Daniel Torpey

Mr. Torpey wrote Expert Commentary for the IRMI.com time element series and also provided articles on brand equity and product recall. His articles represent practical and topical ideas on how a risk manager or insurance professional can better understand the business interruption claims process and the challenges faced with such claims. The series is designed to be used as a reference source for the IRMI.com reader.

Mr. Torpey is a claims professional with more than 16 years of experience in complex insurance claims. He is a partner at Ernst & Young, LLP. His practice specializes in helping clients prepare, present, and negotiate major property damage, business interruption, product recall, fidelity, e-commerce, and other complex insurance claims.

As a certified public accountant (CPA), Mr. Torpey has extensive audit, tax, and insurance claims consulting experience. He is an instructor for business interruption accounting courses for accountants, risk managers, brokers, and litigation specialists. He has been deposed as an expert witness in state and federal proceedings and has provided expert witness testimony at trial.

Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Torpey was a founding partner of a national insurance consulting practice in major US cities. Mr. Torpey has also audited claims with a CPA firm that works for insurance companies, thereby gaining insight into the methods and procedures used to evaluate such submissions. His extensive claims experience in the United States, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe includes calculating business interruption losses in accordance with many US and foreign policy forms. His claims experience spreads across many industries, including manufacturing, petrochemical, oil and gas, distribution, steel, utilities, consumer products, retail, transportation, and hospitality.

Mr. Torpey is a member of the American Institute and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators, and an associate member of the American Institute for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU).

He has been a speaker and facilitator at the Risk and Insurance Managers Society annual conference and at CPCU Society and Contingency Planning conferences. His topics presented include: Practical Solutions to Settling Business Interruption and Property Claims, Contingent Business Interruption Claims, Negotiating Insurance Claims, How Does Arbitration Work?, and Getting the Most from Your Loss. He has also instructed continuing legal education for attorneys on Using Financial Experts in Handling Claims. He has instructed forensic accounting courses at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Training Center in Quantico, Virginia, and often writes on topics related to forensic investigations, commercial property, and the business interruption market. He has been quoted or interviewed by Business Insurance, CLAIM Magazine, Best's Review: Property and Casualty, CFO Magazine, and newspapers.

Mr. Torpey is coauthor of "Maximum Possible Loss and Probable Maximum Loss." After receiving a bachelor of science in accountancy from St. John's University, Jamaica, New York, in 1986, Mr. Torpey began his career as a forensic accountant, certified public accountant, and auditor in the commercial insurance industry. He is also the coauthor of The Business Interruption Book: Coverage, Claims, and Recovery. Finally, Mr. Torpey is the author of After a Recall: Preparing an Insurance Claim and other thought leadership publications in complex insurance claims.