Marsh and ACE agree action plan to improve claims transparency for customers

Marsh UK chief executive Mark Weil has hailed a tie up with ACE as a ‘major milestone’ in improving claims transparency, following years of suspicion from corporates that insurers are rejecting too many claims.

Claims payments to SME and corporate sector have come under a cloud in recent years with customer surveys from both Airmic and Biba revealing a high-level of dissatisfaction with the numbers of claims rejected.

But today Weil revealed the Marsh Principles which will apply to all UK and Irish clients of ACE and Marsh.

The Marsh Principles clauses aim to:

• Prevent insurers from relying on breaches of implied warranties or condition precedent. All implied warranties and conditions precedents will have to be clearly marked out in future contracts.
• To pay the claim when clients can demonstrate there is no connection between a loss and breach of warranty or condition precedent
• Help clients to get through non-disclosure and misrepresentation issues
• Render basis of contract clauses redundant

ACE has agreed to clearly state where a policy condition is either a warranty or a condition precedent from the next renewal.

All of the other enhanced terms will apply immediately, unless the client decides otherwise.

The plans apply to property, construction, boiler & machinery, all casualty lines, commercial directors’ and officers’ insurance, financial institutions insurance, annually renewable environmental impairment liability insurance, and commercial professional indemnity cover.

Weil said: “Marsh’s agreement with ACE is a major milestone in closing the gap between clients’ expectations in the event of a loss, and the results when less than clear policy language is applied.”

David Robinson, regional president, UK and Ireland, ACE said: “How we handle claims is the acid test of what we do and we want clients to feel reassured that if they do need to claim, we understand the importance of timely and satisfactory settlement of each and every claim.”

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