Katrina Shanks

The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) is proud to announce the launch of a new short course: ‘Creating Good Outcomes for Customers Experiencing Vulnerabilities’.

This course aims to elevate skills and knowledge to provide exceptional care and supportive interactions and experiences.

It is designed to equip insurance professionals who have customer interface, including underwriters, brokers, claims handlers, loss adjusters, sales professionals, service call centres and those in the supply chain with the skills needed to identify the signs of vulnerability, and manage sensitive interactions with empathy and professionalism.

Key factors of vulnerability covered within the course include domestic violence, financial abuse, cultural diversity and more, ensuring participants are well prepared to support customers in a variety of circumstances.

The course features interactive modules, knowledge checks, and an immersive simulation that allows learners to apply their skills in realistic, real-world situations.

“Good customer outcomes are the focus of the legislator, regulator and insurance professionals. This course has been created to foster deep connections and understandings with clients so that insurance professionals can make a positive impact on those they serve”, says ANZIIF CEO, Katrina Shanks.

‘Creating Good Outcomes for Customers Experiencing Vulnerabilities’ complements ANZIIF’s Empathetic Claims Management Short Course, with both programs teaching the necessary skills to deliver lasting, positive outcomes for vulnerable customers.

To accompany the launch of the new short course, ANZIIF will be hosting a free webinar as part of the Thursday Thought-Leaders series. This session will focus on how insurance firms can enhance their response to complaints involving domestic violence or vulnerable customers.

The webinar, titled “Domestic Violence and Vulnerability: AFCA’s Approach to Insurance Complaints,” will feature Emma Curtis, Lead Ombudsman of Insurance at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). Emma will provide valuable insights into how these sensitive complaints are managed and what insurers can do to improve their processes.

Through the short course and webinar, ANZIIF aims to empower insurance professionals to better support vulnerable customers, particularly during challenging times when financial resilience is crucial.

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Daniel Mulino

The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) is thrilled to announce the line-up of expert speakers presenting at the AICLA/ANZIIF Claims Convention.

A collaboration between The Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters (AICLA) and ANZIIF, the Claims Convention is the leading insurance claims event in Australasia.

The event is designed to give attendees the insights and knowledge needed to tackle the key issues facing the insurance sector both now and moving into the future.

This year’s theme ‘Claims Under the Microscope- Driving Better Outcomes’, features a line-up of industry expert speakers, including:

• Dr Daniel Mulino, Chair of Standing Committee on Economics in Federal Parliament
• Emma Curtis, Lead Ombudsman for Insurance at AFCA
• Kylie Macfarlane, Chief Operating Officer for Climate Operations and Strategy at The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA)
• Jillian Pancott, Director of Forensic Accounting Services at Sedgwick
• Tim Koeppler, Executive Adjuster for Property at Charles Taylor
• Chris Bennett, Head of Virtual, Motor and Fusion at Crawford & Company
• Richard Gibson, National Manager Supply Chain and Incident Response at NTI
• Bean Healey, Senior Underwriter, Marine at AXA XL
• Chris Kenyon-Edwards, Associate at Burgoynes
• Dr Rita Matulionyte, Associate Professor at Macquarie University Law School

Topics covered at the Claims Convention include the Federal Parliamentary Flood Inquiry, lithium batteries and fire risk, oil contamination and environmental claims, climate change and marine issues, AI in settlement of claims, arson claims and more.

“Quality claims handling continues to be the focus of legislators, regulators and all industry participants. The attendance at this conference reflects the seriousness that the sector takes to continually raise industry standards and strive for good customer outcomes”, says ANZIIF CEO, Katrina Shanks.

The AICLA/ANZIIF Claims Conventions will be hosted on the 26th of September 2024 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth.

Registrations to the AICLA/ANZIIF Claims Convention can be made here or visit our website at anziif.com for more information.

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The AFCA board confirmed his appointment after a competitive selection process. Mr Singh had been acting in the role.

“Shail brings deep and diverse experience to this role, having worked in dispute resolution for over a decade and having been a financial planner himself,” AFCA’s Deputy Chief Ombudsman Dr June Smith said.

“He is a respected specialist in investments and advice complaints, in areas such as financial planning, derivatives, managed funds, timeshare, cryptocurrency and stockbroking.

“Shail has forged strong relationships with key stakeholders, among other things initiating a financial advice liaison group and a cryptocurrency liaison group,” Dr Smith noted.

Mr Singh is a lawyer by profession and worked both as an in-house legal counsel and for regulators including WorkSafe Victoria and the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria. He then trained and worked as a financial planner before becoming a case manager with an AFCA predecessor, the Financial Ombudsman Scheme, in 2010. He was appointed as an Ombudsman when AFCA opened its doors in November 2018, becoming Senior Ombudsman, Investments and Advice, in 2021.

He stepped in as acting Lead Ombudsman in January 2022 when his predecessor, Natalie Cameron, became Lead Ombudsman for Banking and Finance.

“I’m extremely excited to be appointed to this role,” Mr Singh said. “I’m looking forward to continuing my work with firms to prevent disputes, and to being involved in improving our systems and processes to deliver an even better dispute resolution service that is transparent, timely, efficient and above all fair.”

AFCA is the ombudsman service for the financial services sector, handling complaints in four areas: banking and finance, investments and advice, insurance, and superannuation. In addition, a dedicated small business ombudsman oversees complaints from small business.

The five lead ombudsmen are responsible for AFCA’s approach to decision making in their respective areas. Together they head teams totalling more than 100 ombudsmen and adjudication panel members. AFCA’s other Lead Ombudsmen are Natalie Cameron (Banking and Finance), Suanne Russell (Small Business), Emma Curtis (Insurance) and Heather Gray (Superannuation).

AFCA is on track to register about 100,000 complaints in the 2022-23 financial year and has secured $1 billion for complainants since inception in November 2018.

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David Locke

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has received more than 2,000 complaints from flood-affected consumers in the year since the devastating South-East Queensland/northern NSW storms, with delays in claim handling the most significant issue.

Disputes with insurers in the wake of the floods are the second largest “significant event” since AFCA’s inception in November 2018, behind the COVID pandemic.

The number of complaints escalated to AFCA is more than four times that received in relation to the next most significant weather-related event – the South-East Coast storms of February 2020, which generated 493 complaints.

“We are concerned by the volume of complaints that have been reaching us about delays by insurers,” AFCA’s Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive, David Locke, said. “We understand that the scale of this event has put pressure on insurers but these sorts of complaints can often be avoided through good, regular communication with customers.

“We would also prefer to see insurers resolving many more complaints within their own dispute resolution process, rather than consumers having to take the extra step of coming to AFCA – prolonging the time they spend in limbo, unable to get on with their lives,” he said.
AFCA was also concerned about a rise in complaints about general insurance overall, beyond the floods, Mr Locke said.

The ombudsman service has experienced a 65 per cent increase in general insurance complaints in the 2022-23 financial year so far. As at February 23, it had registered 17,163 general insurance complaints, compared with 10,417 at the same point in the 2021-22 year.

In relation to the SEQ-NSW floods, delays in claim handling account for nearly 40 per cent (37%) of complaints to AFCA. Denial of claims because of policy exclusions or conditions accounted for one in three complaints (33%) and disputes over claim amount represented one in four complaints (26%).

Some 40 per cent of SEQ/NSW flood complaints were resolved at the earliest stage of AFCA’s process, at “registration and referral”, when a complaint is referred back to the firm to resolve. This is below the 51 per cent early resolution rate for all complaints to AFCA in 2021-22.

In the past year, flood-affected policyholders have secured nearly $13 million in compensation and refunds from insurers through the AFCA process.

AFCA’s Lead Ombudsmen for Insurance, Emma Curtis, said AFCA continues to encourage insurers to address complaints as quickly as possible in-house or as early as possible in the AFCA process.

“We acknowledge that the heavy flow of unresolved insurance complaints to AFCA means we have not been able to address complaints as quickly as usual,” Ms Curtis said. “But we have increased our resources and capacity to handle insurance complaints significantly   over the past year, and this is having a positive effect. By working closely with insurers to help them resolve simpler complaints early, and take a consumer-centric approach, we are confident complaint volumes will reduce over time.” AFCA hads also instituted new ways to regularly update consumers on the progress of their complaints

“We expect insurers to do all they can to assess claims promptly, to regularly inform customers about expected timeframes, and to clearly communicate about claims options,” she said.

As at 24 February, 2023:

• 2,021 complaints had been registered in connection with the SEQ/NSW floods of 2022 .
• Two-thirds of complaints (1,328) had been closed .
• About three-quarters of complaints (74%) were closed by agreement or in favour of complainants.
• $12.9 million in compensation and refunds was secured.
• About three-quarters of complaints (74%) were in relation to home building insurance, followed by home contents (9%) and landlord insurance (5%).

State data:

Queensland: 957 complaints – $6.1 million in compensation and refunds ordered
NSW: 999 complaints – $6.6 million in compensation and refunds ordered

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