In April, the Claims Coach blogged about Evan Greenberg of ACE adopting the practice of personally reviewing all claims of $1 million or over, posing for discussion whether this was a good idea or a waste of a CEO’s limited time. One anonymous follower of the blog offered the following perspective:

“I could see the claims manager submitting a report to the CEO of a company in regards to claims reserved at or over $1,000,000. but the CEO reviewing these high $ claims? If he has limited or no claims experience himself, the poor adjuster is put in the position of give the CEO a `claims 101’ lesson (not an enviable position) and trying to justify everything he did- his investigation, damage control, evaluation, reserve recommendations. Please, let’s leave this up to the claims professionals!”

“Reviewing” covers a lot of ground. Maybe it’s one thing of a CEO wants to review each million-dollar claim. It’s another thing if the adjuster cannot consummate a settlement because the CEO hasn’t gotten around to reviewing the file.

Can you imagine being the claims rep at a judge-ordered settlement conference trying to get through to the CEO by phone for additional settlement authority while the Big Cheese is at a Board Meeting or on a flight to the coast?