Claims manager Proclaim has agreed to be acquired by UK law firm DWF. 

The Melbourne company was founded 25 years ago by Jon Broome, who will remain MD of the 60-strong team post-transaction. Justin Harty remains operations director. 

“We are excited for the next phase of our development in partnering with a global leader in claims and legal services and what that can offer for existing and prospective clients,” Mr Broome said today. “DWF will not only respect the business and model we have built over 25 years but also retain our brand and all personnel.  

“We think our clients will see little immediate change, other than added capabilities we can access through a global leader.”

Proclaim, which also has an operation in Sydney, says DWF’s ownership will allow it to build a “more integrated claims and risk model where legal services and data analytics are aligned with claims management to provide a seamless and cost-effective alternative to existing models”. 

There are considerable compliance strains on smaller companies and access to DWF’s resources will help clients, Mr Broome says. 

“Working as part of the DWF group offers exciting opportunities to our team as well as our clients,” he said. “DWF is committed to building a presence in the Australian market ... the purchase of Proclaim will facilitate an acceleration of its growth strategy in what is a significant market for Lloyd’s and local corporates and insurers.” 

Proclaim is “widely regarded as the premier Australian claims management business for the London market”, Mr Broome says, and the deal expands DWF's insurance capabilities in Australia, which is the fourth-largest Lloyd’s market behind the US, UK and Canada. 

Mr Broome, formerly of Chubb, has been in London for several weeks and Mr Harty, normally based in Sydney, is in Melbourne this week for the announcement.  

“We advised everyone yesterday,” Mr Harty tells insuranceNEWS.com.au. 

“It's been a number of months in discussions. We’ve had a number of approaches over the years – this one was a great fit.” 

DWF has only a small insurance footprint in Australia, through its claims management adjusting division, made up of five staff. The “rest of their numbers are all legal and shared services among other things. So we’re the numbers from the insurance side,” said Mr Harty, who left Chubb to join Mr Broome at Proclaim in 1999. 

“We wanted to invigorate the claim space because claims is often the forgotten child,” he said. “John and I are not going anywhere, we’re too young and have too much energy.” 

Proclaim’s operations are performing strongly, Mr Harty says, because more business goes to Lloyd’s when local insurers are not prepared to write particular risks, and its corporate business – which includes Lendlease, Mirvac and Endeavour Group as clients – is also a growth area. 

“With the hardening market, excess is going up and corporates are taking large self-insured retentions, and that’s where we fit. We manage their under-excess claims, and we’ve been doing that for 25 years now.” 

DWF, owned by private equity firm Inflexion, bought local claims management company Triton Global in 2017 and FT Adjusting five years ago. It plans to invest further in insurance-focused legal teams in Sydney, Melbourne and other key centres.