The insurance industry’s new draft code of practice, launched last week in Sydney, has earned qualified praise from consumer groups and even the Federal Government. But loss adjusters are less than impressed with the draft, accusing the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) of allowing the claims process to be handled by people with few or even no claims qualifications.

Mark Godfrey, President of the Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters (AICLA), says the draft falls short of the ideals expressed in the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA).

“The FSRA was intended to ensure that organisations operating in financial services have appropriate standards involving continuing development and training, external standards and measurement, disciplinary processes and other things,” he told Sunrise Exchange News.

“Yet ICA has proposed for a most crucial element of its own code – claims management and external suppliers in particular – a standard that falls far short of this. Each year in Australia billions of dollars in claims are managed and the process significantly influenced by independent

people – including loss adjusters – over whose performance ICA proposes to have a very low standard of monitoring and management.”

Mr Godfrey says AICLA believes the proposed standard falls short of the FSRA standard in allowing that loss adjusters and other claims technicians “either have to belong to an appropriate body or be approved by insurers. It’s a non-standard.”