Late Notice, Big Problems: What Retail Agents Need to Know About Excess Claims

Late notice to an excess carrier is one of those “small” steps that can explode into a coverage dispute at the worst possible time, like right before mediation or on the eve of trial. We talk through why excess claims notification is getting tougher in today’s market and how retail agents can protect their clients and themselves when a claim starts creeping toward the tower.

We’re joined by CRC Group’s claims pros who live this every day: Dave Gilfillian, Chief Claims Officer and leader of Claims Advocacy, Ari Shapiro, Claims Advocacy Director, and Cammie Powell, Senior Claims Coordinator. Together, we unpack what’s driving bigger claims, how plaintiff expectations and litigation funding can change the exposure curve, and why excess carriers are more likely to take a hard line on late notice. We also explain the concept of “prejudice,” how state law affects the analysis, and what a reservation of rights letter can signal when notice comes in too late.

We also challenge a dangerous assumption: “follow form” does not automatically mean “same rules.” Excess policies often include pages of exceptions, unique notice provisions, and surprises around defense costs and endorsements, especially in complex towers with multiple carriers. Our practical takeaway is straightforward: when the thought pops into your head that excess might be involved, send notice, document it clearly, and keep communication moving so no layer is blindsided.

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Transcript

Amanda Knight 0:00

Welcome back to the Placing You First Podcast, the podcast where we help retail agents stay ahead of the market challenges, strengthen client relationships, and ultimately place business with more confidence. I'm Amanda Knight.

Scott Gordon 0:13

And I'm Scott Gordon.

Amanda Knight 0:14

And today we're diving into a topic that honestly doesn't get enough attention until there's a problem. And that is

Why Excess Notice Matters Now

Amanda Knight 0:22

excess claims notice. Late notice might sound administrative, but in today's market it can actually have serious consequences, including coverage disputes or even denial.

Scott Gordon 0:34

You know, and the tricky part is that many agents assume the excess layers will simply follow the primary carrier's lead, but that's not always the case anymore.

Amanda Knight 0:43

So today we've called in reinforcements. We are joined by three of Team CRC's finests who deal with these situations every day. We've got Dave Gilfillon, who leads CRC Group's Claims Advocacy team as Chief Claims Officer, Ari Shapiro, Claims Advocacy Director, and Senior Claims Coordinator, Cammy Powell. This is the Placing You First Podcast from CRC Group. This podcast features news and insights from a vast knowledge base of more than 5,500 associates who write more than 30 billion in premium annually. Plus, we give you the latest information on what's happening at CRC.

Scott Gordon 1:20

This is the Placing You First Podcast.

Amanda Knight 1:23

And now the hosts of the podcast, Amanda Knight and Scott Gordon. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having us.

Scott Gordon 1:31

All right. So, David, let's get started with something broad. Why has Excess Claims Notification come into the spotlight? Uh are we seeing late notification as a growing issue these days? What's happening?

David Gilfillan 1:45

Yeah, I mean, first, our department advocates for coverage, right, for for the retail agents and the insureds. When there's coverage issues or disputes, we get involved. And so we deal with late notice to excess carriers and related issues periodically. And you know, the simple reason why those issues are more in focus is

Bigger Claims Raise The Stakes

David Gilfillan 2:07

the cost of resolving large claims has continued to grow over time. And there are multiple reasons, but I think you could say they are all driven by one thing, which is that this is a very lucrative field for plaintiff's attorneys. They're not paid by the hour typically, they get a cut of what they they bring in. And so the bigger the numbers, right, the more they earn. And they've also raised expectations in society through advertising. You know, these guys are are everywhere. And then the other part is that um they're well funded, okay, because another relatively recent development is they have access to third-party funding. And uh and a really surprising number of plaintiff firms are getting investment, basically, from third-party capital. So they're well funded, they advertise, they promote, they raise expectations, and this results in larger verdicts and settlements. That puts the excess layers in play more frequently, and the related coverage issues, including late notice, are going to come up as a result of that. Now the carriers want to make a profit, and as the exposures grow, this often results in them taking harder lines on coverage issues, including notice. But I mean, to me, the big issue honestly is that the process for providing late notice to excess carriers is flawed and not uniform. Right? The triggers and the policies vary. Um some of them include very squishy language about when to notice. Technically, the obligation to provide the notice in the policy falls on the insured, but it really falls to the retail agent. So a problem would be you don't always know how severe a claim is going to be when they give notice to the primary carrier. Right. But they're also not always kept in the loop as the claim develops, right? The retail agent's not always involved and knows that the exposure changed uh uh and that they that should you know trigger to them the no that they should give advanced notice to the excess layers. And and another part of that is ironically, which I think is misplaced, is there's a fear of noticing too often or too many claims. And and that somehow it's gonna impact their renewal or their ability. And and that's not true. Uh if it's an unpaid claim, it doesn't really affect much in terms of the carrier's analysis, right, of your worthiness to be renewed. But but I think that sometimes drives retail agents to be overly cautious in providing notice. But there's no clear map, right? You don't notice every layer every time, right? And and the that lack of clarity and lack of a uniform process uh causes problems. I I'll give one quick example is that I have a matter right now involving a pedestrian that was run over and killed by a commercial truck where the driver had a stolen commercial driver's license and fled the scene. There were two excess layers, $3 million excess of the $2 million

Real Case Where Notice Went Wrong

David Gilfillan 5:37

primary and $15 million excess of that $5 million, both placed by the same managing general agent with overlapping Lloyds of London markets participating on the two coverages, but with different notice provisions. So a very large retail agent tried to notice both layers utilizing the notice to the TPA set forth in the 3 million layer policy. And it wasn't discovered until over a year later when there was a time demand for the whole $22 million of limits that that notice was wrong. And they had to scramble to provide notice to the $15 million layer, which made it impossible to meet the timely demand, which resulted in the plaintiffs filing a different lawsuit and including different parties. Ultimately, they did not issue a denial and they're participating, but it caused a lot of disruption and anxiety and could have resulted in a real fight over coverage.

Amanda Knight 6:40

So, Ari, is this something that retail agents it's something they need to think about earlier maybe than they have historically, not just more often, but also maybe earlier in the process based on what Dave just shared?

Ari Shapiro 6:54

Yeah, 100%. I mean, I it's funny. I I get the question a lot from brokers when should I report this? Or I've got this going on, we're not sure should I report

Report Early And Communicate Often

Ari Shapiro 7:03

it in the time that I have been at CRC, and I think in my entire career before that, I'm not sure I've ever said no to that question. Right? If you're already at a point where you're thinking, huh, I wonder if this should go to the excess layer, the answer is yes. Right. I mean, to Dave's point, there's rarely a harm, right, in notice in noticing them earlier. Um, if it ends up to be a claim they're not paying, it's not going to affect their premium on the back end. And you essentially don't want to give carriers an excuse, right? Don't give them a reason for down the line to say, look, you didn't notice us properly. Uh the early communication, early and often, I think, is the best strategy when you're talking about really any claim, but especially excess layers like we're talking about here. Just let them know. Once that thought pops in your head, let them know.

David Gilfillan 7:53

Yeah, and communicate, right? Because the retail agents, you know, again, it's very frustrating because a lot of times they get to our people very late in the game. And the question is, why didn't you reach out earlier? And the same thing is true for the retail agents sometimes with the insureds, where you sit there and go, Well, we get this kind of thing all the time. We didn't want it's like, well, then reach out to them all the time until they say, Stop bothering me, right? Because that that, again, I have another matter where there was a clear demand in writing for, you know, which is a claim under any policy on earth, right? A written demand for monetary compensation. Their legal department had written back and made a small offer, and then they didn't notice the claim until a year later when there was a lawsuit and there was a different policy involved, a different carrier involved, and they managed to impair themselves on both policies by not having reported those communications as a claim. And their explanation was well, you know, we deal with creative people all the time. It's not a contract, we don't owe them money, they do work to try and put together these submissions, but they're not entitled to compensation, and they come at us all the time. It's like, well, this person came at you claiming you owed six million dollars, and you guys wrote back and forth. You need to, you know, call your retail aide and let them tell you not to worry about it.

Amanda Knight 9:23

Absolutely. Well, Cammy, I know that Dave shared a couple of examples, but I know you've also been dealing with a couple of real situations recently where excess carriers weren't notified until very late in the process. You want to walk us through one or two of those and kind of give our retail agents an idea of what you see coming across your desk that we want them to try to avoid. Right.

Cammie Powell 9:48

Well, uh in most cases, we're kind of at a disadvantage because we don't write the primary. So we're not really in the late on a lot of the claim reporting. Uh both of these cases were sort of similar in that uh we've got a matter which maybe the primary carrier feels it's gonna be well within their limit. They're reserving

Last Minute Notice And Panic Letters

Cammie Powell 10:09

it well within their primary limit, and then uh suddenly it escalates. Either you receive a demand uh that is multiples of their primary limit, or uh something develops on the matter, and then they're gonna notify excess at that point in time. Now, in the two cases that I've actually handled recently, um, one of those we had a mediation in two days, and uh they wanted the excess notice on carrier. Uh, another one, the trial was beginning the following week, and they want to put the excess carrier on notice. So uh we've got two similar situations. Now, in one case, the trial fortunately was uh continued for many months, but at that point in time when you're trying to notify the excess carrier, then they immediately are going to reserve their rights due to late notice of the matter because it jeopardizes their opportunity to review the matter. Uh, in some cases, depending on the severity, even appointing their own counsel to monitor. And uh, so we've got um an insured who is uh obviously in a panic because they've received a reservation of rights letter, and the agent is in a panic because of the potential EO on their part for not reporting to the excess carriers. Now, historically, I have so many uh situations um the claim being reported after a trial and the judgment has been made and it suddenly exceeded the primary, so they won't notice to the excess carrier with a copy of the judgment saying, please send money because this exceeded the the primary limit, or uh, in some cases, the uh uh oh there are so many different scenarios. One was a recess in the trial, and defense counsel realized, oh, this could be pretty big. Do we have excess? So during a recess in the trial, they want to scramble and put the excess carrier on notice. So, in in all of these in instances, the excess carrier's rights to review, uh monitor, uh, participate, uh, has all been jeopardized by this late notice.

Scott Gordon 12:30

It's like uh calling an audible in the middle of a play. It happens so suddenly and quick.

Amanda Knight 12:37

Absolutely. Right. Right. I mean, we were gonna ask at what point did everybody realize this was gonna impact excess? And it sounds like the answer is at the very last minute.

David Gilfillan 12:48

Yeah, and I know we kind of thought maybe we're planning to discuss this later, but it's kind of right on point now. Is that well, what's the standard that the excess carrier has to deal with in terms of

The Prejudice Test And State Law

David Gilfillan 13:02

like it actually denying the claim and and and why do they want to know, right? And the answers are if you think about it this way, it's almost crazy, right? You can have a one or two million dollar primary limit that is controlling the defense, and you have an excess carrier with $25 million of exposure above them, right? So you say, well, why do you want to know? Well, because I have a lot more at risk than you do, and I may want to associate in counsel, they may want to be more actively involved in the strategy and in understanding who's a good witness, who's a bad witness, right? So so there uh that and where that ties into the sort of legal standard is have I been prejudiced because you waited so long to tell me, right? In certain types of coverage, you don't need to show prejudice, but with occurrence policies, which these usually are, you do. And there's but insurance law is state law driven. And there's pretty much three splits in terms of how they analyze prejudice. In some states, if you gave late notice, you're out of luck, right? Um there's other states where the carrier has to show that they were prejudiced, and that's what Cammy's talking about. It's like, look, if I was denied the opportunity to settle this earlier, cheaper, if I was denied the opportunity to, you know, to assess or impact or bring in better counsel, right, or to move it to another state, all the things, right? That's prejudice. Uh and and then there are actually some states where there's a presumption of prejudice that's rebuttable. So, you know, you're you're starting with the I have to prove there wasn't prejudice, and then I can move forward on that denial. But but those that's the problem, right, with with waiting uh on giving notice is if in fact the carrier has been prejudiced, you you may end up in a situation where that coverage is impaired or gone.

Scott Gordon 15:06

Well, I know one thing we hear a lot is well, the excess policy follows form, so you know we're okay. Nothing's gonna happen. Ari, why is that assumption becoming a little riskier these days?

Ari Shapiro 15:18

Yeah, it seems to get riskier every day, to be perfectly honest. I mean, years ago, that was a safe assumption, right? Because follow form excess policies were two pages

Follow Form Is Not Simple Anymore

Ari Shapiro 15:28

long, and they had one sentence that said, we're gonna do whatever those guys do, and you didn't have to worry about it. And over time, we still have that same sentence at the top. We're gonna do whatever these guys do, and then they put another paragraph that says, except in all of these cases. And all of these cases takes up the next 10 pages of the policy, and it really is essentially a separate policy with separate terms and conditions. And brokers and retail agents really cannot take for granted that follow form language anymore. Uh I had a claim recently where, as part of the underwriting process and placing the policy, it was a complicated quota share with multiple carriers, and one of the biggest things they had to work out was sharing defense costs, right? If litigation happens, how are the defense costs going to be split among all these carriers? And they had this complex formula that the primary carrier agreed to, and the excess carriers agreed to in theory, except when they issued the excess policy, it said, Yeah, we follow form to all of this, except we're not going to agree to any of those defense cost things that the primary carrier said. And it was page you know 15 of the policy, and nobody realized that they hadn't actually agreed to everything, even though it was a follow-form policy. And so the words follow form are still there, but the substance isn't what it used to be. So we really have to be careful, you know, on the front end that we're getting what we think we're getting when it says follow form.

David Gilfillan 16:53

And what's what's crazy about that, right, is that you you can have you know 10 carriers in a tower, right? And and those nine excess carriers each have their own independent terms and conditions, in addition to following what's in the primary, except, as already points out, to the extent that it's not consistent with this other stuff we've now added, which in a lot of times includes their notice provisions.

Amanda Knight 17:22

So it sounds like it's really it kind of even goes beyond just reporting claims, but making sure that entire tower stays aligned.

Ari Shapiro 17:30

Yeah, I think that that's that's exactly right. Yeah, and especially when you're dealing with uh midterm changes. I mean, notice provisions are one of the ways in which you want to make sure the entire tower is aligned. But like we were just saying, right, there are any number

Align The Tower And Watch Policy Type

Ari Shapiro 17:44

of different conditions that excess carriers could add to their forms, just past the sentence we follow form to the primary, right? There's any number of things that could be down there. Um sometimes they require separate endorsements for various things. I've I've seen a lot of different uh issues and requirements pop up in excess policies that were supposedly follow form. Um so as you're making those midterm changes or renewing policies, it's it's always worth double checking those excess forms to make sure you're getting what you think you're getting.

Cammie Powell 18:16

Well, you also have to consider whether this is uh an occurrence or a claims made policy because we oftentimes see folks with excess claims made coverage and they don't want to put the excess on notice. However, that can jeopardize the uh notification uh portion of the policy where you've got to report it within the policy period. But we've seen these guys uh want to report an excess when it develops into something, and then you're uh outside of their claims made policy period. That's an issue as well. Or uh certain types of exposures are only covered within the primary, and sometimes maybe the first layer, but anything above that does not cover that particular exposure. So that uh falls into the arena of making sure that your tower is aligned as well as following the reporting guidelines.

Amanda Knight 19:12

So without naming names, when we think of those scenarios that all three of you have shared, I know they're probably burned on your brains, but when we think about what could make this claims process, this tower alignment smoother, it sounds like earlier communication, involving specialists sooner, like claims advocacy team, um, and better documentation, right? Those three things I I guess are kind of general, but communicate, document, tag, and help.

David Gilfillan 19:46

Your point about documenting is something you can't highlight enough because there have been way too for either when someone goes, Well, it was a conversation, and or the person who was communicating on one end or the other is no longer at the company they were at when the conversation took place. Right. So if you have a conversation about anything that's important, follow up and send a c an email just saying, hey, to confirm, right, the the you know, the insured was comfortable with X.

unknown 20:21

Right?

Amanda Knight 20:21

No, that's perfect. All right. So let's just share a few quick practical tips for agents listening. Just quick short answers. Okay. When should agents notify excess carriers? As soon as the thought pops on your head, like Ari would say.

Ari Shapiro 20:37

As soon as the thought's in your head, maybe even sooner.

Cammie Powell 20:40

Actually, in in the perfect world, the excess

Practical Triggers And Best Practices

Cammie Powell 20:45

is notified at the point the primary is notified. And then the primary adjuster information provided to the excess adjusters, so they have the opportunity to participate if they so choose. Most of the time, those claims are going to be set up as record only and closed, and they're not going to monitor. But if that is the case, they have at their option, uh, they can follow it, participate. Uh, recently, well, actually this week, uh, I had a scenario where we had placed all of the excess carriers on notice last year, and we received suit this week. So all we had to do was forward it to the adjusters who were previously assigned, note their claim number, suit has been filed. Perfect. That is a best case scenario. They're already on they're already on notice, and when something does develop, either uh litigation received or the primary has received a demand that is uh multiples of their limit, or in some cases they want full policy limits of anything that's available. We received recently received one that was a twenty million dollar demand. And uh Well, in in any of those cases where it escalates, they're already on notice. Right. So that that's the best case scenario.

Amanda Knight 22:07

And in our world today, it feels like rule of thumb is it's going to escalate.

David Gilfillan 22:12

Right. When when in doubt, notice, but also understand the terms in the policy, because some policies had right what they call the seven deadly sins, right? If there's a a head injury, a death, a dis you know, loss of a limb, you know, that was a trigger for notice of an excess carrier. Some, if it's 50%, if you get through 50% of the policy. But understanding what those triggers are. And some say basically we want to know everything from day one, from the cat, you know, which is was less common, has become more common, where the excess carrier is basically saying if it triggers the policy below me, I want to hear about it. So, you know, when and understand the terms and conditions, and when in doubt, notice.

Cammie Powell 22:57

Right. Well, and something that uh we don't see as often is uh notice to the excess carriers, and we've got multi multiple layers of excess coverage, and then we've got a couple of large claims that suddenly erode the primary limit and possibly the first or even second excess layer, they're gone. So your third layer excess becomes your primary. And uh we had an incident of that recently where uh the primary, first layer, and the second layer were gone. And hello, third layer, you've got a mediation next week. So, and because at that point they're primary, so that's an issue that we run into not nearly as often. We don't often see the complete erosion of excess layers, but it does happen.

Amanda Knight 23:49

Well, and it so it sounds like you know, if I'm in a retail agent and I have a lot of insureds, a lot of clients, it I should be talking with them, like, hey, if you even think you've got a claim, please reach out to me because there's no way one retail agent is going to automatically know all of that. So that sounds like a conversation that just needs to be had over and over and over again. Every renewal period, just reiterate the importance of that.

Ari Shapiro 24:16

Absolutely. And I mean the thing to remember is ignorance is not a defense, right? We get that a lot as well. This was an unsophisticated insured, they didn't realize this was gonna hit the layer. Doesn't matter. If the policy language requires notice after a certain set of circumstances are met, whether or not that insured realized it was gonna hit the tower, doesn't really matter at the end of the day. So really that that communication, those conversations, you're exactly right, those are those are huge.

Cammie Powell 24:42

There are no certainties. So we we don't have a crystal ball, right?

Amanda Knight 24:50

If we did, let's be clear, if any of us had a crystal ball, we would not be working here right now. Right.

Scott Gordon 24:56

Right, right. Cami coming through at the end with the put the thing to put on the t-shirt. There are no certainties. We don't have a crystal ball.

Cammie Powell 25:03

There are no certainties.

Scott Gordon 25:04

I love that uh when we talk because my favorite part about the podcast when we talk to people are the real world examples. And when we talk to claims folks, that's all y'all have. So I love hearing about the actual things that we don't have hypotheticals. Right.

unknown 25:21

Exactly.

Scott Gordon 25:22

Uh-uh. Um does anyone have any closing remarks they want to add uh before we get to the fun stuff? I think we've covered a lot of ground.

Amanda Knight 25:31

You guys have done a great job.

Rapid Fire!

Scott Gordon 25:33

Well, we'd like to do something at the end of the podcast called Rapid Fire, where we just ask you questions and you answer off the top of your head. There are no wrong or right answers unless you make them right or wrong. So here's our first question for you guys. We'll uh we'll start with David on this one. You can master one skill in a day. What is it? It does not have to be work or insurance related, and it's more fun if it isn't.

David Gilfillan 25:59

I'd like to learn to fly, right?

Scott Gordon 26:01

Right. Like Superman stuff. And I don't mean a plane. Like a superhero.

David Gilfillan 26:06

If I could pick a skill, that would be my first one.

Ari Shapiro 26:09

Uh Dave went much more, much more high level than I was thinking. That that's a really good one. I was just thinking I've always wanted to learn to play piano and I've never never been able to do it. But now I'm kind of rethinking it after that flying one. That sounds a lot better, to be honest.

Cammie Powell 26:23

Oh, mine would be uh anything construction related. I'm a huge DIY show fan, so give me a tool belt and a power tool, and uh uh I'd love to learn carpentry as an example.

Scott Gordon 26:37

Wow, I had a friend who learned it late later in well, not later in life, he's not that old, but you know, he took it up. And now he's doing like master level stuff. So yeah, it's it's something you can pick up. Um okay, next question. What what weird thing, let's start with David on this one. What weird thing did you collect as a child?

Amanda Knight 26:58

Yeah, the and we know you've got collections, David.

David Gilfillan 27:01

I was gonna say it's the same stuff I still collect or have. I mean, I collected comic books from when I was five years old. Never stopped. And I still collect them and have a you know an enormous comic book collection. I I have a meteor, right? I mean, I collect so yeah, those would be my two big ones.

Cammie Powell 27:19

Uh the it's always that's always a hard act to follow. But I guess if it's strictly as a child, and I'll tell my age here, it would have been tiger beak posters.

David Gilfillan 27:28

Oh wow.

Amanda Knight 27:29

Yes. All right, yes, I remember those.

David Gilfillan 27:33

David Partridge, or was it uh uh oh David Casty, of course. David Cassidy, yeah.

Cammie Powell 27:40

Had the t-shirt.

Ari Shapiro 27:43

That's funny. Yeah, I collected baseball cards as a kid, which wasn't particularly weird. Most of my friends did, but I had this weird obsession with hard rock cafes when I was a kid. So, like anywhere we went, I would go get like a t-shirt or a shot glass or something. It got to the point where when I was in college, we went, you know, we did like the backpacking through Europe for a couple weeks, and all my friends like I insisted on going to a hard rock cafe in every city we were in so I could get like a shot glass. It was it was insane. I mean, it's really embarrassing. Where are they now? I don't know the answer to that. I don't know where they are now. They might be in storage, I might have thrown them away. I no longer collect hard rock cafe items. I'm I'm really happy to admit that I'm now in recovery and it's not a thing for me anymore.

Cammie Powell 28:30

I'm glad you clarified that because I'm thinking, were you five when you were collecting shot glasses?

Ari Shapiro 28:35

Or I didn't know what they were, right before.

Scott Gordon 28:39

But they were just small and they were cute. Yeah, yeah. I want to know, Amanda, your collections as a child. What what was yours?

Amanda Knight 28:46

You know, I grew up on a farm, so we were constantly outside. We collected, I don't think it's weird, but we used to collect there was gravel everywhere, and the fields were constantly plowed. So the little tiny stone beads and the arrowheads that you'd find to dig in, we had boxes. And to I don't have them anymore, but now my kids gem mining, right? Every time you go somewhere and there's that touristy gem mining, I think they'd still do it to this day. I have boxes of random rocks all over the house.

Scott Gordon 29:20

Oh yeah.

Amanda Knight 29:22

I'm gonna make them take them when they move out.

Scott Gordon 29:24

I was a Star Wars boy, so I had those and the comic books and the baseball cards. Which I still have. All right, moving right along. Last year. So our third final question What is the most interesting thing in your fridge or freezer right now?

Amanda Knight 29:40

Let's not turn this into a true crime podcast. Let's go with.

Scott Gordon 29:44

Yeah, no, I don't know. No bodies. I don't need to know about hands. Yeah, no hands.

Ari Shapiro 29:49

I have these molds that I use. I really like, you know, if you go to a bar and you get like a clear cube of ice that you can really see through the bottom. So I bought this like contraption where you can make these cube, clear ice cubes uh at home. It's not that interesting, but that's probably the most interesting thing in the closer at the moment. That's pretty cool. It's better than just pizza, right?

Amanda Knight 30:11

Right. I wish there was pizza in my fridge right now.

Scott Gordon 30:13

It's harder than you think, guys. Don't you have to put the halves together at some point, all right?

Ari Shapiro 30:17

Oh yeah, it's a whole thing. And it's like hot water, there's gotta be enough space between the mold and the bottom of the contraption so the air can do something. It's all science, apparently.

Amanda Knight 30:27

Science slash magic.

Ari Shapiro 30:29

Right, slash magic.

Amanda Knight 30:33

All right. Anyone else? Dave, there's gotta be something weird in your fridge right now.

David Gilfillan 30:36

Well we we have like honestly, we have let's see, one, two, three refrigerators that each have a freezer and then have a big like freezer freezer. And I I don't know if it's still there, but my oldest son both boys like to cook, but he uh made something with like bear meat and it was kept in a thing in a bag somewhere. So I don't know. But ever you know, I'm not great at doing that, but you really do need to go through your refrigerator or freezer and find all the crap in the back and throw it out. And I mean, I do get made fun of in my house for like you know, somebody will look and go, this expired, like, you know, you say, Oh, I need aspirin or something, probably a little, you know, an antibody. And they look and they'll go, This is like expired in 2017, you know. And I'm like, Right, yeah, I know it looks fresh, so I don't know.

Amanda Knight 31:33

It was in the freezer, it's fine.

David Gilfillan 31:35

Right, right.

Cammie Powell 31:37

Uh well, I would say that my most unusual item in the refrigerator would be my husband's homemade moonshine. All right.

Scott Gordon 31:49

Ah, there you go. Wow. Does he make it in the bathtub?

Cammie Powell 31:53

Uh no, he has a still.

Scott Gordon 31:55

That's gin. Sorry, that's bathtub gin.

Amanda Knight 31:57

He has a steel. Wow, nice. I think Kimmy wins that round.

David Gilfillan 32:03

Uh does he flavor it or is it just like pure?

Cammie Powell 32:08

Yeah, some of it, yes. Cool.

unknown 32:12

Yeah.

Cammie Powell 32:12

Uh oh yeah, we've got some flavored as well as straight up.

Scott Gordon 32:17

Well, I think we learned a lot about each other. More than more than was necessary.

Cammie Powell 32:21

That's right.

Scott Gordon 32:24

Um, well, I think we had a good one, David. All right, Cammy. Thank you for joining us and you know for helping us break down a topic that a lot of people find intimidating, but it's very important. So thanks for being here.

David Gilfillan 32:36

We appreciate you guys picking this and guiding us through, right?

Amanda Knight 32:40

Of course. And to all of our listeners, the big takeaway today is actually very simple. Don't wait. Early communication, understanding policy, language, terms, and conditions, and involving the right partners early can make all the difference when a claim starts moving toward the excess layers. When in doubt, reach out to your CRC specialty contact for

The Simple Takeaway And Close

Amanda Knight 33:03

assistance. Thanks for listening to Placing You First. We'll see you next time.