Page 43 - The Insurance Times November 2025

brought bad name to the Insurer. Incidentally, I have noticed authority to intervene. The grievance cell of the company is
that Insurers are always happy to clear small claims of middle involved only after a dispute and cannot step in as a proactive
class Insureds without raising much questions and in fact facilitator for expeditious settlement. It is a reactive unit and
happily waiving off many requirements. not a proactive unit.

The negative attitude of the surveyors often becomes a The chief of the Region cannot intervene if the claim is within
bottleneck for exercising the friendly claim settlement attitude the authority of a lower office. This was drastically different
of the Insurers. There are many exceptions and there are in past when say a Branch Manager, a Divisional Manager or
numerous friendly and competent surveyors but had the a intermediary was responsible and accountable for the entire
overall community response of the surveyors been one of help lifecycle of a risk starting from soliciting the business, collection
and empathy, the general perception about their friendliness of premium, timely issuance of a correct policy, post sales
would have been different in the society. This is unfortunate problem resolutions, claims guidance and settlement of the
and in India, the perception is somewhat similar to the claim in the event of a claim. This person used to be the
perception about the police. singular face of the Insurer and the client used to know him
for the entire service without having to run from pillar to post
Q: You have seen the single window servicing by the in the unfortunate event of any claim.
Insurers both for Underwriting and claim. Now we see the
concept of Claims Hub which is separate from the While the market has grown and the insurance penetration
Underwriting office. What is your take on such functioning has marginally increased in India, I personally feel that this is
of the Insurance Companies in silos? one of the paramount reasons for trust deficit in the General
A: This is a very interesting and pertinent question whose Insurance sector of India. The clients need a singular face to
answer partly lies in the question itself. I cannot comment talk to at the time a placing the business and the same
much on the advantages of the claims hub concept. Still, I person's collar to catch in the event of claim. The customers
can surely point out the main disadvantage of having a claims do not want a visible friend and an invisible enemy in the same
hub which is simply to destroy the identity of the Insurance policy period. In the age of artificial intelligence and robotics,
Company as a singular customer friendly entity. Any insurance I see no problem when a thinking and friendly robot becomes
company is now several insurance companies within itself. the sole interface between the client and the Insurer in the
These are the underwriting insurance company, the claim event of a claim and this robot interacts with various concered
insurance company, the compliance insurance company, the departments or stakeholders for coordination and payment
legal insurance company, the finance insurance company and of the claim.
the grievance insurance company.
I firmly believe that since the notion of security is singular
The claims hub looks into a claim impersonally strictly without through a singular document called policy issued by a singular
any consideration for the underwriting nuances of the risk, entity called the Insurer, there cannot ideally be a dichotomy
market reality, the competition and the service commitments between the pre sales and post sales functions as far as the
of the soliciting sales person or the intermediary. The policy holder is concered. To him, it is the Insurance Company
Underwriting Office simply denies its responsibility after the who is his service provider and not the various departments
policy is issued as if the policy is just a document in which the within the same. Think of a supermarket where the customer
consequences rest only on the claims department without any picks up items from different shelves (read policies of different
concern of the underwriting department. The soliciting sales classes) and goes to the cash counter to pay the prices meant
person stays clear of both the underwriting and the claims for the single supermarket. In conclusion, there is enormous
departments since both these department are beyond his scope in improving this area.

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The Insurance Times November 2025 39