How long should I keep video evidence after submitting an insurance claim?

Until the claim is closed and any subrogation window has passed. Subrogation requests routinely arrive 6 to 12 months after the initial incident; some matters extend longer. Tag footage tied to an active claim so it is excluded from your normal retention sweep — see our retention guide for details.

What format do insurance adjusters prefer for video evidence?

MP4 with H.264 video is the most compatible. Adjusters and their teams work on laptops, tablets, and shared workstations, so a portable container that plays without proprietary players is the safest default. Send the original VMS export only when specifically requested, in addition to the MP4.

Do I need to provide a chain of custody record with an insurance claim?

Not always at submission, but often for subrogation or contested claims. Producing the record at submission time is cheap; reconstructing it later is hard and weakens the evidence. A tool that produces the audit log automatically removes the cost of doing it right by default.

Can I send insurance video evidence over email?

For very small clips, technically yes. In practice, file size limits, the lack of an access log, and the absence of any expiry or revocation make email a poor delivery channel for anything beyond a courtesy preview. A code-gated link is a better default.

How to Package Video Evidence for an Insurance Claim

Packaging video evidence for an insurance claim is similar to packaging for police — but adjusters and subrogation teams care about different things, ask different follow-up questions, and tend to come back months later with new requests. This guide walks through how to assemble a complete, defensible video evidence package for an insurance claim, with the practical details that come up in subrogation cases later. For the parallel walkthrough for law enforcement, see how to share security camera footage with police.

Step 1 — Confirm the claim details up front

Before exporting anything, get from the customer or the carrier:

The claim number.
The named insured (the customer's company or property).
The date and time window of the incident, as accurately as possible.
The adjuster's name, carrier, and contact information.
What the claim is for — property damage, liability, theft, slip-and-fall, vehicle.

Different claim types want different kinds of footage. A slip-and-fall claim wants the lighting and floor surface immediately before the incident. A vehicle claim wants entry and exit cameras with vehicle license plates if available. A theft claim wants the timeline from arrival through departure.

Step 2 — Identify every relevant camera and angle

Adjusters typically request more angles than police do, because liability questions often turn on what was visible from where. Pull every camera that could have captured:

The incident itself.
The lead-up — vehicles, pedestrians, weather, lighting.
The immediate aftermath — response, departure, conditions afterward.
Context from earlier the same day, if relevant (a parking lot full vs. empty, a sign that was visible vs. blocked).

Err on the side of including too much. An adjuster who needs less can ignore the extras. An adjuster who needs more triggers a re-export and an awkward follow-up.

Step 3 — Export with timestamps and labels intact

The single piece of metadata that makes the footage useful to a subrogation team months later is the timestamp:

Keep the burned-in timestamp on the frame if the VMS supports it.
Record what time zone the cameras are set to.
Use filenames that include the camera label and time range, e.g. cam_back_parking_2026-05-14_22-15_to_22-25.mp4.

If a camera's clock has drifted, document the actual time vs. recorded time. Do not edit the timestamp burn-in to "correct" it — annotate the discrepancy in writing instead. For more on format choices and codecs, see best practices for creating incident video clips.

Step 4 — Trim with generous context

A common mistake is trimming to the moment of the incident itself. For insurance work, that's not enough:

Before — at least 60 seconds, often more. Conditions, who was in the frame, vehicles, lighting, signage.
The incident itself — complete and uncut.
After — at least 60 seconds. Response, departure, anyone who entered or left after the incident.

Subrogation cases routinely turn on details from the lead-up that nobody flagged at the time. The cost of including extra footage is bandwidth. The cost of not having it when asked is a re-export, a delay, and a credibility hit.

Step 5 — Generate high-resolution stills

Adjusters want stills for the claim form, for the file, and for any follow-up they pass along to subrogation. Pull stills directly from the source clip you're about to deliver — not from a separate VMS export — so the still and video derive from the same source.

Export at the highest resolution your camera supports.
Include the timestamp in the filename and in a visible burn-in on the image.
Capture stills for the incident itself and any visible damage.
For vehicle claims, get the clearest available plate or vehicle identification.
Do not denoise, sharpen, or enhance. Anything that alters pixels can be challenged.

Step 6 — Write a one-page incident summary

The summary becomes the cover sheet for the package. Adjusters work through dozens of claims a week; a clean summary makes yours easier to act on. Include:

The claim number and named insured.
The incident date, time, and location.
A two- to three-sentence description of what happened.
A list of cameras included, with their physical locations.
The total duration of the package (combined clip length).
A line on chain of custody: who exported the footage, when, and from what source VMS.
Your name and contact information.

The summary is what gets read first. Treat it like an executive summary — accurate, terse, and complete. It should answer "what's in this package" in 30 seconds.

Step 7 — Share via a code-gated, time-boxed link

Email and shared-drive links are the wrong shape of delivery for insurance evidence:

Email — fails on file size, no access log, no expiry, no revocation.
Shared-drive "anyone with the link" — no expiry by default, no per-recipient log, no way to revoke without breaking historical access.

A better default for insurance work:

A code-gated link to a hosted package.
An expiry tied to a reasonable claim timeline (often 90 to 180 days, extended on subrogation).
A per-recipient audit log of every open.
Streaming playback so adjusters can review without downloading multi-gigabyte files.

Document the link, the recipient, and the expiry in your claim summary or in a separate handoff log.

Step 8 — Preserve everything until the matter is closed

This is where insurance work diverges most from a one-off police handoff:

Subrogation requests routinely arrive 6 to 12 months after the initial claim, with a higher bar for original footage and chain of custody.
Disputed claims can extend a matter by a year or more.
Litigation holds can extend retention indefinitely.

Tag footage tied to an active claim so it is excluded from your normal retention sweep. Keep the original VMS export, every derivative, and the audit log of who accessed the package — until the claim is closed and any subrogation window has passed.

When the carrier wants the original VMS export

Some carriers, particularly on subrogation work, will specifically ask for the original VMS export rather than (or in addition to) an MP4. When this happens:

Send the original alongside the MP4, not in place of it.
Include a note explaining the proprietary format and a link to the playback software.
If your VMS produces a hash or checksum of the export, include it. This is the cleanest possible chain of custody anchor.

Where Incident Clips fits

Incident Clips handles the workflow above as a single tool — ingest the original export, trim and pull stills inside the platform, package with the incident summary, share via a code-gated link tied to the claim, and keep the original on file. The audit log is automatic. See pricing or contact us for a walkthrough.