Claims Management News

Maritime medical operations and public health provider Vikand Medical Solutions, LLC said it has been appointed by American Seafoods, the world’s largest at-sea processor of wild Alaska pollock, to manage its medical operations.Holly Love, VIKAND’s vice president of medical operations, said the company has been working with American Seafoods since the end of 2020 and will now manage medical needs for all six vessels in its fleet. "This includes every aspect of onboard medical care to ensure a safe working environment, to maintain operational continuity and to reduce risk," Love said.VIKAND’s services for American Seafoods encompass total healthcare at sea: medical staff…

Imperial Logistics is joining a new industrial initiative as one of its founding members. The consortium is called +D (plusdecentral) and aims to build a cross-company transaction protocol bringing automation and new business models to the Supply Chain.With this new decentralised infrastructure, it will be possible to digitize and automatically manage tasks such as transport contracts, insurance policies, tracking consignments, editing documents, settling damage claims and payment transactions.The protocol follows an open-source approach and is designed to guarantee a smooth exchange of information and value between all the participants in the supply chain. Main technologies are Blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.

North P&I Club reports that an exceptionally low year for claims has helped it increase its free reserves by $90 million to $428 million and deliver a combined ratio of 73.3 percent in the financial year ended February 20, 2016. This brings the combined ratio average of the past five years down to 95.7 percent, amongst the best in the International Group. The Directors approved North’s 2015/16 financial statements at their meeting on May 18, 2016. Commenting on the results, Chairman Pratap Shirke said, “This is a very pleasing set of results that reflects not only a more benign claims experience but also the prudent steps taken by the Club to improve underwriting performance and strengthen our capital position.

The International Maritime Club presented Meena Mathews, GAC’s Regional P&I Manager for the Middle East, with its Excellence in Marine Claims Management accolade at the IMC Excellence Awards ceremony at the Ocean Blue in Sharjah, UAE, this week. Mathews was nominated by the Club’s committee of industry specialists for her work in protection and indemnity and insurance over the last year. She received her award from The Dubai Council for Marine & Maritime Industries (DCMMI) Chairman, H.E Khamis Juma Buamim. “Within GAC, we have long known what a valuable colleague and consumate professional Meena is. Her professionalism and performance is a credit to our organisation,” says GAC Group Vice President – Middle East, Lars Bergström.

Thomas Miller the international insurance, professional and insurance services provider announces the acquisition of the partners and staff of specialist marine law firm, Davies Johnson & Co of Plymouth. The acquisition brings an additional six fee earners to the Thomas Miller Law Ltd (TM Law) team. The firm will operate from Plymouth and London in addition to TM Law’s main office in Newcastle, where it forms part of the Group’s claims handling and risk management consultancy business. Davies’ Johnson’s existing clients will continue to be able to instruct the Plymouth firm, and there will be no change to the service they enjoy currently.

Gencorp Insurance Group provides the Insurance and Surety needs of Marine Contractors, Vessel Operators and Shipyards throughout the country and Caribbean. Gencorp’s Marine Group facilitates the coverage placement and claims settlement for all insureds, utilizing a team that has a Maritime Academy background or professional waterfront experience. Ask any group of Owners to design and build a full service insurance brokerage with all of the services and resources that they demand – the end result would mirror the Gencorp organization…

CEO/President: Robert G. Gencorp Insurance Group provides the insurance and surety needs of marine contractors, vessel operators and shipyards throughout the country and Caribbean. Gencorp’s Marine Group facilitates the coverage placement and claims settlement for all insureds, utilizing a team that has a maritime academy background or professional waterfront experience. Ask any group of owners to design and build a full service insurance brokerage with all of the services and resources that they demand – the end result would mirror the Gencorp organization…

Estimated increase of renewal premium of seven percent. For many UK Club Members, subdued earnings and a lingering shipping recession remain an unwelcome fact of life. However, UK Club premium needs to address underlying claims inflation, as well as a future pick up in claims frequency from what have been record low levels. Hugo Wynn-Williams, Chief Executive of Thomas Miller P&I, the UK P&I Club’s managers, said, “It has been another good and solid renewal for the UK Club marked by continued controlled growth for a third year in succession whilst preserving a disciplined approach to underwriting.

Spill Center, a North American leader in environmental claims management and emergency response support for transportation clients at risk for releases of hazardous materials, has expanded its program to include global cargo-carrying vessels, according to Tom Moses, president and founder of the company. V.Ships, a ship management company with a network of 18 offices worldwide, provides shipowners with a range of management and support services for oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers and dry bulk cargo vessels. V.Ships offers environmental support services to ship owners through Spill Center. Services include immediate response management services…

The first group of candidates has successfully completed the full Protection and Indemnity Qualification (P&IQ). The examination program was launched in 2010 by the International Group of P&I Clubs (IG) to support education in P&I insurance. The successful candidates were presented with their certificates by Grantley Berkeley, Chairman of the IG and of Tindall Riley (Britannia) Limited, at an awards ceremony to mark the candidates’ achievements held on 12th November 2013 at the Watermen’s Hall in London.

TT Club, established to fill a gap in insurance as the freight container revolutionized trade, celebrates 45 years dedicated service to the transport and logistics sector. In 1956, the first strengthened containers were loaded onto a spar deck of the converted tanker, Ideal X. This marked the fulfilment of a dream for American trucker Malcom McLean who had, since 1937, been working on how to reduce the long waiting hours for dockers to stow or unload his vehicles onto or off ships. The container age was quietly born.

The UK P&I Club (the UK Club) has attracted over three million gross tons of new tonnage, following the closure of the renewal season. At conclusion of renewal the Club’s tonnage stands at around 120 million gross tons. This represents net growth over the past year of 7.6 million tons. As importantly, the Club maintained its policy on sound underwriting declining an equivalent volume of tonnage during the renewal on factors such as quality of risk. “As ship-owners face extremely challenging conditions, the Club’s strong capital position enabled a 2.5 per cent mutual premium discount on the 2011 policy year. The discount amounted to a 10 per cent deduction for all mutual members for the final instalment of the 2011 call due in December last year.

International classification society RINA Group has partnered with Italian software house IB to distribute a software suite aimed at improving ship and fleet operation across the board. The InfoSHIP  suite is made up of a number of modules which together can be used to improve efficiency across any type of ship or fleet management. Paolo Moretti, General Manager, Business Line Marine, RINA Group, says, “Efficient ship and fleet management depends on managing information in the right way.

The UK P&I Club (the UK Club) announces that it has attracted over three million gross tons of new tonnage, following the closure of the renewal season on Wednesday, 20 February, 2013. At conclusion of renewal the Club’s tonnage stands at around 120 million gross tons. This represents net growth over the past year of 7.6 million tons. As importantly, the Club maintained its policy on sound underwriting declining an equivalent volume of tonnage during the renewal on factors such as quality of risk.

Atlantic Marine Associates Inc. (AMA) a member of the Eagle Ocean Group appoints John S. Poulson to head the new service. Trading as AMA Consulting Services, the new entity is led by John S. Poulson, latterly president of GL Noble Denton, New York, and a leading expert in the marine engineering, survey, loss prevention and consultancy fields. AMA Consulting Services’ principal activity is carrying out independent surveys, investigations, advisory and other consultancy work for a broad maritime clientele…

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Fidelis Group Holdings LLC and Continental Underwriters, Ltd. For those in the marine insurance and underwriting communities, H. Elder Brown, Jr. needs no introduction. That’s because over the course of the past 27 years, Brown has taken Continental Underwriters Ltd. (CUL) from a small family business to one of the largest brown water marine underwriters in the United States. More recently, Brown returned CUL to private ownership by purchasing CUL back from Houston Casualty Company in 2009.

XL Group plc’s (NYSE: XL) North American Marine business expands its blue water hull risk management capabilities in New York with the addition of Siobhan Coen and Jeff Loechner as senior underwriters and Eileen Fellin as a senior claims consultant. According to Rich DeSimone, President of XL Group’s North America Marine business, “Siobhan, Jeff and Eileen collectively add nearly six decades of hull underwriting, particularly in blue water hull coverages, and claims experience. Ms. Coen joins XL as a Senior Underwriter. She brings more than 19 years underwriting experience with her from the American Hull Insurance Syndicate. She is a graduate of Manhattan College with a B.S. in Business Administration. Ms.

It also noted the Club’s improved operating performance as evidenced by the combined ratio, strength of management strategy, and the improvement in its competitive position. Dino Caroussis, Chairman of the UK P&I Club, said: “This is a welcome endorsement by S&P of the UK Club’s efforts to maintain balanced underwriting and a strong capital position in an environment of rising claims costs and volatile investments. Hugo Wynn-Williams, chief executive of Club managers Thomas Miller P&I Ltd…

INTERTANKO’s Council will be invited at its October meeting in Singapore to appoint Joseph Angelo, Deputy MD, to succeed Peter Swift as Managing Director on his retirement on 31 December, 2010. In addition, Katharina (Kathi) Stanzel has been appointed Deputy MD. INTERTANKO had an overwhelming level of interest in the position and some highly qualified and capable individuals were shortlisted. “We are grateful and flattered by some of the names who threw their hat into the ring,” says Graham Westgarth, INTERTANKO’s Chairman. Joe Angelo has worked for INTERTANKO for six years, first as Director of Regulatory Affairs and the Americas. Prior to joining INTERTANKO he held various senior roles in the United States Coast Guard…

Following 10 years with the Rickmers Group and after the successful conclusion of financing agreements for the Rickmers Group’s newbuilding programme consisting of container and multi-purpose vessels, Dr Moritz Mittelbach has stepped down as CFO and Managing Director of Rickmers Holding GmbH & Cie KG and Pacific Holdings International GmbH & Cie KG with effect from 31 January 2011 at his own request. With his expertise, Dr Mittelbach successfully guided the Rickmers Group through the difficult phase of the financial and shipping crisis; he will continue to bring his experience to bear by serving the company in an advisory role. The Executive Board thanks Dr Mittelbach for his important contribution.

In shipping, there’s little that one can count on from year to year. The word “change” comes to mind immediately. Another constant is a steady hand at the helm at the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO), the voice of the world’s collective tanker market. So, when Joe Angelo replaced long time (10+ years) INTERTANKO stalwart Peter Swift as INTERTANKO Managing Director less than 4 months ago, industry watched closely for any changes in course. But INTERTANKO's new MD is anything but an unknown quantity and he clearly hit the ground running. In April, MarPro caught up with him at his Arlington, VA offices for a SITREP on the world of tankers.

Unfortunately, personal injury claims brought by seamen against vessel owners are part of everyday life in running a boat company. As such, vessel owners have become very sophisticated in the management of these claims. As the cost of litigating these matters is very high, often, the claim's handler will attempt to settle a seaman's personal injury claim prior to his retention of counsel and filing suit. In most cases, this is a win-win for both the employee and the company. The company is able to settle the claim with its employee quickly without engaging counsel or incurring the costs associated with litigation. The employee wins because he is able to keep 100 percent of the settlement without having an attorney take 30 to 40 percent.

A wide variety of shipowners, operators and other senior maritime professionals from throughout the Middle East region have attended North P&I club’s residential course in P&I insurance and loss prevention held in Dubai this week. A total of 46 delegates from 21 organisations signed up for the ‘A’ rated, 170 million GT club’s four-day course at the Dubai Marine Beach and Resort Spa, which concluded yesterday (13 September 2012). They included representatives of many of North’s Middle East members - including Adnatco, Bakri Navigation, E Ships, Mideast Ship Management, MUR Shipping, Oman Shipping, Stellar Ocean Transport, United Arab Chemical Carriers and United Arab Shipping Company.