Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) provide a “yeah, right” moment

In a media release dated the 11th of December ICNZ have taken the opportunity to reassure us all “ claims that insurers have sought to delay or avoid payments in Christchurch are urban myth”.

A page of superficial and un-researched arguments tell us everything that has been experienced or observed is not delaying tactics – it is actually insurance companies working flat out to sort and settle claims as fast as they can.

For those of you involved with commercial insurance here is some great news, you are an untold success story:

While much focus has been on residential claims, the untold success story is with commercial insurance where more than half of all business insurance claims are now settled.

Tucked in at the very end of the media release are a couple of sentences about why premiums are going up and the new way residential property is going to be insured:

Recent major global catastrophes and historically poor returns on long-term investments needed to meet new catastrophes are reasons why reinsurance costs have forced premiums up. To retain global reinsurance support, insurers will shift from open-ended home replacement polices to fixed sums and as always will continue to ensure policy contracts stand up to audit scrutiny.

They don’t seem to be desperate to alert us to major changes in the industry, do they?

The news release is here.