Gallagher Bassett’s General Insurance team has been quick to respond to the needs of major insurers by continuing our support through claims management and on-site assessments of customers’ properties following the magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck Kaikoura in November last year.

Following the November 14 earthquake, GB has been working closely with a number of insurers as well as the Earthquake Commission (EQC) on approximately 10,000 property and contents claims on behalf of insurers.

Private insurers have received nearly 43,000 claims, of which over 31,000 are for residential properties as a result of the earthquake. Insurers are acting as agents for the EQC and are managing most of the residential building and contents claims.

We have teams of dedicated assessors working in all regions affected by the earthquake with the highest volume of claims coming from Christchurch, Wellington and Hurunui regions.

We also have teams of staff working behind the scenes answering phone calls, reviewing information and ensuring a quality response to both the insurers, EQC and their customers as it remains high priority that all customers are contacted and booked in for assessments as soon as possible.

Managing Director of New Zealand, Craig Furness is pleased with the company’s ability to provide claims services and respond to catastrophic events.

“We have been delighted to support our customers with this event and feel the progress has been far greater than we initially expected which is a credit to the people we have working for us.”

Gallagher Bassett is the only dedicated claims organisation with the proven experience, scalability, corporate governance and infrastructure to be able to rapidly deploy a full scale operational claims management solution within weeks.

GB has been assisting clients since 1997 in rapidly deploying claims teams respond to peak loads and catastrophe situations. Following the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, they increased a core team of 6 staff to 340 within 45 days.

We have captured significant learning on this event and will ensure it becomes part of our global catastrophe response products. For more information on catastrophe response, please contact us here.