The insurance companies are optimistic of quick settlement of claims relating to the damage of life and property in the Uttarakhand flashfloods.
“We don’t expect the claims to be very large. Though the two State governments have estimated the losses at about Rs 5,000 crore till date, the claims that will be filed will depend on whether the loss was to public or private property. The former is rarely insured while the latter in many cases, is. So we are not worried,” said a private insurance company official.
“Natural catastrophes in India have caused losses to the tune of $2 billion during 2004-2011. Of this, 85 per cent was not insured,” says Sanjay Datta, Chief – Underwriting and Claims, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company.
A top official of a private insurance company pointed out that though the Centre had estimated the loss to be around Rs 5,300 crore, but the claims made to non-life insurers were a meagre Rs 80 crore.
Additionally, while tourists have suffered major damage in these floods, they are unlikely to make claims as domestic travellers in India rarely take insurance. However, the insurers are not sitting idle and are gearing up for the consequences of this disaster through two measures.
1) Documentation norms may be relaxed. “Generally a death certificate from the municipal authorities is required. However, in this case, we will accept the list issued by hospitals, police or armed forces in case a municipal death certificate is not available,” says Kalpana Sampat, Chief – Branch Operations, Underwriting and Claims, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
2) In case of missing persons, while the usual norm is to wait for seven years before a claim can be lodged, in this case, insurers have decided to waive this waiting period.
“We are trying to obtain the list of disaster victims in order to proactively reach out to the claimants and offer claim assistance,” says Frederick D’Souza, SVP- Underwriting, Claims and Operations, HDFC Life.
