Insurance is the industry on which all others are built, according to Jo Plumeri, Chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings plc in his address to The Insurance Conference 2012 held earlier this year. Plumeri noted, “Without insurance nothing flies, nobody works, nothing gets built, nobody moves, nothing moves.” The value of the insurance industry has been proved again and again after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina when the insurance industry honoured claims to the value of $34 billion.
The insurance industry must, however, constantly evolve to manage risks, both to business and persons, as they change. There are new threats in this day and age which people would not even have considered insuring against 10 or 20 years ago, for example, pandemics, terrorism and climate change which are all very real now. It may also be necessary to insure against damage to your or your company’s reputation, cyber-theft and a financial crisis in the 21st century, risks which weren’t even thought about a few decades ago.
A recent example of this comes from the raging inferno that jumped from house to house along the canals of Cape St Francis in November 2012. Officials said at least 100 homes in the coastal town were gutted, forcing scores of residents to flee their homes. Some 76 buildings were completely destroyed. Claims for this damage were way over R30 million. This does not include residents loss of income or any injury caused.
According to Pulmeri, Insurance brokers need to be forward thinking in order to ensure that their clients are still in business in five or ten years’ time by mitigating the risks facing their operations through comprehensive insurance.
Contact us to ensure that all possible risks you might encounter are covered.
Kind Regards
Gavin Courtenay
Managing Director
SATIB Insurance Brokers
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