Insurance leaders honored at ACE

Claims magazine paid tribute to three leaders in the claims industry at the recent ACE Leadership Forum & Expo in Las Vegas by presenting them with the Trailblazer Award, the Customer Champion Award and the Claims Luminary of the Year Award.

A leader in innovation

The Trailblazer of the Year Award recognizes an insurance claims or carrier organization that has made significant, progressive contributions to the claims industry by introducing new products or innovations to improve the claims process for insurers and policyholders.

This year’s winner, Crawford & Company for their TruLook solution, found a way to blend technology and outstanding customer service while generating significant cost savings to their organization and the insurers they serve.

The company created an innovative claims processing model that triages claims based on complexity. By integrating a self-service smartphone application, WeGoLook’s on-demand workforce of more than 46,000 professionals and a drone fleet involving over 2,000 drones, Crawford’s product was able to leverage disruptive technology to capture data as quickly and accurately as possible.

Their TruLook product also allows the company to customize the program to a customer’s specific needs, creating unique solutions for individual situations. Since implementation, their product has lowered overall costs by as much as 30%, reduced time-in-process to well under four days, all while increasing policyholder satisfaction.

Putting customers first

The Customer Champion Award honors a claims professional who has gone above and beyond to serve his or her customers to provide a seamless, supportive experience. This year’s winner, Jeremy Gittler, is the head of cyber and technology claims with AXA XL.

Working in claims requires understanding the nuances of both the claim and the policy that applies to the covered loss. Specializing in a field like cyber requires an even greater understanding of the issues and risks affecting claims.

For many businesses, cyber is still a relatively new area, but Gittler has over 13 years of experience in cyber and technology claims, and it is not unusual for Gittler and his team of experts to drop everything to help mitigate a client’s cyber emergency. He also plays an integral role in his company’s strategy to change the role of the insurer from a payer to partner who helps educate and prepare clients for cyber risks, and assists in the development of new coverage options.

As an innovative thinker, Gittler has saved clients millions of dollars through his knowledge, ability to quickly resolve claims and his ability to problem-solve in a highly volatile environment.

“Winning this award is a wonderful validation of all of my hard work and validates everything I stand for in claims,” said Gittler upon receiving the award. “We exist to help our customers.”

A legacy of excellence

Very few people begin their professional career working in the insurance industry, but that is just one of the hallmarks that sets apart this year’s winner of the Claims Luminary of the Year Award, Ken Tolson, U.S. president of Crawford Claims Solutions. This award recognizes a strategic claims leader who has made significant contributions toward effective, efficient and customer-supportive claims operations in his or her organization and the industry in general. Tolson has spent almost three decades with Crawford & Company and its various divisions and has been instrumental in implementing many game-changing advancements for the company.

When Tolson served as the CIO for the USP&C business unit, he executed a business intelligence platform that would eventually become responsible for driving much of the company’s internal and external reporting and data analytics capacities. He also introduced multiple workflow automation applications that helped to accelerate the claims process for carriers and policyholders while eliminating some of the administrative challenges. In addition, he implemented an external self-service portal for clients that streamlined processes, improved customer satisfaction scores and decreased cycle times by 21%.

Not content to rest on his previous successes, Tolson played a key role as part of the team that designed Crawford’s Escape of Water solution, which utilizes IoT and water sensors to detect leaks as they occur, allowing water mitigation activities to begin much earlier in the loss, while reducing the size and length of a claim.

This approach highlights what Tolson sees as an important trend in the industry. “It’s all about customer experience now. It is so competitive for carriers today,” he explained. “Insurance is more than a touchpoint. We have to focus on the customer experience because they want a solution now. Those companies who can solve the whole problem — from detection to fulfillment will win the game.”

So much of what insurers and their employees do occurs behind the scenes, and these awards are one way to highlight the accomplishments of several outstanding professionals and their contributions to improving the insurance industry at large.

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Honoring excellence in insurance