Claims Made Insurance Secrets From a 50 Year Industry Veteran with Frederick Fisher

Professional liability insurance can feel like navigating a maze blindfolded—until you have the right guide. In this episode of Tech Diva Biz Talks, I sit down with Frederick Fisher, JD, CCP, a true industry veteran with over 50 years of experience helping professionals understand the complexities of claims-made insurance policies.

From French Kitchens to Legal Expertise

• His unexpected culinary journey learning French cooking at age 17 in a family-owned restaurant
• The strategic decision to attend night law school while working in the legal profession
• How early exposure to fine dining and French wine shaped his appreciation for quality

The Evolution of Professional Liability Coverage

• Why modern claims-made policies now have up to five different triggers before coverage kicks in
• The shocking truth about which professionals are worst at reporting claims on time
• How ego and fear of rate increases lead to costly mistakes in claim reporting

The Safety Net You Need to Know About

• How to report potential claims before they become actual lawsuits
• The specific elements you must include when notifying your insurance company
• Why this "safety net" provision can protect you even after your policy expires

Protecting Your Professional Future

• Whether you're an architect, accountant, consultant, or any service-based professional, this episode provides essential insights on:
• Understanding the triggers that activate your liability coverage
• Avoiding the common pitfalls that lead to claim denials
• Leveraging policy provisions to maximize your protection

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Transcript

[00:00:00 - 00:01:34]
Welcome to Tech Diva Biz Talks, where we tune in, dive deep, and level up. I'm your host, Audrey Wiggins, AKA the Tech Diva, brand strategist, marketing mind, and your guide through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Let's talk tech. Today's guest is a true legend in the world of professional liability. With a career spanning more than 50 years, Frederick Fisher has dedicated his life to. To ensuring clients enjoy real financial security, not just a policy. On paper, he's not only a seasoned attorney and consultant, but also a prolific thought leader, author of Claims Made Insurance the Policy that Changed, industry contributor of over 80 articles, and presenter of more than 150 industry talks and classes. Now, what sets Fred apart is his rare ability to. To take complex insurance language and make it understandable, even entertaining, for professionals and entrepreneurs alike like me. Okay. With a sharp sense of humor, a passion for client advocacy, and even a flair for French cooking. I'm going to ask you about that later. Fred Frere brings both expertise and humanity to a subject many find intimidating. Please welcome to Tech Diva Biz Talks. Frederick Fisher, jdccp Fred, please share one or two personal fun facts about you with the audience. And I lightly touched on the one that I find interesting, the, the French cooking.

[00:01:34 - 00:01:58]
Well, thank you, Audrey. And first of all, also thank you for inviting me on your show today. I really do appreciate it. A couple of fun facts. Well, number one, I like to cook. And I, you know, was exposed to fine dining at a very young age and my mother was an excellent cook. So I decided that. What? Well, you know, at least if I learn how to cook, if I marry a woman that doesn't, you know, I won't starve.

[00:02:00 - 00:02:01]
Love it.

[00:02:01 - 00:03:53]
And it went on from there. And I was lucky enough to spend a summer while I was in high school in France to study French and ended up volunteering at a restaurant where the people didn't speak any English and we had to converse only in French. And they taught me French cooking in the afternoon and I was 17 years old, you know, and, and it was quite a, quite a experience with his family. They owned this lovely little restaurant that was, you know, it wasn't anything, you know, five star or anything like that. It was just good French cooking. And I learned how to cook beef bourguignon and coq au vin. And, and of course, with French cooking comes along French wine. Okay, so they were exposing me to French wine as well. You know, it's, you know, because the laws over there were a little bit different as far as how old you had to be, to drink. And so it was a wonderful experience. And you know, it took off from there, you know, especially when I was in college and I had a, you know, cook for myself. When I moved out of the dorms it was like, okay, now what do I do? Yeah, so it was like starting with, starting with leftovers and how to make them taste good. So that's, that was one experience. The other was the fact that I intentionally decided to go to law school at night. And that because back then everybody wanted to go to law school. This is in early 1970s. Every one of them want to be a law student. And unless you graduated from the top, in the top 10% of your class from Stanford or Bolt or you know, high end law schools like that, you didn't have a job waiting. The kids that were going to night law school, they were working in the legal profession during the day and so they always had a job waiting for them. So I like those odds.

[00:03:53 - 00:04:11]
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[00:04:11 - 00:05:02]
Individual who is providing some kind of service to some client and you're charging a fee for that service, whether it's consulting on human resource issues, consulting on health care issues, what have you, your policy is probably written on a claims made basis and over time this has evolved. Now that there are five, there could be as many as five different requirements to trigger the policy before you even look at what the underlying or what the claim is about or what the injuries may be. You may have as many as five triggers. And what's interesting about all this is guess who is responsible for having the most claims denied by insurance company because they couldn't report their claim on time. Want to take a guess?

[00:05:03 - 00:05:04]
Oh, the consumer.

[00:05:05 - 00:05:08]
Yeah, yeah, the type of consumer. Because remember we're insuring professionals.

[00:05:08 - 00:05:10]
Yeah, the professional. Yeah, I mean the business.

[00:05:13 - 00:05:23]
Yeah, the customer. Could be an architect, it could be an insurance broker, could be a real estate broker, it could be an accountant. Who do you think is the worst at reporting their claims on time?

[00:05:23 - 00:05:26]
Oh, let me see. The accountant.

[00:05:27 - 00:05:29]
No, lawyers.

[00:05:33 - 00:05:39]
I expect the lawyers to be be right on and be the first ones there. Are they just too busy or what happens?

[00:05:40 - 00:05:44]
Number one, they're very egotistical. They don't want to admit they committed an error.

[00:05:44 - 00:05:45]
Oh, okay.

[00:05:46 - 00:05:57]
Number two. Number two, they're worried that if they, if they report a potential claim, they make their Rates go up, so they don't want to do that, or they think they can handle it themselves and fix it. And if they fix the problem, there won't be a claim.

[00:05:57 - 00:06:59]
Let's hear some more about that in a moment. Okay, let's get this message in here, Fred, and we'll hear more from you, so everybody please stay tuned. Knock out your competition with All Together Marketing. We elevate your brand. Take a stance with your business name, logo, the tagline, your colors, even the fonts for your business. And then jab left with your website, jab right with core values, back up with product experience and bring it on with you. Visit Altogether Biz and let us help you create a knockout brand. Fred, let's jump right in. We had some interesting conversation on our fun fact part of this conversation today. So it was getting real deep. We kind of relate this to how has marketing and messaging around professional liability coverage evolved and our clients really hearing what they need to do. You talked about lawyers on the other side of the break about not reporting.

[00:07:00 - 00:08:09]
That's right. These policies are now being very strictly enforced and there's a lot of things that you have to satisfy in order to what's called trigger the policy. But there's also a safety net. It's what I call it, the safety net. It is possible under these policies that if you know you committed an error and if you know that at some point in the future somebody may make a claim against you, there's a provision in the policy that allows you to report that potential claim to the insurance company right now. And you got to basically tell them what you think the error was, how you think, who's going to be damaged, what you think the damage might be. And if you satisfy those basic elements, the company will probably say, okay, we will open a claim file and they won't put a claim reserve on it because no claim has actually been made, but they'll just open a claim file. And even after the policy expires, if a year later what you were worried about comes to fruition and you get served with a lawsuit, even though your policy is expired from a year earlier, you reported it as a potential claim, they accepted that report and they will handle the claim subject to any other, you know, provision in the policy. But that's called the safety net.

[00:08:09 - 00:08:15]
But listen, Fred, tell us about your book. You know, where can we get your book and where can we find you?

[00:08:16 - 00:08:56]
The book is on Amazon. It's called Claims Made Insurance, the Policy that Changed the Industry. You can also look it up under my name. Frederick Erick J. Period. Fisher F I S H E R. Just put that in the search line. It'll pop up and I can be found online as well. My website is Fisher CG. That stands for consulting group, so it's fishercg.com. there's links there to my book as well. Down Amazon as well. There's other. There's probably 15 different articles, so if you're having trouble sleeping, you can download one of them, guarantee by page three you're gonna be gone.

[00:08:56 - 00:09:18]
Oh, my gosh. Well, this has been exciting. He dropped a lot of wisdom and knowledge on us today, Frederick, so I really appreciate it. And tech divination. Make sure you plug into his website and grab the book so you can learn some more about claims and insurance and what you need to do. And definitely reach out to Frederick all. Mr. Fisher, thank you so much for coming today.

[00:09:19 - 00:09:25]
Oh, Audrey, thank you so much for having me. I hope I didn't put anybody to sleep because I'm sure you had to. I'm very excited.

[00:09:26 - 00:09:32]
Right, right. They're probably going to see. Probably just scared us all, you know, for sure. Well, yeah. Well, thanks again.

[00:09:33 - 00:09:34]
My pleasure.

[00:09:35 - 00:09:47]
That's it for today's tech diva Biz talks. Hope you caught a gem or two. If you did, share it, review it, and most of all, put it into action. Until next time, tune in, level up and talk tec.