Short Term Premiums On The Rise

When? Insurance companies review their pricing, risks and products regularly. In terms of pricing, your insurance premium is likely to increase when you renew your policy yearly, regardless of insurer or whether you have had claims or not. Price increases, other than at renewal, occur when insurers are forced to take more drastic action based…

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Risk Management and Your Risk Profile

This is the first in a series of articles on the important role Risk Management plays in insurance. Let’s take a trip down the insurance memory lane. In the beginning, insurance was invented to spread the financial risks of an event which could cause severe loss or damage. Ships sinking and the Great Fire of…

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Risk Management and Buildings

This is the second article in our Risk Management series. Winter is on its way in the Western Cape. Broadly speaking, heavy rain results in a vast amount of damage to buildings in South Africa every year. Some of this damage can easily avoided be practising basic risk prevention i.e. weather proofing the building BEFORE…

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Reasonable Care

Risk Library

The recall of the Ford Kuga in South Africa, due to the clear increased fire risk posed, is certainly good news if you own one of these vehicles. This event is also a good example of the application of the general condition of reasonable care, which is present in virtually all insurance contracts.  This condition essentially states that…

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No Policy Covers Everything: Part 2

In part two of “no policy covers everything”, we are going to explore some of the common uninsurable events and exclusions that often raise their head. Some Common Uninsurable Events or Exclusions On a high level, all reputable insurance companies select their clients and charge premiums, based on the clients risk profile(or the clients’ attitude towards risk).  Your risk profile is demonstrated in the way you take care of your…

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No Policy Covers Everything: Part 1

In this first part of “no policy covers everything”, we are going to deal with three “inconvenient truths” about insurance. Inconvenient Truth One: Before You Buy Insurance Before you purchased insurance through Chadwicks, you would have been asked many questions and sometimes insurers asked you to complete a proposal form. In addition to answering these questions accurately and truthfully, you would…

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Late Notification May Mean No Claim

All short term insurance policies contain a clause detailing the procedure when submitting claims. In general terms this clause compels you, the Insured, to give your insurers notice, as soon as reasonably possible, of any event which may give rise to a claim. But the claim may never materialise…? In our experience a frequent reason…

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International Cargo Risk & Insurance Considerations

Companies who import goods from overseas countries need to carefully consider their terms of sale (which are usually Incoterms 2000) when deciding to insure the international cargo risk themselves or via the seller (terms of sale are then usually “CIF” or similar). Insuring your imports on a “CIF”  basis through the seller can have serious uninsured…

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Innovation and your Personal Insurance policy

It is a well known fact that the technology age has paved the way for many exciting innovations, fundamentally altering the manner in which goods and services are consumed. Good examples are platforms like iTunes, Uber, Snapscan, and Airbnb. What probably is less well known and appreciated, is the impact such innovations have on your…

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House Contents: Be warned, Underinsurance penalties can be severe

Recent statistics revealed that South Africans with Household Contents insurance are Underinsured by a whopping 77% and even more alarming is that extent of this Underinsurance is  61%! So what is Underinsurance and why do insurers insert this penalty in their policy contracts? Underinsurance Defined Insurers add a clause to their contracts which stipulates that…

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