From the policyholders' side, the insurance transaction is handled by financial personnel working with brokers and underwriters to structure insurance programs. The purchase of insurance is viewed by all three parties as a financial transaction. The three parties all went to the same schools, they belong to the same clubs, they share common bonds and a common orientation. A serious loss destroys all this sameness. The underwriter literally and figuratively disappears.
Underwriters have no part in the claims process.
The insurance company financial type is replaced by a series of claims people with 30 years of what they believe to be experience in protecting the insurance company from cheats and chiselers, and an equal period of experience in protecting policyholders from themselves. The results are devastating for the policyholder. Already stung by a loss of substantial size, the policyholder's financial officials are simply not up to an onslaught of heavy-handed innuendo and allegations of cheating, chiseling and fraud. Policyholder financial officials are left dumbstruck. Claims adjusters search for fraud and expect to find it.