She used to be a police officer, but for a few years now she has been working to tackle insurance fraud. In her work, Atie Wisse increasingly talks to board members, for example about the impact of subversive crime. "I have a lot of knowledge about ‘street life’, but I also wanted to know more about how an insurer works. The lecture series Business operations of an insurer was exactly what I needed."
Service Organisation Direct Liability (SODA) supports insurers to cover the costs for fraud investigations. As an account manager, Wisse made payment arrangements with perpetrators and also had contact with fraud coordinators at insurers. Nowadays she is more and more concerned with current issues and innovation. This broadening of her work coincided with the associate partnership between SODA and the Dutch Association of Insurers in 2022. Wisse: "Because we have a large network and knowledge, we are increasingly invited to board meetings. For example, we think along with you about data and current issues such as the increase in subversive crime and its impact on companies."
Interests
"As a former police officer, I have a lot of knowledge about 'street life'. As a result, I am good at developing innovative approaches to combat crime. But in conversations with board members, I noticed that I was missing something," Wisse explains. "Sometimes I didn't fully understand what interests were at play. I also heard terms I didn't know, such as Solvency II." She went looking for more information about how an insurer works and came across the lecture series Business operations of an insurer. "Get a look behind the scenes," it said. It was exactly what I needed."
Intrinsic drive
"In the first two lectures, we dealt with the financial risk of an insurer. And as lecturer René Doff put it nicely, it works slightly differently than at a bakery. If the bread is gone halfway through the day, then it's gone. An insurer must always have enough cash in hand to be able to compensate insured damages, which are not always predictable. From my work at SODA, I was naturally curious about the risk of insurance fraud. In my opinion, I didn't see enough of that on an insurer's balance sheet. And partly because of that, my drive to keep sharing our knowledge has become even bigger. Insurance fraud, and the rise of subversive crime, weighs negatively on the balance sheet. Sometimes more than we think," says Wisse.
Different perspectives
Through this series of lectures, she feels strengthened that what she says really makes sense. "It may sound cliché, but in a meeting with the board, I am now a fully-fledged discussion partner." This is because, for example, she has a better idea of what interests may be at play in different departments. As a result, she can think along from multiple perspectives. Not only from the perspective of a fraud coordinator, but also from the perspective of the risk manager, the actuary or commerce.
Out of your own bubble
Finally, Wisse wants to emphasise that these lectures are not only relevant for employees of insurers. It is the mixed group of people from the entire supply chain that provides new insights. "René gives lectures at a level that cracks brains, and I love that. At the same time, I felt free to ask my questions in all innocence, and without any insurance training. As a result, the most interesting discussions arose and participants crawled out of their bubble."
Would you also like to participate in this lecture series? Check the training page for more information and registration. The English edition starts on November 6.
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