Page 26 - Insurance Times July 2024

ardly stated are true or else the axe is applied to reject the anomaly. Unfortunately the ocean is too big and people
claim. No matter the proposal is filled in haphazardly by the continued to get claims and insurers continued to synchro-
agent in earlier situation for procuring the business. In a health nize them.
insurance policy the answer to sufferance of hypertension a
neglect in reply debars payment of claim. Many people are Moreover the person insuring takes insurance as too simple
deprived of claim for such reckless reply. and insurance being a contract that catch a duty on the in-
sure to follow policy conditions subsequent to taking insur-
When every thing is right and the client feels at ease he is ance, neglects that his agent would do everything in settle-
shown another sword indemnity. The settler sees the value ment of claim and enters into complication to disqualify him-
of property deprivation etc to reduce the claim as much as self from the claim. In a case where a big textile showroom
possible. When the stage is passed the settler says that " valued in crores was insured under a fire policy for years and
your claim is settled no doubt to the minimum" he says that at one time when the policy expired on 31st midnight faced
the remains of damaged items has to be returned as sal- a big arson on the wee hours of the next day. The policy
vage. It is famous that the insured is placed in the same lapsed leaving the insured in helpless condition. This situa-
condition of loss, as it is the popularly said insurance is for tion was an experience and after some years a big iron fac-
making people protected. tory whose insurance policy was expiring on 31st March and
when my manager approached for renewal, the chairman
Finally the person insured says "oh lord it is easy to insure of factory told him that since the insurance is effective from
but difficult to get claim that is why to repeat "insurance 1st April he will give the premium check at early hours of
people are shylocks"" the office. When my manager told me this aspect I said that
the policy expires at midnight and there will be no insur-
In order to remove such misconceptions the insurer has to ance till 10AM when the office opens. Thus there is no in-
train the agent to get the information from the insured from surance for about 10 hours, I then said no one will guaran-
the angle of details of property, the purpose for which it is tee that there is no accident as it happened in the case of
insured and the details of the person insuring with all sin- textile showroom. The manager immediately rushed to
cerity and for this the proposal form is designed but the chairman and recited the same event. In a minute the
agent makes a simple job as though all claims will be paid chairman understood and gave him the premium check.
without difficulty. Since the agent is interested in getting Thus it is necessary that the insurance lacks awareness and
commission and ignores unsuitable proposals which bring the always rights over the agent that he is doing favor at the
insured person into complication and financial sufference in time of insurance, but this makes him disabled at the time
the unit of loss. At the same time the insurer shows no mercy of claim.
at the time of settlement of claim for this the government
An interesting claim came before me where the car owner
had wisely nationalized insurance in 1973 and brought out
a compromising deal in classifying the claims into three cat- said that an ass kicked his car and four doors were dam-
aged and he claimed repay charges. Surprisingly I questioned
egories
him "was your car damaged by the kick of the ass which
1. Standard claims which are satisfactory in respects
has kick on one side of the door and it went to the other
2. Non standard claims which come in the category of not side and kicked the other two doors". He thought that it
fitting in cofinancial of policy conditions
was easy to make all sides of claims when he was made
3. Ex-gratia claims which are destitute of settlement but aware that If the ass kicked the door will kick on one side
deserve some sympathy in settlement, maybe due to only and if it is man will go to the other side to damage other
business conditions or innocence of the Clement two doors .On this the owner of car was answer less. How-
ever only damage of two doors were allowed and he qui-
All the most it is required that awareness among the insur- etly accepted it.
ing public to create an awareness that insurance is for their
protection and as a financial help to save him from a big In another case the bus owner taking the pretext of the ac-
loss. In service of insurance industry, as a faculty as well as cident and replaced the entire hood of the bus and when
claim settler, it had been my effort to create an awareness the claim was sent to me for approval I detected the pho-
both in the public as well as the staff to remove this tograph of the damaged bus showed 18 windows where as

24 July 2024 The Insurance Times