Over the course of his insurance career, David “Dave” Bano rose to the rank of chief of claims at Nationwide. Upon his retirement, he transitioned into a consulting and expert witness role on the insurance industry. With his broad experience across the industry, Bano’s expert work includes overall insurance agency operations and underwriting practices. We sat down with him to discuss this second chapter.
AALM: David, what circumstances led you to your career in the insurance industry?
DB: My father was very handy, and if something needed to be done, he would deal with it. My brother and I were his “helpers” so together we built a family room, repaired rusty cars, re-roofed the garage, fixed all kinds of things. Those experiences taught me repair processes, and that made me a good candidate for becoming a field adjuster. I had just graduated, saw a local ad for trainee adjusters, and ended up hired on the spot. Then the company cross-trained me in both auto and property adjusting, which helped my career a great deal. But it really all started because of my father.
AALM: What compelled you to transition to your work as an expert witness and advisor?
DB: After Nationwide, two tech companies asked me to help them learn about the Property Casualty industry. Then I got a call from a prominent Philadelphia defense firm who knew that I had retired. They asked if I could provide a claims standards & practices opinion on a bad faith case, which I did. It was interesting work, it supplemented my income, and I knew the insurance industry from top to bottom. It just felt logical to see if I could develop my own expert practice. So from there I researched the various rules and expectations and taught myself how to prepare reports. I read many books and really examined the expert field. By then word of mouth had kicked in and the phone calls started. I set up my LLC and the business was off and running.
AALM: Tell us how your experience with Nationwide, particularly your authority over claims-related litigation prepared you to serve as an expert witness.
DB: As Chief of Claims at Nationwide, I was responsible for all claims outcomes, including all litigation. Having come up through the ranks, I knew how to examine coverage and investigate a claim. I never stopped looking at Claim files, even with 8000 employees. Managing the quality and audit operations of Claims kept me in tune with the causes of litigation and how to best deal with it. I never lost what we call “claims curiosity”, where you deeply dig into issues and challenges. All those years of experience and situational exposures ended up creating the knowledge foundation and basis for my becoming an expert witness.
AALM: Over the course of your career, I’m sure the insurance industry and the litigation of insurance claims has evolved. What changes do you believe to be most impactful and are there any changes or trends you see coming in the future?
DB: Well, the escalation of bad-faith claims and class actions have certainly had an impact. So have attorney advertising, the Web, man-made and natural disasters, Covid, politics, population shifts, medical treatment and health coverage, even developments in auto technology. The list goes on and on, and all of these have impacted insurance and related litigation. I think that self-driving cars and the related risk management will pose significant challenges. It’s already happening with long-haul trucking. The use of technology in litigation, trends in case law, a more global economy, an aging population, certainly politics … all of these will continue to drive the evolution of the legal field.
AALM: In Florida specifically, what changes do you see ahead for insurance claims?
DB: As the population of Florida increases, so does risk. New mindsets also come into play. Florida auto and property carriers already face significant challenges, and I think we’ll see population-driven regulatory changes escalate. Insurers need to grow, so they will look for ways to follow customers. More people create more risk-management needs, which translates into new insurance products being developed. Rate increases will affect the jury pool, and while accident-avoidance technology will reduce claims frequency, a growing and aged population will drive the opposite effect. I see busy times ahead for the Florida claims industry.
AALM: You’ve overcome Daubert challenges in the past. What were the primary concerns and how did you overcome the challenge?
DB: Interesting question. The situation I’ve seen recently is the attorney trying to position me as too “far up” in the food-chain to be able to provide a first-hand opinion on a specific claim situation, like an arson case. The general idea is to position me as a strategic or non-operational executive. The problem with that is not only did I handle thousands of claims personally, but later I developed the claims Best Practices and claim-quality audit platforms, so my experiences span everything from writing estimates to evaluating managers to managing regulatory compliance to owning the overall claims performance of every state. I can still dissect a claim file and certainly know a good one from a bad one. Staying directly involved in the quality reviews of each claims function and being personally involved in claims litigation decisions has helped me deflect charges of my being too far outside the daily work of adjusters. So far, I’ve never been excluded.
AALM: What type of cases have you worked on most frequently?
DB: My background is not only Claims. I was a Regional Vice President, and in that role I managed hundreds of sales agents and underwriters, as well as the claims teams. My expert work includes overall insurance agency operations and underwriting practices. Basically, if a case involves an insurance contract, the actions of a sales agent, underwriter or a claims person, that’s all part of what I do. Additionally, I have opined several times on industry standards, customs and practices regarding bad faith, company procedures, claims estimating and underwriting technology, pretty much anything that falls within the P/C industry. The benefit of having managed across the entire spectrum of the industry has been very helpful in expanding the potential of my current work. I have handled cases involving all of these areas.
AALM: Have there been any cases you’ve worked on as an expert that stood out to you the most?
DB: Most of my work has included some element of bad faith and that requires looking very closely at timelines and actions. Basically, it’s about who knew what, when did they know it, and what did they do about it. I have always liked investigations, and so digging into a situation is what I like best. In order for me to opine on something as significant as bad faith, I have to know the case. So for me, those are the cases that make me curious and that is what makes the work interesting and fulfilling. It’s great mental exercise.
AALM: Tell us about your hobby rebuilding classic cars. What are you working on now? What’s your dream car to work on?
DB: I’m currently working on an incredible “barn find,” a 36,000 mile 1969 Shelby Mustang convertible. This car is very rare, it’s the GT500 version which has a 428 Cobra Jet engine, the biggest they made. It’s a very cool car, a four-speed, and it’s all torn down and getting ready for paint. It’s definitely a dream car. I also have a beautiful 1967 Ford pickup that I drive around Sarasota and a candy-apple red ’69 Mustang that I keep up in Ohio. Once again, this is all due to my dad, who got me hooked on muscle cars. I love the whole process of restoring them.
AALM: Anything else you’d like to add?
DB: It’s been very rewarding to start my own business. After managing thousands of people and billions of dollars, working for oneself has been an entirely new and invigorating experience. I really enjoy the work.
