Try to tell an insurer that claims management isn’t a core function of their business and you’re in for an argument. But now leading claims manager Peter Wyatt is fearlessly calling on insurers to outsource claims as a non-core activity.

Mr Wyatt, MD of Brisbane-based Wyatt Gallagher Bassett, told the Australasian Claims Expo in Sydney last week that the NSW and Victorian governments already outsource their workers’ comp functions to “agents”.

“This is part of a dawning recognition in Australia that non-insurers can perform all the processes that do not involve underwriting risk,” Mr Wyatt said. “The core skill an underwriter offers is supplying the capital to underwrite risks and performing risk assessments to ensure its portfolios are profitable.” Using a review of insurers’ websites as his guide, he said very few mention claims management as a core function.

On the chances of changing insurers’ minds, he said it will be “a long time, if ever”, before the very big insurers see the outsourcing of claims operations as a strategic advantage.