Despite our best intentions to protect the people and assets that are dear to us, often we don’t think about the finer details of risk management and the quality of our insurance arrangements until it is too late.
A more proactive upfront approach to risk management should help keep your insurance stress free and make the best use of your valuable time.
Today, as personal lives become more complex, due to increased and varied lifestyle activities, extensive global travel and diverse ownership of assets around the globe – keeping track of your insurances can prove challenging. This could result in insurances becoming fragmented and you missing out on the benefits and savings that can be achieved through a port-folio approach. Worryingly, having separate insurance policies in place may also lead to gaps or overlaps in cover.
It is not until an incident such as fire, theft, loss or damage happens that we really know how good our insurance arrange-ments are. It is the responsiveness and ability to minimise the stress of difficult situations that defines the true value of an insurance programme.
A well-thought out insurance programme should always con-sider suppliers and contractors to minimise delays. Drawing on the skill of specialist advisers, where appropriate with prior knowledge of specific property and features, will help restore and replace a customer’s property as quickly and painlessly as possible.
How certain are you that your current insurance arrangements truly reflect who you are and what you do? The best way to make sure is to conduct a thorough risk management review to check your cover is appropriate, up-to-date and reflects your needs.
This is where impartial professional insurance experts can help you to see your risks more clearly and advise you on the best solution for you. They will navigate the insurance market and secure insurance cover for your individual circumstances and lifestyle.
The first step in any effective risk management review is to identify the risks and understand what impact they could have. Once a risk is known and the extent of the threat it could pose to wealth, possessions and well-being is quantified, steps can be taken to manage the risk giving you peace of mind.
A risk management review will also help identify areas that need careful attention – a typical example being underinsurance. A key factor behind underinsurance relates to the inheritance of possessions. Probate valuations are typically far lower than the replacement cost and this disparity in value becomes greater for items that have been passed down through generations.
The global spread of personal assets often presents its own chal-lenges, particularly if people choose to insure their assets locally.
This may mean overcoming language barriers, navigating issues with local legislation, foreign currencies and banking protocols. People may also experience lower levels of cover com-pared to insurance secured in the UK and exchange rate f luctua-tions may impact claims settlements.
One risk area that is sometimes overlooked is that of identity theft and personal safety. With an increasing reliance on tech-nology coupled with a general lack of awareness of personal security, this raised many people’s risk exposure to identity theft and personal safety. It does not require much effort or detective work on the part of the fraudster to come up with a convincing insight into a victim. Yet, how many people take proactive meas-ures to combat this issue either as a discreet review of their travel patterns and lifestyle or as an ongoing focus?
Marsh Private Clients understands the insurance challenges and risk issues for clients with significant assets and global lifestyles. We provide expert risk management and insurance advice to help safeguard the quality of life of individuals and families. Our approach is based around personal advice, cus-tomer choice and service. We are part of Marsh, a global leader in insurance broking and risk management.