Workflow — CAT Claims Surge

CAT surge capacity that doesn't depend on hiring 2,000 IAs.

Named-storm FNOL volumes — triaged by severity, validated against pre-loss satellite and drone imagery, and batch-routed to field adjusters or fast-track payment queues. Direct integration with Guidewire ClaimCenter, Duck Creek, Origami, and FEMA reporting. Replaces IA-firm surge staffing at a fraction of the per-file cost.

Take the AI Assessment Get a Per-File ROI Model

$60–$150

Per file at the IA firm during named-storm surge

2,000+

IA contractors that surge-staff a major CAT event

60–85%

Volume off the IA-firm line after AI cutover

What This Replaces

The 2,000-IA Surge Bench on Every Named-Storm Event

The work the IA firm does on every CAT event — and the cost of leaving it there.

The labor

CAT claims surge today moves through IA firms — Eberl Claims Service, Crawford Catastrophe Services, Pilot Catastrophe Services, Worley Claims Services — and large carriers' captive surge programs. Per-file billed cost runs $60–$150 during named-storm events. A major hurricane generating 200K–400K claims for a single carrier translates to $20M–$60M of IA labor in a single season — much of it spent on tier-1 triage and preliminary scoping that AI workflows handle without a field visit.

The cycle time

Standard CAT-event response timelines slip into weeks at the IA firm — not because the work is hard but because the bench has to be assembled, deployed, and trained on the carrier's claims system on the fly. Every week a CAT claim sits unresolved is a week the policyholder doesn't have an ALE check, a week the regulator's data calls go unanswered, and a week the carrier's CAT bond and reinsurance reporting deadlines compress.

The Workflow

Input · Analysis · Output

What goes into CAT triage, what we do to it, and what shows up in the surge claims queue.

Input

Surge-volume FNOL + imagery

High-volume FNOL post named storm (email, fax, portal, app)
Pre-loss satellite imagery (Maxar, Planet, NOAA)
Post-loss drone footage and aerial captures
Contractor estimates and damage photos
Policy-in-force and coverage detail at time of loss
Geographic clustering and event boundaries
Reinsurance and CAT-bond trigger data

Analysis

Triage, validate, route

Severity triage (total loss, major repair, minor, no damage)
Validation against pre-loss imagery (false-claim screen)
Coverage-trigger validation per policy and event
Geographic clustering and event-boundary checks
Fast-track eligibility scoring per carrier rules
Field-adjuster routing by region and severity
Confidence score per triage call; exceptions to claims specialist queue

Output

Triaged queue into the SoR

Guidewire ClaimCenter (REST API or EDGE)
Duck Creek Claims (OnDemand APIs)
Origami Risk (REST API)
CAT-event queues stratified by severity
Fast-track payment queue for clear-coverage minor losses
Field-adjuster assignment dashboard
FEMA / state DOI / reinsurance reporting feed

Side by Side

CAT Surge Today vs. With Last Rev

The numbers that matter: cycle time, per-file cost, accuracy, and operational scalability.

Dimension	IA-Firm Surge Bench	Last Rev CAT Claims Surge
Time to triage 100K+ FNOL surge	2–6 weeks (bench assembly + training)	24–72 hours
Per-file unit cost during surge	$60–$150 IA billed	Per-file, benchmarked at 20–35% of IA unit cost on triage
Surge capacity ceiling	Bounded by IA bench size and onshore licensure	Elastic by design — same model handles 1K and 1M FNOLs
Pre-loss imagery validation	Manual photo comparison by the IA in the field	Automated against Maxar, Planet, NOAA pre/post-event imagery
Audit log per triage decision	IA narrative, no decision-level lineage	Pre/post imagery + severity basis + model version + confidence per file
Fast-track payment routing	Slow — requires field adjuster on every file	Clear-coverage minor losses fast-tracked at intake
FEMA / DOI / reinsurance reporting	Manual aggregation, days-late deadlines	Automated feed by event with audit-ready basis

How It Works

From Storm Landfall to Adjuster-Ready Queue

Five steps. Every one logged. Every one reversible if your confidence threshold isn't met.

Submission Lands

Surge-volume FNOL through email, portal, app, fax, and contractor channels — with pre-loss satellite imagery (Maxar, Planet, NOAA), post-loss drone footage, contractor estimates, and policy-in-force data.

Extraction & Classification

Severity triage (total loss, major, minor, no damage). Validation against pre-loss imagery to screen false claims. Coverage-trigger validation per policy and event. Geographic clustering for event-boundary integrity.

Validation Against CAT Event Rules

Triage calls validated against the event-specific CAT response plan and per-jurisdiction fair-claims-practices acts. Anything below your confidence threshold per call is routed to a human exception queue — your call which queue, ours or yours.

Push to System of Record

CAT-event queues stratified by severity. Fast-track payment queue for clear-coverage minor losses. Field-adjuster assignment dashboard by region. FEMA, state DOI, and reinsurance reporting feeds.

Audit Log Persisted

Every triage call, imagery validation, and routing decision logged with the source FNOL, pre/post imagery references, model version, and confidence score. Discovery-ready, DOI-exam-ready, and reinsurance-audit-ready.

Compliance & Defensibility

Built to Meet the Quality Bar CAT Claims Operations Already Run On

State DOI fair-claims-practices acts

Acknowledgement, investigation timelines, and reasonable-investigation requirements all start the moment intake completes — not 4 weeks later when the IA firm finishes bench deployment. The audit log produces per-file timing for state DOI exams.

FEMA / NFIP / SBA reporting

Federally declared disasters trigger NFIP and SBA reporting feeds. Automated aggregation by event with audit-ready basis means deadlines hit, not slip. Per-file event-tagging traces back to FEMA disaster declarations.

Reinsurance and CAT-bond reporting

Reinsurance treaties and CAT-bond trigger thresholds depend on accurate event-tagged loss data. Per-file event boundaries, severity tiers, and paid-to-date data feed reinsurance reporting in the format your treaty requires.

PII and surge-data residency

Surge events generate massive PII volume on compressed timelines. Deployable in your VPC or our SOC 2 environment. Encryption in transit and at rest; retention policies tied to your DOI guidance and reinsurance reporting cycles.

Common Questions

What Carriers Ask About CAT Claims Surge

Snapsheet, Hi Marley, and adjacent claims-AI tools serve specific channels and we don't compete head-to-head. The competitor on this page is the IA-firm surge labor line on your CAT budget — Eberl, Crawford Catastrophe Services, Pilot Catastrophe Services, Worley Claims Services, and your captive surge program billed at $60–$150 per file during named-storm events. We undercut that triage labor cost, integrate directly into your existing claims system, and deliver triaged queues, fast-track routing, and reporting feeds into the system of record.

Most carriers keep the IA-firm contracts in place during pilot and early production — IAs handle the field work, our workflow handles the triage and the desk-review portion that doesn't require field presence. Volume to the IAs drops 60–85% on triage and tier-1 desk review; field deployment becomes more efficient because IAs deploy to the right files. You renegotiate at the next renewal from a much better position, with the IA contract repositioned around field-only work.

Our pilot success threshold is severity-triage and coverage-validation accuracy at parity with or above your incumbent IA firm, measured on the same shadow-data sample of historical CAT files. Anything below your defined confidence threshold per call is routed to a human exception queue — your call which queue, ours or yours.

Pre-loss imagery from Maxar, Planet, NOAA, and adjacent satellite providers is licensed by the carrier and we run validation against the historical baseline. Post-loss drone and aerial captures are stitched in for the same parcel. False-claim screens (claim filed for a parcel with no observable damage) surface at intake with imagery citations.

We don't make the adjuster determination for any state-regulated activity. We tag the file with the indicators and source evidence so your licensed adjuster makes the call on a richer file than they get from IA triage today. The recommendation memo is advisory — every triage call traces back to the source FNOL, imagery, and policy data so the adjuster reviews on the underlying evidence.

Yes — through the documented integration surface each platform supports. Guidewire via ClaimCenter REST or EDGE; Duck Creek via OnDemand APIs; Origami Risk via the REST API. FEMA NFIP, state DOI data calls, and reinsurance treaty reporting through documented feeds and CSV deliveries. Your IT team reviews and approves a service account, and we connect through the documented integration. We do not require platform-side custom development.

CAT pilots typically run as historical replay against a prior event during 4–6 weeks of pre-season prep, then go live on the next named-storm event with shadow-mode running on the live volume. Production cutover happens after the first event meets your accuracy and SLA bar — most carriers prefer running a parallel cycle on at least one event before fully cutting over.

We benchmark against your historical IA per-file cost during named-storm events — typically $60–$150 fully loaded. Our target is 20–35% of that per-file triage cost at higher accuracy and faster cycle time. Pricing structures around volume tiers and outcome SLAs, not hourly billable rates.

Two Ways to Start

Take the AI assessment for a structured read on CAT-surge feasibility for your operation. Or talk to us if you already know IA-firm surge labor is your largest single seasonal cost driver.

Self-serve · 8 minutes

Take the AI Assessment

A short structured assessment that maps your typical CAT-event volume, IA-firm contract structure, and claims system to AI feasibility and ROI.

Talk to a specialist

Get a Per-File ROI Model

Send us your typical CAT-event volume, your IA-firm contract structure, and your claims system. We'll come back with a per-file unit-cost comparison and a CAT-season pilot plan in 5 business days.

Other Workflows

More Insurance Workflows We Replace

The same approach, applied to the other claims-document labor lines on your operating budget.

FNOL Intake

First-notice-of-loss extracted, validated, and pushed into Guidewire, Duck Creek, Origami, or Snapsheet in minutes.

Property Estimate Review

Xactimate, Symbility, Verisk 360Value line-item review and supplemental flagging at scale.

SIU Document Review

Fraud-flagged claim files — timeline reconstruction, ISO ClaimSearch, recommendation memo for the SIU desk.

Subrogation File Review

Closed claim files triaged for subrogation viability, SOL dates, and recoverable-amount calculations.