Nine things go wrong. Eight of them are decided before the loss.

Claims are rarely refused outright. They are narrowed, stalled and quietly reduced, and almost always for one of these reasons.

Reference/Why claims get cut

Read in order. The first one costs more than the other eight together, and it is the only one nobody can fix after the fact.

1Decided at renewal, discovered at the loss

The sum insured was set to keep the premium down

The average clause pays the same proportion of a loss that the cover bore to the real value. Insure a factory for half what it would cost to rebuild and every claim, large or small, is roughly halved. Nothing about the claim itself is wrong; the arithmetic was settled long before it happened.

What it looks like on your file

An offer that is a clean fraction of what you claimed, with no argument about the facts and no obvious deduction to point at.

What the desk does about it

We check adequacy before you accept anything, and show the working so the figure can be argued rather than absorbed. Where the cover really is short we say so plainly, because knowing is worth more than hoping, and then we fix it at the renewal so the next loss is not the same conversation.

Check where you stand

2The first hours

The insurer was told late

Almost every wording requires prompt notice. A late intimation rarely defeats a good claim on its own, but it hands the insurer a position to argue from, and it shifts the conversation from what happened to why you waited.

What it looks like on your file

A repudiation citing delay, often on a claim nobody disputes the facts of.

What the desk does about it

The first thing the desk does is establish the date of loss and what has been told to whom. If nothing has gone to the insurer, a bare intimation goes today, before anything else is worked out.

The letter that fixes this

3The first day, usually while being helpful

The evidence was cleared before anyone saw it

The debris after a fire, the packing on a damaged consignment, the failed component inside a machine, the forced lock. Every one of them is the proof of what happened, and every one of them gets tidied, repaired or scrapped by somebody trying to get the business running again.

What it looks like on your file

A survey report that says the cause could not be established, and a claim that stalls on it.

What the desk does about it

We tell you what not to touch before we tell you anything else, and we say it in the first call rather than in a document you read later.

What not to touch, by loss type

4Long before the loss

A condition in the wording was not met

Warranties about protections, maintenance, storage, occupancy, fitness certificates, permits. These sit in the wording and are rarely read until an insurer relies on one. Some are drafted narrowly enough that they do not touch how the loss actually happened, which is an argument worth having.

What it looks like on your file

A refusal quoting a clause you have never seen, on a policy you hold a certificate for rather than a wording.

What the desk does about it

We read the actual wording against the actual facts, and we ask the insurer to identify the clause by number and say how it is engaged. A ground that cannot be stated precisely usually cannot be defended.

The letter that asks

5At placement

The cover never extended to it

Contract labour not endorsed, goods at a job worker not declared, a route outside the permit, a product sold into a territory the policy does not cover, a claims-made policy notified after the period. The claim is sound and the policy simply does not reach it.

What it looks like on your file

A refusal that is, on reading, correct.

What the desk does about it

We will tell you when a claim is weak, including when the honest answer is that the cover was not there. Then we make sure it is there next year, which is the only part of this anyone can still change.

What each cover actually reaches

6When the money is needed most

Something was signed too early

A discharge voucher, a full and final settlement, a clean receipt for a damaged consignment, a private settlement with an injured worker, an admission of liability offered as basic courtesy. Each is given away in a moment and is very hard to undo.

What it looks like on your file

A closed claim worth considerably more than it settled for, and no route left to reopen it.

What the desk does about it

Nothing gets signed until we have read it. Where a payment is genuinely needed while the amount is still disputed, there is a way to take it on account without closing the claim.

How to bank it without closing it

7Weeks two to six

The documents did not reconcile to each other

The FIR says one figure, the claim form another, the stock register a third. Nobody has been dishonest; three documents were written at three moments by three people. To an insurer it reads as a claim that cannot be evidenced.

What it looks like on your file

Requests for the same document over and over, and a file that stops moving without ever being refused.

What the desk does about it

We assemble the file once, properly, with a timeline at the front, and we track what was asked for and when it went. More commercial claims turn on the sequence of dates than on any single document.

What every claim needs

8After the refusal

The escalation was done out of order, or too late

The insurer's grievance cell, the regulator's channel, the Ombudsman and the courts each have their own limits and their own time bars, and most expect you to have finished with the previous one. Months of angry correspondence with a claims department is not any of those steps.

What it looks like on your file

A route closed by a time bar that nobody was watching.

What the desk does about it

We escalate on a schedule rather than on frustration, and we check which routes are still open before spending your time on any of them.

The order, and the limits

9Throughout

Nobody owned the file

The cause behind most of the others. The business is dealing with the loss, the agent placed the policy and moved on, the surveyor answers to the insurer, and the claims department answers to a queue. Everyone is doing their own job and no one is running the claim.

What it looks like on your file

Long silences, repeated requests, and a settlement that arrives when the business has stopped pushing.

What the desk does about it

One named person owns the file and you have their number. That is most of what this desk is.

Give it to somebody

The short versionA claim is not usually lost by an insurer refusing it. It is lost by a sum insured set two renewals ago, an intimation sent on Thursday instead of Monday, and a godown swept out before anybody photographed it. All three happen while people are trying to be helpful.

The other half of this

Eight of those nine are decided before the loss.

Which is an uncomfortable thing to publish on a claims site unless you can say what to do about it. We can, because Rakshit Financial Services places cover as well as running claims, and the placement is where seven of these are still fixable.

What gets asked before a policy is placed

Somewhere on that list already?

Whoever placed your policy, and whatever stage the claim has reached.

Report a loss Call 92514 56334

Three deadlines

Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
Notice to anybody else responsible the carrier, the contractor, the police, within the time your policy sets.
Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.