What is an "insurance claim"?

What is an "insurance claim"?

Sam Friedman (Editor-in-Chief, National Underwriter, Property & Casualty Edition) gives expert video advice on: What is an "insurance claim"? and more...

An insurance claim is when you suffer a loss for which you want your insurer to cover you. It could be that your home is damaged, roof perhaps is partially blown off in a windstorm, tree comes down and bangs into your garage, someone slips and falls in your icy driveway and files a suit against you, your building is burglarized and you lose some of your property. In any of those cases what you do is you file an insurance claim, which is essentially documentation saying what you lost, what the circumstances of the loss were and at that point the insurer will examine this. If everything checks out they will reimburse you under the terms of the policy, so that you can either repair the damage, replace any items that are lost or defend yourself against any suits that are filed by individuals you might have harmed.