Insurance buyers are increasingly sold policies built around responsiveness and expertise. But when claims arise, the experience is often far less consistent.
For Russell Sessions (pictured), director at Vizion Insurance Brokers, the issue is less a lack of capability than the uneven way claims processes have evolved across different lines of business. While specialist areas such as cyber have built more responsive operating models, he argued much of the wider market still relies on legacy structures that struggle to reflect the complexity of modern risks.
Sessions said specialist insurers have generally adapted more effectively in areas such as cyber claims handling. “The more specialist insurers like the CFCs, I think they’ve nailed it,” he said. “But where you get a composite playing in the cyber field and they try and do things in the same way that they do other lines, you’re at the mercy of the insurer.”
For brokers managing claims, Sessions said communication failures remain the most persistent source of frustration. Asked where claims processes most often break down, Sessions was unequivocal. “Communication, without a doubt,” he said.
He argued that delays, vague updates and inconsistent handling across insurers, loss adjusters and third-party suppliers increasingly leave brokers acting as coordinators between multiple parties.
“It becomes a project management piece,” he said. “The main set of skills for a claims team now is organisation and communication.”
That pressure is compounded by the growing number of external specialists involved in many claims processes, particularly in more technical areas such as cyber and business interruption.
“When you bring in an outside party, a loss adjuster or a cyber engineer into the mix as well, you are trying to manage four or five different parties in that situation and it can feel a little bit like herding cats,” Sessions said.
He suggested insurers still underestimate the importance of clear and transparent communication throughout the lifecycle of a claim.
“We tend to find insurers quite happy to throw a one-liner out saying, ‘Well, the claim’s ongoing and it’s going to be chased in six weeks’ time,’” he said. “That’s not an update for me.”
Sessions argued there also remains a significant gap between how claims experiences are presented during the sales process and how they function in practice once a loss occurs.
“The client is sold a dream that their claim will be handled for them,” he said. “And in reality that really isn’t the case.”
He contrasted that with parts of the high-net-worth market, where insurers often place greater emphasis on service and rapid resolution. Sessions pointed to a recent burglary claim handled by Chubb, where the insurer arranged round-the-clock security for a client’s property while they were overseas.
“It’s that kind of thing for me that sticks with a client,” he said. “The client feels like the insurer cares about it.”
The comparison, he argued, highlights that more responsive claims handling already exists within parts of the market, even if it has not been adopted consistently elsewhere.
While technology and AI dominate much of the industry’s public discussion, Sessions argued many operational processes remain heavily reliant on outdated ways of working.
“I think the traditional claims lines still tend to be stuck in the seventies, to be perfectly honest,” he said.
Motor claims handling in particular, he suggested, has seen relatively limited operational change despite wider advances in technology and automation. At the same time, he argued parts of the London market continue to rely too heavily on manual processes.
“There are still some syndicates at Lloyd’s that won’t accept submissions via email,” Sessions said.
He acknowledged the historic importance of the Lloyd’s market, but questioned whether some traditional processes continue to serve clients effectively in a market increasingly shaped by speed, transparency and digital expectations.
“Clients don’t care whether business is being done in Lloyd’s in a suit and tie,” he said. “They want the right policy at the right price.”
For Sessions, the long-term challenge for brokers and insurers is not simply modernising products, but rebuilding confidence that the claims experience will match the promises made at the point of sale.
“No one wants to buy insurance,” he said. “So let’s make it as easy as possible for them, as clear as possible, and make sure it works in the way they expect it to work.”
