Claims Advocacy
At Relation, claims advocacy begins long before a claim is filed. It’s an ongoing partnership with an experienced team who will review policy language before risk becomes loss, then advocate relentlessly when insurers don’t perform, and stay engaged through every payment until you’ve recovered what you’re owed.
98%
91K
$17.3M
Offering Proactive, Strategic Claims Advocacy.
Our Claims Advocacy team works with you prior to any risk event. We pressure-test policy language, anticipate gaps, build documentation, and maintain the carrier relationships that help move a claim from disputed to paid.
When an insurer denies a claim or takes a position we disagree with, we respond on your behalf — engaging claims leadership, underwriters, and business leaders in parallel to get to the right outcome for you, faster.
What Sets Us Apart.
At Relation, claims advocacy is embedded directly within our teams. That means the people negotiating your policy language are working alongside the people who will advocate when a claim is filed.
Experienced Practice Leads.
Our practice teams’ careers span the most respected firms in management and financial lines. We’ve sat on both sides of the table, broker and insurer, and we use that perspective to spot what a carrier will and won’t pay before the claim is ever filed.
A Holistic, Client-Centered Approach.
Our claims advocates work directly with placement colleagues, underwriting contacts, and carrier business leaders, engaging the right people in real time rather than running tickets through a queue.
Carrier Relationships, Not Just Carrier Rosters.
Our team holds senior contacts across the major management and financial lines carriers. When a claim needs escalation, we know who to call, and they know to answer.
Our Claims Advocacy Process.
Prepare
before a claim happens.
- Review policy terms, conditions, and language for real-world claim performance.
- Consult on situations that may rise to claim status before they do.
- Deliver alerts, articles, and webinars on emerging litigation, regulation, and case law.
- Make sure clients understand their rights, obligations, and notification triggers.
Report
when something happens.
- Rapid intake and reporting support, coordinated with the broking team.
- Coverage analysis against the active policy and any related policy lines.
- Multi-line notification strategy where one event triggers more than one coverage.
- Engagement of preferred counsel where the policy allows.
ADVOCATE
through the life of the claim.
- Direct engagement with claims leadership at the insurer.
- Outreach to underwriters and business leaders to leverage relationships.
- Response when an insurer wrongly denies coverage or takes a position we disagree with.
- Coordination with counsel on coverage litigation when necessary.
RESOLVE
through recovery and renewal.
- Oversight of timely and complete payment and reimbursement.
- Renewal navigation — post-claim renewals are notoriously difficult and require careful positioning.
- Lessons learned that flow back into policy review for the next term.
Seamless Continuity And Well-Rounded Experience For Superior Service.
Since our claims advocacy practice is embedded inside the Financial Lines Group at Relation, the same team reviewing your policy language ahead of binding is the team that will advocate for you when a claim is filed. There’s no handoff between departments, no losing context, and no relearning your business after a claim is reported.
We also bring carrier-side experience. Members of our team have worked inside some of the biggest insurance carriers in the country, meaning we understand the mechanics behind each policy and will work to ensure our clients receive maximum value.
Our team has placed coverage and handled claims with the top management and financial lines insurance carriers in the US, including Chubb, AIG, Hiscox, Travelers, AXA XL, Zurich, Beazley, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide. Our practice leaders have led claims advocacy on behalf of all manner of clients, and recovering collectively hundreds of millions of dollars on their behalf, including complex matters across highly regulated industries, including financial institutions, healthcare, professional services, and technology.
Lines We Support.
Many of the most significant claims our team handles don’t fit neatly into one policy. A ransomware event can become a D&O claim alleging mismanagement of cybersecurity. A discrimination claim can become a fiduciary claim about benefits administration. A crime loss can become a cyber claim about network security failure. Our claims advocacy practice is structured to work across the following lines because the claims themselves don’t respect the boundaries between them:
Cyber Claims
Cyber is currently the fastest-evolving claims environment in the management and financial lines space. Ransomware, business email compromise, and AI-driven attacks are generating claims faster than carriers can update their underwriting models — which means coverage disputes are common, and resolution often hinges on language negotiated months or years before. Cyber claims also frequently intersect with D&O and crime/fidelity territory, and we coordinate across all three.
Directors & Officers (D&O) Claims
D&O claims are increasingly shaped by an active regulatory environment. The SEC’s evolving disclosure priorities, potential changes to reporting cadence, and ongoing securities class action activity all drive claim volume and complexity. Our team has decades of D&O claims experience across public, private, nonprofit, and private-equity-backed companies — including the post-claim renewal navigation that often determines whether a client can stay insured at all.
Employment Practices Liability (EPL) Claims
EPL is the most rapidly shifting class of claims we handle. Plaintiff’s bars in jurisdictions like California are aggressively expanding the boundary of compensable discrimination, particularly around disability claims. The Supreme Court’s recent unanimous ruling that there is no separate standard for reverse discrimination has opened a new front in EPL litigation that few employers are prepared for.
Fiduciary And Pension Trust Liability Claims
Fiduciary claims involve some of the most technical policy language in the management liability space. ERISA-driven litigation remains active, and excessive fee claims continue to drive carrier behavior. Our team works closely with plan fiduciaries and counsel to make sure coverage responds when expected.
Crime And Fidelity Claims
Crime claims — particularly social engineering and funds transfer fraud — frequently overlap with cyber coverage, and disputes about which policy responds are common. Our claims team is experienced in coordinating crime and cyber notifications across both policies to avoid coverage gaps.
Meet Our Practice Leader.
Jonathan Franznick
Senior Vice President, Specialty Claims Advocacy Leader
Jon is a former attorney who leads our claims advocacy function, ensuring that when it matters most, the team has a dedicated expert fighting to maximize recoveries and navigate the claims process efficiently and effectively. He has more than 30 years of management and financial lines experience with a career that spans both the broker and insurer side of the business at notable companies including AIG, Marsh, QBE, NFP/Thompson Flanagan.
Request A Risk Review.
Access to our claims advocacy expertise is just one of the many benefits of partnering with Relation for your insurance needs. To see how your current coverage compares, ask for a free review. You may find that you’re adequately protected and advised. You may find otherwise. Either way, you deserve to know for your peace of mind.
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