AFRM Claims Advocacy Launch
AFRM and GB launch Life Insurance Claims Advocacy business
Posted by on 9 October 2017
Australian Financial Risk Management (AFRM) and Gallagher Bassett (GB) have partnered to launch a new service aimed at the life insurance sector: AFRM Claims Advocacy (ACA).
ACA acts on behalf of policyholders, providing personalised support on their claims, while improving financial outcomes and relationships for insurers, super fund managers and trustees. This is accomplished through a combination of AFRM’s decades of claims advocacy experience, GB’s industry leading return-to-work capability, and a new application being developed by ACA and Melbourne University Creative Innovation Engineering.
The development of the ACA claims advocacy service, as well as AFRM’s overall focus on personalised service and client engagement, has led to AFRM being named by the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) as a 2017 finalist for Practice of the Year. Winners will be announced October 13th.
ACA’s key driver is to offer the public a better, more personally engaging and supportive claims management service to achieve better financial and health outcomes for policyholders lacking adequate claims advice or advocacy.
ACA will provide policyholders, insurers and super fund managers with increased clarity, ease and efficiency in the claims process.
Rob Vitnell, Founding Director of ACA, said his experience in the industry demonstrated that there was an opportunity to provide a more complete customer-service approach to insurance, and that is what the ACA claims advocacy service is designed to deliver.
“We put the customer at the centre of everything we do. ACA aims to give policyholders the best support and advice in their time of need, which we believe will enable them to achieve better financial and wealth outcomes,” Mr Vitnell said.
“There’s never been a more important time to innovate and embrace this changing landscape, by delivering customer service, transparency and customer-centric claims management,” he noted.
John McNamara, GB’s Managing Director - Australia, said the new service is valuable to those experiencing the financial and emotional stress that illness or injury can cause.
“We get involved with the claim early to improve the customer experience and ensure that only valid claims go to the insurer,” Mr McNamara said. “We’re proud to be aligned with such an innovative service that can provide improved claims management outcomes to the life insurance sector.”
ACA provides support in the face of significant health events. Clients are given their own personal Claims Advocate to assist, provide resources and form a support network during times of need.
Rob Vitnell says the combination of technology and personal individualised service is critical to the life insurance industry. "Our research uncovered the value policyholders place on being able to keep up-to-speed with their claims process, even on days when they don’t feel like picking up a phone and speaking with someone”
“This technology will complement the great work that our claims team does every day, providing increased clarity and efficiency, and allowing policyholders to keep track of progress whenever and wherever,” he added.
