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Insurance Companies Flooded With Claims

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Insurance Companies are being hit from both directions since torrential rain, last Tuesday, left major flood damage to be claimed.

Managing Director for Netherlands Antilles General Insurance Company (NAGICO), headquartered in St. Martin, Vibert Williams said that insurance companies in The Bahamas are now facing the task of dealing with motor and house insurance claims.
Last week’s flood left numerous cars written off and houses in the southern and eastern New Providence with serious flood damage.

“There’s going to be a larger outlay of cash by the insurance industry and I’ve already seen articles in the newspaper where some insurers were expressing a bit of concern about the impact that this could have,” he said.

“NAGICO is not worried. We have put out notices to our customers that if they have a claim, they can contact us. As long as they send us the paper work, within three to five days we’ll have their claim.”

Mr. Williams adds that because the flood would not be classed as a catastrophe, there is no deductible recovery that would work in the favor of the insurance company.

However, the managing director doesn’t feel as though the increase in claims would reflect an increase in rates.

“This is most likely not an incident that would generate significant recoveries from reinsurers,” he said.

“We’re going to have a lot of smaller losses and not massive ones as we would have in a hurricane or in multiple fires.”

“What I do expect though, is that some insurers would try to increase their rates. But in this increasingly competitive environment, you may well see insurers biting the bullet on this one and trying to hold rates stable.”

He dismissed the perception that if a person makes a claim at their insurance company that their rate would increase.

“Insurers generally apply increases in a couple of instances: one, the individual claimant is a significant repeat claimant, or two, if there is a catastrophic event for which we have to approach reinsurers and claim a lot of money,” he said.

“But if you have been a good customer and have been paying your premium and this is your first or second claim over a protracted period of time, I wouldn’t expect that insurance companies would try to increase your premiums.”

NAGICO is a new insurance company to The Bahamas and has been in the country since last year.

Written by Jones Bahamas

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