FitzGerald Consulting

An earthquake measuring 8.8Mw on the Richter scale ravaged Chile's south-central coast in 2010, causing a tsunami to crash over a 500 km long coastline. This calamity resulted in immeasurable loss of life and property damage of over 10 billion dollars, including irreversible damage to numerous factories and other infrastructure, including the extremely profitable wine industry. While frontline workers helped restore the situation, FitzGerald Consulting Limited (FCL) was first on the scene to mitigate losses, adjust claims accurately, and restore businesses with minimum disruption.

Supporting as its primary client RSA, a major PD/BI Insurer in Chile with over 20 percent market share, Bev FitzGerald, Chairman of FitzGerald Consulting, his director colleague, Graeme Shurben and his team of experienced adjusters carried out an initial assessment of the situation in Chile within 48 hours. Its CAT team of surveyors, engineers, accountants and agri-business specialists helped that insurer manage 30,000 loss notifications.

"The largest single component of all the major losses insured with RSA, which totalled 500 million dollars, involved the Chilean wine industry, a major contributor to the national economy," says FitzGerald. Acting on insights from FitzGerald Consulting's viticulture experts, substantial interim and then early final settlement payments were made to companies in that industry.

With effective mitigation measures, FitzGerald Consulting ensured the protection of a major source of foreign exchange revenue, providing measurable support in the restoration of the country's economy.

FitzGerald Consulting finalized 25,000 homeowner claims within three months and 98% of small and medium claims by the end of 2010. Citizens and industry experts across the globe lauded the prompt response and meticulous effort by Fitzgerald and his team. This will be regarded as the template for managing CAT events worldwide. The feedback from my colleagues at RSA and within our re-insurer and Lloyd’s partners to FCL’s sterling work has been magnificent," says Scott Webb, Group Technical Claims Director, RSA.

Involved in almost every major insurance calamity in the world since it was founded 20 years ago, FitzGerald Consulting's team has experience garnered from 9/11, earthquakes in Italy and New Zealand, hurricanes like Wilma in Mexico and Dorian in the Bahamas, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. FitzGerald Consulting has built a stellar reputation in the global insurance market with its tailor-made solutions and personal service to insurers, reinsurers, and policyholders, ensuring each claim is efficiently handled and adjusted.

“Unlike other loss adjusters, we keep a very low number of outstanding cases. We dedicate our people to deal with catastrophes and to handling other major loss or complex individual claims,” says FitzGerald. With well-established businesses in Spain, Chile and the Caribbean, FitzGerald Consulting also handles conventional loss adjusting projects with a focus on complex property and business interruption insurance claims.

Additionally, using its widespread network of Audit specialists, FitzGerald Consulting designs and conducts detailed reviews of claims handling processes for in-house claims departments and independent outsourced facilities to prevent any leakage. It develops comprehensive reports with numerous recommendations after evaluating the effectiveness of policies, regulatory compliance, and claims spend to provide actionable insights that improve the overall performance of the claims processes.

Combining the expertise of claims directors and consultants with the knowledge of its own specialists like lawyers, accountants, engineers, and damage restoration experts, FitzGerald Consulting supports local and international claims handlers everywhere.

FitzGerald Consulting's meticulous attention to detail and commitment to ensuring accurate adjustment of claims are the driving force for its success. As global warming triggers catastrophic events in cities with high concentrations of skyscrapers, houses, and factories, the rise in losses is exponential. FitzGerald Consulting is at the forefront in providing specialist claims services with comprehensive expertise and experience to help companies and individuals deal with catastrophes and other major losses as they occur.