Battling to stay afloat: John Allport
J
ohn Allport isn’t feeling confident about getting the public liability cover for his jet boat tourist business renewed later this year. Like so many business owners, the hard insurance market is another existential problem to count alongside the slow-burning economic fallout from the pandemic. At the moment the Tasmanian businessman has a policy issued by an offshore specialist underwriting agency operating in Singapore. It was the only offer that came up after five months of searching when his old policy expired in April. His previous broker had approached more than 35 underwriters in Australia before the old policy ended, and the answers were always similar: no, not interested. Just as the pandemic has severely affected so many businesses, overcoming the hard insurance market – one that blindsided many after years of budget-friendly premiums – is every bit as difficult and challenging. In Mr Allport’s case, government restrictions introduced in March last year to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus forced him to close Huon River Jet Boats
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for a few months, giving him some breathing space to look for a new insurance provider. But the task turned out more difficult than he had anticipated. “We just didn’t know what was going to happen with the business,” he told Insurance News. “It was looking very much like an early retirement for me. I own the business. To a certain extent, the business is my superannuation.” His experience has left him feeling not too optimistic when his current policy runs out in October. He has made just two minor claims of under $10,000 since his business started in 1989, and during that time he has paid more than $300,000 in liability premiums. The way he sees it, the current situation is not necessarily a problem for his broker. “It’s the insurers as such and their preparedness to accept risk,” Mr Allport said. “A business might be highrisk with the activities it carries out but if it’s well managed, it is not really all that high.” But relief is a likely to be a long time coming. Insurance experts say the end of this cycle of premium
