Industry developments
The industry is never short of news and we monitor developments closely to ensure your coverage remains appropriate.
- We are seeing premium increases for material damage insurance which have been driven by higher than expected losses as a result of natural catastrophes. These increases are highest in Queensland and Northern New South Wales and are being implemented by all insurers. If you are affected by this then we will always benchmark your insurer to continue to ensure that you receive coverage which is competitive in the market.
- The Victorian State Government has abolished their insurance fire services levy and replaced it with a broad based property tax, which means cost savings for our Victorian based clients this year.
- Medical indemnity insurance premiums are generally flat or slightly lower with upward pressure from low interest rates, more than offset by a benign claims environment and competition. However, MIGA has recently bought Invivo and this may lead to upward pressure on premiums, especially for some current Invivo customers. Accordingly, we will be seeking negotiate with MIGA or obtain alternative quotations for all of our affected clients.
Business insurance
New clients often approach us with the expectation that we will save them money, and we often do on a “like for like” basis. However, it is also clear that most medical and dental professionals are uninsured or underinsured, especially with respect to their business insurance and specifically with regard to:
- Practice medical indemnity insurance;
- Business interruption insurance; and
- Management liability insurance.
Legal liability claims made against your practice or business interruption following damage to your premises can be ruinously expensive to your business and to you personally, which is why we suggest that instead of looking at your insurance expense, consider instead your maximum potential loss. If we have not reviewed your business insurance needs to date, then please let us know if you would like a complimentary and no obligation review so that you can protect your hard earned equity in your business and sleep easy.
Practice medical indemnity insurance
Experien Insurance Services has been granted underwriting authority by two market leading insurers to be able to quote and issue policies for practice medical indemnity insurance thereby speeding up the service process for our clients.
The insurance is critically important if you have an interest in a practice in which multiple doctors provide medical services, as the doctors’ individual medical indemnity insurance generally does not extend to protect the practice in the event that there is an administrative error, a clinical mistake by a non-medical employee, or a fault in the equipment or premises provided by the practice for its doctors. If your practice doesn’t have this in place, call us for a discussion of your risk exposures and an indication of the likely cost to get covered.
Individual medical indemnity insurance
We would also like to remind you that we have relationships with all most of the major medical indemnity insurers and can easily establish whether you are receiving value for money with your insurance or not, and we can ensure you maintain protection for your retroactive or “tail” exposure if you switch insurers.
New CEO
Experien Insurance Services has recently appointed Clive Levinthal as its new CEO. Clive comes from ClearView where he held the position of Head of Life Insurance, Wealth products and Underwriting. Clive was previously General Manager, Product Management at CommInsure, where he had responsibility for products covering life insurance, general insurance and a wide range of superannuation and investment products over 11 years.
“I have seen Experien Insurance Services go from strength to strength over several years and I am excited to join such a professional organisation with an exceptional team,” said Clive upon his appointment.
New Australian Financial Services License
Experien General Insurance Services Pty Ltd has recently been granted its own Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) and will commence trading under this license (for its general insurance services) with effect form 1st April 2013. This is testimony to our growth as a business and enables us to implement our own more efficient back-end systems that will improve our documentation, turn-around times and also offer more modes of payment for your convenience, including full credit card merchant facilities, PostBillPay and BPay, via an Internet payment gateway. Please find attached our new Financial Services Guide, which includes the details of the new license.
Help a friend or colleague?
If you have benefited from our services why not refer us to a friend or colleague for an obligation free consultation? If you refer anyone to us in relation to business insurance, medical indemnity insurance, life or income protection insurance before 30th June this year we will reward you with a $50 gift voucher.
We trust that this update has been of value to you and we intend to provide you with a regular update of our business and services. Please do not hesitate to call either Clive or myself if you have any questions or would like to talk to us about any of your existing insurance arrangements. Remember, we are here for you.
