Entries from November 2009 ↓

There’s a school of thought that says, “the number don’t lie”. The assumption is that numbers are facts and facts are always true. So if someone counts the number of times something happens, this gives you a basis from which to estimate the probability of the same thing happening across a population. This is the basis of underwriting for insurance purposes. Teams of highly trained people called actuaries count how many traffic accidents there are. They break it down into the age, make and model of car, the age, gender and profession of the driver, the time of day, the weather conditions, and so on. We happily accept information that, in the first half of 2009, only 16,626 people were killed in crashes, a 7% drop as against the same period last year. We are not surprised when we read this proves that there are 1.15 deaths per 100 million miles driven. The facts are facts and must be true. Continue reading →

The majority of policy holders will go through the year without making a claim. It’s possible a major weather disaster could suddenly take out an area, but the actual risks of fires, thefts and accidents around the home are relatively low. Even high-crime areas do not produce excessive numbers of claims. That’s why, when the anticipated cost of all the losses is spread among the policy holders, the premiums are not too high. That said, people find the claims process confusing, so here are some simple steps to keep technical problems to a minimum. Continue reading →