Wonder Why Your Insurance Premiums Shot Up

[Gad]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8393112/insurance-firms-hit-by-4bn-in-claims

Floods, cyclones, bushfires and storms have cost more than $4 billion in insurance claims across Australia.Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) chief executive Rob Whelan ranked them as some of the worst in recent times.

Insurers received nearly 190,000 claims in 2011, with a total reserved value of $4.39 billion.

The Queensland floods had the most expensive recovery bill, with 58,463 claims totalling $2.4 billion.

Queenslanders were hit with a double whammy with cyclone Yasi, which resulted in 72,203 claims amounting to $1.33 billion.

Floods and severe storms also battered Victoria while Perth was surrounded by a wall of flames.

The February blazes resulted in 410 claims costing $35 million.

When Margaret River went up in flames later in the year it cost $52.3 million from 392 claims.

Australia's catastrophes were a significant contributor to global catastrophes, with reinsurer Swiss RE calculating disasters such as the New Zealand earthquakes, Thai floods and Japanese tsunami had cost the world economy about $US350 billion ($A348.38 billion) this year.

[Chef-Jeremy]

ahh this makes sense why boat insurance jumped up so much then ... sighs.

[ellicat]

Makes me wonder how much they fall in a good year :whistle:

[Woodlaz]

Yeah the insurance companies must be hurting - the billions of $$ people (as a whole) have paid over the years can't possibly be enough to cover the payouts claimed for 1 bad year.

Poor old insurance companies - doin it tough. :whistle: :silly: :dry: