Gary Brown has spent nearly 35 years at McLarens and its predecessor companies and has been the Atlanta-based loss adjuster’s CEO since 2016. After starting his career in London, he was based in several international locations, including an extended period in Jamaica. He moved to the United States 25 years ago. Recently, he spoke with Business Insurance Editor Gavin Souter about changes in the claims sector and the company’s strategy. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: You always think of loss adjusting as a hands-on job. How have the restrictions of the past two years changed the business? 

A: From a working practices point of view, half of our business was already working remotely for most of the time, out on the road inspecting claims and adjusting losses, but we’ve had to pivot over the last couple of years for the other half of the business that was based in offices. As we move forward, we are definitely returning to offices where there are concentrations of market — New York, London, cities like that where the business of insurance is still done often in person. In some of our other areas where the offices were of less relevance to the marketplace, we will adopt more of a flexible working environment. 

Q: What about the actual inspection of claims during the pandemic? 

A: It was very much a different response in different geographic markets. In those markets where there were the most restrictions, we did develop video inspections. We’ve got new tools now that enable us through iPhones and things to meet and speak and inspect locations when we are restricted from going in. But for the type of work that we do, it’s not something that will be anything more than an assist. The ability to physically inspect and meet will always be important. 

Q: What’s preventing it from becoming the norm? 

A: There’s lots of nuance to insurance claims. Each situation is unique, and I think there is never going to be a proper substitute to the benefits of meeting personally with people, building strong working relationships, seeing the damage firsthand, touching it, smelling it. We make far better progress and it leads to far better outcomes for all of the stakeholders if we’re able to meet and inspect and visit and work with the contractors and the people that are responsible for the repairs. 

Q: What specialty strategy are you following? 

A: Risks are becoming more complex. Failures are getting more significant, and people are continuing to want to put structures on the edges of bodies of water and in areas that heretofore were not necessarily safe to construct. So the incidence of complex risk is going to increase and, as a result, specialists within those complex risks or within those niche exposures are becoming ever more important and we are seeing real value and leverage in getting groups of likeminded experts together to solve problems. 

Our first specialization, which was more than 10 years ago, was our aviation business. Most of those people are experts from aviation industry that have become loss adjusters, so to have more experts available for a specific industry that are grouped together and work together is really helpful and it really drives better service, better outcomes for our clients. 

Q: How are supply chain problems and inflation affecting the insurance claims sector? 

A: The impact on insurance claims doesn’t just affect the physical cost of the repairs, but in the event that a business is suffering some sort of income loss or business interruption loss because of the shortage in materials at any price, that is delaying the incidence of repairs and the ability for businesses to recover so that is on many occasions extending the income losses as well. 

Q: How do you deal with that? 

A: Where possible we’re trying to use our global network and our tentacles at a local level to expedite delivery of materials, things of that nature. 

Q: Last year, you hired Kirsten Early and brought in a team to develop a third-party administrator business. What are your plans for that business? 

A: TPA has always been an important part of our business, but it’s been in pockets around the world, and we haven’t had a consistent offering that’s led, very much in the context of specialty business, by professionals who spent their career in that space. And I think it would also be fair to say that our technology heretofore had not been strong enough to offer a true global proposition, so along with Kirsten and her team, who bring that level of expertise, we’re investing very heavily in our software and our claims management platforms to be able to then deliver products in the way that our clients are wanting those products delivered and data mined in a way that they now want them. 

Q: There seems to be a fair amount of consolidation in the claims sector over the past couple of years. Are you involved in that and how do you view the trend? 

A: There very much has been consolidation across the industry from those that take risks to those that help service that risk, and the adjusting space is no different. For us, consolidation is sensible where it leads to a greater depth of service in markets that might otherwise be underserved, but I don’t think it’s necessarily just about getting bigger. McLarens is of a size where we can comfortably meet the regulatory requirements of the industry and of our clients. We’re of a size where we can operate in all the global markets that our clients need us to, and for us that consolidation is plugging some holes that we might have in our business on an industry basis or on a specialties basis, on occasion on a geographic basis, but we’re getting close to the geography that we think is optimal for the industry already