Insurance Day

"As markets struggle, margins shrink and times get tougher, more claims are created," Colin Daigle, head of Marsh’s forensic accounting and claims team in Washington, tells Insurance Day. "Issues tend to materialise through schedule delays, cost over-run and problems in defining and maintaining scope." Ultimately, the message from Daigle is that the more emphasis there is on risk management, "the better the outcome is".

Yet for some construction firms, a certain level of unavoidable claims is expected and factored into costs. One example Daigle gives is of a manufacturing plant that needs to be completed in order to process a major order. "If the project is behind schedule you would do whatever you can to complete by then, even knowing that there would be claims later," he says.