Posts Tagged ‘Insurance’
Irish Construction Insurance
Posted on: December 14, 2009
One of the most interesting facts about the Irish Construction industry is that there is no legal requirement for a construction company to hold any from of construction insurance! In fact, the only insurance an Irish contractor is legally obliged to have is basic motor insurance on his/her motor vehicles!
Although there is no legal requirement under Irish law for a contractor to hold adequate Construction Insurance it is extremely important that adequate cover is in place.
One of the most important reasons is the high injury & mortality rate on Irish Construction sites. One major positive of the recent construction boom is the fatality per thousand ratio has fallen in recent years although it is still at an unacceptable level.
For example, in 2001 28% of workplace fatalities were Construction related and the Irish Construction industry is consistently second only to the Irish Agriculture& Forestry Industry.
As many primary contractors require their subcontractors to hold Construction Insurance the reality is that although Construction Insurance is not a legal requirement it is usually a prerequisite to obtaining work on the majority of the countries construction sites so the need for construction insurance is a necessity in everything but law!
Although Construction Insurance is quite a complex field the four main areas of cover are as follows:
• Public Liability Insurance
• Employers Liability Insurance
• Contractors All Risks
• Personal Accident
Public Liability Insurance
Public liability insurance [PL] provides cover in the event that the policyholder is sued by a third party who feels that they have suffered injury or loss as a result of the policyholders negligence (lack of care).
Consider the following examples where Public Liability Insurance will provide cover:
• You run a plumbing company. One day you are called to an office to sort out a problem in their kitchen. Accidentally, you burst a pipe, and flood the office. Your client then makes a claim against you for the damage to their carpet and computer systems which have been damaged by the water.
• You are a building contractor. While walking along scaffolding one of your men drops a piece of equipment which falls to the street, injuring a passing pedestrian. The pedestrian makes a claim against your firm.
Obviously these are very simplified examples and we haven’t discussed the complexities of Products Liability/Liability Law/Duty of Care etc however it should provide a basic understanding of Public Liability Insurance.
Employers Liability Insurance
Employers Liability Insurance [EL] provides cover if any of your employees suffer physical injury or death, and it is proven that as an employer you acted negligently and subsequently could have prevented their loss. If they then decide to pursue you for compensation the insurer will pay the cost of the claim.
Consider the following examples where Employers Liability Insurance will provide cover:
• You run a carpentry company. One of your employees loses a finger while using a chop saw and decides to claim against you for his injury
• You are a scaffolding contractor and are erecting scaffolding around an apartment block. While erecting the scaffolding one of your employees falls and suffers severe bodily injury. He decides to claim against your firm.
Please note that Public & Employers Liability is offered ‘hand in hand’, that is when arranging construction insurance you will need to arrange both Public Liability & Employers Liability Insurance together [Also known as Combined Liability Insurance] as Employers Liability Insurance is not available on a ‘Stand Alone’ basis..
Contractors All Risks Insurance
Contractors All Risks insurance (also known as Contract Works insurance) is an insurance policy specially designed for builders and a number of other trades working at a contract site. Contractors All Risks insurance can include cover for contract works, own plant, hired-in plant and employee’s tools. The main part of the contractors all risks insurance is the contract works section which provides cover for the property being worked on (e.g. new house, etc.). However, cover for the existing property is excluded (e.g. the existing structure when building an extension) and must continue to be insured under its own insurance cover.
Consider the following examples where Contractors All Risks Insurance will provide cover:
• You are a building contractor and are building a house for resale. So far you have spent €200,000 on materials and labour. The property catches fire and is destroyed before it has been completed. • You are groundwork’s contractor and are presently digging foundations for a new housing development. Naturally you leave your excavator on site until the contract is completed however one night your excavator is stolen.
Personal Accident Insurance
Personal Accident Insurance [Also known as Income Protection Insurance] is highly recommended for a sole traders, business partners and company directors as a combined liability policy does not cover any injury caused to a sole trader/business partner while it is extremely difficult for a company director to sue his/her own company. A policy can be tailored to your exact needs and policies include a tax free monthly benefit, a lump sum [capital benefit] and hospital cash.
Consider the following examples where Personal Accident Insurance will provide cover:
• You’re a self employed carpenter with no employees. You cut your hand and are unable to work for eight months. As you have Personal Accident cover you receive a tax free benefit of €1,500 after one month and continue to receive this amount until you return to work.
• Although Personal Accident/Income Protection insurance is no substitute for full time earnings it will provide you with an income if you are unable to earn and it will reduce your financial worries at a time when your recovery should be your number one priority.
Machinery & Plant Insurance
Machinery & Plant Insurance is normally arranged on a case by case basis and provides Accidental Damage Fire & Theft Cover on Machinery. This policy is normally taken by contractors who wish to cover a specific number of items.
Health & Safety Executive
In Ireland the HSE [Health & Safety Executive] have the ultimate authority over Construction Sites and have the ability to close a site if they feel it is a safety hazard. Their primary initiative is the ‘Safe Pass’ – a one day site safety training programme.
Who needs to do Safe Pass awareness training?
Safe Pass is a one-day safety awareness programme aimed at general construction workers, craft workers and “on site” security personnel in the construction industry. The aims of the programme are to:
• raise the standard of safety awareness in the construction industry
• ensure that site personnel after completing the one day awareness programme can make a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents and ill health while working on the site
• maintain a register of personnel who have received training
• provide participants with a FAS Safe Pass registration card, indicating that the holder has attended a formal course in health and safety awareness
Under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 Safe Pass / Safety Awareness Programmes applies to –
(a) craft and general construction workers,
(b) persons undertaking on-site security work, and
(c) persons or classes of persons as may be prescribed by the Minister.
For more information on Irish Site Safety please visit the website of the Health & Safety Authority http://www.hsa.ie while for more information relating to Irish Construction Insurance please visit the website of Keystone Insurance http://www.keystone.ie, Ireland’s premier supplier of Construction Insurance
A relative has just died. He had a life insurance policy with you listed as the beneficiary. There’s just one problem: the life insurance policy is missing. You have no idea which insurance company wrote it.
If you find the missing life insurance policy in the future, are you still eligible to receive the death benefit?
Hope they paid their insurance bills
If you’re a beneficiary and you find the lost life insurance policy shortly after the insured dies (within six months to a year, for example), claiming the death benefit should be trouble-free.
First, determine if the insured had term or permanent life insurance. If the insured held a term policy, you’ll receive the death benefit if he died before the end of the policy term. If he died after the policy expiration date, you would get nothing.
If the insured had a permanent life policy, you’ll receive the money if the death occurred while the policy was “in force,” meaning all premium payments were made up until the time of death. If the death was a while ago, you’ll receive the benefit with interest from the date of death.
If the life insurance policy lapsed — meaning the insured stopped making premium payments before he died — there’s a chance you might get nothing. When a permanent life insurance policy lapses, most insurance companies switch its status from permanent insurance to one of two options:
“Extended term” — The insurance company uses the cash value of the policy to buy a term life insurance policy for the same death benefit using the cash value of the policy. The death benefit will continue for the longest period the cash value will purchase.
“Reduced paid up” — The insurance company will keep the policy in force permanently, but will reduce the death benefit.
Gerry Brogla, an actuary for State Farm, says in the majority of the cases at his company, the permanent policy continues as extended term if it lapses. At State Farm, extended term is the default option for most permanent policies.
If the policy lapses, and the extended-term period expires before the insured dies, the policy is worthless and the life insurance beneficiary will get nothing. If the insured dies before the extended-term period is up, the beneficiary will receive the death benefit. If the policy lapsed because the insured died (thus ending premium payments and causing the insurance to be placed in extended-term status), the beneficiary will still collect the full death benefit, regardless of when the extended term was up. The beneficiary always needs to supply the insurance company with a death certificate to verify the date of death.
There is no time limit during which a life insurance beneficiary must step forward to collect the money, according to Jack Dolan, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers. “If a person shows up 30 years after [the insured’s] death, the company still makes good on it,” Dolan assures.
What happens if no one ever reports the death?
If the insured dies and the insurance company does not learn of the death, the policy lapses. Insurance companies will take steps to find out why a policyholder stopped making payments.
When an insurance company stops getting payments, it sends letters to the insured informing him the policy may lapse as a result of unpaid premiums. If the letters go unanswered, the company might initiate a search to find the insured. If that comes up empty, the company will then lapse the policy.
If a beneficiary to a policy never steps forward, it unfortunately means the insured paid money to a policy throughout his life and his beneficiaries never see a penny. This is why its a good idea to make sure beneficiaries are aware of any life insurance policies you have.
If you’re lucky, the state may have your money
In some cases when a beneficiary fails to claim a death benefit for several years, the money is transferred to the state where the insurance policy was purchased under the escheat laws.
If a company knows an insured died and it cannot find the beneficiary, it must turn the full death benefit over to the state comptroller’s department within three to five years of the insured’s death. The money is transferred to the state where the insured bought the policy. The money is considered “unclaimed property” and gets lumped in with dormant bank accounts and uncollected rent deposits. The comptroller’s department maintains a database that lists the names and addresses of lost life insurance beneficiaries.
Many states will try to contact life insurance beneficiaries in an effort to pay the death benefits. In Texas, for example, the names and addresses of the beneficiaries are published annually in each county in the state. In New York, the Web site of the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds has an online search to find any unclaimed death benefits owed to you. You can find out the procedures in your state by contacting the office of your state comptroller or treasurer.
Keep in mind your chances of finding the policy with the state are slim. The insurance company has no obligation to hand the money over to the state if it’s unaware the insured died. In most cases, it’s the beneficiary who contacts the insurance company.
Also, the insurer only transfers the money to the state three to five years after it cannot find the beneficiary but knows the insured died. If the state doesn’t have the death benefit, it’s likely the insurer is still looking for the beneficiary or doesn’t know the policyholder has died.
Unclaimed death benefits are rarely transferred to the state. Dave Potter, a spokesman for Hartford Life, says less than 1 percent of his company’s death benefits go unclaimed.
Del Chance, a life insurance claims manager at State Farm, says, “Turning over life policy benefits to an individual state after the death of an insured is extremely rare. State Farm utilizes their own search techniques as well as outside vendors to locate lost beneficiaries in the event of the death of one of our insureds. By and large these procedures have always located the beneficiary.
Tips for making sure your life insurance beneficiaries get your death benefit:
1. Give your beneficiaries your policy information. It can be a difficult and awkward conversation, but an important one.
2. Keep all your financial records (especially your life insurance policies) in one place. Don’t force your beneficiaries to search your house from top to bottom after you die.
Tips for looking for lost life insurance policies:
1. Go through canceled checks or contact your relative’s bank for copies of old checks. Look for checks made out to insurance companies.
2. Ask those who may have known about your relative’s finances. Speak with the relative’s lawyer, banker or accountant. Also contact the relative’s insurance agent.
3. Contact your relative’s past employers. They might know of possible group life insurance. The insured might have also purchased supplemental life insurance through work.
4. Check the mail for a year. Premium bills and policy-status notices are usually sent annually.
5. Look at income tax returns for the past two years. Check for interest income from policies or expenses paid to life insurance companies.
6. Contact the Medical Information Bureau. If your relative bought life insurance fairly recently, there might be a trail of the companies to which he applied. The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) maintains a database that might show if insurers requested your relative’s medical information within the past seven years. Record searches can be requested through the MIB’s Policy Locator Service and cost $75. The MIB says that nearly 30 percent of searches turn up leads.
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