About 300 industry professionals attended the annual Claims Convention in Sydney to hear how the sector must evolve to become a resilience partner for clients. 

The event, organised by the Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters and Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance, took place on Wednesday.

The Insurance Council of Australia's counter-fraud CEO Andrew Gill told the conference that more than $100 million of fraudulent claims had been thwarted by the Insurance Crime Intelligence Network of Australia in its second year of operation.

This was a 27% increase on the previous 12 months, he said, and a result of participating insurers stepping up against criminals who prey on the fragmentation of the industry.

CHU national claims manager Kara McInnes told delegates that the strata market is growing rapidly, with $1.3 trillion in managed assets, more than 356,000 schemes and 3 million lots. She says that by 2040, half of NSW residents will live in strata.  

Ms McInnes described a high-profile July 2025 incident where 300 residents were forced to evacuate as an intruder set off fire hydrants in the top three floors on a Saturday night, affecting 150 flats and attracting extensive media interest.

She detailed how CHU immediately helped residents find alternative accommodation and made an immediate payment to each person to cover the cost. The firm put together a team involving engineers, loss adjusters, hygienists and crisis communications, with a dedicated call centre set up by Crawford & Company to take calls and emails. There were residents meetings, and a weekly email to all affected by the disruption.

With all residents back in by September, and the cost 70% under budget, Ms McInnes believes the response could set the standard for all multi-loss strata claims.  

QBE chief claims officer Julie Starley says cyber is one of the clearest examples where claims can move beyond just response to becoming a partner in resilience.

She says cyber is now “a core business risk that cuts across every industry. It is sophisticated and constantly evolving. Our recent research found that one in two Australian businesses experienced a cyber event in the last 12 months, with a quarter of those believed to involve AI.”

A serious cyber incident could hit operations, cash flow, and customer trust all at once. Leadership teams of those businesses may only have 48-72 hours to assess the impact and notify regulators while also trying to keep their business running.

“The value is no longer just in the policy nor in the response after the incident occurs. It is in the ecosystem of support around the customer.

“Claims, underwriting and risk management are beginning to closely intersect. The insights generated through cyber incidents can help us understand how disruption unfolds in real-time. They can inform underwriting, broker conversations, incident readiness, customer education and future product design”.

Pacific head of claims at Lockton Jeff Williams told attendees that with insurance-related complaints to AFCA on the rise and increased regulatory activity, complaints had to be listened to, not just closed down. 

Adam Chylek, of lawyers Wotton Kearney, warned that weather-related claims are set to increase, with Australia’s natural variable weather now colliding with climate change to create new risks.

Several speakers referred to AI, and there was general agreement that AI should augment human judgment not replace it, with customers expecting human empathy at the stressful time of a claim.

But the benefits of a claims manager being able to spend more time listening in calls and not making notes was clear.