FEBRUARY 2012 - ALAN SPEYER

At the end of 2011, our director colleague, Alan, finally retired after a long and illustrious career in the loss adjusting profession. Previously managing director of the very well-respected Pycraft & Arnold, Alan was a founding director of our company, ten years ago. We shall miss his enormous enthusiasm, wise counsel and great company too – and wish him a long and happy retirement with Angela in Kent.

JANUARY 2012 - THE YEAR OF THE CAT

According to a major re-insurer, total insured losses for the global insurance industry from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters reached $108bn in 2011 compared to $48bn in 2010. This was second only to 2005 when losses amounted to $123bn. Lighter hurricane losses have meant claims have been much lower than 2005 when the combined losses of Katrina, Wilma & Rita amounted to over $100bn. In terms of FCL’s major loss activities 2011 has meant the completion of work on the Chilean Earthquake and a new appointment to support another insurer with its portfolio of losses, including numerous major, $1m plus claims, in New Zealand.

Everybody in the industry will be aware of the scores of adjusters who have been called in to handle this tragic situation which we hear is very much on ongoing dilemma as ‘quakes continue to occur day by day' – the last serious one occurring on 23 December last year. Since the instruction Bev and our eight man, multi-disciplinary team have covered thousands of miles to New Zealand and back just as they did when handling the Chilean situation.
Compared to Chile, with its one (albeit very severe event), New Zealand has, to date, suffered from at least five major incidents. This is obviously causing difficulties in allocating the damage caused to particular events. There are also other, very challenging technical issues, such as liquefaction and potential seismic strengthening, which are combining to make this a demanding CAT – which is likely to run on for some considerable time yet.

19 JANUARY 2012 - News Flash
We are very pleased to say that George has already successfully been appointed on a major loss in Iraq, where he will be acting for a Lloyd’s Underwriter – a new client for FCL.

NOVEMBER 2011 - We are delighted to announce that George Hagland will be joining our team with immediate effect. George is an extremely experienced and accomplished chartered loss adjuster. He is particularly well-known in the Lloyd’s/London Market. He has worked extensively abroad on major PD/BI, CAR and other losses and has also carried out numerous audits/reviews for insurers and other parties. There is no doubt he will make a significant addition to the depth and range of services that we offer clients – and we are much looking forward to working with him.

OCTOBER 2011 - Lloyd’s has instigated a process of scrutinizing the business plans of all 88 syndicates, as a result of the major losses sustained this year. This is intended to stimulate underwriting profits and less reliance on investment in the forthcoming year. Graham Cave has been appointed President of the Insurance Charities with Ian Templeton of insurer UIA, his deputy. Graham is delighted to be appointed and will be making his first speech at the CII’s Northampton Institute annual dinner at the beginning of October.

The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters held its conference in Coventry in September. Many technical sessions were held on the first day and an excellent major loss scenario on the second. Visit the CILA website at www.cila.co.uk for technical notes. The AGM was held during the conference with Simon Burley of Delta Claims being appointed President and Kevin Wood of Merlin as his deputy. HSBC’s general insurance business is not only being looked at by Allianz and AXA, others such as QBE and Tokio Marine are reported as being interested. ABI’s annual Insurance Key Facts report is out. Net 2010 UK premiums were over £46bn with claims paid almost £31bn. UK insurance industry is now third biggest in the world, following USA and Japan.

JULY 2011 - The British Insurance Awards 2011
We are delighted that, last night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, FCL won an Award in this prestigious event, winning the ‘Major Loss’ category for our work in Chile.

Several of us attended the glittering Awards dinner, along with Group representatives from our Chile EQ client, RSA. It was a fantastic, very special evening. We were in competition for this Award against four other short-listed companies – Marsh (the world’s largest broker); British Gas; GAB Robins; and Garwyns. This success marks an important milestone in our company’s development. READ ON

JULY 2011 - Setting the Standard
The speed and effectiveness of FitzGerald Consulting’s response to the catastrophic earthquake in Chile last year has won it many admirers — not least the BIA judges, reports Daniel Dunkley. READ ON

JULY 2011 - Chilean expansion
Several of us in the company have spent the past 18 months or so commuting to Chile, supporting RSA in dealing with the massive earthquake which occurred there on 27th February last year. For most of that time, we have been reporting locally to RSA’s Claims director, and Executive board director, Juan Ignacio Alvarez. At the end of March, however... READ ON

JULY 2011 - Drinking all the profits
Seen in a report recently - when an adjuster who shall remain nameless, whilst describing the manner in which a vineyard in Chile managed to avoid sustaining a loss of income during the summer of 2010, wrote ‘The management of XYZ company successfully avoided sustaining any loss of wine sales during the summer by consuming all their stock’. Maybe they slept through the autopumn - but he didn’t continue the story I’m afraid!

JULY 2011 - FCL attends the AIRMIC conference
Down to earth, or should we say sand, Bev FitzGerald, Graeme Shurben, Judith Little and Mike Gardiner gathered up their buckets and spades and went to Bournemouth for the recent AIRMIC conference. Between excellent opening and closing speeches from Lord Coe and Ken Livingstone respectively, they met a lot of old friends in the corporate world – plus some new ones too. It was especially interesting to talk to a low-key but very large French armaments manufacturer who, yes, produced the legendary Exocet, famous from the Falklands war and now as a common figure of speech. Ken Livingstone’s speech was certainly not commonplace, zooming from waspish political gossip to fascinating macro-economics, for instance citing the inevitable rise of Mexico and Brazil into the ‘top 6’ economic nations. Within a few years, the UK will have fallen to 10th place, but some reassurance that our company’s current ‘push’ into Latin America is the right thing to do. Next year, FCL will be off to Liverpool for the conference where, hopefully, it’ll be less blowy and we’ll find a hotel with normal human-sized beds.

The conference was almost over with everybody getting ready to go when Bev met a specialist in turbine failure who was looking to market his product to the adjusting sector. Bev was swift to say that our company focuses on handling major losses and we have dealt with several such multi-million £ claims involving turbines and similar kit. He continued by saying that it has always been difficult to establish the precise cause of failure and, in particular, the extent to which this was due to normal wear and tear.

JULY 2011 - New business
Following a presentation to Europe Assistance a few weeks ago they have confirmed that they will send Ron Pearce the first instruction as soon as the next problematical claim arises. It is anticipated that this will grow as the holiday season develops. Well done Ron.

JUNE 2011 - The Summer Party
FCL celebrated its ninth year with a summer party at Skinners’ Hall in the City on 9th June. We were delighted that Raul Losana from Mexico and Juan Ignacio from Chile made special journeys to be with us. The weather was kind to us with over 100 attending.