Annemieke Verhorst-Lemsom

Annemieke Verhorst-Lemsom, founder and director of Bolster Insurance, started her career in 1993 as a back-office employee at a global loss adjusting firm handling cargo claims. Here, her ambition for the Global Mobility Industry started. After some years of working at a bank, she decided to start as an account manager at an international moving company. For six years she worked with two leading international movers, built a great network of good relations, and gained much work experience in the Global Mobility Industry.

In 2006, Annemieke started to handle household goods and personal effects claims at another loss adjusting company. She developed a unique approach towards claimants who often expressed being upset and emotional, because of what had happened to their belongings. Annemieke has become very good at listening to people's stories with the goal of processing the emotions. She is convinced that only when that happens, assignees can move to the phase of solving the issues. In these years, Annemieke sometimes felt like a penalty keeper: everything had already gone wrong and now she had to make the impossible possible. For her to be able to really support customers and solve their issues, Annemieke started investing in a global network of restorers, antique specialists, and repair firms. She felt that if the expectations regarding coverage and insurance would have been set better prior to the move, claims handling would be much more straightforward to all parties. So, when she was approached by one of the leading Dutch international movers to think about how the process could be improved, she did not have to think twice.

Today, Annemieke is the proud founder of the Bolster Insurance platform. Her goal is that customers can rest assured about their household being well covered in case anything goes wrong with the transition. She is also a member of the Claims Prevention and Procedure Council based in the US, where she meets like-minded claims handlers and restorers twice a year. She started implementing this network and expertise to the European continent, greatly improving the claims handling process here. With all her experience in the Global Mobility Industry, her broad network, and the Bolster Insurance platform being ready, Annemieke finally feels able to improve assignees’ happiness and smooth landings on their new locations.