Time to arrest the number of home and business owners cancelling their insurance
This week, I have posted a number of articles on what to advice clients if they are asking to cancel their insurance. See here for an example.
Nonetheless, a frightening number of business owners are cancelling their insurance, failing to renew or cancelling covers such as business interruption, which they do not consider necessary any more. Particularly, when they have been told they have no cover as a result of the closures caused by COVID-19.
This will only get worse as renewals fall due each month, and more and more businesses are forced to go into lock down.
This is a serious issue for the individual businesses should they be hit by an insurable event, for the economy, and of course for every part of the insurance industry.
Just as there are incentives to keep the economy going –such as the waiver of payroll tax, which I applaud–, I appeal to government to please temporarily waive all taxes and levies on insurance to keep the country insured.
This is not the time to be pushing their removal permanently. It is a time to keep the country insured, and that is why I am pleading for a temporary waiver.
It is going to be tough enough to get through this for society without the insurance industry, who have pumped in excess of $4.5 billion into the economy, following the natural catastrophes in Australia in the past six or so months.
Can you image how the economy and business owners would be if COVID-19 had occurred first and then the bush fires, hail, storms and floods with a large number of business and home owners having recently cancelled their insurance?
Now is the time to act, before we have one more policy cancelled. We need Australians to be insured.
that link doesn’t appear to work
Such a great Idea Alan. I think this would be so much appreciated by clients and brokers, hopefully ICA or NIBA can call out to the Government.
Also i think Insurers need to update there policy wordings regarding the 1908 Act,
As this is no longer in effect and amended to the In 2015, the Biosecurity Act 2015 replaced most of the Quarantine Act 1908, I have already had clients phone me saying that this is confusing and i have one client who actually thinks she can claim because she has been told that the 1908 Act is no longer in effect. Stressful times for clients and some bushiness, some may not make it through this and maybe never operate again.
Thanks for all your updates, always a great read.
Take good care.
Melinda
Try this : https://www.allanmanning.com/my-client-wants-to-cancel-their-insurance-should-they/
Hi Allan! Im an insurance agent in Manila. Its a lot difficult here because customers are used to having payment terms as long as 120 days so even though their insurances started 4 months ago, their policies are still unpaid. and now due to the lockdown, they have a new alibi. And the fact that General Insurance is not obligated by law here. So customers least prfioritize GI.
to continue. so if local insurance choose to cancel their polices, doc stamps and used months are charged to us, agents. which is a big problem for us both ways, customer cancelling and me deciding to cancel for non payment.
My advice is to write to the clients saying that their insurance is past due and that unless they pay within ?? days, whatever you are allowed to say at law, then their policy will be cancelled and that will have no cover in place should a typhoon, fire, storm, burglary etc occur. I would ask the customers to consider what would happen if they were hit with such an event and they had no insurance because they failed to pay their insurance. This would be catastrophic for them and their clients.
I am not sure if you have an agents association but to allow more than 3 months to pay is something that the industry needs to address as it is fraught with moral and financial risks.