Tim Bowen is assistant vice president of home operations for MetLife Auto & Home in Warwick – part of New York City-based Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., among the world’s largest providers of insurance, annuities and employee benefits programs.
Bowen is responsible for oversight of the company’s homeowner claim service organization, including inside operations, field service, major loss management, and catastrophe response. He and his staff work with vendor partners that augment MetLife Auto & Home’s services, including technology applications that directly support claim settlement.
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During his 25 years with MetLife, Bowen also has worked as a property field adjuster, project manager, and assistant claim manager within regional operations. Before joining MetLife, he owned a general contracting firm that specialized in residential remodeling and new-home construction. He has a master’s degree in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston.
PBN: How far-reaching are your duties?
BOWEN: I lead the home operations team, which provides homeowners claim services for our customers across the United States. Our team is there for our customers when they need us the most, assisting through the recovery process following losses at their homes or damage to their personal property. We are there to help from the first phone conversation capturing the loss information through the settlement of the claims.
In many cases, we are able to rapidly inspect and settle the claims with one of our staff adjusters in the New England area. Our associates can generate repair estimates and issue same-day electronic fund transfers to help our customers start the recovery process immediately.
PBN: How many homeowner policyholders does MetLife have in Rhode Island and New England as a whole?
BOWEN: The headquarters office for MetLife Auto & Home is proudly located in Warwick. … We have close to 170,000 homeowner customers across New England, and over 15,000 of those property customers live in Rhode Island.
MetLife Auto & Home is committed to the region; our homeowners insurance products are available in most of the areas we service. We have customers throughout our region, from Block Island to Boston.
PBN: As we’re now into the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season, what is MetLife’s Home Catastrophe Response Team purposed to do?
BOWEN: We have been putting our plans in place for the 2019 hurricane season since the beginning of the year. We are well-positioned to respond immediately to the potential needs of our customers during major weather and catastrophic events.
Last summer, we launched a relationship with Northern Illinois University to leverage its advanced severe weather modeling to enhance our preparedness. We combine our advanced geographic information system mapping capabilities with the [university’s] weather models to create clarity around the potential scope of a significant weather event.
The visibility generated through technology and analysis enables us to create the best plan possible to meet the needs of our customers following the storm. We can begin staging emergency response resources, major loss, and catastrophe adjusters well in advance of landfall.
Our disciplined approach to preparation, developing solid communication plans and flexibility of our program enables us to respond to the uncertainty that these severe weather systems generate. Most important of all, the magic of our response is the dedicated claim professionals who rise to be there when our customers need us the most.
PBN: Generally speaking, what does MetLife’s homeowner insurance cover and not cover?
BOWEN: Our policies cover a broad number of perils. Depending on the region of the country, we tend to see a higher incidence of claims linked to severe weather. For instance, we see a much higher frequency of hail claims in Texas or Oklahoma, and more frozen pipes and ice dam claims in the Northeast.
Insurance carriers have unique policy forms, but most cover fire; sudden and accidental discharge or overflow of water or steam from within a plumbing, heating, air conditioning or automatic fire protective sprinkler system, or from within a domestic appliance; wind damage; and theft of personal property. Most homeowner policies exclude loss due to flooding; a separate flood insurance policy is required for that peril.
It is essential to review and understand your policy, including its exceptions and exclusions, and the optional coverage selections you have made. Consumers need to pay close attention to the policy limits associated with replacing their homes and personal property.
Some perils, [such as] theft, may have limitations related to specific groups of items, [such as] jewelry, and it is crucial to ensure the coverage covers what you own. Lastly, it is critically important to understand your deductible, or the portion of the loss for which [you] would be responsible if a loss occurred.
PBN: What are some things that MetLife Auto & Home policyholders can do online?
BOWEN: MetLife Auto & Home provides numerous resources to help our customers learn more about our protection and insurance products. Also, we have created several resources to help to enhance personal safety, the resilience of one’s home and how to best prepare to weather a natural disaster.
At metLife.com, customers can secure multiple ways to contact us with any claim or service needs. Also, customers who have created online accounts can access and modify their policies.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@PBN.com.
