Insurance is Everywhere

Nothing happens without insurance. A football game. A rock concert. A car purchase. Riding a bike to the shops. Insurance is a complex, progressive and challenging industry based on the protection of individuals, businesses and governments against risk and financial catastrophe.

Insurance is the cornerstone of our lives and the social and economic fabric of our society.
The principle of insurance is that the losses of the few are borne by the contributions of many. Insurance protects individuals, businesses and governments against risk. We pay insurers premiums in return for the insurers paying our claims if something goes wrong.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs make up the insurance industry that is crucial to the economies of Australia, New Zealand and many Asian countries. It has been evolving for thousands of years with one of the earliest examples demonstrated 3,000 years ago when Chinese merchants spread their load over numerous boats travelling the rivers to spread the risk of their losses from their boats capsizing or pirates.

Today the range of risks covered by insurance is vast with insurance being involved in everything from submarines to satellites. Insurance is indispensable to society.

Insurance industry structure

Apart from health insurance, which is conducted by either private or government specialist funds, there are two main streams of insurance in our society

• General Insurance
• Life Insurance.

There are a number of industry organisations that support these streams including

• Reinsurance
• Insurance Brokers/Advisers
• Loss Adjusters and Investigators.

Classes of General Insurance

General insurance provides our customers with cover for:

• Personal lines including home and contents, property, motor, travel, consumer credit and personal accident insurance
• Commercial insurance including property, transit, motor, contract works, industrial special risk, business interruption and liability insurance
• Workers' compensation
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance
• Marine insurance
• Aviation insurance
• Agriculture, livestock and specialist forms of bloodstock insurance.

Classes of Life Insurance

Life insurance provides our customers with cover for:

• Life insurance with risk and investment components
• Death/disability/trauma insurance
• Income protection insurance
• Superannuation.

Life insurance plays an integral part in the Superannuation and Financial Planning sectors of the financial services industry.