Williams: We have to offer more than just legal
Insurance law firm BLM has joined forces with Cunningham Lindsey, one of the largest loss adjusting and claims management companies in the world, to launch an offering that combines loss adjusting, claims handling and litigation.
Profecta covers casualty, motor, property and professional indemnity claims and the pair said it would “reduce the lifecycle of claims and ensure greater cost certainty”.
Profecta gives clients a single point of contact and a designated team comprising lawyers, claims handlers, investigators and adjusters. They work from a separate, single site.
The range of services includes early input from in-house experts on liability and quantum for professional indemnity claims so as to deliver “early and accurate reserves”, as well as advisory and claims management services options alongside litigation services for such claims.
Vivienne Williams, partner and head of claims solutions at BLM, told Legal Futures that the full range of services that are required to deal with a claim “is more than we can do”.
She acknowledged that, as for most insurance law firms, claims handling work is not particularly profitable. “We have to offer more than just legal,” she explained. “We are increasingly seeing that clients are coming to us for more services – such as risk management – than just litigation.”
She added: “Claims handling will always involve a number of parties. Bringing the service together, with a single point of contact, creates a much more efficient service – particularly in terms of early stage assessments, fraud detection and more streamlined processes.”
Mark Gilbert, client partnerships director at Cunningham Lindsey, said the pair have worked for mutual clients for many years. “We received such a positive response to our market research that we have formalised and refocused the service with the creation of Profecta which will deliver faster settlements, cost savings and efficiencies for clients.”
The move has echoes of pioneering alternative business structure Triton Global, which is a multi-disciplinary insurance firm that combines a claims administration outsourcer, a specialist professional indemnity insurance law firm, and expert loss adjusters.
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