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Coping with whatever nature throws our way
Coping with nature throws The true value of a broker is well and truly spotlighted during a natural disaster. Natural disasters are part and parcel of living in Australia, but whereas once they were relatively infrequent occurrences, today they seem to be almost part of everyday life. The foods earlier in the year, which afected south east Queensland and the northern coast of New South Wales, were Australia’s costliest food disaster to date. According to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), the event has, to the end of May 2022 cost $4.3 billion in insured losses – making it the fourth most expensive natural disaster ever in Australian history. With claims still being lodged, however, that fgure will continue to rise and could surpass the record $5.57 billion of insured losses from the 1999 Sydney hailstorm.1 “From my perspective, the severity and duration of natural disasters seem to be increasing,” says Luke Smith, Head of Property Short Tail Claims at Allianz. “The Lismore foods, for example, are the worst natural disaster I’ve seen in 25 years, because you’re talking about a whole town that’s impacted.’’ For anyone working in insurance, the ability to be on the ground to help in the aftermath of a natural disaster is paramount, and Smith says it’s vital to ensure you understand the challenges your customers are facing and what they’re going through. “In the case of the Lismore foods, we got up there as quickly as we could, and we heard harrowing stories of everything from loss of life to loss of property. Houses were fully submerged, and people just didn’t know where to start,” Smith added.
Claims were submitted as quickly as possible, but three months later, Smith says there are still an average of 150 claims per week being lodged. SUPPORTING CLIENTS THROUGH NATURAL DISASTERS The value of insurance and insurance brokers is something that is only truly realised when an incident occurs. Steven Hill, a Brisbane-based director at Capital Innovation Insurance Group, was faced with the unenviable prospect of not only helping his clients deal with the impact of the fooding but managing the repercussions of his home being afected, too. “On the Sunday morning, I had a call from a client, who’s also a friend, to tell me that water was entering his basement. I went over to help him try to slow that down, and in the meantime, water started to come into our house,” he explains. “It rained so heavily, and water got into places and buildings that it never had before. Water continued to come into our home during the afternoon and by the evening it was coming into the other side of the house, too.” Of course, as well as managing his own situation, Hill had his clients to think of, and on Monday morning he began contacting every one of them. “I just got my client list and began calling them to see if they’d experienced damage and if they needed to make a claim. “Those who had experienced damage were ecstatic that I’d called and we were being proactive enough to call them rather than them having to call us,” Hill added.
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https://insurancecouncil.com.au/resource/2022-food-cost-continues-to-rise/
