[klayfish]

Steve,
Very good insight. I happen to be one of those investigators. Really. I work as a Special Investigator for an auto insurance company, who writes several different types of policies. One of them is among the larger classic/specialty insurance policies in the country.

I can tell you for an absolute fact, I do not get a file refered to me on the basis alone of the potential dollar amount of the claim. It is only refered to me if the initial adjuster recognizes a potential coverage violation or other "red flag". Yes, if needed, we will talk to whomever we have to get to the truth. We have a lot of tools at our disposal to investigate the claim. But that's exactly it...we're trained to find the truth. Nothing more, nothing less. Not save the company money or deny a claim. If we owe it, we pay it. If we have a valid basis to deny coverage, then that's what we have to do. Actually, whenever possible, we try to give our customers the benefit of the doubt.

There are checks and balances to ensure that insurance companies don't just deny claims just to try to save money. If we improperly deny coverage, the fines and suits we will be slapped with are multiple, multiple times more costly than what the original claim was. One poorly handled denial could cost the company more money than they save in a hundred proper ones, so in reality, we are very careful before denying coverage.

Steve