Diary of an Insurer: Woodgate & Clark’s Sarah Durkin

Monday

Monday is an early start as I am heading two hours north from my home office in Yorkshire, to meet an elderly couple who have lost some jewellery. 

The rain is positively horizontal making driving conditions hard. There is no sign of forced entry to the property so the insurer has asked if I can ascertain what has happened in more detail. 

I am also aware that one of the policyholders has a dementia diagnosis, so we have arranged for a family member to be present to assist with our enquiries.

As a business, we have been raising awareness of the challenges of dealing with claims involving vulnerable customers – particularly those with mental health conditions or neurodiversity – so the insurers for the claim specifically asked me to attend this case. 

One of the main challenges is that there are a number of character traits associated with some neurodivergent conditions that are similar to traditional fraud indicators.

During the meeting we discuss who might have had legitimate access to the house and when the jewellery was last seen/worn. Trying to identify a clear timeline with someone with dementia is very difficult. It is also frustrating for the policyholder who genuinely wanted to help.

From here I am back in the car heading south to investigate an escape of water claim where there are some occupancy concerns. The instruction came in from the insurers late Friday. 

The owner of the property is not available to meet but I decide to visit the house to get a feel for it and to speak to neighbours to see if they can tell me who is living at the property. 

This is a normal line of enquiry for any claim as neighbours are often a good source of information and these days, a lot of people have CCTV.

Enquiries complete I head home after a long but productive day. I am home in time to attend my yoga class, which is very welcome after a day spent mostly in the car.

Tuesday

Tuesday is home office day. I go out for a walk before work to get the blood pumping and the mind ready for the day ahead. 

It is 6am, dark and cold. I meet up with a friend and we do a quick, three mile march. When I get back, I take out my 12-year-old black labrador Foss, who is now too old to march, so we go out for a leisurely ‘sniff’.

We both grab breakfast and make the long commute up the stairs to my office. Foss settles onto his study bed (one of three he has throughout the house) with a sigh and promptly falls asleep (having woken me at 5am for his breakfast!).

At 10am I have a virtual meeting with my team – delayed from its usual Monday slot, as I was out. 

My colleagues are based throughout the UK so it is important to get together every week. After a catch-up about our respective weekends, we discuss any business updates and what everyone has on their radar for the week. 

This is a great forum for anyone to discuss a claim or a technical query as there is a wealth of experience throughout the team. 

We also discuss what we would like to cover in our face to face meeting in March. We try to get together once a quarter and have a social evening out before a training session the next day.

Tuesday (and Thursday) afternoon is taken up with the development of a new investigation case management system with a third party supplier. 

There are three of us from my team working with colleagues based in the US/Canada. This is a hugely exciting project as the system is being designed by us for us and should speed up investigations and allow for greater efficiencies across the board.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning is crunch time – we demo the system to the team so get some good, honest feedback. There are some great ideas and a lot of positivity which we then feedback to the project team Thursday afternoon.

Thursday

Both Wednesday afternoon and Thursday consist largely of meetings – it’s the start of the year and time to set everyone’s objectives for the year. I am also preparing a presentation for a client for whom we are delivering some fraud awareness training later in the month. 

We believe the more knowledge we can share with insurers and brokers, the better we can all become at tackling fraud in all its forms, and in doing so protect genuine customers from inflated premiums. 

In our position we are able to see emerging fraud trends and highlight some seasonal issues such as exaggerated or falsified escape of water claims. We are seeing an increasing number of insurers requesting our forensic skills for escape of water claims.

Friday

Friday is another early start. I’m on the 8am train to London to attend a conference at the invitation of our case management colleagues. 

After a lovely ‘dry January’ lunch, lots of great discussion about the claims landscape and some networking, I choose to walk back to the train station as it’s a beautiful sunny day in London. I catch the 5pm train and get home just before 8pm.

It’s the end of another varied and interesting week. My husband gives me an hour max before he knows I will be having ‘long blinks’ on the sofa.