Blog Post
One-Off Approach Doesn’t Cut it for Fine Arts and Collectible Claims
August 10, 2011 | Tom Kirkpatrick, President
Claims Journal recently published a fascinating article examining the challenges adjusters and carriers face when dealing with claims for damage to fine art and collectibles. The author provides numerous examples of the importance of applying a methodology to each step in the assessment and decision making process. How do you determine pre-versus post loss issues? What factors come into play when deciding whether to repair or replace a damaged work of fine art or a one-of-a-kind collectible? Who are the experts that you’ll need to call on for each step of the process? These are just a few of the many issues we handle on a daily basis in helping our customers reach the most accurate and cost effective settlements for hard to value items.
Determining the authenticity of the piece is one of the most important factors when handling specialty contents claims. Some claims require a team of contents specialists with several areas of domain expertise to reach a fair and accurate settlement for both the carrier and the insured. It sounds daunting, but with the right team and access to a wide range of experts, carriers can reach swifter settlements and dramatically reduce settlement costs.
Case in point – EnservioSelect recently handled a policyholder claim for the theft of a series of signed and numbered prints by Salvador Dali. The policyholder’s documentation supported the claim – the prints came with certificates and appraisals for amounts greater than $10,000 for each of the prints. But our specialty contents team didn’t stop there. Digging deeper, they soon traced the prints back to a collection that had been embroiled in a number of court cases and lawsuits for forged documents and fakes. Further investigations revealed that the prints in question were also of questionable authenticity, dramatically lowering the Fair Market Value and the carrier’s settlement costs. (More details about this case can be found in my most recent Contents Claims Solved column in Claims Magazine.)
What this case and many others illustrate so clearly is that carriers and adjusters need constant access to contents claims specialists to deal with the myriad of specialty claims challenges they’re presented with on a daily basis. Each claim presents unique challenges. Many adjusters and carriers take a “one-off approach,” reinventing the wheel for each claim with a patchwork of outsourced specialists. But the one-off approach won’t cut it today, and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when carriers can turn to total solutions like EnservioSelect. What’s your approach and methodology for handling contents claims for fine arts and collectibles? We’d love to get your feedback in comments.
