The IA Risky Business

Each year Insurance Advisernet (IAA) Authorised Representatives from all over Australia & New Zealand come together for our annual conference. For us this was our 2nd year as delegates after previously attending about 4 IAA conferences representing one of Australia's largest Insurance Companies. Having been to a number of Insurance conferences the IAA event is always one we looked forward to. The word 'family' gets bandied about quite freely but reality is family is the best way to sum up the IAA group. Even if you haven't seen someone for a year (generally since last conference) you start talking like it was just yesterday. The level of support for each other is evident in all discussions and just the general ambiance of the conference. This year the conference was effectively on our home ground; The Hunter Valley. Yep, Hunter Valley! Okay so Day one we eased into it with a 34 degree day. What better way to spend a 34 degree day then winery hopping! We jo...

30th September 2011 and after a month of preparing and relaxing we turned on the lights of The Manning Valleys' newest Service Provider. 2 years ago today the business began with so much flare and fan fare that everyone missed it. In fact aside from some family the only person who knew we were open was Photography by Linda's Linda Bryant as we were booked in for mug shots.  Whilst 30th September was the official opening day the origins of the company go way back. We looked at options about 4 years earlier and came close to starting the company on The Gold Coast where we were living. We loved The Coast and had some good friends there. From a business perspective there's an Insurance broker in just about every suburb so it didn't make sense to us to try and make a sustainable business in a saturated market. Nikki's family have been long term residents of The Manning Valley on The NSW Mid North Coast. We would visit a couple of times a year and as the years we...

'It wont happen to me!' Short and sweet. 5 little words that either directly or said in the same context that we hear at least once or twice a week. 'My building is tilt slab concrete, it cant burn.' There's nothing in my warehouse that can ignite.' 'I keep my house clean nothing will ever happen!' These are comments that we regularly hear from clients or prospective clients. Well, surely the past week in Australia should change everyone's minds about fires in the home or in businesses. Every week without fail there is a large fire in the news. Scrolling back through news sites we've counted over 18 fires in Australia since August of some description. This actually excludes Bush fires! However last week it was basically every night. Let's see if we can recap the last week in Ozzie news. 1. Tuesday 17th September: A Norlane (Victoria) home is found alight. Allegations of resident starting fire deliberately. 2. Wednesday 18th Septemb...

We've been discussing Management Liability alot this year and for a very important reason. Look let's be honest Management Liability (ML) is just a title and to you would mean very little. To break it down though it is basically the goalkeeper for your business. It is NOT used as a substitute to compliance and correct practices but a full stop on your business protection. In business there are potentially thousands of individual pieces of legislation that have an impact on your business. We challenge you to name them all! We don't know them all and we too have to comply with them. Depending on your industry you may have as little as 50 for example, but still, even if 50 compared to 1,000 do you know them all? Over the past decade Australia has become a red tape nation. There is more red tape to cut through to run a small business then at any other time in our nations history. Non compliance on one piece of legislation can potentially ruin a business. The Insurance...

Our blog today is lifted in it's entirety from a recent article featured in the online version of Insurance Business magazine dated Tuesday 5th September. It's a very opinion and snapshot on the future of the motor industry and innovations which seem out of the movies but in reality are in the market right now. ' Zurich  discusses future developments in motor insurance – from driverless trucks to flying cars. A world of driverless trucks and trains is more fact than fiction these days. It’s a common feature on our mine sites and it’s only a matter of time before passenger and freight trains are also driverless. Developments in real-time monitoring could see every vehicle fitted with telematics devices-...- linking to a centralised control system that constantly checks and controls speed. Blackbox technology is already popular in the UK and is likely to become a standard factory setting in Australia too. In five years’ time, mobile phone networks - connected to ...

A media release on the 17th of July advised of a decision by the Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) notifying a large corporation that their advertising of an insurance product was potentially misleading. An add running last year mostly on outdoor media and buses claimed Woolworths car insurance saved customers, on average, $240. It did have a disclaimer at the bottom of the add but really, when it blasts past you on a bus how are you supposed  to read it. After initially not commenting, Woolworths came out and said in response to ASIC's concerns, "we accept ASIC's feedback and will this into account when we run this sort of marketing in the future." And that's it!......... It's interesting because for many years we've watched the way Insurance is sold in the media and it totally devalues or derails the entire purpose of having insurance correctly put together for your individual needs. In response to the Woolworths case some ind...

Happy New Year! It's not often we get July 1st on a Monday so it feels like a fresh new start. Our Blog this morning looks back at life over the past 12 months. It's been an amazing and enriching time for us and to finish up at midday on Saturday, vacuum the floor, wipe the desk and clean the screen felt pretty good. The place looked crystal clean, and considering where we started it was a proud moment. It was literally 12 months ago to the day that we walked into Suite 3, 7 Macquarie Street and went back in time. The faux wood panelling and eaten carpet. The chipped ceiling and dusty drapes. The laminate bench top and rusty door handles. It felt like an old Swiss chalet but without the promise of schnapps by the fire or a day on the slopes. What a way to start a new financial year,with a project and mission that seemed impossible to people with little to no trade nous whatsoever. Considering we were still only 9 months old and establishing rapport with our new clie...