Ask three loss assessors how many stages a claim has and you will get three answers, usually “it depends”. It does depend, but not much. Almost every property claim passes through the same six stages in the same order, and a practice that names them, tracks them and attaches a routine to each one gets through more claims with fewer surprises. Here is the pipeline, what belongs in each stage, and what should happen automatically when a claim moves.
Why stages, and why six
A stage answers the question “what are we waiting for?”. Too few stages and every claim looks the same; too many and nobody updates them. Six is the number at which each stage has a different next action and a different person to chase. Fewer and you lose the information; more and you lose the discipline.
Stage 1: FNOL, first notification
What it is. The policyholder has instructed you, or is about to. You have the basics: name, property, insurer, policy number, date and cause of loss, a rough idea of the damage.
The job. Get the retainer signed, notify the insurer that you act, and open the file properly. A claim should not leave this stage without a claim reference from the insurer.
What happens automatically. The policyholder gets a welcome message explaining what comes next; the insurer gets your notification of appointment; a task to confirm the claim reference lands on your list.
Stage 2: Documents
What it is. Gathering what the insurer will ask for before it asks: policy schedule, photographs, receipts, quotes, proof of ownership, previous claims history.
The job. Request, chase and file. This is the stage where most time is lost, because policyholders are slow and the list is long.
What happens automatically. The policyholder receives the document list with an upload link, a reminder after four days, and a second after eight. Each upload lands on the claim, not in your inbox.
Stage 3: Inspection
What it is. Your site visit, and the insurer’s or adjuster’s if there is one.
The job. Book it, do it, record it: photographs with timestamps, measurements, a note of what the adjuster said on site.
What happens automatically. The policyholder books from your available slots and gets confirmation and reminders; the visit lands in your calendar; the photos sync to the claim from your phone.
Stage 4: Scope and costing
What it is. Your schedule of loss and the costed scope of works, submitted to the insurer.
The job. Produce it, submit it, and start the clock. The date of submission is the date every later chaser refers to.
What happens automatically. The insurer chaser sequence starts: day 3, 7 and 14. The policyholder is told that the claim is with the insurer and what the usual timescale is.
Stage 5: Negotiation
What it is. The insurer’s offer, your response, the second offer. Supplements, disputed items, cash settlement versus reinstatement.
The job. Keep the exchange on the file and keep the policyholder informed of each offer and your advice on it.
What happens automatically. Each offer logged creates a task to respond within your own service standard; the chaser sequence restarts whenever you submit a counter; a claim with no movement for ten days raises an alert.
Stage 6: Settled
What it is. Agreed, paid, your fee invoiced.
The job. Confirm payment to the policyholder, issue your invoice, close the file with a one-line note of what the claim settled for against the first offer. That note is your marketing.
What happens automatically. The policyholder gets a closing message and, a month later, a request for a review; the claim drops off the board and into the reporting.
Running it
Put the six stages in columns and every open claim on a card. Each morning, read the board from left to right: anything in Documents for more than a week, anything in Scope with no chaser sent, anything in Negotiation with no movement. That is the whole management routine; it takes ten minutes.
The pipeline is only as good as its updates. If moving a claim from one stage to the next takes more than a drag, people stop doing it, and the board lies. That is the strongest argument for software that treats the stage change as the trigger for everything else, rather than one more thing to type. The ClaimFlow pipeline is built exactly this way, with the automations above attached to each move.
Further reading
- How to chase an insurer on a stalled property claim
- Organising claim documents and photos: a filing system for loss assessors
See ClaimFlow on your own claims
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