Starting a Loss Assessing Practice in the UK: The Software Stack

Most new loss assessing practices are started by someone who has spent years on the other side: a loss adjuster, a surveyor, a claims handler who got tired of saying no. They know claims. What they usually do not know is how to run a firm, and the first year is spent discovering that the admin is the business. This is the software stack for a UK practice starting today: what you need on day one, what can wait, and what it should cost in total.

Before the software: the three things that gate everything

1. FCA authorisation. Handling insurance claims for customers for a fee is a regulated claims management activity in England, Scotland and Wales. Authorisation takes months and shapes your processes, so it comes first. Your compliance adviser is the right person for this; the software just has to make the records easy.
2. A company, a bank account and insurance. Professional indemnity cover is not optional, and some policyholders will ask for proof.
3. A retainer agreement. Your agreement with the policyholder, with the fee basis and the pre-contract information, drafted once and used on every claim.

Day one: the stack

Email and calendar: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365

Your own domain, a mailbox for you and one for “claims@” that a second person can share later. About £6 to £12 a month per person. Do not run a regulated business from a free address.

Claims management: one system for the claim, the documents and the messages

This is the decision that matters. The temptation is a spreadsheet until you are busy, but busy is exactly when you will not have time to migrate, and a practice that starts on a proper system never has to. What it needs is set out in what to look for in loss assessor software: a six-stage pipeline, a claim record with the right fields, insurer chasers on a schedule, a policyholder portal, documents on the claim, a mobile app. Budget £75 to £200 a month plus VAT for a one- or two-person practice. ClaimFlow starts at £79.

A phone that is not your personal mobile

A business number that rings your mobile, with voicemail that is transcribed to email, and ideally call notes that land on the claim. £10 to £30 a month. Calls with customers may need to be recorded under the FCA’s rules, so pick something that can.

Accounting: FreeAgent, Xero or QuickBooks

Invoicing the fee at settlement, VAT when you cross the threshold, and the quarterly return. £15 to £35 a month. Connect it to the bank account on day one; the first thing an accountant asks for is the feed.

E-signature

The retainer signed on a phone, at the kitchen table, before you leave. Many claims systems include this; otherwise a standalone tool is £10 to £20 a month.

A website with one page

Who you are, what you do, the areas you cover, how to get in touch, and your FCA status. One page done well beats ten pages half-finished. £10 a month for hosting and a domain.

What can wait

• Estimating software. Until you are producing your own costed scopes at volume, contractor quotes and the insurer’s figures are your starting point.
• Marketing automation. Your first ten claims will come from people who know you, not from a funnel.
• A second seat of anything. Buy it when the second person starts, not before.
• Branded anything. A clear name and a straight answer on the phone is the brand.

The total

Email, claims system, phone, accounting, e-signature and a website come to roughly £130 to £300 a month depending on the choices, for a one-person practice. One settled claim pays for a year of it. The mistake is not spending too much on software; it is spending nothing and paying in hours, every week, for the first two years.

How the first claims should run

Put every claim, including the first, through the full six-stage pipeline with the chasers switched on. You will feel it is overkill for three claims. It is not: you are building the habits and the file quality that the regulator, the adjuster and the next policyholder will all judge you on, and you are building them while you still have time to get them right.

Further reading

• Spreadsheet, generic CRM or purpose-built?
• FCA-regulated claims management: records, communications and systems