February 02, 2022
During law school, I worked for a law firm that specialized in insurance defense and adjusted claims for self-insured trucking companies. This experience launched the trajectory of my professional life. The firm put every new lawyer through intensive training to teach us how to investigate, analyze, evaluate, and resolve a claim so we understood it from the inside out. Invaluable. Something inside me clicked. I thrived on the excitement of the investigation and the mental gymnastics of solving complex problems, but, more importantly, I appreciated the importance of this work on a human level—and how it could help people on what might be the worst day of their lives.
A few years later, my career path led me to a carrier, and I was inspired all over again when I heard the late Peter Lewis, who was CEO of Progressive at the time, eloquently and effectively explain this concept to the organization. He reminded us that we exist to reduce the trauma of people who are involved in accidents. In my opinion, Lewis’ thoughtful, human-centered approach revolutionized the industry, and this guiding principle has led me for more than 30 years.
Claims really is about helping people. And that is abundantly clear in the stories shared by our community in this month’s feature article, “Love at First Loss.” There’s no doubt that some of you enjoy the diversity, others are information junkies that thrive on processing data, and others like to be detectives, but your passion for people is at the heart of your “why.” Read more from our community in these inspiring love stories!
While some of our community took a direct path into claims, many of us traveled indirectly to find ourselves here. Regardless of how we traveled or when we arrived, we stay because we love claims. And that is why you are the heart of claims—and the heart of CLM.
All the best –
Ronna Ruppelt
CEO
ronna.ruppelt@TheCLM.org
LinkedIn.com/in/ronnaruppelt
P.S. Annual Conference is a celebration of all things claims. If you love claims and the CLM – join us in Palm Desert, March 23-25; you can register at theclm.org.