Understanding Allocated Loss Adjustment Expenses (ALAE): Key Insights & Examples

What Are Allocated Loss Adjustment Expenses (ALAE)?

Allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE) are costs attributed to the processing of a specific insurance claim. ALAE is part of an insurer’s expense reserves and plays a central role in financial planning. It is one of the biggest costs insurers reserve money for, alongside contingent commissions.

Distinguishing ALAE from unallocated loss adjustment expenses (ULAE) is important for accurate financial assessments. These costs often include third-party services such as investigators and legal counsel, which help process legitimate claims efficiently while preventing fraud.

How ALAE Works: Understanding the Cost Attribution to Claims

Allocated loss adjustment expenses, along with unallocated loss adjustment expenses (ULAE), represent an insurer's estimate of the money it will pay out in claims and expenses. Insurers reserve funds to prevent fraudulent claims and to swiftly handle legitimate ones.

ALAEs connect directly to handling a specific claim. These costs can cover payments to third parties for investigating claims, serving as adjusters, or providing legal counsel. Expenses associated with ULAE are more general and may include overhead, investigations, and salaries.

Life insurance companies that use in-house employees for field adjustments would report that expense as an unallocated loss adjustment expense.

Important Considerations for Policyholders About ALAE

Some commercial liability policies have endorsements that make policyholders reimburse the insurer for loss adjustment expenses. Adjusting a loss means figuring out the loss value or negotiating a settlement.

Loss adjustment expenses usually include costs for defending or settling liability claims against policyholders. These expenses may include fees for attorneys, investigators, experts, arbitrators, mediators, and other related costs

It's essential to read the endorsement, which might exclude the policyholder's attorney fees if the insurer denies coverage and loses a lawsuit. If the insurer hasn't adjusted the claim, it shouldn't apply its deductible to the policyholder's defense costs for the abandoned claim.

Comparing ALAE and ULAE: Key Differences and Implications

Insurers have gradually shifted from categorizing expenses as ULAE to categorizing them as ALAE. This is primarily because insurers are more sophisticated in how they treat claims and have more tools at their disposal to manage the costs associated with claims.

Small, straightforward claims are the easiest for an insurance company to settle and often require less ALAE when compared to claims that may take years to settle. Claims that could result in substantial losses are the most likely to receive extra scrutiny by insurers and may involve in-depth investigations, settlement offers, and litigation. With greater scrutiny comes greater cost.

Analysts check loss reserve development to see how accurately an insurer estimates its reserves. Loss reserve development involves an insurer adjusting estimates to its loss and loss adjustment expense reserves over a period of time.

The Bottom Line

Allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE) are reserves set aside for handling specific claims, unlike unallocated loss adjustment expenses (ULAE), which cover general overhead. ALAE supports efficient, legitimate claim processing and helps prevent fraud.

Some liability policies require policyholders to reimburse these costs, so reviewing endorsements is important. Insurers now classify more costs as ALAE for better tracking, and accurate reserve estimation remains vital for assessing financial health.