Do NZCB members have it covered?

It was great to see so many of our clients and meet some new ones at the New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) Conference and Expo in May.

We were interested to find out how confident NZCB members were feeling about their insurance cover and how often they were reviewing it, so we ran a short pulse survey at our stand.

86% of the survey respondents said they thought that they had the right level of insurance cover for their business assets such as tools, their vehicle, building supplies etc., while the remaining 14% didn’t know or weren’t sure. This was a very positive result.

Suffice to say, having the right level of cover is important, especially as the costs to replace your tools and other business assets has increased. If you do need to make a claim and your assets are insured for a lot less than what it costs to replace them then the shortfall will have to come out of your own pocket. Is it worth taking the risk, especially if you are looking at a loss of multiple tools in one event?

When was the last time you reviewed your cover?

Your personal assets are just as important as your business ones, so we asked members when they last reviewed the sums insured for their house and contents cover.

24% hadn’t changed it for a couple of years and 14% didn’t know, while only 62% had reviewed the sums insured when the policy last renewed.

Kiwis are notoriously bad for being underinsured when it comes to their personal property. It stems from our “she’ll be right” culture.

Following this year’s terrible weather events, it has sadly become even more apparent how under insured people’s home and contents are.

Contents cover has also been a particular area of concern with many people underestimating the cost of replacing their belongings. Whilst losing all your contents in a single event seems unlikely, it can and does happen as we have unfortunately seen. Under-insurance is easily remedied; usually it costs less than might be imagined to increase your sum insured, and opting for a higher voluntary excess may assist with some premium relief to off-set the increase.

Although your policy is reviewed on an annual basis, we can update your sums insured at any time during the policy period and we are encouraging all our clients to thoroughly review their home and contents sums insured.

It’s a deathly awkward subject

No one likes to talk about death or injury but is it something you need to think about, especially in an industry where accidents are likely to happen.

76% of our survey respondents have life and/or disability cover, which is fantastic, while the rest (24%) didn’t or were unsure.

If you are self-employed, and especially if you are the main breadwinner, not having income while you are injured or sick can be very stressful on you and your loved ones.

One of our clients talks about her own experience of this.

“My father was a self-employed builder who got mesothelioma (cancer caused by asbestos exposure). While he was sick his policy covered his lost income and expenses, and after he passed away it paid off the mortgage. This enabled my Mum to focus on his care and not be stressed about how she was going to pay for everything. As a self-employed business owner and a parent myself, I made it a priority to get similar cover for me and my husband through the ICIB Brokerweb Life & Health team. I hope I won’t need to use it like my parents did but it’s there if we do.”

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey. If you would like a no obligation review of your insurances give us a call on 0800 644 444.