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AIG CLAIMS – OUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
AIG’s foreign general insurance claim departments, which manage all of AIG’s business outside the United States, employ 3,500 people located across 85 countries. In 2006, we received 3 million claims worldwide and paid out US$4.7 billion in indemnities.
The MEMSA division is one of AIU’s 14 divisions worldwide. In MEMSA, we have 261 claim professionals who work in 39 claim offices. These offices are located in 13 different countries that run from Malta in the west to Sri Lanka in the east. Last year, the MEMSA claim departments handled 160,000 new claims, managing losses worth US$180 million.
The claim departments in the MEMSA countries are one of AIG’s most important competitive advantages. The chief difference between AIG’s claim staff and their counterparts in competitor companies is the fact that our claim employees are specialists in claims, and claims alone. This entails a significant investment in training. In our company in India, for example, all new entrants receive two weeks’ classroom training before they are allowed to handle a claim.
Another differentiating factor of AIG claim departments is that they are directly involved in the management of their claims. While we depend on adjusters, surveyors, and attorneys for assistance in the investigation and analysis of claims, we always make sure that our adjusters and attorneys follow our instructions and move each pending case toward a speedy resolution.
All AIG claim departments work according to a set of strict service standards. Our goal is to confirm receipt of the claim within one working day, and in motor claims we manage to inspect the damage to the policyholder’s car the next working day after the loss report. AIG’s financial strength allows us to promise payments to policyholders within a maximum of five days of the receipt of the final claim documentation. In many cases, for example with accident & health claims in Turkey and India, we are paying claims within 48 hours.
Our philosophy toward claims is summarized in the one motto we repeat to our claim employees every day: “the best claim is a closed claim”. We believe solving our policyholders’ problems quickly and fairly is the reason we are in business.
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Issue 8 | May 2007