The first few months of 2023 were pretty challenging for Ben Marsh, the manager of the Christchurch branch of Sedgwick, a third-party claims administrator.

Beginning on Friday, 27 January 2023, regions across the upper North Island of New Zealand experienced widespread catastrophic floods caused by heavy rainfall, with Auckland the most affected.

Just two weeks later, Cyclone Gabrielle battered parts of the North Island and affected parts of Vanuatu and Australia, becoming the costliest tropical cyclone on record in the Southern Hemisphere, with total damages estimated to be at least NZ$13.5 billion (US$8.4 billion).

“There were just so many claims,” says Marsh. “We, as a company, couldn’t possibly deal with them in the way that we had before.”

Thinking outside the box

Marsh rose to the challenge in a way that has won him ANZIIF’s 2023 Making a Difference Award in the Claims sector, a gong for people in insurance who have gone above and beyond to display exemplary professionalism in their workplace, and with their customers.

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