First notification of loss, reserving, adjudication, payment, subrogation and recovery.
3 questions in Insurance.
A claim moves from notification through coverage verification, adjudication, payment and closure, carrying a case reserve that is the handler's current estimate of what remains to be paid. It moves whenever information arrives, and every movement is a dated financial transaction.
A reserve is money recognised in the accounts on the strength of an estimate, so the insurer's reported result depends on it long before anything is paid. It moves as the file develops, every movement is itself reportable, and the history of movements matters as much as the current figure.
Pay the insured first, then pursue the party at fault as subrogation, tracking the recovery as a separate asset against the same claim rather than as a credit that erases the payment. Salvage, the insured's uninsured excess and the eventual partial settlement all have to be allocated, and the gross figure must survive.