Shortterm

This type of insurance is used to protect your “contents of your residence” against certain insured events. Imagine you get home and find that your home was broken into and some of your personal belongings were stolen? Or worse yet, you get home and find that the fire brigade is trying to put out a fire and it is your house?

This type of insurance will cover you for much more than just the two examples mentioned above and this will differ from one insurer to another. Therefore it is important to read your policy document where all of this is clearly stipulated.

Contents insurance can be extended to cover the following at an extra cost if needed:

Extension for limited Bed and Breakfast cover.
Stock-in-trade of your home industry.
Accidental damage.
Subsidence of landslip.

One very important thing that most clients forget is that there can be certain requirements the insurance company can impose on you, to accept your specific risk. Example: The Insurer may require minimum security like burglar bars, security doors or a linked alarm system. This will depend on the claims experience of the insurance company. What I mean with this is that in some areas there will be stricter requirements than other areas in our country.

Clients make a very common mistake when they decide on the amount they want to insure their contents. Let me explain: If your contents is insured for example R100 000 and the replacing value of everything in your house is R200 000, then the insurance company will then also not pay the full amount of the claim. They will impose the “average” principal on the claim. This means that if you insure only half of your contents the insurance company will then only pay half of your claim because you also paid half the contribution for your contents.

It is therefore important to do an inventory of everything in the house on a regular basis so that your contents are insured for the correct amount.

This insurance will cover you for the loss or damage to clothing and personal effects normally worn or carried by or on a person. This can also be sporting equipment normally worn or carried or used by a person. We call this “Unspecified All Risk”. The following items are not covered under the unspecified all risk above and needs to be specified as a specified all risk item: Mobile communication devices and accessories (e.g. cellular phones, mobile date cards, satellite navigation system receivers, GPS’s)

Computing equipment (e.g. laptops, notebooks and palmtops)
Portable gaming equipment
Bicycles and wheelchairs
Theft of clothing from a washing line at your premises
Surfboards, kite boards, paddle ski’s, kayaks, canoes, surf skis, windsurf boards and sail boards
Jewelry

Any property more specifically insured, e.g. sunglasses or a leather jacket, to name a few.

It is important to read your policy document because in this document the insurer will name the items that needs to be specified. It can differ from one insurance company to the other.

This is a very short description on how all risk insurance works and what it is. This is very important because all of us carry on a daily basis a lot of value with us away from our homes. Just calculate the value of our personal possessions with you at any given time. If you go on holiday, you take a lot of personal possessions with you AWAY from your home. These items will then be covered under either, “unspecified” or “specified” all risk insurance.

Your vehicle is one of our more expensive assets and you need to insure this because you can loose the full value of your vehicle in one insured event, like an accident, theft or hijacking.

There are a few levels of cover for your vehicle and this is very important to insure it for the correct one:

Comprehensive Insurance: this is the highest level of insurance for a vehicle.
Comprehensive Insurance, excluding theft or hijacking: this will cover your vehicle for the most insured events but will exclude both theft and hijacking. This is not a popular way to insure a vehicle. This is only used if your vehicle does not comply to the required security standards for theft. Theft will therefore be excluded until the requirements are met, then you will be allowed to change it to Comprehensive Cover.
Limited Cover: the insurance company will cover you for accidental loss or damage ONLY if it is caused by theft or fire.
Third Party Only: This type of vehicle insurance will only cover amounts you are legally liable to a third party for, relating to his vehicle in an accident.
Third Party Insurance is normally used for older vehicles with low retail value. It is always better to insure your car as comprehensive as possible, but it is according to me, very irresponsible to use a vehicle on the road without at least Third Party Insurance. Look at this example:

You drive to work and did not keep the following distance, because you are a bit late and when you apply the brakes and bump into this brand new Bentley of Mr. Millionaire. In this case you are at fault and you do not have any insurance. Not even cover for Third Party events! What will happen next is Mr. Millionaire’s car will be towed away by his insurance company and they will fix the damage to his car because he is insured under the Comprehensive Insurance section. The total damage is R400 500. His insurance company will hold you liable for this and if you do not have insurance for 3rd party on your vehicle, you will have to pay the damages out of your own pocket.

If you enjoy Comprehensive Insurance on your vehicle, companies will also provide you with cover for the following:

Tow-in cost and safe guarding of the vehicle.
Some companies will also provide you with “emergency repairs” to allow you to continue on your journey if you have a mechanical breakdown. There are limits to these claims.
Delivery after repairs: some companies will also compensate you for the reasonable cost to deliver the vehicle to your address. There are even more benefits you may add to ensure peace of mind.

It is also very important to insure that your car is insured for the correct “Use”.

What I mean with this is what you use your car for, like:

Social Use: You use the vehicle only for social trips. This type of insurance does not cover trips to and from work.
Private Use: This includes social use, but will also provide cover to and from your place of work.
Professional Use: This type of use is suitable for people like doctors and some other professional occupations. This vehicle is used for social and private purposes, but is also used every now and then for trips to a business site, e.g. to do an inspection or when a doctor uses the car from his surgery to the hospital. This means the car will only be used every now and then for a trip relating to his professional occupation.
Business Use: This type of insurance is for people that use their car on a daily basis for their occupation. This is used for occupations like consultants, sales representatives, insurance representatives, brokers and many other occupations where the person needs a vehicle to perform their daily work duties. This insurance is not suitable to replace commercial insurance. If you use your pickup to perform the duties of a plumber or electrician, then Commercial Insurance will be the route to go.
Farming: This is for social and domestic purposes including farming.

This insurance is for protecting assets like speedboats, motorboats, jet skis and the equipment used on them.

With this insurance it is important to be very specific about the item and the following needs to be specified:

Outboard motors
Specified articles used. This is items like water skis and equipment.

This insurance will include liability insurance for liability and includes:

Passenger Liability
Liability of water-skiers or para-sailors
Liability to third parties if someone other than you uses the watercraft.

Important: This insurance is for social, domestic and pleasure purposes only and will as a rule not include the following:

Racing of any type
Speed or other contests of any type
Competitions, including regattas
Tests of any type
Speed trails of any type
Uses involving a business or trade or profession
Hiring
Carrying passengers for a reward
Used anywhere outside the counties allowed in your policy schedule.

It is very important that your watercraft is insured for the correct amount, because the “average” principal will be applicable. I discussed this principal under House Contents and will publish a more detail under the News section of the website.

This insurance is not expensive and is very important, because this is the product that protects you and your family when you have to pay for costs to accidental death, bodily injury or for loss or damage to property in most countries in the world.

Let me give you an example or two:

You decide to cut off the tree in your entrance of your driveway and you do everything to make sure that it will fall on the open area in your yard, but it accidentally fell to the wrong side and landed on your neighbours new Mercedes Benz. His insurance company claims that you are liable.
Your dog is very friendly and playful. You forgot to close your gate properly after you got home and he bumps open the gate to try and play with the child driving pass the house with a bicycle. The child fell off because of your over friendly dog and she landed in hospital with a broken arm and the parents sue you for all the medical costs.

This insurance can also cover you for the liability if something happens to your Domestic employees, like injury, accidental death or bodily injury while working in your house. This compensation will include all legal and other costs.