Global Isurance Claims Firm Takes Shape Under Brera Capital Sponsorship

GAB Robins Group of Cos. traces its roots to the 1870s when the business of property and casualty (p&c) insurance claims adjustment was in its formative days. Over that long span, the industry has undergone considerable change driven by the ever-increasing size of insurance company clients, the pressures for greater technical proficiency, and the globalization of industry, among other trends. Yet, the industry remains a highly fragmented amalgam of players with one-office mom-and-pops competing alongside large service firms for outsourced work and a hefty amount of claims handled by insurers themselves. To GAB Robins, the second-largest independent loss adjustment firm in the world, the combination of customer need and provider skill spells a great opportunity for growth in a project backed by New York-based buyout shop Brera Capital Partners. Brera acquired control of GAB Robins in 1999 from Switzerland’s Societe Generale de Surveillance SA (SGS). Under the direction of Joseph M. Zubretsky, president and CEO and a Brera partner, GAB Robins has been building a base for stronger growth and greater market share. “I wanted to make sure that everything was in place before we started accelerating our growth plans,” Zubretsky says. That included recruiting the skilled people necessary to handle more complicated adjustment assignments, shaping up customer service and marketing programs, and adding technological and other resources needed to meet market demand. GAB Robins now has a complement of some 4,000 professionals in 38 countries around the world, with nearly half of the personnel in North America. About a half-million claims are handled annually. A veteran insurance analyst and executive, Zubretsky doesn’t expect dramatic change in the claims adjustment industry’s current makeup but he thinks there is a real promise for increased bookings by the multi-service, highly skilled organization he has been forming. The claims industry, for example, is bifurcated in how the work is allocated. The insurers likely will continue to handle the bulk of the simple and easy claims that can be settled and paid off quickly. The more complex claims, requiring great technical skills and bigger scale and, by definition, involving larger sums of money and greater amounts of time, will increasingly become the province of the better independents, Zubretsky believes. Thus, he is positioning GAB Robins for a bigger share of the assignments requiring greater technical proficiency through staffing and installation of other resources. In that regard, the September 11 terrorist attacks tested the organization’s newly refined prowess. It ramped up by unleashing its “Response: Nine-Eleven” deployment team with the capacity to handle loss adjustment and related services on a 24/7 basis. In addition to claims adjustments, GAB Robins offers a number of other services, including engineering and fire investigations, crisis intervention to treat trauma suffered as a result of disasters, management assistance for employer-funded health and benefit funds, and liability claims adjustments. Combining long histories GAB, based in Parsippany, N.J., is the North American side of the business and dates back to the 1880s when it took shape in Chicago as General Adjustment Bureau. Robins, the international arm, evolved from a business formed in London in 1872 and acquired by SGS in 1987. SGS put them together in 1995 to create a worldwide business and Brera stepped in four years later. As a global company, it has the advantage of being able to follow both its insurer clients and their large, multinational corporate clients wherever adjustment services are needed. For the first two years of ownership by Brera, GAB Robins eschewed add-on acquisition, either for expansion or diversification, because of Zubretsky’s commitment to shaping up the company. He’s basically satisfied the internal job has been accomplished and may be ready to look outside for compatible acquisitions, although he says that firm plans have yet to develop.