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Insurance benefits

All sorts of communicative tools need to be mobilized to disseminate insurance policy related information to the general public
 

Nobody can predict future. Today’s billionaires may become beggars tomorrow. Today’s healthy body may fall sick next moment. Newly bought bungalow and car may crack down very next day due to natural calamities and other types of vulnerabilities. We can’t predict the next moment. 
But insurance is predictable and it will provide financial compensation to those who suffer misfortune. It gives security to human beings and property from such kind of unpredictable risks. Insurance plays an important role in individuals’ and families’ lives because it is a hedge against the loss of income following the death of an earner or loss of property. Loss of property or premature death of a family head can bring serious financial consequences because it leaves unfulfilled financial obligations for the dependents to support children’s education and to pay back the loan. Insurance is the cushion of security at such moments.

Insurance policy is an agreement between two parties—the insured and insuring company—which contains details, conditions, rights and duties and liabilities. Agreement document contains the name and address of the insured, objective of the insurance, insured amount, type of policy, term of the insurance, payments, risks to be covered if misfortune occurs and so on. Insurance companies are regarded as the non-banking financial institutions. Their major source of income comes from premium of policy holders. 

How it started
Marine Insurance was the first and Fire Insurance the second in the history of insurance. Non-life insurance companies evolved later. Life insurance covers the premature death of family members and other treatment expenses which occurred during the life time while non-life insurance covers motor insurance, household insurance, engineering insurance, aviation insurance, livestock insurance etc. Conventionally insurance was considered as a cooperative form of distributing a certain risk to persons who are exposed to it. Later on it was taken as a contract or agreement in which it is agreed that a certain amount of money will be paid as compensation in case the loss or destruction occurs due to unpredictable dangers or risks. In return the insured agrees to pay certain amount as premium. 

In Nepal, Nepal Life Insurance Company Ltd, established in 1947, was the first insurance company. Rashtriya Beema Sansthan was established in 1967, which is the only one insurance company comprising both life and non-life insurance business under government ownership. 
After promulgation of Insurance Act (1992), number of insurance companies came into the scene.  The 1990s is considered as golden period in the insurance business in Nepal. At present, there are altogether 27 insurance companies—eight of them provide life insurance, 17 provide non-life insurance and two offer both life insurance as well as non-life insurance. Most of them are private, few are foreign and joint venture companies. 

Private sector insurance comprise 72 percent share in Nepali insurance business while foreign and joint venture insurance companies occupy 12 percent.  The number is increasing day by day with more than 500 branch offices across Nepal.

Insurance business is creating capital fund and promoting development, growth and prosperity. They are collecting scattered saving of people in the form of premium and then investing it in the form of capital on a long term basis in development projects like housing, new plants, factories, shopping complex while also providing protection from various types of risks. They have stopped capital flow outside the country. 

Insurance Board has been established as an apex regulatory body to ensure transparency and proper functioning of these companies. In line with the provision of Insurance Act and Regulation, Insurance Board has adopted policy of facilitating insurance companies to invest in priority sectors.

Yet to grow
Insurance culture is yet to grow in Nepal, compared to western developed countries, where insurance business has substantially increased as a financial intermediary over the last 30 years and become one of the leading sources of investment in capital market. 

In the recent times, the government has brought Health Insurance Act which covers free access to Yoga, immunization, family planning, safe motherhood, out-patient care, in-patient care, surgery, medicines, emergency care, curative service, rehabilitation service among others. Individual, family, civil servants, migrant workers and private sector employees can enroll for this scheme. A four-member family has to pay Rs 25, 00 per year and the service provider provides for health treatment up to Rs 50,000 per year. Ministry of Health will collect Rs 425 from each additional member if the family members exceed four. The insurance act also provides security to the poor and marginalized. The federal government and local governments will be liable to bear insurance premium for them under the new set up. This is a good progress in Nepal’s insurance landscape. 
Nepal is yet to work on non-life insurance sector. Very few people are aware of these insurance policies because of poor collaboration with bank and financial institution. More awareness programs and more researches are needed. Social media, radio, television and all sorts of communicative tools need to be mobilized to disseminate insurance policy related information to the general public. We don’t have skillful and competent officials in insurance sector and we lack good provision on company insurance. This shortcoming needs to be addressed. We have small market for insurance companies. Capital or income generation problems are other challenges. Government of Nepal and insurance companies

should work together to empower the insurance companies because they are contributing to GDP growth through collection of premium and have provided employment opportunities to growing number of educated youths.

Insurance companies are important part of institutional investment as they invest in corporate securities as well as other collective investment schemes. 

The world of digital insurance

COVERONTRIP digital insurance, the first Spanish digital-only distributor of travel insurance, was presented on 4 April in Madrid, Spain, along with its community SHERPNYA, an app that will soon be available to download.

At a press conference held by Rafael Senén, CEO, and Asunción Carrasco, COO, the origin of COVERONTRIP and its differentiating factors were discussed. They said that COVERONTRIP has come to fill in a space where ‘millennials can find where to plan, share, be collaborative, play, have fun and have the best protection for their travels’.

COVERONTRIP said that it seeks to address challenges facing the insurance industry by approaching new technologies from scratch. The company also said that it has built a ‘different, digital and collaborative’ proposal around its customers that ‘expands itself throughout social media in a very special way’.

SHERPNYA, meanwhile, is said by the company to provide a space for customer s to share their travelling experiences in real time and ‘play in a world map’ while they discover new places.

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Do You Have Sufficient Auto Insurance Coverage?

Imagine getting ready to leave your house and you open your door and the rain is pouring down. Now you start to frantically look for your umbrella…. ah, there it is! You step outside, open your umbrella, and you are now protected from that pouring rain. If it were a bright sunny day with no rain in sight you probably would not even care about where your umbrella is or if you even had one! The same is true about insurance. Until you need it, do you really care about it? Unfortunately, too many people realize that they have insufficient coverage only when an unexpected incident occurs and they have to place a claim with their insurance company.

So, a logical starting point to determine if you have proper insurance coverage is to understand the basics. To ensure that you do have the proper coverage, you first need to acquire a good understanding of the basics of auto, home, personal umbrella, and life insurance coverage. For this article, we will focus on auto insurance coverage.

Auto Insurance basically covers you for liability and property damage as it relates to your motor vehicle. There are other optional areas of coverage as well, but for our discussion let’s stay focused on the basics, which are the most important anyway. Your auto insurance policy’s first and/or second pages are the declaration pages of your auto insurance policy. The declarations pages describe your auto coverage limits in numeric dollar values.

Here is a sample of what you may see on your auto insurance policy’s declaration pages:

-Bodily Injury/Property (BIPD) 250/500/100

-Limited or Unlimited

-Medical (Med) $5,000

-Personal Injury Protection (PIP) 250 w/250 Ded

-Uninsured/Underinsured (UM/UIM) 250/500/100

-Collision $500 (Coll) Deductible

-Comprehensive (Comp) $500 Deductible

-Rental Insurance (RI) 80%/1500

Let’s take a look at each of these coverage definitions and amounts in more detail.

The BIPD represents Bodily Injury (BI) / Property Damage (PD). Basically, in the example above, this individual policyholder has liability protection for $250,000 per individual or $500,000 maximum per incident, plus $100,000 in property damage to the other party’s vehicle in a collision. Liability coverage is protection for times when you have been deemed and proven negligent in an auto accident and you therefore become legally liable for the resulting compensatory and/or punitive damages to the other party or parties. The BI, of the BIPD, will cover you for negligence on your part that resulted in bodily injury to the other party or parties. BI also covers the cost of attorney fees associated with any litigation brought against you by the other party. In the above example, this person has $250,000 in coverage for all inclusive liability and attorney fees per individual injured or $500,000 for the entire incident.

The PD, of the BIPD, covers the damage to the other party’s vehicle as a result of your negligence; thus, in the above example, up to $100,000 in property damage to the other party’s vehicle or property. Now, being cognizant of the litigious society that we live in, we ask if $250,000 per person or $500,000 per incident is enough BI coverage? This is a personal decision for every individual to make depending upon their current assets and net worth, and their knowledge of recent jury decisions and awards on BI cases. A major factor affecting this decision is an understanding that you are self-insured for any amounts awarded in excess of your BI coverage amount, should the jury award compensatory and punitive damages greater than your BI coverage amount. So, in this example, should the jury award $750,000 to the individual driving the other vehicle who suffered bodily injury because you collided with them as a result of your negligence, then you are self-insured for the amount in excess of $250,000 which in this case would be $500,000. If you do not have the $500,000 to settle the award, then the judge has many other options to ensure restitution to the injured party such as: garnishing your wages, selling off some of your assets, placing a lien on your property, etc. Now, you can get an umbrella policy to cover you up to a certain amount in excess of your underlying auto BI coverage. We will look at how an umbrella policy works in more detail in an upcoming article.

Next, we have “limited right to sue” versus “unlimited right to sue” coverage. Basically, under the “limited” right to sue lawsuit option, you agree not to sue the person who caused the auto accident for your pain and suffering unless you sustain one of the permanent injuries listed below:

-Loss of body part

-Significant disfigurement or scarring

-A displaced fracture

-Loss of a fetus

-Permanent injury

-Death

Please note that choosing this option does not waive your right to sue for economic damages such as medical expenses and lost wages.

Under the “Unlimited” right to sue lawsuit option, you retain the right to sue the person who caused an auto accident for pain and suffering for any injury. Most people will choose the “limited” option because it is far less costly and it provides the ability to sue the negligent party for most major and permanent injuries. However, many attorneys will usually choose the “unlimited option” for their own personal coverage and pay the significant extra cost because they want the right to sue for any injury.

PIP coverage stands for Personal Injury Protection coverage. PIP is paid from your own policy. PIP covers medical expenses, and possibly lost wages and other damages. PIP is sometimes referred to as “no-fault” coverage, because the statutes that enacted it are generally known as no-fault laws. PIP is designed to be paid without regard to “fault,” or more properly, without regard to legal liability. PIP is also called “no-fault” because, by definition, a claimant’s, or insured’s, insurance premium should not increase due to a PIP claim. A PIP claim may be subrogated by your insurance against the other party’s insurance company if the other party was determined to be the neglligent party in the accident. PIP is a mandatory coverage in some states.

Uninsured/Underinsured (UM/UIM) is coverage from your policy that may pay for injuries to you and your passengers, and possibly damage to your property, when as a result of an auto accident the other driver is both legally responsible for the accident and determined to be “uninsured” or “underinsured.”

An uninsured driver is a person who has no auto insurance coverage, or had insurance that did not meet state-mandated minimum liability requirements, or whose insurance company denied their claim or was not financially able to pay it. In most states, a hit-and-run driver is also considered an uninsured driver as it pertains to paying for injuries to you or your passengers.

An underinsured driver is a person who had insurance that met minimum legal requirements, but did not have high enough coverage limits to pay for the damage caused by the accident. In these situations, UIM coverage can pay you for your damages. It is important to note that uninsured and underinsured is separate coverage, although in many states they can or must be purchased together. Some states mandate purchase of UM/UIM, but many do not.

Collision coverage insures you for damage to your vehicle. No matter if it is a collision between your car and another car, or your car and a stone wall. You are covered if your car sustains damage as a result of colliding into something or something colliding into it, whether you are at fault or not. Your deductible will usually apply. If you collide with another vehicle and the other party is at fault, then your insurance company may subrogate the claim against the at fault party’s insurance company to recover the claim amount.

Comprehensive (Comp) basically covers what collision coverage does not. When your car sustains damage that did not result from colliding with another motor vehicle or object, the comprehensive portion of your policy will pay for the damages. If you do not have comprehensive coverage then you would have to pay out of your own pocket for any damage to your vehicle not related to a collision. Here are the perils typically covered by comprehensive auto insurance coverage: fire, theft, vandalism, broken or damaged glass, animal inflicted damage, falling objects, storms (hail, wind, etc.), and water damage. Your deductible will usually apply.

Rental Insurance (RI) is coverage for you to rent a car while your vehicle is being repaired because of a covered incident. In the above example of declaration page values, the 80%/1500 means that you have coverage for $80 per day and $1,500 maximum total cost to rent a car while your vehicle is being repaired. This is an optional coverage that many people take, but some do not.

Well, that is it! That is the basics of understanding your auto insurance coverage. Not so bad, right? Now that you understand the basics of auto insurance coverage you can review and analyze your personal auto insurance policy’s declaration page coverage information while taking into consideration your personal financials to determine whether or not you have sufficient coverage.

Stay tuned for future articles that will explain the basics of understanding homeowner’s, personal umbrella, and life insurance coverage. You never know when it is going to rain!

Joseph Rubino, Agent

NJ Licensed Property & Casualty, Health, and Life

Smokers Can Qualify for Life Insurance Without Taking A Medical Examination!

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Smoking will have a negative effect on life insurance prices. Clients who smoke will have to pay more for a life insurance policy. Smokers who have health problems may not be able to qualify for life coverage.
No medical exam life insurance plans may be the best option for clients who smoke. Smokers can qualify without taking a medical examination. They will have to complete a single medical questionnaire.
Comparing quotes is the best option for finding affordable plans. Clients can compare life insurance quotes online and for free.
Marriagelifeinsurance.com is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.
Marriagelifeinsurance.com is owned by Internet Marketing Company.
For more information, please visit http://www.marriagelifeinsurance.com/.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/smokerlifeinsurance/noexamlifeinsurancequotes/prweb12261345.htm

The ins and outs of today's insurance prices

Let's face it – nobody enjoys writing a check to their auto insurance company. The same goes for that chunk of funds that gets taken out of your paycheck to pay for your health insurance. We could all imagine spending that money one hundred ways other than on insurance. However, if you have ever been in a severe car accident, or had an emergency appendectomy, you realize the importance of insurance. Without insurance, incidents like these could easily cost you tens of thousands of dollars and have a negative impact on your financial situation for many years to come.
A number of residents have recently contacted our Consumer Services division to express their frustration about rate increases. I would like to explain my role as Insurance Commissioner and the role the Department of Insurance (DOI) plays in regulating the insurance market in Delaware.
DOI exists to regulate the state's insurance market, protect consumers, and ensure that the insurance carriers who operate in our state are able to generate enough income to remain solvent and pay claims when claims come due. It is my duty as the Insurance Commissioner to strike a balance between protecting consumers and ensuring that the insurance companies are able to operate a stable business model. When insurance companies see that Delaware provides a fair and balanced approach to regulating the insurance markets, it attracts and retains good companies that compete for your business.
Here's how the process works when an insurance company seeks to increase its rates: According to Delaware law, companies may not charge rates that are "excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory." Insurers submit rate filings with supporting data to DOI for review. A rate filing might request an increase, or sometimes a decrease. Generally, insurance rates tend to rise at least a few percentage points from one year to the next simply because the cost of making repairs to automobiles or the cost of administering medical care tends to rise over time. Medical care costs in Delaware particularly have surged over the last few years.
My staff at DOI reviews the rate filings and our own actuaries review the supporting data to see if the rate change is justified by the circumstances. Before making a decision on rate changes, I review all of the data submitted by the insurance carrier and the reports from my actuaries and staff. After careful consideration, and sometimes discussion of alternatives with the insurer, I then approve or deny the request. I keep the residents of Delaware in mind as I go through every step in this process because I know that the numbers I'm reviewing will have a direct impact on the wallets and pocketbooks of tens of thousands of individuals.
The rate I approve is a base rate; when computing the actual cost of your auto, home or life insurance coverage, insurers may consider individual factors like driving history, distance to a fire station, or tobacco use.
How exactly do the insurance companies come up with the rate requests that they submit? The various insurance sectors (life, health, auto, home, etc.) use complex formulas to predict future costs. Insurers consider data from past claims and other state-specific factors, such as state-required minimum levels of coverage, the percentage of uninsured drivers, the likelihood of severe weather that can cause accidents or damage buildings, the state's legal climate, and the level of competition among insurance companies.
What can you do to keep your rates low? The most important thing to do is to shop around and compare prices. NerdWallet, a consumer finance website, found that drivers can save as much as 32 percent on their auto insurance by comparing prices and shopping for insurance. We all shop for the best prices on food, clothing, cars and other necessities – insurance should be no different.
(If you have any questions about your levels of insurance coverage, or to see a breakdown of the costs that make up your premium, contact your insurance agent/broker or HR department. If they are unable to help you please call our Consumer Services division at 1-800-282-8611 or utilize the resources on www.delawareinsurance.gov.)

Millions are Losing Their Health Insurance

"If you like your health insurance you can keep it," Barack Obama promised the voters on many occasions.
About 20,000 part-time employees of Home Depot recently found out how false that promise is. The company announced that it is ending its health insurance coverage for its employees and sending them to the new health insurance exchanges.
They will be joined by employees of McDonald's, Disney, CVS Caremark, Staples, Blockbuster, and many others.
A lot of these employers have mini med plans with limited coverage. McDonald's, for example, has a plan that limits health insurance benefit to $2,000 but gives employees the option to pay a higher premium and get $3,000 or $4,000 of coverage. At Home Depot, the coverage reaches $5,000. The state of Tennessee, under TennCare, used mini med plans with a $25,000 annual cap on benefits.
Mini med plans typically have no deductible. They usually charge a modest copayment for physician visits and drugs. But if a McDonald's employee goes into a hospital, the co-insurance rate is 30% and the plan's benefit cap will probably be blown right through after the first 30 minutes of admission.
These plans are being abolished under ObamaCare and if the employees end up in one of the new health insurance exchanges they will get subsidized insurance that will look very different. For one thing, the premium the employee pays will double and for many it will more than double. Then they will face, say, a $1,500 deductible for individual coverage. Surprisingly, if the employee goes into a hospital he faces a 20% copayment (comparable to the mini med plans!), but the total out of pocket exposure is limited to $2,250.
Now, which of these plans is better? For the orthodox health policy community, this isn't even a serious question. That's because they live in neighborhoods and associate with people who would never even consider buying mini med coverage. And, remember, imposing one's worldview on others is 90% of what liberalism is all about.
But would you be surprised to learn that there are many people who would find the mini med plan more attractive?
Let's begin by asking why anyone wants insurance. In every other field, the answer is obvious. Insurance protects assets. Life insurance protects the value of human capital. Fire and casualty insurance protects homes, cars and other structures. People are willing to pay a premium to transfer the risk of a financial catastrophe to others. The same should be true in health care as well. Health insurance is a way of protecting one's financial resources against the expense of a catastrophic illness.
But if you don't own a house, you have no need for homeowners insurance. If you don't own a car, you have no need for auto casualty insurance. Similarly, if you have no assets at all (other than your human capital) why would you want health insurance?
For low and moderate income households, the reason why mini med plans are attractive seems to be this: People living paycheck to paycheck have trouble maintaining a reserve for unexpected medical expenses. So as an alternative to personal savings and higher wages, they appear to be willing to take less in take home pay in return for a modest amount of health insurance.
Okay, all that is rational. But what would be irrational is to buy a health insurance plan with an unlimited benefit ? one that, say, is able to pay a $1 million medical bill. Why would you buy a million dollars' worth of coverage, if you don't have a million dollars of assets to protect?
In the modern era, a perverse idea seems to have dominated the health policy community. The idea is that the purpose of health insurance is not to protect assets. It is to provide access to health care.
That might make some sense if it were really true. But the fact is that we have made it extremely easy in this country to obtain health insurance after you get sick. More than 90% of all the people with health insurance are in a plan that cannot deny them admission because of a health condition. For the elderly and the poor, it's 100%. In saying what I am about to say, let me preface by saying that I am aware that there are many very, very bad studies claiming that health insurance saves lives, improves health, etc. But when serious scholars have looked at this question, the reasons to think that health insurance affects mortality or health status are few. If health insurance affects health at all, the effect is marginal.
So, back to the original question. If you are making say, $15, $20 or $25 an hour, the ObamaCare plan is unlikely to look very attractive. Yes, it provides catastrophic insurance, which the mini med plan does not. But if you have a catastrophic medical event without ObamaCare insurance, odds are that you will be able to rely on the social safety net ? uncompensated care or even Medicaid. And if that doesn't work, odds are that you or a member of your family will be able to sign up for an employer plan that pays full expenses.
People with modest incomes are going to need help from others if they have a catastrophic medical event. What's the best way of getting help? Is it by obtaining subsidized health insurance with high deductibles and high out-of-pocket payments? Or is it through obtaining help to pay medical bills after the event occurs?
Ironically, the very people that ObamaCare is designed to help may be the ones most hurt by its enactment.
But I am open to the possibility that I am wrong. So let's entertain a market test. Instead of abolishing mini med plans, let people choose between those plans and ObamaCare's mandated benefits. Let's give people what they want.

World Takaful Conference begins tomorrow

More than 400 key players and thought leaders in the global Takaful industry will be gathering on the 15th and 16th of April 2013 in Dusit Thani, Dubai, for the 8th Annual World Takaful Conference (WTC 2013), according to a press release from its organisers. Held under the theme “New Strategic Imperatives for the Takaful Industry: Sustaining Growth and Boosting Profitability”, WTC 2013 aims to set the stage for discussions that will strive to improve the competitive performance of Takaful players and will also seek to identify and capitalise on the new growth drivers for the global Islamic insurance industry.

Speaking ahead of the event, David McLean, Chief Executive of the World Takaful Conference, noted that “the global Takaful market has shown strong growth in the last few years. Driven by increasing consumer awareness and improvements in the quality of products and services being offered, the global Takaful industry has seen a significant increase in its market share. With tremendous growth opportunities yet to be fully tapped, the international Takaful industry is poised to enter a new phase of major growth in the coming years and therefore it is essential to ensure that strong foundations are in place to fully support this growth. A critical challenge facing the industry is that a large number of Takaful operators are finding it difficult to sustain financial performance due to the increase in competition. Though the overall outlook for the global Takaful industry remains positive, it is essential that the mounting challenges posed by increasing competitive pressures and declining underwriting profits combined with the reduction in investment income need to be immediately tackled so that the industry can maintain its exciting growth trajectory.”

McLean also added that “the Takaful industry, like any other growing industry, is facing a number of challenges such as balancing a growth drive with sustainable profitability, the need for skilled professionals, an enhanced regulatory and prudential framework and a deeper pool of Shari’ah-compliant investment opportunities all of which need to be urgently addressed.”

The World Takaful Conference 2013 will be officially inaugurated with a special opening keynote address by Jeff Singer, Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai International Financial Center Authority (DIFCA). Confirming his participation at the event, Jeff Singer said that “the global Takaful market has shown strong growth over the last few years. The key factors underpinning this growth include the development of supporting regulatory frameworks, favourable demographics, growing affluence, the growth in organized savings and the overall development of the international Islamic finance industry resulting in greater availability of Takaful and Islamic finance products that meet the needs of end-users. However the key challenges for the global Takaful industry remain efficiency, profitability and scale. In order to ensure the long term stability of the global Takaful industry, it is essential to find innovative solutions to manage the challenges of an increasingly competitive Takaful market, drive operational efficiencies and improve the financial performance in the industry.”

He also said that “the theme for this year’s World Takaful Conference (WTC 2013) - “New Strategic Imperatives for the Takaful Industry: Sustaining Growth and Boosting Profitability” is important and timely as the Takaful industry globally is evolving rapidly and there is tremendous growth potential.”

“I am delighted to be a part of the debates and discussions at the 8th Annual World Takaful Conference (WTC 2013) in Dubai that will seek to achieve the full potential of the global Takaful industry”, he added.

The inaugural session will be immediately followed by a keynote plenary session featuring Zainudin Ishak, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Amanah Takaful (Malaysia) and Chairman of the Malaysian Takaful Association; Chris Wei, Group Chief Executive Officer of Great Eastern Holdings Limited; Hussein Al Meeza, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Islamic Insurance and Reinsurance Company (AMAN); and Parvaiz Siddiq, Chief Executive Officer of Noor Takaful. The session, which will analyse new strategies for sustaining growth in the global Takaful industry, will address the challenges of slowing growth rates and competitive pressures and will assess how Takaful operators can effectively manage the shift to profitability.

A key highlight of the 8th Annual World Takaful Conference (WTC 2013) will be the exclusive industry leaders’ power debate featuring an exceptional cross-section of international thought leaders in the global Shari’ah-compliant insurance industry. The session chaired by Irshied Tayeb, Regional Head of Insurance Services - Middle East & North Africa, Bin Shabib & Associates and featuring Dr. Bassel Hindawi, Immediate Past Insurance Commissioner of Jordan;  Shahril Azuar Jimin, Senior Executive Vice President / Chief Commercial Officer of Maybank Ageas Holdings Berhad; and Azim Mithani, Chief Executive Officer of Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad, will discuss practical solutions to overcoming the key obstacles to the further development of the global Takaful industry.

Featuring ground-breaking original research insights, WTC 2013 will also include the exclusive onsite launch of the Global Family Takaful Report 2013 and the World Islamic Insurance Directory 2013. The Global Family Takaful Report, developed by Milliman, will provide research insights into the performance of Family Takaful offerings, the future direction of the market and new opportunities for the growth of Family Takaful across key international markets, while the World Islamic Insurance Directory, jointly published by Takaful Re and the Middle East Insurance Review, will provide a snapshot of the global Takaful scene, with an insight into financial and management data of Takaful and Re-Takaful operators in key markets.

Speaking ahead of the launch of the Milliman Global Family Takaful Report 2013, Safder Jaffer, Managing Director & Consulting Actuary - Middle East & Africa, Milliman, noted that “with global family Takaful contributions currently estimated at US$2 billion, Milliman projects a 260 per cent increase within the next five years to US$5.2 billion. At a global level, the growth in Family Takaful continues to outweigh the growth observed in both general Takaful and conventional life insurance.”

“Following the successful launch of the first ever Milliman Global Family Takaful Report 2011, the feedback we got from practitioners was overwhelming and consistent –the industry needs to distinguish ‘Family Takaful’ from ‘General Takaful’. Whereas General Takaful is still exploring avenues to find its feet in the market, the success of Family Takaful has been solid particularly in South East Asia”, he said.

He also noted that “the 2nd Milliman Family Takaful report provides an update of  the overall market trends, a specially focused insight into the developing Indonesian market, which has witnessed significant growth in Family Takaful during recent years, and a focus on distribution in key Takaful markets in the Middle East and South East Asia. We are delighted to be launching this report at the 8th Annual World Takaful Conference (WTC 2013) and we look forward to discussing the findings of the report with the international industry leaders at WTC 2013.”

WTC 2013 will feature more than 35 leading industry partners and exhibitors showcasing their latest innovations at the World Takaful Exhibition organised along the sidelines of the conference. The exhibition will be officially inaugurated on the 15th of April.

Commenting on their participation at WTC 2013, Christian Gregorowicz, Chief Executive Officer of NEXtCARE said that “the global Takaful industry has shown strong growth in the last few years, with many new market entries, and has seen a significant increase in its market share in key countries, backed not only by increasing awareness and improvements in the quality of Shari’ah compliant products, but also with the a growing demand of Islamic financial solutions. To realize its full potential, it is essential for the Takaful industry to ensure long term operational and technical profitability. The way forward for leading operators is to focus on improving operational efficiency which will contribute towards enhanced financial performance.”

“We are delighted to be supporting the World Takaful Conference 2013 and we hope that the discussions at this key industry event results in identifying strategic initiatives that the industry must adopt to build on and sustain its long term growth", he added.

Ten Tips for Buying the Right Insurance in 2013

Most people buy insurance the wrong way. They buy it piecemeal. They buy a little bit of this here and a little bit of that there. They buy too much in some areas and not enough in others. Then, when there is a serious claim, their insurance coverage often fails them. If your New Year's resolution for 2013 is to fix that, we have some tips that can help you accomplish it.

Homeowners insurance

Tip 1: If Hurricane Katrina wasn't reminder enough, along came Superstorm Sandy in 2012 to remind everyone that homeowners policies do not cover flooding. The policies cover those homes destroyed by fire, and homes damaged or destroyed by a storm. But they do not cover flooding. If you are exposed to any chance of severe flooding, even if you don't live anywhere near a body of water, talk to your agent about flood insurance and check out the government flood insurance website at FloodSmart.gov.

Tip 2: If you work from home even part time, you need to add an endorsement to your homeowners insurance called "incidental occupancy endorsement." Homeowners policies, besides covering your building and contents, also cover personal liability, including liability for guests injured on your home premises. But they do not cover injuries to those who come onto your premises for business purposes. That includes not only businesses that have regular visitors to the home -- such as yoga instructors, piano teachers or day care providers -- it also includes injuries to the occasional visitor, such as a co-worker or delivery driver who's dropping off some work from the office and falls on your icy driveway in the winter and gets injured. No coverage. How much does it cost to add this nifty endorsement? Less than $30 a year. For that small price, it's silly not to have one.

Tip 3: Speaking of liability coverage, be sure to standardize your liability limits on all your policies -- auto, home, cabin, boats, etc. I recommend no less than $500,000. Remember, if you injure someone seriously, you will get sued for all the medical bills, for the lost wages they incur, and for pain and suffering.

Just the medical bills alone can easily reach $500,000 in a serious accident. If you have any income or assets that you are concerned about losing in a lawsuit, add an extra layer of protection on top of your basic policies in your insurance portfolio -- called an umbrella policy -- of at least $1 million or more. A $1 million policy costs about $200 a year. I consider it the best buy in the insurance business.

Car insurance

Tip 4: Most people are underinsured for lawsuits. The most common limit I see is $100,000 per person. That won't even cover the medical bills in a serious accident. The minimum liability coverage that anyone with any assets or income to protect should be carrying is $500,000 to $1 million or more. If your liability limits are low, contact your insurance agent right away and get those limits raised to more realistic figures. Raising liability coverage is surprisingly minimal in cost.

Tip 5: When you raise your liability limits on your car insurance, don't stop. Raise your limits on your home, cabin, boats, snowmobiles, etc., to the same amount. You don't know where the lawsuit may come from. You want the same amount of money protecting you, so it won't matter where it comes from.

Tip 6: Raise your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your car insurance to the same levels as your liability coverage for people you hurt. It's estimated that 10% to 20% of all drivers have no insurance. I guarantee you that these are not the drivers with perfect driving records. Since we can't control who hits us or how much insurance they have or don't have, buying high limits of this coverage is the only way we can ensure that we and the loved ones riding with us get fairly compensated.

Tip 7: Save money by dropping collision and comprehensive coverage of older vehicles you can comfortably afford to replace without car insurance. Make sure you save enough money to make it worth the risk.

Save money on insurance by self-insuring more of the small losses on your vehicles with bigger deductibles. Not only does it save money, but it also reduces the number of small claims you file, thus keeping rates as low as possible now and in the future.

Life insurance

Tip 8: Remember that buying life insurance is an act of love. It's the only insurance policy that you can buy where you are not collecting on it. For a family of four, financial experts recommend that survivors of one parent's death make do with 7.5 times income. I recommend 10 times income. The extra cushion will allow the surviving parent to work fewer hours and spend more time with his or her children. Nothing can replace the emotional loss to the family. Don't compound the pain by adding financial stress to the picture.

Tip 9: For a young family getting started financially, I recommend term life insurance as the most cost-effective way to provide the most money for the lowest premium. Lock in the price for at least 20 to 30 years. And make sure the policy is convertible to a permanent policy, so if at the end of the term you find that you still need life insurance and can't qualify for it medically, you are assured you can convert.

If one spouse is a homemaker, carry at least $250,000 to $500,000 in life insurance on that person. Buy an amount high enough so the surviving working spouse can be more available to the children and still hire replacement services such as a nanny.

Tip 10: It's quite common for employers to provide some life insurance for their employees as a company benefit and at the same time offer them supplemental group life insurance on a payroll deduction basis. What most people don't realize is that the costs for the supplemental life insurance are quite a bit more than a healthy nonsmoker will pay on the open market for the same amount of coverage. The tip here is to not just buy group life insurance because you assume it's cheaper. It probably isn't. In addition, when you leave the company or the company closes down, so does your life insurance.

Sri Lanka give 'IPL' Malinga insurance for future?

Sri Lankan cricket selectors have shown they lack foresight by appointing Lasith Malinga as deputy to Angelo Mathews who was named as the team's Twenty20 captain.
Mathews was an automatic choice having served as deputy to Mahela Jayawardene who stepped down after the World Twenty20 final.
"It’s a good time to bring in a new captain who can ease into the job and quietly take control of the team," former Sri Lankan cricketer Russel Arnold wrote in his column in islandcricket.lk, while talking about Jayawardene's resignation.

"In the T20 format, Sri Lanka can start looking forward to the 2014 World Twenty20 and build a team in that format. The new man can be groomed slowly to learn the pressures of the game and be allowed to grow into the role. At the end of the day, Test cricket is the tougher challenge, so some experience will always help for the future.
"I see no other candidate other than Angelo Mathews for the job."
Although chief selector Ashantha de Mel also hinted they were considering forming a separate T20 squad with an eye on the next World Cup in 2014, they have opted for experience by giving Malinga a leadership role.
Malinga has been a great servant of Sri Lanka cricket but the 29-year-old pace ace he certainly doesn't represent the future.
Big-hitting all-rounder Thisara Perera would have been a better choice since he is 23 and has many more years of cricket left in him.
After Sri Lanka's batting imploded during the World Cup Twenty20 final against West Indies, even De Mel suggested that in future he would plonk for batsmen who could sixers.
Perera fits the bill perfectly for the truncated version of the game because of his ability to clear the ropes easily as an impact.
World Cup winning West Indies captain Darren Sammy also affirmed that Twenty20 was increasingly becoming a batsman's game.
Perera has become a vital cog in Sri Lanka's one-day and Twenty20 team which goes in his favour unlike the other two prospective candidates for the vice-captaincy Jeewan Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal.
Picking Malinga goes against the grain of thinking of grooming a young T20 side for the future.
He represents the failed past and is likely to be an unpopular choice of Sri Lankan fans angered by his affinity with the IPL (Indian Premier League).
Having retired from Test cricket to prolong his career because of a knee injury, Malinga's prima donna attitude on the field has not gone unnoticed.
He even angered a Sri Lankan fan in Dubai when they were here for the series against Pakistan who was ignored completely when he sought an autograph after bumping into him in a shopping mall.
Are the selectors giving him insurance by appointing him as vice-captain for one year?
Arguably his skills are on the decline, even allowing for the fact that he had a bad day in the office during the World Twenty20 final.
"The year 2012 hasn’t been particularly happy for Malinga. There have been a number of highs for him, but there also have been occasions where he has been taken to the cleaners – something that was considered impossible at a point in time. It wasn’t the number of runs he conceded, but the manner in which he was demolished by some of the batsmen was astonishing," wrote cricket analyst Nishad Pad Vaidya in cricketcountry.com website.
"It is baffling that a bowler of Malinga’s calibre has conceded runs at such a haemorrhaging rate on four occasions in ODIs this year. To concede over 70 runs in a ten over spell is expensive in the fifty over game and there have been instances where he has breached that mark without completing his quota," he added.
His decline began when India's Virat Kohli took him to the cleaners.
"Malinga’s expensive burst came back to haunt Sri Lanka at the worst possible time – the final of the ICC World T20 2012," he pointed out.
Malinga finished with figures of 4-0-54-0 having conceded 50 runs in the last three overs.
"In hindsight, that was the difference between the two sides as Sri Lanka collapsed under the pressure and all the good work put in by the other bowlers was in vain," summed up Vaiyda.
Malinga may be the second highest wicket taker in the T20 format and the darling of Mumbai Indians, but the question is whether he is still a potent force for Sri Lanka to appoint him vice-captain.

John Cleese: Why I love having insurance

John Cleese: Why I love having insuranceMy dad was an insurance salesman. He started in Bristol when he left school at 15 and then, after fighting in the First World War, sold marine insurance in Bombay, Hong Kong and Canton, until he returned to Somerset in 1924 to work for a big company called Guardian Assurance. Every year, he sold more life insurance than anyone else in the company. The reason for his success? He was a kind and decent man and all the solicitors and bank managers in Somerset liked and trusted him. So if one of their clients needed insurance, they'd say: "Oh, give old Reg Cleese a call. He won't try to sell you too much."  As a result, I grew up with the unquestioning belief that insurance was a "good thing," and this was long before I realized how unpredictable life was. Robin Skynner, the psychiatrist, once said to me: "People always think things are going to go according to plan, despite their lifelong experience that they never do." One business guru advises us to "expect the unexpected," thus proving himself a complete prat since the moment you expect the unexpected, it ceases to be unexpected. It is now expected, and so becomes exactly what you are expecting. On the contrary, the frustrating thing about the unexpected is that, there you are going along, expecting the expected, and things are happening just as you expected, and then, just when you least expect it, it happens. It's an alarming thought and the only way to sleep at night is to get insurance. Or so I've always believed.  Take last January for example. My lovely then-girlfriend-now-wife and I were on holiday for a week. And at that moment, all that mattered was that we had a week together. We arrived in our room and there in an ice bucket was a bottle of champagne. We settled on the sofa, I took the bottle, removed the foil and gently unscrewed the wire securing the cork. As I put the wine on the table and turned to the bottle to ease the cork free, it shot out of the bottle at the speed of light and right into my eye. There was blood everywhere, because as it turns out, my eyebrow had been cut by the wire in the cork. Thank God, it hit my eyebrow, not my eyeball.  Never before had I seen a cork shoot out of an ice-cold, completely unshaken bottle of champagne without a little help from my thumbs. There was no way of anticipating what happened. But, I had a broad-ranging, personal-injury-while-travelling-abroad policy with no champagne-cork exclusion. So if the cork had struck an inch lower, at least I could have had my eye mounted properly.  And so, I love insurance! Especially if I am travelling in the United States of America, where becoming a doc-tor is a quicker way to inconceivable wealth than starting a hedge fund. Tom Lehrer, the U.S. satirical song-writer and mathematician, once told of a friend who entered medical school to study "diseases of the rich."  My experience of American doctors came early, in 1965. I was touring in a musical called "Half a Six-pence" with Tommy Steele. I woke up one Sunday at 5 a.m. with a terrible, agonizing toothache. Some-how, I found a dentist in Boston who was prepared to see me. I shook his hand, sank into the dental chair with a cry of relief and pointed to the offending molar. He examined it and embarked on an exploration of the rest of my dentition, making many disparaging noises as he completed the tour. He later explained that X-rays were going to be necessary. I agreed, they were taken, and after a prolonged period of study, he outlined a course of treatment involving crowns, bridges, root canals and so on. Finally, he shook my hand and informed me we could start at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning.  Incidentally, it is not widely known, but several of the most notorious pirates who operated in the Caribbean had excellent American medical qualifications. For this reason, if you are travelling abroad, and especially if you are visiting the U.S., you should take out appropriate medical insurance.  A final thought: I wish insurance companies would offer a policy that would cover me in the event of my forgetting to take out a policy. That would bring real peace of mind.  John Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer known for his work with the comedy troupe Monty Python and the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. In B.C., he can be heard on the radio in ads for Pacific Blue Cross, B.C.'s largest provider of health, dental and travel benefits. He wrote this as part of that campaign.

Japan to Stop Using Nuclear Power, Get Giant Monster Insurance

TOKYO- The Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, announced that his country will be discontinuing the use of nuclear energy and will also be shopping for giant monster insurance policies.

The decision was widely expected after the disastrous earthquake that left the Fukushima power plant a veritable spawning pool for giant radioactive monsters.

Right: Image appears courtesy of Heather Gillam. Click to enlarge.

Yoshihiko Noda explained to reporters “We can no longer live in fear for these disasters. Japan’s terrain is not stable enough to safely procure nuclear energy. With giant fissures left after the earthquake and the nuclear waste that was trapped in them, there is no telling what possible giant creatures could be incubating underground. That is why I am moving to protect Japan now, and in the future by purchasing a suitable policy.”

Leading economic experts agree that this is the suitable choice for Japan.

“There is no doubt that the Japanese people have endured an unprecedented level of tragedy,” explains president of Global Insurance Specialists, Damon L. Nasman.

“But they certainly don’t deserve any more trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. Uncertainty is still a continuing problem, especially in regards to the question of weather or not giant mosters will be produced from the amount of radiation the island has been exposed to. This is the best course of action for the country, although their premiums will be considerably high.”

Japan’s Defense Minister, Satoshi Morimoto praised the move by the parliament. He stated, “I am not sure if the Japanese military would be capable of defending the country agains such a monstrous attack. Also, there is no way to depend on one of the monsters feeling empathetic towards humanity enough to defend us from the others.”

There is speculation on the actual applications of the policy.

The Minister of Economy, Yukio Edano, warned his fellow country men of the dangers associated with such an abstract insurance policy. He advised that caution should be shown to assess the individual policy plans to make sure they cover “all damage,” not just damage cause by offending monsters, but damage caused by monsters alligned with the Japanese people as well.

“Insurance companies are in the business of making money. It’s not that I think this idea is absurd, it’s that I want the Japanese people to realize the rates we will be paying for a disaster that may never come to be. I just want the parliament to adequately pay for a program that we need, and not pay for any extra features like roadside assistance or settle for a company who offers them an appliance for signing up. This is serious business.”

There have not been any reports or sightings of giant radioactive monsters in Japan as of yet, but that hasn’t stopped citizens expressing their fears of a possible giant monster battle tearing apart the streets of Tokyo.

Yoshihiko Noda issued reassurance to the population of Japan by stating, “Your government has your interests at heart. We know that the threat of giant monsters is a fear consuming every one, but do not worry. Your government is protecting you.”

Health insurance exchanges: The big unknowns

Physicians navigating the world after health system reform are headed toward a large, uncharted area over the horizon in the form of health insurance exchanges. The coverage marketplaces will serve millions of people, but with few predecessor models to serve as guides, doctors wondering what the exchanges will be like for them are, for the most part, sailing blind.

Health insurance exchanges are scheduled to emerge by 2014, at which point individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for a variety of plan options, including coverage that might come with federal subsidies. Forming competitive marketplaces is a major way in which Affordable Care Act architects intended not only to expand coverage to tens of millions of people, but also to restrain cost growth in the system.
The move from plan to implementation, however, so far has not produced many hard details. In an attempt to have exchanges up and running by October 2013, when open enrollment would begin for the 2014 coverage year, the Dept. of Health and Human Services set a deadline of Nov. 16, 2012, for states to submit exchange blueprint proposals. The leaders of some states opposed to the reform law that created the marketplaces have said they have no intention of submitting proposals, and others might need to rely at least in part on the federal government to get their exchanges up and running.

• Physicians on board?
• States provide some glimpses into health insurance exchanges
• See related content

States are very independent, and health care in particular is very local, said Kevin Counihan, chief executive officer of the health insurance exchange being developed in Connecticut. He expects that 13 to 15 states will end up crafting their own exchanges, about 10 may pursue joint federal-state partnership exchanges and 25 others may default entirely to a federal exchange.
Republican governors have expressed their hopes that a change in White House and Senate control after the November elections will enable a repeal of the ACA before such a federal marketplace is set up for residents of their states. Any deadline delay or other major change to the exchange rollout would need to come out of Congress and be approved by the president.

Will doctors help call the shots?

Some states, such as California and Maryland, have moved relatively quickly on the state exchange option, said Jenna Stento, manager in the health reform practice at Washington consultant group Avalere Health LLC. “They’ve adopted legislation, have boards set up, and are already making key policy and operational decisions to get their exchanges operational by the deadline.”
Some have called for physicians to be on the boards determining how the marketplaces are set up and maintained, saying doctors can offer relevant input on how health insurance should operate. State-based exchanges are the only ones that might have boards to oversee their operations, said Timothy Jost, a professor at Virginia’s Washington and Lee University School of Law. Federal exchanges “will have some form of stakeholder consultation, but I don’t think it’s clear yet on how this will happen,” he said.
For states that do decide to establish governing boards, certain conflict-of-interest requirements may prevent certain doctors and other health care professionals from serving on them.
Federal exchange regulations issued in March “neither require nor preclude physician representation,” Jost said. What they specify is that “you have to have a majority of board members who are not conflicted, and you have to have at least one consumer representative.”
For example, an accountable care organization or another physician group that markets services that will be offered through an exchange could pose a conflict of interest if someone from that organization were to serve on the exchange board, Jost said. In interpreting these federal rules, some states expressly have excluded practicing doctors from participation, Stento said. Others, however, “have either allowed for or explicitly include a role for providers on the board, and that’s in a voting role.”

How involved do physicians want to be?

The American Medical Association has advocated strongly for the inclusion of practicing physicians and patients on the governing structures of health insurance exchanges. But to avoid a conflict of interest, some states will allow only nonpracticing doctors to serve on the boards.
One such nonpracticing physician is Robert Scalettar, MD, MPH, former chief medical officer of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, who serves on Connecticut’s 14-member exchange board along with consumer advocates, an economist, experts with insurance industry and social services backgrounds, and representatives of unions and small businesses. Although there was no allowance for a practicing physician, there was a designated seat for someone with health system delivery expertise, Dr. Scalettar said.
“I was selected for that position as a former practicing primary care physician with experience in various practice settings, including community health center, hospital-based practice and multispecialty group practice, each serving diverse populations and associated with multiple payer arrangements,” he said.
The Connecticut State Medical Society believes the board would have benefited from enlisting a physician who is practicing medicine, someone “with a knowledge of the health care delivery system and dealings with the insurance industry from a physician’s point of view,” said Ken Ferrucci, the society’s senior vice president of government affairs.
It wouldn’t necessarily be a mistake to have more physicians represented on exchange boards, said Jon Kingsdale, PhD, managing director of the Boston office of Wakely Consulting Group, a health care strategy and actuarial consulting group. Still, he questioned whether there was much of an intersection between medical practice and a board that essentially will govern an insurance entity.
“I know that doctors are experts on many different things related to health care, but I’m not sure that most states are seeing a physician’s role [or] clinical knowledge as particularly relevant to insurance regulation and financial oversight,” Kingsdale said.
Massachusetts is a health system reform pioneer that already has an operational insurance marketplace. Although they were pleased that the exchange has helped boost the coverage rate, physicians in the state haven’t been all that involved in its insurance operations, said Richard Aghababian, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Some states have tried to engage physicians by creating advisory committees that don’t have voting authority but that present recommendations for the board to consider. Physicians and other health professionals in Colorado, Maryland and Nevada, among others, are represented on such advisory panels, Avalere’s Stento said. Several practicing physicians serving on Connecticut’s advisory councils played a significant role in helping to select the essential health benefits that all plans on the exchange will be required to offer, Counihan said.
Lawrence Downs, the Medical Society of New Jersey’s CEO and general counsel, said the society has been very vocal with the sponsors of exchange legislation in the state about the need for its governing board to have physician and clinical representation. “If that’s not possible, there needs to be a specific clinical advisory group to the board so that information can be present during deliberations,” he said.

How will exchanges affect practices?

Whether or not practicing physicians are involved in the formation and maintenance of health insurance exchanges, they soon will discover how well the marketplaces work for their practices as well as for their patients who are receiving care through exchanges.
The Connecticut State Medical Society’s Ferrucci said physicians in the state are hoping for a seamless transition to the exchanges. Connecticut typically has had very few insurance carriers. The hope is that new offerings on the exchange will loosen the concentrated market and encourage competition, giving consumers in the state more options, he said.
“It would be nice if there was no intrusion into the physician-patient relationship. By and large I don’t think there will be,” Ferrucci said. The more consistent plans in the exchanges will be, “the easier it will be for physicians to provide services to those patients.”
Some states, such as California, may end up with an “active negotiating exchange” that issues competitive bids and puts significant downward pricing pressure on plans, Stento said. Such a model could pose some risk that physician payment rates will become “more constricted and may look a little bit more like Medicaid,” she said.
A state exchange board also might adopt a more passive approach that allows all plans to enter the marketplace, Stento said. The concern to physicians under this scenario is that “there could be some significant beneficiary confusion in terms of picking a plan and getting enrolled and navigating their benefit design, if there’s too much variation,” she said. In conversations with health professionals, she said most seem to prefer an exchange model that allows for some managed competition but doesn’t impose overly stringent regulations that push down pay rates.
The hope and belief of reform law architects is that these exchanges are going to move the system away from situations in which one insurer is controlling the vast majority of the market, Jost said. “And we’ll get to a situation where insurers are more actively competing with one another.”
But he said one of the ways insurers will cope with this change is to establish very narrow insurance networks that offer less costly coverage options. Doctors may find that they aren’t a part of popular networks, and some patients will find that they can’t stay with their current doctors if they want those services covered.
The low-cost, narrow network possibility “is something we’re starting to hear rumblings about in the exchanges,” Stento said. “I think it’s going to be a cost-conscious market, and so plans are going to be designing benefit offerings that can capture maximum enrollment.”
That’s one route insurance plans already have taken in Massachusetts, where insurers chose a select number of physicians and offered a lower-cost plan. That product ended up being a sought-after option in the state, Stento said.
Doctors aligning themselves with those top payers and being in a good position to be preferred members of the network “could be important in navigating the plan dynamic in these new marketplaces,” she said.

Berth of Mansard marks new era in insurance industry

The CBN had in 2010 directed all banks to divest from non-core banking businesses, which include insurance, pension funds management, brokerage firms, mortgage banks and other interests. The CBN said in the policy dated October 4, 2010, that any bank that intends to keep such interests must evolve a holding company that will hold all of the companies including the bank. The objective of the apex bank directive was to allow professionalism in the financial sector, away from universal banking structure introduced in 2004, which made banks to put their hands in all pies with the intention of being a one-stop shop. Among the insurance companies affected by the development were: Oceanic Insurance Group, Zenith Insurance, Intercontinental Wapic Insurance, Guarantee Trust Assurance Company Limited, Unity Kapital Assurance Limited, ADIC Insurance Limited, Union Assurance Limited, First Life Assurance Company Limited, Sterling Assurance, Finsurance, as well as Spring Life Assurance Company Limited. In his view about the CBN directive, Shehu Mikail, national president, Constance Shareholders Association of Nigeria, agreed that the repeal of the universal banking system was necessary to enable the banks concentrate on their core business of banking, thereby promoting professionalism in the industry. Opportunity for investors The direct implication of the CBN policy was the creation of investment window for some foreign investors who are searching for opportunity to penetrate the Nigerian market considered juicy. Before the expiration of the deadline on April 3, 2012, almost all insurance companies, which were either wholly or substantially owned by banks, were bought by local or foreign investors. Wema Bank divested its stake from GNI, through a management buyout arrangement; Diamond Bank divested from ADIC Insurance, Skye Bank also divested its stake from Law Union and Rock Insurance and Crystalife Assurance, Oceanic International Bank, now Ecobank plc, divested its stake from Oceanic Life and Oceanic General Insurance, selling its shares to a South African firm. International interest in GTAssur now Mansard Guaranty Trust Bank was said to be one of the earliest banks that commenced divestment from its insurance subsidiary, Guaranty Trust Assurance plc. Last year, following changes to the universal banking concept, Assur Africa Holding, a consortium of three European Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), and two Private Equity (PE) firms acquired a 67.68 percent shareholding in GTAssur, resulting in a need to change the company’s corporate identity - now called Mansard Insurance plc. The DFIs are: FMO – Netherlands Development Finance Company (Holland), DEG – German Investment Corporation (Germany), PROPARCO – French Development Finance Company (France). It is gathered that both FMO and DEG are rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s, the world’s leading rating agency. Rebranding, as Mansard berths The significance of rebranding is that it refreshes a product. Experts say that companies that don’t employ rebranding strategies at the right time often find themselves slipping away from competition. The importance of maintaining a strong brand image means always catering to consumer needs. Basically, rebranding is said to be associated with developing a new look, feel, or energy, even for your product, service, business. A successful rebranding effort is built on the concept that a brand has to occupy a place in a consumer’s mind. The importance of rebranding has never been so critical; with new management, new enhanced technology released almost daily, business needs to respond quickly to maintain the image associated with the latest products, new trends and to retain confidence. A brand is built through an internal processing of its brand’s DNA based on empirical research. It was on this concept that Guaranty Trust Assurance plc, one of Nigeria’s foremost insurance companies, was rebranded Mansard Insurance plc. The rebranding marks the conclusion of the company’s evolution from a subsidiary of a leading Nigerian bank into an independent insurance company. Mansard Insurance was incorporated in June 1989, and has gone through many phases including a nine-year ownership by Guaranty Trust Bank, which ended in 2011, with the acquisition of majority shares by Assur Africa Holding. Mansard Insurance was listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in November 2009, and its market capitalisation is currently N16 billion, making it the insurance company with the highest market capitalisation on the NSE today. Over the last eight years, Mansard Insurance has grown its turnover at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 85 percent in an industry with a CAGR of just 16 percent over the same period. The company has progressed from being in 97th position (in terms of market share) out of 103 insurance companies existing in 2003, to a joint third position out of 50 insurance companies in 2011. This growth has attracted the attention of analysts from across the world. In September 2010, Global Credit Rating Company of South Africa rated the company A+ for Claims Paying Ability and B- for Issuer Credit Rating. In the same year, AM Best, the world’s leading specialist insurance rating agency, gave Mansard Insurance a B rating for International Credit and BB+ for Financial Strength. Also, Agusto & Co gave it a rating of A+ for Credit Risk. These ratings, according to the management, are the highest received by any insurance company in Nigeria. Little wonder the company received the Marketing World award for Brand Excellence in 2011 and Web Jurist adjudged Mansard’s website as the best for Site Content and Technical Structure. Early this year, Mansard received a Great Place to Work award as being the third best place to work in Nigeria. In the words of Tosin Runsewe, chief client officer, “Mansard is another word for a roof. A roof is a symbol of protection. The concept of a roof speaks to the consistency and dependability that our brand has with our customers. Our customers are safe under the Mansard Roof.” He concluded his new brand introduction by stressing that “While GTAssur has evolved into Mansard Insurance plc, the same company continues with the same people having the same values. “The new brand also brings back from our past the colour green, which was the primary colour of Heritage and the old Guaranty Trust. Yet, green is also the colour of growth, the colour of spring, of renewal and rebirth. It renews and restores depleted energy. It is the sanctuary away from the stress of life, restoring us back to a sense of well-being. Green is the great balancer of our mental, emotional and physical energies, which is why there is so much green on our planet. As in nature, green leaves are an indication the plant is still growing. It is also the anticipation of things to come. Green represents the future, as Mansard Insurance represents our future.”