Thursday in Claims

Bus to work... definately the way to go... there is a guy whom works at BMS next to us who takes the bus as well... havent met him yet...

Anyways, spent the morning working on a 3rd narrative for Gene whom was out sick. After that I took an online learning course to get the most I could about the London Lloyds Markt and how risks are written on a universally known document called a slip and used by brokers to get syndicates from Lloyds to sign on to them an cover a percentage of risk (broker does this until 100 percent of the risk is covered.). From there a claims broker, Vincent Page, introduced me to the claims and technical side of slips which basically involves proof reading a slip so that it can get the final seal of approval from Lloyds and go into effect. While proof reading the document with Vincent, he explained to me the specific clauses and what the risk was for as well as how long it applied and how the coverage worked. We had to make sure the slip we were submitting to Lloyds which is a paper document, matched the information BMS had in its system. If the policy has but the slightest error, Lloyds could reject it outright and the insured would hold BMS at fault.

Hearing Vincent's story really opened another door about insurance as a business, its not a highly sought out profession... it just happens to pay bill quite well. Vincent too didn't go to university (what we call college) before coming to BMS. It made me wonder what having a degree ment in the industry... considering the chairman of BMS owns a chatteau in South France.

Vincent took me to the Advent offices where we had to pick up a few documents in need of their approval. Advent is one of the syndicates with a box in the Lloyds building...

I'll breakdown Lloyds for those who don't know. Its basicly a really crazy looking building... very industrial. Inside there are two primary floors: Ground Floor and Lvl 1. Theremany different syndicates have boxes where underwriters sit and handle risks and claims that brokers bring in. So say BMS wants to reinsure a risk, they send a broker with a slip and he/she gets as many syndicate underwriters as it takes to get it 100 percent reinsured (sometimes it can only take one although I saw one slip with 15 different syndicates on it.). Lloyds has 2 sessions: a morning (11 - 1pm) and afternoon (2:30 - 4pm).

Anyways this company Advent, their offices were nicer than BMS which is saying alot since the BMS offices are quite modern and new. Upon further research I learned that a syndicate underwriter in the Lloyds box can make around £500,000 a year... thats a million US.

Needless to say it was an eye opening day.