Since joining Woodgate & Clark (in late 2020) we’ve completely redefined our counter fraud proposition to better serve the needs of our clients in managing the complexities of insurance fraud in the commercial arena. To help us achieve our counter fraud ambitions we have developed a new strategic vision which embraces the core values of the business.
We have adopted a holistic approach to managing and mitigating fraud which has included a new target operating model. Playing to our technical strengths, we have optimised our fraud identification opportunities through traditional methods while investing in the development of our own bespoke technological driven solutions to ensure we keep pace with contemporary fraud issues.
Underpinning our new approach are three key themes: proactive, reactive and collaborative.
• Proactive – with a range of early interventions, which includes financial profiling and data insight, we look to identify fraud as early in the claims process to ensure the claims are on the correct pathway with the right skills deployed at the right time. This helps streamline the customer journey for genuine claimants, secures the best evidential outcomes where fraud is suspected and helps minimise client costs
• Reactive – when fraud is suspected we tailor our approach, utilising the best skills for specific issues in relation to the claim. This blended approach provides a flexible, diligent and thorough investigative response
• Collaborative – the investigative team works across internal stakeholders and, with our clients, ensures we tackle fraud effectively to secure the best possible outcomes. This ranges from identification of early trends to crafting action plans that thwart new emerging risks on a client’s portfolio, as well as case specific planning and tactics
As our plans have taken shape, the results have started to materialise. Our fraud identification levels now exceed industry averages for commercial fraud and we have achieved a 700% uplift on fraud related savings for our clients. The response from our clients has been amazing and the conversations around fraud have transformed from being functional to insightful and proactive. Having demonstrated what our business is capable of achieving we are now helping our clients realise their fraud potential too:
• We have protected our clients’ indemnity through improved fraud identification and fraud related claim savings
• We’ve been able to give clients confidence and visibility on fraud performance across their claims from being on the front foot and being proactive
• We’ve actively looked for signs of early trends and updated clients which has led to some great conversations and localised strategic responses. Identifying an increase in the number of post lockdown cannabis farms is an example.
• Our controls have been customer focused so the journey of the honest customer is not interrupted
• Provided business assurance on major losses and added value in other areas of the claims process
• Cross–industry issues were shared to the benefit of the sector
• We have tackled issues at industry level with CILA and the regulator where wider issues have come to light
What has been especially rewarding for me personally is seeing how our claims and counter fraud teams have embraced the changes. Their passion and determination have achieved some great results in a short amount of time, with evidence of great team-work which, combined with capability, can never be underestimated. Our people have helped drive our fraud performance to a new level, delivering some great results for our clients and our business, and this makes me immensely proud.
As a business Woodgate and Clark have always been conservative about their achievements and their success, too busy “getting on with the job”. We are being bolder these days, taking pride in our achievements and sharing our good news stories with our clients and stakeholders to help demonstrate our capacity to evolve and innovate whilst keeping true to the traditions that are at the core of our business.
With more innovative plans in the pipeline, I’m already looking forward to sharing the next update.
