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Caribbean catastrophe response
Caribbean catastrophe response
The Caribbean region can be hazardous, the islands are vulnerable to various catastrophic perils such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
These events, regardless of whether they are natural or man-made, can have a truly catastrophic impact on the islands and a fast, efficient response is essential.
Our presence within the Caribbean and surrounding areas has also enabled us to develop expertise in local construction costs and building techniques, which are influential in establishing the reasonable value of catastrophe claims.
We draw upon our experience, local knowledge and industry understanding to ensure that you will receive the best possible claims solution.
If you would like to assign a claim, get some advice or simply find out more about how we work, please contact us:
Sedgwick’s catastrophe response team demonstrates how we manage major loss events regardless of size, scope and location.
Reputation
Our reputation is founded upon delivering a professional, well-staffed team to any location around the world in the event of a catastrophe. We have a dedicated team of specialist adjusters
located within and around the Caribbean ready to put our tried and tested catastrophe plans into action.
Ready when you need us
With over 20 years of experience providing services to insurers and reinsurers, our team is familiar with the increasingly litigious nature of the region.
We take steps to ensure our adjustment practices demonstrate that the principle of ‘good faith’ is adopted by every member of our team.
Sedgwick has the greatest spread of offices available throughout the Caribbean region of any loss adjusting business. We have the expert resources to support our clients during a catastrophe and every other day of the year.
M +1 305 588 6240E [email protected]
Managing Director, Latin America & Caribbean
Laura De Sordi
Caribbean catastrophe response
Our promise is to provide you with adjusters who are highly experienced within the adjusting field and who truly understand the demands of catastrophe loss adjusting within the Caribbean.
Local expertise
One point of contact
Sedgwick maintains a contemporary list of colleagues who are experienced in catastrophe claims. We recognise the value of continuity, experience and adaptability when responding to the ever-changing needs of the Caribbean CAT environment.
Effective coordination is crucial to managing a catastrophe operation; getting your clients back up and running is our priority.
The set-up of a temporary location or multiple locations requires skill and expertise, which we have developed from years of practical experience.
To facilitate the process, we will provide you with a single point of contact. This catastrophe director will be responsible for managing and coordinating the catastrophe operations and will keep you informed every step of the way.
Under the direction of the catastrophe director, the location manager will be responsible for the set-up of the local operation, the day-to-day management of adjusters and staffing.
We are mindful that different types of losses can require different approaches and we are flexible in our resourcing requirements to be able to handle any situation
Strength in numbersOur global network means that we are there, when and where our clients need us.
We have more than
900 offices
27,000colleagues
65countries
Our Caribbean hub, based in Miami, is able to draw upon the plethora of offices we have all over the world. We are used to assembling large teams of colleagues with mixed disciplines, to assist when a major incident occurs.
Caribbean office locations
Sedgwick has a network of offices spread across the Caribbean region.
Sedgwick network office location
MIAMI
JAMAICA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
CAYMAN ISLANDSUS VIRGIN ISLANDS
PUERTO RICO
BARBADOS
TRINIDADCURAÇAO
Our standard operating procedure is that all employees are required to attend regular team meetings, at which time any issues are discussed and knowledge shared.
Similarly, we make a point of meeting daily with our principals and/or their agents to ensure regular and open two- way dialogue is maintained across all areas of our activities. Where our clients are away from the damage locus, daily telephone conferences are offered.
If appropriate, we may offer to install a member of our staff into a client’s office to assist in handling both claimants and loss notifications, act as a focal point for claim collection, query resolution and report delivery.
We thoroughly investigate and document every claim to ensure that we are able to properly verify our work. This process enables us to ensure that our files are always complete and understandable, allowing easy transfer of open files to any team member without necessitating a duplication of work effort.
In the immediate aftermath, we will assist in providing reserves as a matter of priority; we are acutely aware of the need for reliable data.
We will have experienced people on the ground to help customers through the trauma of a catastrophe event, going that extra mile to help elderly or other vulnerable homeowners. We appreciate that your customers may not have experienced a catastrophe previously, our adjusting teams have and we want to help. Caring counts® at Sedgwick.
Our approach
We remain sensitive to the often grave financial and emotional traumas that the insured may have suffered whilst also seeking to protect our clients from the unscrupulous.
CoordinationWe will provide bordereau reports as and when required and individual reports on each claim with digital photographs, details of claims and supporting documentation.
We understand the need for our clients to provide an early assessment of the likely financial exposure so they can advise their reinsurers and predict cash flow requirements.
Essentially, our approach is focused on maintaining your reputation and we seek to drive all the claims we are involved with to a conclusion at the earliest possible stage.
We would welcome the opportunity to develop a detailed catastrophe response plan with our clients to suit their predicted needs.
We ensure a regular and open two-way dialogue is maintained.
As the largest loss adjusting and claims management business in the world, Sedgwick has a range of additional resources and services we can apply to a catastrophe situation.
Sedgwick can utilise a number of additional services to support our adjusting teams on the ground and complementary professional services that assist in enhancing technical input and reducing duplication and thus cost.
Additional services
Forensic accountancy servicesOur in-house forensic advisory services (FAS) team provides accountancy support to adjusters dealing with business interruption, stock and other similar losses. Our professionals from our FAS operation are, like the adjusters they support, multi-lingual and based in a variety of locations around the world.
Valuations/cover reviewsUsing our in-house surveying and engineering resources, we can offer our clients building insurance valuation services and our forensic accountants can offer business interruption cover reviews.
Keeping in touchIt is recognised that telephone services are susceptible to interruption at the time of a catastrophe and although we cannot completely protect against the loss of service, we utilise tri-band and satellite cellphones together with handheld GPS receivers, to ensure the greatest chance of post-catastrophe communication in the vital early days.
Management informationAs leading insurance adjusters, we are aware of the reinsurers need for information in a variety of forms in differing stages of an evolving catastrophe response. We are attuned to the needs of all parties in respect of information provision, and do our utmost to provide it.
Surveying/engineeringWithin Sedgwick’s range of complementary services, we have access to other in-house experts in surveying, engineering and building consultancy, which are introduced into our catastro-phe teams to provide specific technical support where individual cases require it.
International HQOur international headquarters are based in our London office and facilitate communications between the London and other re-insurance markets and the Caribbean operations where required. A liaison manager will ensure that feeback on the situation on the ground is disseminated, claims are accepted, reports and bordereaux are issued and queries are dealt with.
Staff members in London are also responsible for arranging the transfer of staff from our overseas offices to the location of the catastrophe.
Realising that insurers and reinsurers have internal audit procedures to comply with, we have designed forms and processes for use on-site with these requirements in mind.
Together with digital photographs and measurements of damages, these procedures enable us to ensure that all our files are consistent and easily auditable.
We strive to ensure that our database of policy wordings and forms is kept up to date, and liaising closely with our principals, we ensure that ‘grey areas’ relating to coverage issues are addressed as soon as possible.
By auditing claims handled by cedants and using appropriate claim settling authority, we can provide an economical and effective check on locally settled small claims.
The development of our quality control systems and our in-depth experience with the management of catastrophe claims enables us to assist reinsurers in carrying out catastrophe audits for local cedants.
We have worldwide experience in auditing catastrophe excess of loss and deductible buy-back treaties. By working closely with our business partners, we continue to evaluate every aspect of our performance including service delivery, training and communications.
Audits and quality control
We continue to examine our processes to ensure we provide high quality services, eliminate leakage and save you money and time.
M +44 7831 217510E [email protected]
LondonBen Price
Global reach
With experts in 65 countries around the world, we provide an unrivalled level of resources.
Get in touchIf you would like further information on our services please contact:
M +1 954 701 5049E [email protected]
MiamiRoland Riviere
M +1 305 588 6240E [email protected]
MiamiLaura De Sordi
In our business, the benefits of our owned and established global office network are evident in the quality of our service delivery. We are able to quickly link with colleagues worldwide and effectively collaborate to expertly manage your clients’ claims.
With 900 locations and experts in 65 countries, clients can be assured that we are familiar with each territory we work in and will apply local knowledge, experience and expertise to every claim. We operate one seamless international team across all geographies – delivering a high quality and consistent service around the globe.
Sedgwick has the reach and knowledge necessary to quickly respond to your needs.
COVID-19 addendum 1.0
With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we are faced with the challenge of achieving the purpose of insurance in a different manner, and this includes response to catastrophic events. It is clear that the insurance industry has been affected bychanges related to COVID-19, not unlike every other sector of society and industry. This includes the rendering of loss adjusting segment, where personal contact has been common as we address both insurer and insured.
Our activities on the ground will be altered in order to meet this challenge while still providing the insurer and insured the benefit of claims being handled and concluded to a high standard of service. It is unclear if lock-down conditions, whether partial or total, will exist in any particular island or market during and after a catastrophic event. As we prepare for the best possible options given the uncertainty of the conditions that we may face, we are taking the following steps:
• Questionnaire to insured prior tovisit — this is intended to identify asbest as possible situations were theremay be an increased risk of infection.Circumstances may require differenthandling, and in some cases physicalinspections that jeopardise the healthof staff may not be possible
• Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) —Sedgwick will provide PPE to field andoffice staff as required by authoritiesand ensure that it is adequate for thedifferent claim activities
• Unaccompanied visits — With theagreement of clients and policyholders,this allows for the practice of socialdistancing to be kept while stillprogressing the adjustment process
• Use of a remote inspection platformwhere communications allow — Wehave secured an inspection platformwhich allows the adjuster to view thepremises through the insured’s mobiledevice. We recognise that there maybe challenges to communicationsinfrastructure after a catastrophe andwill use this tool as appropriate for thelocal conditions
• Use of drones with scaling/measuringcapabilities where appropriate —this will increase our capabilities, inparticular early on, and aerial imagingwill be complemented with siteinspections as soon as this is feasible
• Limiting the number of our staff perhousing — public health and medicalguidance may require accommodationsfor adjusting staff to be sparser,requiring more housing units to reducerisk of infection and to comply withsocial distancing guidelines
• Rigorous enforcement of increasedhygiene — this include hand washingand laundering of work wears on a dailybasis
• Increased use of remote meetingplatforms where communications allow— we have made extensive adjustmentsto our operations, including ensuringthe tools are in place for secure onlinemeetings, which will be extendedto CAT responses as internetinfrastructure allows
These measures are necessary in order to protect our staff, brokers, agents, insurers and other industry colleagues, as well as the insured themselves.
COVID-19 addendum 1.0
Global solutions.Local expertise.
© Sedgwick International UK/06–20/J4050
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