01-01-2022, 10:51 AM
ÔÇ£When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all,ÔÇØ the bookÔÇÖs second paragraph begins in a famous passage. ÔÇ£It was, of course, a miserable childhood: The happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
Frank McCourt, AngelaÔÇÖs ashes
"What is repeatedly happening in Christchurch is many insurers denying & reducing policy holders claims, routinely refusing to pay market prices for homes & replacement of contents, use of ÔÇÿlow-pitchedÔÇÖ computer programmes to cut payouts, changes of policy coverage with no clear explanation, ignoring or altering engineering reports, & sometimes asking their adjusters to slow down claim progress or lie to customers. Then the insurers make low offers or refuse to pay at all.
They stall until claimants are so desperate that they are then prepared or forced by circumstances to accept what the insurers offer them.
Sarah Miles, (CHCH investment banking lawyer with experience in the insurance sector) The Christchurch fiasco:The insurance aftershock & its implications for New Zealand & beyond.
Such techniques have been employed before to profitable purpose. In America for example, following the devastation unleashed by hurricane Katrina in August 2005, property-casualty insurers reported record profits of up to 49 percent.
By way of illustration of that abuse & its deliberate cynicism, Miles mentions a logo that featured on the internal documents of an American insurance company, Allstate:it was an alligator, captioned simply ÔÇÿSit & Wait.ÔÇÖ"
Fiona Farrell, the villa at the edge of the empire
Frank McCourt, AngelaÔÇÖs ashes
"What is repeatedly happening in Christchurch is many insurers denying & reducing policy holders claims, routinely refusing to pay market prices for homes & replacement of contents, use of ÔÇÿlow-pitchedÔÇÖ computer programmes to cut payouts, changes of policy coverage with no clear explanation, ignoring or altering engineering reports, & sometimes asking their adjusters to slow down claim progress or lie to customers. Then the insurers make low offers or refuse to pay at all.
They stall until claimants are so desperate that they are then prepared or forced by circumstances to accept what the insurers offer them.
Sarah Miles, (CHCH investment banking lawyer with experience in the insurance sector) The Christchurch fiasco:The insurance aftershock & its implications for New Zealand & beyond.
Such techniques have been employed before to profitable purpose. In America for example, following the devastation unleashed by hurricane Katrina in August 2005, property-casualty insurers reported record profits of up to 49 percent.
By way of illustration of that abuse & its deliberate cynicism, Miles mentions a logo that featured on the internal documents of an American insurance company, Allstate:it was an alligator, captioned simply ÔÇÿSit & Wait.ÔÇÖ"
Fiona Farrell, the villa at the edge of the empire
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)