Mills Insurance Solutions Pty Ltd

After nearly 40 years in the insurance industry, I'm dismayed to see the politicisation of natural disasters from both sides of politics and the media at large regarding the insurance industry and its response to claims yet again.

Albanese saying the insurers have a social license is incorrect, insurers have a license with their share holders (people like you and me) who have shares in them, mainly through our super funds to make a profit and pay claims in accordance with the legal contract entered into!

Does anybody want to see a repeat of the HIH debacle?
Local councils and state governments need to stop takng money from property developers and allowing people to build on known flood plains and in other natural disaster corridors - they know these events will happen but don't care - revenue over risk mitigation.

Windsor Downs in the Hawkesbuty region of Western Sydney is a classic example, the local council zoned it ok to build houses on even though it's a known flood plain (I lived in the area as a kid and had seen it flooded from the Nepean River several times) - now houses get damaged and can't buy the appropriate insurance at a cost effective premium.

It must be 20 years since the laws were changed so that insurance polcies for consumers buying insurance for their House or Contents had to be written in plain English so that people could understand the cover they have.

Most policies now also have access to other language versions if English isn't your first language.

It still amazes me how many people insure their largest asset but don't bother to buy the right insurance cover or even read the document that explains what they are insured for.

I couldn't count how many clients I have refused to work with over the years because they ask me to get them the "cheapest" policy even though that policy will never respond to the claims they are likely to have.

You actually get what you pay for when you buy an insurance policy (like anything else that you buy) and if you chose to buy the cheapest, you are going to get cheap protection and cheap or no claims pay outs.

The old saying of "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" rings very true in the insurance industry. You can give all of the right advice, have it ignored and then get blamed when things go wrong!

I've personally never seen an insurance company deny a legitimate claim and I recently had one that in my professional view (I told the client I didn't think it would be paid) should have been declined, but the insurer (CGU) actually found a way to pay it.

And STOP complaining about payout times. As the Insurance Council of Australia said yesterday, it takes an average of 14 months to even build a home in Australia due to the lack of tradies and access to materials. So do you think that getting a house repaired is going to be any quicker?

Most if all not all insurance policies are now on the basis of reinstatment and replacement conditions - this means the insurer has to make the damage like new. Hence why premius are increasing to cover those costs off.

Blame governments for their policies rather than the insurance industy who can't access tradies to do the work!

If you want a payout - take it at today's value - bad luck if when you get a tradie to do the work in 6, 12 or 14 months, that cost has gone up because of inflation and other government created problems.

Simple maths here. You insure your $500K House and $100K of Contents and it costs you $10K. They both get destroyed. The insurer pays you $600K for earning $10K which includes GST and Stamp Duty (Government Taxes) - net to the insurer is about $8K depending on which state you live in - so the insurer is paying out about 75 to 1 - great odds on a Melbourne Cup Winner if you could get them. Not so great for the insurer.

Bottom line is that insurance companies are doing their absolute best to look after their clients. Do problems occur - YES - but in my experience, insurers are not trying to rip their customers off!

I'm sure my colleague, the eminent Dr Allan Manning would agree with my comments.

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I think EV's may eventually be killed off by the insurance industry if they can't stop the fire exposure from the batteries.

This article is worth reading:

How safe are lithium-ion batteries? Lithium-ion batteries are in many everyday devices – but if they catch fire it can have disastrous consequences. Find out how you can reduce the risk of a fire.

A nice mile stone this year for me and one of my clients.

We have just celebrated 21 years of doing business together.

Relationships in business matter and I'm blessed to have many clients with whom I've had long term relationships.

Thanks to all of my clients for your support over the years.

One of the major providers of Cyber Liability Insurance has just advised that as of the 11th of June, they will be seeking confirmation of clients Multi Factor Authentication processes if clients want the highest levewl of Ransomware coverage.

As per their announcement;

This decision comes as a result of the dramatic increase of Ransomware claims currently being experienced by Cyber Insurers. The following are current statistics which demonstrate the need for the insurer to ensure Insureds have appropriate MFA procedures in place:
• It was reported in November 2020 that over 60% of Australian organisations suffered a ransomware attack in the previous 12 months — 10% higher than the global average*
• Ransomware gangs are now not only encrypting and restricting access to data, but also resorting to extortion by threatening to steal and either expose or sell confidential information on the dark web**
• Ransomware attacks in Australia cost businesses and the public sector up to $241 million in 2019***
• Asia Pacific (APAC) organisations currently experience the highest volume of ransomware attacks globally****
* Newsdesk, Rate of ransomware attacks in Australia well above global average — report, Security Brief, 20 November 2020
** Lily Hay Newman, Apple's Ransomware Mess Is the Future of Online Extortion, WIRED, 23 April 2021
*** Emsisoft Malware Lab, The Cost of ransomware in 2020, Emsisoft Blog, 11 February 2020
**** Shannon Williams, Ransomware attacks surge in 2021 - Triple Extortion threat comes to light, Security Brief, 14 May 2021

Anybody can be the victim of Cyber Security breaches

Major cyber security firm hit in cyber attack Red team tools stolen in the raid.

As usual, there is plenty happening in the Cyber space and I guess a lot of clients don't really understand the exposures.

I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel here, I'll simply suggest that you read the information in this link and then make contact with us to discuss your option;

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