Business News: CLM, Davies and ASC, Friss and Guidewire

The CLM, formerly known as the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, has launched a universal claims certification that allows claims adjusters to secure licenses in six states.

CLM said licensed adjusters must simply register for the UCC, while unlicensed adjusters must complete a 40-hour course and take an exam to earn the certification. Professionals with the UCC can obtain licenses in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas. CLM said more states will be joining in the coming months.

“As someone who is involved in adjusting claims and handling catastrophe losses, not to mention licensed in several states, I think the UCC is a tremendous game changer,” says “The UCC formalizes a process that has been patchwork for a very long time,” statedDwight E. Geddes, head of Metro Claims & Risk Management. “Standards for licensing, continuing education, and renewals make the state-by-state way of doing it quite exhaustive and disjointed. The UCC makes that entire process significantly easier and eliminates a lot of the duplication of effort that has existed.”

Anne Blume, chief executive officer of CLM, said the company first discussed a universal certification in 2014. The process was accelerated when the CLM was purchased by The Institutes in 2018, she said.

Blume said the Institutes’ Assessments team has been deeply involved in the design and testing of the UCC precertification course and exam. The parent company will also be involved with the UCC continuing-education review and approval process.

CLM said the universal certification will make it easier to manage continuing education requirements. UCC holders must earn 24 hours of credits every two years, including five related to law and ethics.

The CLM said it has more than 45,000 members who work in claims resolution and litigation management.

Davies has acquired Alternative Service Concepts, a workers’ compensation and property and casualty third-party administrator headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Operating nationally across the US, ASC provides specialist end-to-end claims solutions to US & Lloyds insurance businesses, public entities, self-insured entities, insurance agencies and brokers, the company said in a press release.

ASC will join Davies’ newly formed North American Claims Solutions business, alongside its independent adjusting business, Frontier. ASC will form a new TPA arm within Claims Solutions, which will allow Davies to offer its clients a turnkey solution throughout the U.S.,the company said.

ASC President Glenn Backus, will continue to lead the business with close support from Chief Financial Officer Carolyn Adkins, Chief Operating Officer Pam Finch. All ASC employees will continue in their roles as Davies employees.

The deal is Davies’ sixth acquisition of 2019. Earlier this year, Canadian investor AIMCo took a minority stake in the group alongside majority shareholder HGGC to support Davies’ international expansion.

Friss, a Netherlands-based firm that provides fraud-detection software to property and casualty insurers, said it can now operate within Guidewire’s systems as a fraud and risk-management add-on.

The Friss add-on will deliver “plug-and-play” access to real-time fraud scoring, the company said. The system allows insurers to immediately stop the payment of fraudulent claims, with a combination of risk and fraud indicators and artificial intelligence technology such as predictive models, network analysis, and text mining, Friss said in a press release.

Risk scores and screening details will be fully embedded as elements in Guidewire ClaimCenter, Friss said. The add-on will automate claims checking at defined states, deliver intelligence to adjusters as the claim is processed and help inform the next steps in the claims process, such as settlement, investigation or risk management action.

“Predictive fraud scoring has become a critical capability for property/casualty insurers,” stated Matthew Josefowicz, president/CEO of Novarica, a research and advisory firm focused on insurer technology strategy. “Novarica’s research shows that more than 70% of large insurers and 35% of midsize and small insurers have capabilities in this area.”