claims Solutions has not yet seen the full impact of the current geopolitical environment land on claims files but is actively preparing for it.
"We are not necessarily seeing it yet, but we anticipate, depending on the nature of the conflict and how long it goes on for, things like delay will come into play - delays in shipping, delays in moving car parts or building materials or whatnot around the globe," she said.
That translates directly into longer claim lifecycles, harder customer conversations and a bigger premium on transparency. For brokers, it also sharpens the risk that an under-communicated delay becomes a complaint, a complaint becomes a dispute, and a dispute becomes a lost client.
Donaldson's prescription for teams working through this environment is almost deliberately unfashionable.
"I always talk about it as being clear, concise, prompt and empathetic," she said.
That discipline, she argues, has to extend across the full claims value chain. If building materials are stuck at a port, if fuel surcharges are pushing up repair costs, if a loss adjuster is going to be delayed - brokers, TPAs and insurers need to be surfacing those issues at the earliest possible moment and realigning customer expectations accordingly.
"Having that ability to be upfront and flexible when we need to is absolutely critical in these types of situations," Donaldson said.
The pay-off, in her view, is straightforward. When every party in the chain is visibly on the same side of the table, "then they're going to have the best experience possible for the day they didn't want to have," she said.
Donaldson's decision to foreground communication is also a signal about what the industry's senior claims professionals will be wrestling with at the Summit. The agenda spans technology, customer expectations and the regulatory environment.
"Any time you get the leaders in their fields sharing ideas and communities of practice, you come away with something that makes us all better as an industry," she said, describing the value of the event as the exchange of practical "nuggets of wisdom."
This year’s one-day gathering includes a free stream of workshops. So instead of a single‑track conference, delegates can move between a high‑impact Main Stage and a focused Claims Operations Stage with small discussion tables.
