A five-state Midwest mutual with a working subrogation unit and a quarterly audit program swept 36 months of closed auto, homeowners and farmowners files. Ishqkala found 1,155 actionable files holding $13.2M in missed recoveries, including 214 files within 120 days of SOL expiry. Twelve months later the carrier had recovered $6.8M and cut its combined ratio by 1.3 points.
The challenge
The mutual's 14-person subrogation unit was good at the files it saw. The problem was referral. Desk and field adjusters carrying 100 to 150 active claims flagged subrogation at FNOL or not at all, and a quarterly audit read about 2% of closed files. Leadership knew the industry figure, 15% to 30% of viable recoveries never pursued (NASP and Verisk / ISO), but had no way to measure its own share.
The liability sat in the narrative. A co-op grain truck backing into an insured pickup appeared only in a diary note. Farmhouse fire files named a space heater or a dryer in the fire department report, with no recall check. And in Indiana, where vehicle damage claims carry a two-year limitation period (Ind. Code 34-11-2-4), files from losses nearly two years old were running out of time.
The approach
- 1
Free Closed-Claim Audit
The carrier sent 500 closed files. Five business days later, the Subrogation Opportunity Manifest showed 13 actionable files worth about $170,000, each with source notes, fault analysis and SOL date.
- 2
Secure extract from ClaimCenter
Claims IT delivered 46,200 closed-without-recovery files from 36 months by SFTP batch extract, with diary notes and attachments, into a dedicated tenant in a US AWS region.
- 3
48-hour sweep
The Closed-Claim Sweeper returned a Recovery Opportunity Manifest of 1,155 files ranked by recoverable dollars, win probability and days until SOL, with the state fault rule applied to each.
- 4
SOL-first triage
The subrogation unit worked the 214 files inside 120 days of expiry first, most of them Indiana auto. Inter-company auto went to Arbitration Forums; fire and product defect files went to recovery counsel with demand packages.
- 5
Real-time detection on open claims
At Day 90, Real-Time FNOL Triggers went live through the ClaimCenter integration, posting scores and subrogation activities to open claims so referrals no longer depended on a checkbox.
“We had good adjusters and a subrogation unit that won its files, and we still had $13 million sitting in claims we had closed without recovery. Ishqkala found it in two days. What we have collected since went straight to surplus, and the unit now works a ranked list instead of waiting for referrals.”