Insurance collection (forsikringsinkasso)
Also known as collection for insurers, premium arrears, insurance recourse claims
Insurance collection covers two kinds of claim — unpaid premiums, and the recourse claims an insurer brings against whoever caused the loss.
- Covers
- Premiums and recourse claims
- Premiums
- Many, small, recurring
- Recourse
- Few, large, document-heavy
In practice
The two kinds of claim are nothing like each other and should not be handled alike. Premium arrears behave like subscriptions: many small recurring amounts where timing is everything. Recourse claims are the opposite — fewer cases, larger sums, and a process that stands or falls on the evidence of the loss.
Recourse carries its own difficulty. The claim is brought against someone with no customer relationship to the insurer, who often does not believe he owes anything at all. Objections are therefore the rule rather than the exception, and these cases reach court more often than ordinary invoice claims.
What the two have in common is that insurance is a regulated field with its own notice requirements. The process has to respect them, however routine the arrears may look.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- Running recourse claims through the premium cadence. A standard letter does not move a counterparty who disputes liability.
- Assembling the loss documentation only once the claim is disputed. By then the witnesses are hard to reach.