Australian life insurers turned in a relatively healthy report card for 2014, registering a 23.4% jump in after-tax profits y-o-y although its total revenue dipped 13.5% y-o-y. For general insurers though, total net profit was down 13% in 2014 while its net earned premium was up 3.2%. In this excerpt extracted from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA)'s Insight newsletter, we bring you a quick round-up of the market's developments.
Insurance affordability, particularly in cyclone and flood risk locations, is a key issue for Australia's insurance industry. It was firmly on the radar for a group of senior executives who spoke to insurance journalist Kate Tilley about the industry's challenges and opportunities.
Ms Alexandra Threlfall of Munich Re takes a high-level look at the development of the Income Protection (IP) market in Australia, and explores the work that needs to be done to develop a profitable, customer-focussed income protection solution. The aim is to advocate a position change in order to promote a more sustainable IP market.
Buy Now
Disability insurance has been doing badly in Australia for the past five years. Mr John Harrison of Reed Group Asia Pacific calls for the industry to work on being innovative as it is the key to make the business profitable. Emerging markets in Asia can also take heed.
Buy Now
When the Australian Government declared the incident at Sydney's Lindt Café last December a terrorist incident, it was the first time a declaration had been made under the Terrorism Insurance Act 2003 (TI Act). The declaration had implications for insurers that received claims stemming from the incident, providing those claims were from eligible contracts. Kate Tilley reports.
Buy Now
Cunningham Lindsey and their specialist forensic accounting division, Forensic Advisory Services (FAS), responded to a number of claims following the Lindt Cafe terrorist event, referred to in the Australian media as "the Sydney Siege". Ms Kimberley Daley (FAS) and Mr Barry Simpson (Cunningham Lindsey) reflect on some common policy responses to these claims.
By Ms Tricia Hobson (Partner), Mr Ray Giblett (Partner) and Mr Matt Ellis (Special Counsel), Norton Rose Fulbright