Insurance Investigator

Most people are obliged to take out insurance in some form or other. The average private individual will have house insurance, house content insurance, car insurance, life insurance, personal accident insurance among others. For businesses the cost of insurance is even higher, with certain aspects that will allow continuation of trading requiring to be insured.

Insurance is big business. Money paid out to insurance companies on a global scale runs into trillions of dollars annually. To give an indication as to how rich a growth market insurance is be aware of the fact that income each year to insurance companies rises on average by 10% each year. Both life and non life insurance policies.

In economics, the act of insuring against a potential loss is defined as the equitable transfer of risk in exchange for paying a premium. Statistics show that the average person or company will pay away around 10% of the net incomes each year on insurance premiums. The same set of statistics that in their lifetimes or in the life time of their business, they will claim and receive less than one quarter of a percent of their outlay in successful claims.

Not too many people feel too much sympathy for insurance companies, whose profits rise steadily every year. There are even some people, believe it or not, who are prepared to submit false claims to their insurance companies in an attempt to be awarded a higher claim than they are entitled to, or not entitled to at all. In the event that the insurance company have even the slightest doubt that the claim submitted is false or inflated they will send a private insurance investigator to investigate the circumstances.

If the claim has been submitted by a private individual against damages to property, then the situation can be fairly straightforward. The investigator has to ensure that the circumstances reported are accurate. If the damages that were claimed against actually happened. If repairs need to be carried out, that the cost of repairs have been fairly estimated and not been inflated. If the insurance claim is against theft or burglary, to ensure that the police have been informed. The private insurance investigator will coordinate with the police authorities to ascertain if the claim submitted is verifiable. If the police feel that there is reasonable doubt that the insurance claim is bogus, then they will investigate the matter. Until the issue is settled, and it is proven that the claim was justifiable, only then will the insurance company release the funds.

When a business submits a claim, especially against consequential loss due to fire or flood damage, then the situation will be a little more complicated. The insurance investigator will have to thoroughly investigate the situation, and also from an additional angle. To discover if the company has been experiencing some recent trading problems, which might have caused the owner to take the drastic action of deliberately setting fire to their premises? This is a last minute, probably desperate attempt, to recoup some of their capital by falsely claiming money from the insurance company and invites an arson investigation. Again the police will be involved, and will be working closely in conjunction with insurance company and their investigators. If it transpires that foul play occurred, the claimants will not only find themselves leaving the insurance company empty handed but also wearing hand cuffs.

The most sensitive aspect of insurance claims that investigators need to be involved is personal accident claims and life insurance. Some of these claims can amount to millions and require the expert services of the most experienced of insurance investigators. Insurance companies have every right to investigate claims and are prepared to invest large sums of money to prevent payouts that are not justified.