Claims and Financial Advisory Services

Forensic Accounting and Claims Services

The question that a company facing a major claim needs to consider is: “who is looking after our interests?” The Forensic Accounting & Claims Services (FACS) team provides practical, down-to-earth solutions to both manage these risks and help protect your interests. We are here to work on your behalf as soon as a loss is incurred, allowing your team to concentrate on recovery and building the business.

Pre-Loss and Post Loss

Large casualty and property losses following a catastrophic event or dispute can be extremely complex from a data and stakeholder standpoint. Complex management issues may exceed the scope of your resources and capabilities. Our team of professionals provides you with proactive, on-the-ground support worldwide to help you calculate, defend against, and analyze damages — allowing you to stay focused on your employees, operations, and customers.

Our post-event services include:

• Post-Loss Measurement and Claim Preparation — Swift delivery of assistance in quantifying losses and presenting insurance claims for all types of losses, including FEMA eligible and uninsured losses, liability claims arising from product defect claims, construction claims, and cyber interruption and data breach loss claims.
• Reconstruction Advisory — Assistance with reconstruction project management including construction project planning, oversight, and financial recovery support to help you prioritize action plans against the needs of your business.
• Fraud, Fidelity, and Liability Claims — Assistance with preserving and recovering evidence and interviewing employees to measure economic damages that can help to increase the likelihood of a full insurance recovery, while minimizing investigative costs.
• Dispute Resolution — Assistance with dispute advisory, expert witness testimony, and litigation support throughout the dispute resolution process designed to help you resolve issues in an expeditious and cost-effective manner.

Before an event occurs, our FAS team also can help you prepare for a financial issue or unforeseen event, which can mean the difference between success and lost business as well as profits. We can help you guard against damage, protect stakeholders, and gain competitive advantage should the unexpected occur. We provide:

• Insurance Valuation — Proactive property valuation and business interruption calculations, including contingent business interruption and cyber-interruption, to help you identify appropriate levels of coverage to maximize your financial stability in the event of a loss.
• Fraud Finder – Forensic financial analytics and on-site investigation to identify and confirm the controls in place (or lack thereof) and/or prevent fraud, which enables decisive action to be taken or assurance that fraud has not occurred when suspicions arise.
• Project Governance and Risk Assessment — Proprietary processes to assist you with capital projects, identifying existing and potential areas of exposure during the construction project lifecycle.
• Project Performance Review — Construction auditing and project review processes to provide your project management team with the tools and data needed to minimize schedule delays and cost overruns, helping to keep a project on track.

Construction Dispute Advisory Services

Marsh Risk Consulting’s Construction Consulting Practice comprises construction experts who understand that resolving disputes in a timely and cost-effective manner is critical to organizations today. With our specialized knowledge and expertise in construction claims evaluation, preparation, and recovery, we guide clients through the issues most common in construction disputes. Our phased investigative process unearths the facts about what exactly went wrong, compares performance against plans and specifications, quantifies financial impacts, and assists in allocating liability among the appropriate parties.

As a result of our experience working for all major project stakeholders, MRC’s Construction Consulting Practice brings objectivity and balance to the investigation of matters that lead to disputes. Our value is in the quality of our analyses and the ability to help parties reach timely and favorable resolutions, oftentimes avoiding expensive arbitrations or litigations. Our experts provide effective analyses of cost, schedule, quality, and scope, isolating the real issues and their implications. In the event a matter escalates to a formal proceeding, our professionals are highly experienced in providing expert witness testimony.

Delay and Time Impact Analyses

Proving who and what caused a project delay is often a critical aspect of resolving claims and disputes. With our specialized knowledge and expertise in construction delay claims, we use critical path method (CPM) scheduling techniques and other delay analyses to compare the planned to the actual sequence of construction.

Our experts develop the analysis to identify the vital issues along the critical path of the project schedule, quantify delays, and evaluate the causation and entitlement of the impacts. Our independent analysis of documentation and project conditions can serve as the objective evidence review necessary to reconstruct actual contractor performance, assess causation, and evaluate claims and damages. These project schedule analyses form the basis of our determination of excusability in project delays, particularly regarding the critical path, as well as our assessment of what is contractually compensable.

Financial Damages and Quantification

Our interdisciplinary teams focus on the critical elements of cause and effect. Leveraging the conclusions established in our project schedule analysis, we review key productivity, continuity, and cost factors. We can determine how cost growth has affected a claim by comparing scheduled to actual completion times. Our experts can compile the required data directly from the contractor’s accounting systems or reconstruct it from several source documents, such as time sheets, invoices, records, and diaries.

In conjunction with entitlement and schedule analyses, we assist clients in capturing and quantifying all types of monetary damages, including: profit, economic, and efficiency losses; labor and material cost escalation; extra work, defective work, and acceleration-related costs; extended job and home office overhead; liquidated damages; and other financial impacts.

Litigation Support and Expert Testimony

Even with assistance in the avoidance or early resolution of disagreements, there are occasions when litigation is inevitable. MRC offers litigation support and expert testimony services to help clients achieve favorable resolution in trial, arbitration, or other dispute resolution forums. We provide effective support throughout the litigation process, assisting with document discovery, claim analysis, deposition preparation, cost and schedule analysis, testimony, and rebuttal-related analyses. Our professionals have expert testimony experience during all stages of dispute resolution, including arbitration (AAA and ICC), and litigation in local, state, federal, and international courts.

Class Action Administration

Marsh Risk Consulting provides services that can handle the administration process of class action settlements. Our goal is to provide administration services that are efficient and effective, meet the highest standards of security and privacy, satisfies the needs of all stakeholders, and is not held up due to manual processes. Key features of the Class Action Administration program consist of:

• An administration with unparalleled competence and experience in claims and fund management.
• A committed, multi-functional team, all readily accessible, with expertise in claims administration, and a complete understanding of the challenges and requirements of the Settlement at hand.
• Advanced technologies, from our technology partner, Terida, that provide the cost, accuracy and operational advantages of a proprietary and extensively tested Canadian claims administration system.
• Stringent independence and transparency standards.
• A professional team that recognizes the importance of efficiency and accuracy throughout the claims administration process, and has the experience to carry out its duties under the strictest of confidentiality.
• Marsh’s reputation for service for excellence and integrity.

Replacement Cost Valuation

Given the increasing need for organizations to adhere to Canadian and international reporting standards, effectively manage risk, and maximize cash flow, it is critical for business leaders to understand the value of their assets. MRC’s methodology is widely recognized by insurers, allowing for credible loss estimates and the ability to addresses common concerns regarding replacement values.

Are you over-insured or underinsured? Have a conversation with MRC Canada’s independent valuation professionals today with to discuss how your values are being determined and the potential impact on your premium.