Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to automatically making an initial claim assignment. The systems include information collection subsystems, skills assessment subsystems and assignment recommendation subsystems that provide a customer service representative with a recommendation for the best-suited available claim handler. The customer service representative may accept or override the recommendation in making the claim handler assignment. The determination of the best-suited available claim handler is made by correlating these skills required for handling a particular claim, the skills of the claim handlers, and an algorithm takes into account the claim handler's current loss assignment count, number of hours spent, and future availability.