Allstate's Total Revenues Reach $17.3bn in Q3'25 Amid Lower Cat Losses  November 7th 2025

Startup Swimming With Whales In Auto Salvage Auction Waters

Auto Insurance Report highlights Salvato as alternative total loss insurance vehicle alternative to Copart and IAA

The thousands of acres that salvage auction operators Copart and IAA have collected over decades to store vehicles have long been seen as an insurmountable moat protecting the duopoly from new competitors.

But a startup believes that decentralizing vehicle storage itself provides a path over that obstacle. The company, Salvato, sees its approach as the logical next step in an evolution that began when the industry eliminated in-person auctions years ago.

Salvato is launching online salvage vehicle auctions with a strategy to cut fees and cycle times by selling cars directly from towing company lots, rather than moving them to huge storage facilities like those largely owned by Copart and mostly leased by IAA.

Salvato opened its first online auctions in Texas in August, selling cars from small insurers in the state. The company has recruited a growing list of more than 30 towing companies in Texas to collect and store totaled cars from body shops or other storage lots until they sell online.

The business expects to sharply improve cycle times, reducing the number of days cars sit waiting to enter auction by using digital titles issued by the new National Digital Title Clearinghouse in West Virginia. The clearinghouse creates digital titles that allow cars from any state to be retitled as salvage and sold legally across the country or overseas, saving weeks of processing time required with paper titles. (AIR 8/11/25)

Salvato will need to move fast to convince skeptics who view vast landholdings as a necessity, and Salvato acknowledges that even with its commitment to a decentralized model it will likely need some parcels near strategic metropolitan areas down the road.

Claims discipline – a key differentiator in next market phase

With the industry deep in conference season, there is inevitably much talk about the trajectory of rates. After several years of hardening, signs of softening are visible across various classes, with brokers pressing for relief on behalf of their clients. Yet, for reinsurers looking ahead, the debate over pricing is only half the story. The real differentiator in the coming year will be discipline in claims and more so than in underwriting.  

As a mechanism that responds after the fact, claims has historically been viewed as defensive. However, with claims increasing in both scale and frequency, claims departments are playing a much more offensive role – as the industry’s first lens on emerging risks, the sharpest indicator of systemic stress and a rich source of intelligence about how exposures develop in real time. 

This insight can add enormous value, particularly during the early stages of a claim. It further reinforces the collaborative alliance between claims, underwriting and the client, with claims data also sometimes contributing to more favourable pricing for cedants.

Given the many surprise claims of recent years, there is unquestionably a need to grasp the variables and dynamics producing them more firmly. Pricing alone cannot mask poor business, with reinsurers unable to price their way out if they’re getting $100 in premium for every $1m loss. With claims able to identify trends early, highlight potential improvements in cedents’ loss management and flag when litigation risk is escalating, this can help keep portfolios viable as rates begin to soften. 

CONTINUES

Iain Reynolds, head of reinsurance claims, Liberty Mutual Reinsurance and James D'Onofrio, executive vice president & general manager of US operations, Liberty Mutual Reinsurance

Avallon Secures $4.6 Million, Scales AI Agents to Automate Insurance Claims Operations

Frontline Ventures leads the seed round, backs company’s agentic workflow technology for TPAs and carriers facing critical staffing shortages

Avallon, the company building AI agents that automate repetitive insurance claims tasks, today announced it has secured $4.6 million in seed funding, led by Frontline Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, 1984, Liquid2, and Booom. The capital will be used to hire talent and accelerate product development, expanding beyond bespoke solutions for the Workers Compensation and Automotive insurance categories to offer a comprehensive AI platform for every line of insurance including all Property & Casualty lines, as well as healthcare. /

Avallon Co-Founders Leander Peter, Moritz Bartusch, Cornelius Schramm, and Bryan Guin (pictured)

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the insurance industry is expected to lose nearly 400,000 workers through attrition by 2026, presenting a critical staffing shortage. Avallon’s AI agents address the threat of rising turnover rates by automating back office work to bridge the worker gap.

Avallon’s multimodal AI technology creates structured claims data for Third-Party Administrators (TPA) and insurance carriers, integrating with most major CMS platforms, IVR systems and data warehouses. Its AI voice agents address operational bottlenecks and automate operational tasks across the claims lifecycle from intake to resolution, including:

• managing intake, status and billing questions by phone, email or file upload
• tracking case status, contacting employers, providers, repair shops and injured workers
• summarizing and extracting information from critical insurance documents such as PDFs, invoices and medical reports
• analyzing policy terms and flagging exposures