With sadness we witnessed several accidents occur during the holidays this year not only at sea and in the air, which were not only limited to property damage reflected in financials such as the cost of replacing the aircraft and the ship “Norman Atlantic”, but caused the loss of so many human lives that can not in any way be replaced and evaluated by numbers.
To deal with such catastrophic situations, having the appropriate and fullest insurance cover with the right insurers is vital. The existence of insurance coverage will allow insured members to cope with the difficult and economically devastating financial obligations arising during these situations and the insurers will guide them because of their experience on how to handle the multiple problems that will arise and they have to deal with.
In incidents such as the fire at the “Norman Atlantic” and the fall of the aircraft, operators/owners have to deal with huge organizational rescue problems and compensation for:
1. Loss of lives of passengers and crew.
2. Compensation for rescued passengers and crew and possible accidents.
3. Compensation for personal belongings of passengers and crew.
4. Compensation for cargo.
5. Third party (ships) fees that took part in the rescue of the passengers.
6. Salvage for lifeboats that took part in the rescue of the ship.
7. Repair of the damages on the ship or compensation for the ship as a total loss, as well as the aircraft.
It is understood that if there is no proper and adequate insurance coverage it is certain that most or all of these payments can’t be met with equity, since they reach hundreds of millions of dollars. In such cases, the necessity for the appropriate insurance coverage with the right insurers and the valuable assistance a proper insurance advisor can provide to the insured is obvious.
The Greeks have not yet acquired insurance consciousness and are not widely insured. For the accidents that unfortunately occurred a few days ago as I mentioned above, the total compensation for all persons and entities, entitled to compensation, are estimated to be between $ 300,000,000 and $ 700,000,000.
Everyone can understand that the owners of companies without insurance could have become insolvent.
But with the existence of both the insurance organization, that covers the civil liability of the owners/managers for the lost lives, will compensate the passengers and will pay the costs of the ships that helped rescue the passengers, as well as the ship’s insurers that will cover the salvages and the damage or the total loss of the vessels, the charge of owners/ managers will be limited only to the same exemption, where applicable, which is a fixed amount that may be borne by the company without it being shaken economically.
Let us now transfer the above accident to the insurance coverage of an apartment.
One can argue that fire or theft cover for an apartment is not necessary and therefore will not buy one. What can a fire cause to my apartment? I will restore the damage myself. That is not right and shows lack of insurance awareness and risk knowledge simply because the fire can be extended to the above or adjacent apartments and cause not only physical damage but also the loss of human lives for which the owner of the apartment that caught fire has the civil and criminal responsibility to restore and/or to compensate for the damage. Here we can see and understand how necessary it is to have an insurance policy for the apartment that covers not only damage of the apartment itself, but also cover the liability of the owner against third parties and the compensation for the loss of lives. Suppose that the apartment is not insured and the owner can’t afford to repair the damage. He can easily rent another apartment and move there. But if he has to face third party payments he will then be completely destroyed.
For this reason I believe that everyone should have insurance awareness and begin to buy insurance policies, not to make rich the insurance companies but in order to protect ourselves and our families from such disasters. At this point I must emphasize that the help we can get from an experienced and proper insurance agent is important because it will help us, with only a small amount of money to buy the necessary covers for our case.
from Michael Vourlidis, Managing Director MINIMAR Insurance Brokers
