President's blog

Along with two fellow members, Graham Cranford-Smith and Peter Shaw, I was recently invited to lunch with representatives from each of the major assessing companies. The outcome of our discussions will be reported in Post magazine and I do not therefore propose to comment directly on the wide ranging matters that we covered.

For the purposes of my blog I think it worth noting that the arena of ‘Claims Consultancy’, as our own members engaged in claims presentation prefer to refer to it, is occupied by a wide range of players from assessors, through brokers, accountants, solicitors to our own members.

Whilst there is often a world of difference between presenting a claim and adjusting a claim, the technical issues are the same. Our Charter recognises loss adjusting as the investigation, management, quantification, validation and resolution of losses (whether insured or not) arising from any contingency and reporting thereon. Therefore it is entirely appropriate that our examinations should be open to all those involved in claims handling. Our LCILA status evidences this technical standing and whilst it does not confer full membership status I believe we should welcome all candidates involved in claims handling from whatever discipline to evidence their competence by seeking Licentiate status. Incidentally we are working on an alternative title since I can’t imagine people itching to tell others that they are Licentiate in anything, let alone Loss Adjusting.

Any member’s thoughts on this or claims presentation generally would be welcome.