Buying Insurance on your mobile phone? Talking is Quicker!

Thank God for Bank holidays!
Apart from no nasty letters through the door, getting down to my beach and not having to go to work in the City are a small retreat from the hectic world of UK Insurance. Last week was no exception with the attempted takeover of the AVIVA General Insurance Division by the much smaller RSA (those of More >han Fame) for a paltry £5 billion!
According to the UK Insurance News this week the rationale behind this move was that there is a general feeling amongst the Insurance Illuminati that Composite Insurance companies are a thing of the past and Insurance companies should be broken up into specialist areas.
In politics they call this decentralisation. In IT it’s called distributed processing.
Whenever we get a Government in the UK that swings to the right you will get calls for decentralised power and this time it appears the doom mongerers are spreading their ill informed zeitgeist amongst the Insurance movers and shakers!
Fortunately the predominantly life insurance company AVIVA managed to laugh this takeover attempt off this time!

Boat Insurance in the UK

With warm temperatures right here in UK, water season is luring the boat enthusiasts. If you are on your boat every day or whether on weekends, you must have boat insurance at least during summer months, and beyond if possible. With this in mind Insurance Blog thought we’d take a look at the oldest type of insurance….
What is boat insurance?
Boat insurance is a custom made insurance that covers your boat and this coverage becomes applicable once you have the boat insurance policy from your preferred insurance company. You need to pay certain premium and while the policy lasts, the insurance company will cover all the expenditure that has occurred due to damages resulting from mishaps, accidents or calamities. This insurance also covers damage done by your boat to other boats or people.
Things to consider when buying boat insurance
Different companies provide a variety of policy wording and you may be confused what sort of policy you require. The cover offered by an insurance company and the service provided by it can differ greatly. Hence remember that if you buy a cheap policy, you may end up spending more money in the long run, if you make a claim. The most important points to consider before you buy insurance for your boat are:
• Third party liability: You must always go for liability insurance as this covers you in case you have caused damage to another boat or have caused injury to a person.

Bank of England is Steady at the Helm with Sensible Interest Rate

CPI annual inflation stands at 3.1 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent in June, reveals the latest Consumer Price Index showing that the market will self adjust to inflationary pressures without the intervention of monetary or fiscal policies designed to rock the boat!
The CPI fell by 0.2 per cent between June and July this year compared with no change over the same period a year ago. These 1-month changes are both within the normal range for a June to July period; since 1996, the monthly movement between these two months has varied between a fall of 0.8 per cent and an increase of 0.1 per cent.
Some myopic Internet financial analysts who have been arguing for a base rate increase for over a year are still crying foul……
“Inflation is a stealthy enemy for savers and when rates are low, it quietly erodes the spending power of a hard earned nest egg. Savers may have had a short respite from a marginal fall in inflation, but savings rates have hit a plateau and may be there for a while.
“The average one year fixed bond rate has fallen from 3.07% in January to only 2.54% today and the average five year fixed bond rate has fallen from 4.56% to 4.08% for the same period.
“The average instant access savings rate is still at rock bottom at a rate of only 0.74%. The only trigger for any improvement in savings rates may be a surprise increase in the Base rate by the Bank of England, but this is most likely not to happen soon.”

Lloyd’s Slips have come a long way to the current Electronic trading

An Explanation of Lloyd’s Slips and how they are used to place Insurance Risks on the London Market
By Dave Healey

Lloyd’s slips were originally pieces of paper containing all the details of a risk to be placed on the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, although today these are accepted electronically. Lloyd’s slips are documents in a standard format which are intended to assist not only the underwriter giving consideration to the risks presented to them but also the policy drafter and those responsible for checking and accounting for the premium. The slip has to be correctly compiled or it will be rejected.

Asbestos Compensation Claims To Cost UK Insurance Companies Dear!

Asbestos Compensation Claims Are an Insurance Industry Time Bomb just waiting to go off  – If the current law is successfully challenged!
By Insurance Blogger
The use of asbestos was banned over thirty years ago, but the UK Insurance Industry now faces a time bomb of claims from people directly or indirectly exposed to the deadly substance.
Asbestos was once hailed as a miracle product but its use has exacted a terrible price for those exposed to it. Diseases caused by ingestion into the lungs such as Asbestosis and Mesothelioma may take over forty years to become apparent, and the true cost of the substance use in damages claims, is only just beginning to occur.
Asbestos has been used by man since ancient Greece for its fire resistant properties, but even then it was recorded that slaves exposed to it were dying from terrible lung disease and breathing difficulties.
In the twentieth century Asbestos was used in all sorts of construction and manufacturing processes. In every public building you would find pipes and boilers covered with the material. Shipbuilders and dockyards were particularly prevalent in its use and it was not uncommon to regularly see old ‘laggers’ and pipe workers coughing up the so called ‘Dockers oysters’. Offices were also exposed to asbestos with the use in partition walls and suspended ceilings. In the home it was used in all sorts of ways ranging from ironing boards to car brake pads and shed roof coverings.
By far the most deadly variety of asbestos is ‘blue asbestos’ of which a single strand in the lungs can cause the deadly disease years later.

Business Insurance: Business Interruption Cover Explained

Business Interruption Insurance is usually sold as part of a Commercial Insurance combined policy or package and provides a layer of insurance against not being able to trade following a claim.
In addition to the physical loss of the claim, the financial loss to the business stemming therefrom needs to be dealt with by an interruption policy.
Formerly called ‘consequential loss’, ‘loss of profits’ and/or ‘profits insurance’, which can be misleading terms, the protection granted is in accordance with a policy formula, i.e. rate of gross profit applied to the reduction in turnover of the business in consequence of an insured peril, together with the increased costs to minimise an aggravated loss (but not exceeding the loss so saved) arising within the maximum indemnity period (as selected to be insured).
Provision is made for the accountancy definitions and the business, the premises and the insured to be defined. In any claim, adjustment can be made to the precious financial account figures so that the loss is in respect of the ‘would have been’ results that would have applied if the damage had not occurred.
The perils insured (for which there must normally be counter-part physical damage cover) can extend to include those normal to property insurances and such special perils as failure of public electricity or gas supply, loss from infectious disease for hotel and similar trades, or electrocution of cattle in farming risks.
Machinery breakdown covers can usually be arranged on selected plant. Advance profits covers can be arranged for new ventures and these may include marine transit risks.

A look at Lloyd’s Insurance Market

Lloyd’s Insurance Market originated in a coffee house belonging to a certain Edward Lloyd in 1688, which was the haunt of those concerned with maritime trade.
For many years business transacted at Lloyd’s was confined to marine insurance.

In the nineteenth century, however, a large non-marine business began to be built up, particularly business from overseas, and Lloyd’s is now a major international market in this field as well as being famous as a provider of specialist car insurance.
This organisation is unique in the world. The Council of Lloyd’s, established under the 1982 Lloyd’s Act, is the governing body and activities under its jurisdiction are governed by Acts of Parliament. Statutory regulations aimed at preserving the solvency and integrity of Lloyd’s underwriters differ from those applicable to insurance companies, though the intent is the same.

Quotezone comes out top in UK car insurance price comparison website review!

Quotezone car insurance comparison website wins praise in UK public poll

Fledgling UK Car Insurance comparison company Quotezone has beaten it’s larger rivals in a poll conducted for UK Car Insurance Television

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 12, 2010 – The car insurance television review panel, which is widely regarded amongst industry peers as the toughest and perhaps more truthful of the on-line car insurance review websites,  has unusually come out strongly in favour of two aggregator websites which compare car insurance quotes in separate independent reviews released this week.
The review team praised the small independent car insurance comparison website Quotezone.co.uk and the ubiquitous Moneysupermarket.com , however the praise was for differing reasons.
Moneysupermarket received the thumbs up from the public for it’s speed and overall ease of use and one stop shop facilities.

Smaller rival of the car insurance supermarket giant, Quotezone.co.uk received great praise for the prices of the premiums returned and the value for money of the deals  and as such may well help the fledgling website’s cause in vying for the lucrative Insurance Times and Insurance Industry media award of car insurance comparison website of the year.

Unemployment to hit North of UK First warns Specialist Insurer

As the CON DEM coalition Government budget deficit cutbacks begin to take effect, Insurance Blog asked one of the UK’s  leading Unemployment Insurance specialists to look at where the cuts are going to be made and who is going to suffer……….

UK Government Cutbacks Will Widen the North-South Divide

News of job losses continues unabated. Not so much for those employed by the house builders or major financial institutions, but further down the economic food chain. Those companies such as fashion house Ethel Austin with 300 stores predominantly in the North of England. They called in the receiver in February 2010 and have since set about closing 120 stores and issuing 1800 redundancy notices. They, like many others shedding labour, held on waiting for an upturn in the economy that never came soon enough to save them. Faced with still hesitant consumer spending, their loses continued and creditors ran out of patience. However, for the North, it is about to get a lot worse.

Insurance Industry reacts to ‘immoral’ claims farmers:

Ever since they first began appearing from murky corners of the industry back in the late nineties, ambulance chasers have never been particularly good at making friends. The thorny issue of claims farming has consistently remained on the lips of insurers and brokers alike ever since they first boomed from our TV sets advising us to sue everyone and anyone.
If there’s blame there’s a claim. The epitome of the nanny state. They exist at the heart of compensation culture. In fact they are the wholly accountable for the whole bloody system. Professional parasites feeding off us all.
As you may have guessed I’m not a fan.
Yet somehow they defiantly remain a part of the industry and worryingly it seems some brokers are leaning towards the easy ‘quick fix’ solution they can offer. Lets be honest times are tough and the majority of us are having to work that little bit harder for a hell of a lot less. With the  ridiculous increases in the FSCS being the latest over the top fee handed out to the broker community by the ever incompetent FSA, a little extra revenue from those damn ambulance chasers could prove highly tempting right now, but what is the real cost of this short term financial injection?
Trevor Cutts, business development director at independent broker network 1 Answer Network recently commented that the practice of claims farming threatened to undermine not only the claims process but also the very ‘integrity of the industry’ itself. For an industry dependant upon consumer trust, anything that can damage the broker/client relationship is of course inherently dangerous.

The Changing World of the Car Insurance Broker

The Role of Car Insurance Brokers has changed significantly over the years. Rationalisation of  the market, new technologies, new methods of working, financial regulation , call centre and demands for new products from the public,  has led to a new breed of intermediary…….
The role of a car insurance broker traditionally, is to act as an intermediary between the customer and the underwriting Insurance Company. Within this role there are various functions that they carry out in interaction both with the car insurance buying public and the Insurer with who they place the business.
When a broker places car and motor insurance risks on cover, their role has a major difference to other types of insurance in that the spread of risk is smaller. This is because a very high proportion of motor business is eventually placed on the basis of ‘one risk, one underwriter’ – that is to say, a Lloyd’s underwriter or Motor Insurance company.
When a member of the public goes to a motor insurance broker they expect that the broker should be fully aware of all the covers available and offered in a standard car insurance policy and a commercial motor policy. A broker also should be knowledgeable about the differences in policies and prices offered by the various Insurance Companies and underwriters with which his brokerage does business.

Commercial Insurance Risks Explained

If you run a small or medium sized business you will need to understand the risks that your enterprise is exposed to in order to avoid financial loss. We asked our resident insurance expert to give us an overview of Commercial Insurance risks:
Understanding Commercial Insurance Risks and Business Insurance Covers
By Dave Healey
If you own or manage a business, either large or small, you will require some type of insurance to protect your company against the various risks and potential multitude of claims, that your business will face.
Commercial insurance or Business insurance as it is commonly known, is a complicated area of underwriting and because all businesses are different, and face different risks depending upon the nature of the company, various packages and combined policy covers have been introduced by insurance companies and commercial broker schemes, to make the process easier.
An example of a small business insurance package which is commonly sold online is the Tradesman’s insurance package, which includes all elements of cover required by a small business or self employed trader such as basic liability covers and theft of tools.