COTERIE INSURANCE CLAIMS EXPERIENCE: BUILDING LOYALTY THROUGH EMPATHY & TRANSPARENCY

13 Feb 2023

After a devastating loss, policyholders expect their insurance company to be there for them which is why the Coterie Insurance claims experience is built around empathy. Recently, Coterie was able to demonstrate our claims philosophy when several flooding claims came in

After parts of California experienced torrential rains in December 2022, several Coterie policyholders reported claims from flooding in an antique cooperative building in Jackson, CA. Coterie Claims Adjuster Mark Miller received a claim from a business owner in the building who told him to expect to hear from the three other business owners in the same location also insured with Coterie.

“She mentioned that the creek behind the building overflowed, with six feet of water entering the building,” Mark said. “She lost everything.”

Sure enough, Mark soon received three other claims from the additional business owners whose businesses were severely impacted, including Jennifer Fox Fritz who owns Jackpot Jen Vintage.

“It was a devastating flood and very destructive,” explained Jennifer. “I’ve never been in a natural disaster and to lose your livelihood along with 85% of your inventory is catastrophic.”

Mark jumped into action knowing that standard commercial policies do not cover flooding. Mark pursued the claims’ investigations with a strategy of full transparency. He told the policyholders that their policies do not cover flood, but Coterie was sending out a field adjuster to complete a full investigation on-site

The field adjuster looked at the building, property, creek, and surrounding area and even got up on the roof to see if it was possible that the storm had damaged the roof. There was a possibility the claim would be covered if the cause of loss was weather damage to the roof allowing rainwater to enter.

However, once the field adjuster completed a full investigation, the cause of loss was indeed flooding