Insurance archaeology is the process of recovering old insurance policies. Organizations and businesses that have been in business for a long time, often change their insurance policies. Organizations that are worth a lot of money, and with a long history of providing a product that have the potential of causing harm, accident, or even death to others must make sure that their liability is mitigated. At times, lawsuits are brought up against organizations for harm caused to someone by a product they provided years ago. When that happens, companies rely on their insurance policies that they had from years ago, but keeping record of those policies can be very difficult. When no cases arise, there is no need to worry about the old policy, but when lawsuits are brought to the table, it can quickly be very important to have documentation of all of the past insurance policies.
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Legal Cases
There are cases where the company has no evidence of the coverage. While insurance archaeologists are able to find the policy documentation from decades long past, sometimes that is not possible, but they are still able to get the insurance company to cover the claims should a case arise using secondary evidence.
Necessary Insurance Archaeology
Asbestos caused harm to people, but the effects of the asbestos were not seen for years. The companies manufacturing products that contained asbestos had to rely on insurance policies that were decades old. Unearthing those documents required experts. Often risk management firms provide the service.