NUMERATION ON HOME FIRES

 Fire, and just speaking of insured assets, causes damages worth approximately 422 million euros each year. Almost three out of four of these fires occur in homes and the cost of repair is around 1,800 euros, about 1,200 in homes. These are some of the most surprising fire statistics that emerge from analyzing the fire cases that insurance deals with each year in USA and Spain.

But the fire is still there; and if you do not have to be afraid of him, of course you do have to respect him. Much less frequent than before and all, fire, and just speaking of insured property, causes damage to an approximate value of one and a half million euros each day of the year . Or, if you prefer to see it like this, every day of the year, which includes Sundays, holidays and your birthday; Each day of the year, then, the fire burns the total earnings of the entire year of 67 Spanish workers.

Today, however, fire no longer inspires the same fear. The insurance figures themselves suggest that, in statistical terms, the same estate has a fire every hundred years . Today, in insurance terms, water actually does a lot more damage than fire .

The fire insurance is probably one of the first , if not the first, of the commonly employed by private insurance, now over 200 years ago in many cases. We are not fully aware now; But for 30 centuries, since man has lived more or less crowded in urban agglomerations, fire has been his worst enemy, because, of all that haunted him, it was the one that was most likely to leave him with nothing. .

Where do the most fires occur?

Today, according to our data, 71% of the fires that insurers compensate through so-called multi-risk products have occurred in homes , which should not surprise you, because homes are the most common and, in addition, have to take into account that in other types of buildings and facilities (such as factories or public premises) there are usually elements to suppress fires that individuals do not usually have; and that, do not hesitate, helps. To this must be added another 13% that occur in the common areas of the homeowner communities , in addition to fires in shops, which are 10%, and those produced in industries, 5% .

If we analyze it from the territorial point of view, the statistics tell us that in the city of Madrid , logically the urban concentration where there are more fires, one occurs every 49 minutes , according to our estimates. In Bilbao one is registered every hour, and in Valencia and Barcelona, ​​every hour and a half.

Fire prevention

What to do in front of the fire? As we have already said before, our condition as citizens of the 21st century allows us to approach the subject calmly, not with disinterest. Fire is no longer so relevant, nor is it so present, as in the lives of our great-great-grandparents; but that doesn't mean we can get past him just like that. Fire, to the extent of each one, must be prevented, both with measures such as fire extinguishers and through the least common of the senses, which is common sense. The best way to prevent and not inflate fire statistics is to not play the game. And, of course, have good insurance. Because fatality exists and no matter how forewarned we are, then mishaps come, better to have that instrument that lets you know that, if your heritage burns, at least its value will not.

The cost of fires

An average fire in a home in Spain devours assets and capital worth 1,200 euros on average , a figure that is quite similar in the case of neighboring communities. However, when we talk about business, things are going up: in shops, the average fire goes to 2,400 euros, and in industries it is around 9,500 euros . This is logical, since the fire, here, is attacking buildings where there are usually equipment or stored goods that exceed in value the things that are usually in a house or even in a shop.

THE 5 ITEMS INSURANCE DOES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

 Sustainability is a need that more and more people perceive and companies have been trying to apply it to their activities for a long time. From now on there will be an entity that will ensure that this commitment to sustainability, which goes far beyond the fight against climate change, is transformed into real and efficient actions within the financial sector. It is about FinResp, today we are talking about it and the principles that the insurance sector already applies to be sustainable.

Are Insurers For Sustainability? You are right. Although it may seem that insurance, which pollutes rather little, has little to do with sustainability, we have many things to say about it, and there are many things we can and do in this area. Specifically, five. For you to see:

Anyone who is aware of sustainability must know these three key letters, ASG, which stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. This term defines all those matters that are not only concerned with building a greener world, but with a world where quality employment is of quality and people's rights are respected, and a world in which the behavior of companies is the suitable for these purposes. Sustainability in the business world, then, is to pursue ESG objectives, if possible without leaving any letter on the way.

 1. Incorporate sustainability issues into insurance underwriting

Second, insurance can use underwriting for sustainability. This is especially visible in the case of environmental insurance. The insurer, as a good connoisseur of risks, is also aware of the best measures that can be taken to avoid or mitigate them. In the underwriting process, therefore, you can operate as a “prevention provider”, helping your client to improve their own sustainable management.

2. Spread the principles of sustainability

In the first place, insurance has committed to disseminating the principles for sustainability in its sector, as developed by the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Program. UNESPA, the sector association, is part of FinResp, an association aimed at promoting sustainability in the financial sector; and, as such an association, it carries out a constant and active work of contact with its associates to spread these principles.

3. Collaborate with third parties to promote sustainable actions

Fourth, another thing that insurance does, following the principles of the UN, is to collaborate with third parties in the development of ESG actions and be transparent about all this. Suppliers, clients, governments, authorities, non-governmental organizations, foundations, other companies… the insurance sector has a relationship with all of them; which, in addition, has generalized the publication of sustainability reports that, in many cases, exceed the mandatory limits of the legislation on this matter.

4. Invest in ESG assets

Third, the insurance invests in ESG assets. It is an increasingly visible trend, both from the point of view of the positive appetite (purchase of green assets) and negative (waiving the acquisition of assets linked to policies incompatible with ESG objectives).

5. Generating quality employment

Fifth and last, but not least, Spanish insurance makes evident its commitment to the S of ASG by creating some of the highest quality jobs in the Spanish economy; jobs that have unbeatable levels of stability and that are among the best paid in the Spanish economy.

Of course, there is a long way to go. But the road has already started.

DOES HEALTH INSURANCE TREAT SERIOUS ILLNESS?

  Sometimes you hear that health insurance is only for little things; for flu, "easy" illnesses, those things. The truth is that not only is this not the case, it is even just the opposite. Health insurance takes care of the most serious ailments of its clients. And to prove it we are going to use two arguments.

First of all, we ask you this question: if private insurance only deals with minor ailments, why does it have so much equipment to take care of serious ones? The National Catalog of Hospitals is an official statistic that describes each hospital center in Spain, with an indication of its patrimonial dependence (which allows differentiating those that are private for-profit) and the equipment they have. If we do the math to see what percentage of this equipment is in the hands of private hospitals, we may be surprised.

As a second argument, there are the data of the insurers themselves. If we divide life insurance clients into healthy/mild (those who, throughout the year, cause an expense in tests and medical services of less than 500 euros); serious (those that generate an expense between 500 and 6,000 euros), and very serious (more than 6,000 euros of annual expenditure on medical tests and treatments, we found that clients with mild problems barely account for 21% of all benefits for health services. Clients with serious ailments alone account for one out of every two health services that are provided in private insurance, and very serious a quarter. Every hour of the year, because you already know that health care does not rest, the health insurance invests 360,000 euros in the health of people with serious ailments and 190,000 in that of people with very serious pathologists.

A third of the healthcare equipment for serious illnesses is installed in private hospitals

As can be seen, there is equipment that is used for diseases as serious as cancer, of which a third of those installed are in private medicine, which is used by insurers.

Health insurance, therefore, is not just for “nothing” or little. Many people trust insurance every day to cure, prevent or mitigate serious or very serious anthologies. One of the reasons why confidence in these insurances is increasing every day.

PURPOSE For Companies To Take Out Business Insurance

 An average Spanish industry has assets to protect worth 2.2 million euros. This figure is a good measure of how important insurance is for Spanish industrial clients since any mishap that endangers or volatilizes all or part of that value would be very difficult to counteract. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that behind an average industrial heritage of 2.2 million euros there are people who depend on it, either as direct workers of the insured industrial establishment or through other establishments, who, being their suppliers or customers, depend in some way on him.

 International data suggest that Spanish companies are among those most protected by business insurance against problems that may arise. Spanish offices, businesses, and industries currently have insured items for an added value that slightly exceeds 1.6 billion euros. To give you an idea, a worker would have to be in the office for five million years to earn all that money.

Reasons for companies to take out business insurance

An average mishap in a Spanish industry costs 3,500 euros; Few industries have cheap mishaps, so when problems arise, it is important to have coverage.

 Think that the statistical expectation of a sheet metal hit on a car is that it will cost a little less than 900 euros to repair it. But those 900 euros are compared, for example, with the almost 13,000 that a mishap can cost in the most common business insurance, which is multi-peril. Or the  4,700 euros that take a mishap due to machinery breakdown. And here we are talking about average costs, because in business insurance when you look at the most expensive mishaps,  it is not strange to find costs above 100,000 euros.

Thus, perhaps it could even be said that the main service that business insurance renders is not in the payments it makes.

Because bad events happen; they occur, and cause some 3,000 million euros in losses each year, which are absorbed precisely by the insurance institution, in such a way that it constitutes a guarantor of the continuity of the activity.

Thus, every time an insurer pays 10,000 euros to a carrier who has suffered damage to his vehicle or merchandise, or 7,800 to a builder who has had a problem on a construction site (both are average figures), you are not paying you all that money; But if you consume what the carrier was carrying or you are buying a flat, in reality, yes, it is saving you. Business insurance, then, is also there for you to do better.

The main service is in the sense of security that the industrialist gives the fact of knowing that, if negative things happen, someone, the insurance, will bear the costs. As insurance mutualizes risks (that is, it spreads them among all its policyholders), it can afford to ask each client to pay a small part of said risk. But if each of those clients were faced with the possibility of suffering a loss on their own, their attitude would be very different. Without mutualization, you should save more resources, and that means you would charge more for your products. You would pay it, then.

HOW AVOID ONLINE SCAM 4 TIPS

 Black Friday is here, and we can already see you polishing your credit card. Perhaps it is the moment you have been waiting to buy things that you like or need at an unbeatable price; And you're probably going to make some of those purchases online. Electronic commerce is booming and it can bring you many satisfactions. But you are also exposed to risks, here are 4 tips to avoid an online scam this Black Friday.

Can internet scams be avoided? The truth is, it is very difficult. Of course, there are some things you can do that will help you minimize the risks of suffering an online scam but also the consequences if it finally occurs.

1. Secure pages

Do not trust any offer or, of course, on any Internet page if you want to avoid the online scam. An important guarantee of the credibility of the landing page, for example, is that it is web https: (those with the padlock).

2. Exclusive payment card for online purchases

A good alternative for the most proactive in terms of risks is to refer your credit card to a smaller account, where you may not have all your money so that, in the event of data theft or fraudulent use of your card, the economic impact it would be less. For the most cautious (or fearful) there will always be the cash on delivery.

3. Control of movements on your card

There are two main groups of scams related to your credit card: the case in which you still have the card but someone, in some way (for example, through a phishing scam ) takes hold of the card's data; or the case in which the card is stolen to use it and, therefore, you stop having it. In both cases, it is important that you regularly check the card movements and, if you detect an irregular payment, use your bank's own mobile application to disable the card as soon as possible.

4. Insurance strip

Although, as we have just seen, there are different types of theft when it comes to card theft, insurance can help you in both situations avoid online scams. For insurance purposes, in both cases the same risk arises that you want to protect yourself, an economic loss derived from a payment transaction that you have not authorized. For this reason, apart from the convenience of always acting with the utmost diligence and care when using your credit/debit card (whether online or not), the moment you are aware or suspect that a third party may be using your card without your consent, you must contact your bank and notify them.

The multi-risk or home insurance. In addition to specific card insurance, there are other broader insurance programs, such as multi-risk insurance, which includes additional or complementary guarantees that provide coverage against cases of fraudulent use of credit/debit cards.

Legal defense insurance. Do not forget that, if you suffer an online scam, you may need the help of legal professionals to properly guide you in the steps you have to follow. A situation in which it will be very good for you to have a good legal defense insurance.

Credit card insurance. Having the card insured is always a good idea. There are different insurances of this type but the coverage related to purchases with debit/credit cards is usually quite common to buy safely. In fact, the specific insurance coverage products for the protection of unauthorized payment operations, normally, are already linked to the cards from the moment it is activated and becomes operational, it is recommended that you check with your bank when you buy the card.

HOW DOES MORTGAGES LINKED TO INSURANCE

 The risks associated with a mortgage are unlikely but, if they occur, really harmful. To cushion this blow, there is mortgage life insurance, which comes into play when the life of the insured is cut short by death, illness, disability, unemployment, or other circumstances. We tell you how this insurance works and what are its main data in Spain:

Mortgage Life Insurance, How Does It Work?

In the last fifteen years, 1,750 people or families, each day, have decided to start the process of acquiring a home through a mortgage loan. Mortgage-linked insurance is there to protect the insured's assets in case their life goes wrong. There are people who die unexpectedly, at an early age or even very early; And if they are supporting the repayment of a mortgage loan, this death poses a very serious problem for the family, which, on occasions, no longer has the capacity to meet the loan commitments and, consequently, places itself in danger of losing the House. This problem is the one solved by life insurance combined with a mortgage, which acts in two key moments:

1. In the event that the income of the person who contracted the loan is in danger: the payment protection coverage assumes the payment of the mortgage for a time due to the interruption of the income, for example, by becoming unemployed.

In this way, life insurance combined with a mortgage protects the assets of the person and often also of the family unit, which is not burdened by the need to meet the needs of the loan. In fact, you are protecting your own possession of the house, avoiding with the payment that you lose the house.

The life insurance combined with mortgage acts as an anti-eviction tool by protecting the assets against non-payment in the event of death or serious illness

2. In case of death or illness: the insurance will be in charge of paying the outstanding monthly payments of the person responsible for paying the mortgage in the event of death, long illness or disability.

Mortgage Insurance Statistics

In Spain, there are approximately 3.3 million people or families who are paying a mortgage and are covered by this type of insurance. Last year, 4,650 of these people encountered the misfortune of a death or premature and unexpected disability that prevented them from continuing to meet their loan commitments; but they had the insurance protection to avoid the loss of the house. On average, those payments were about 28,000 euros or, if you prefer, 1.2 times the salary for the entire year of an average worker.

Mortgage-linked life insurance did its job primarily among relatively young people; It is logical since older people usually have already finished paying their loans, which is why it is less common that they are still protected by this type of product. More than 40% of the people who came to the aid of whose families the insurance came last year were under 55 years of age.

Mortgage combined life insurance is insurance that is often talked about in critical tones. However, it performs essential social work. Any family member who has suffered the misfortune of the loss of a family head can confirm this.

WHAT UNIT LINKED, HOW THIS SAVINGS INSURANCE WORK?

 There are life insurance, literally, of all colors. So, we understand that it is very difficult to know all of them. For that, there are insurance distributors and the insurance companies themselves, which can help you, and also initiatives such as Saving gives a lot of life that, intuitively, help you know which product best suits your profile and needs as a saver. Today we are going to talk to you about one of the lesser-known life insurance: unit-linked, how does this savings insurance work?

Unit Linked insurance has many possibilities, especially if you are one of those who, in addition to worrying, want to take care of their savings. Let's see what characterizes it.

Unit Linked Features

In most savings insurance, the insurer guarantees you minimum profitability or, if you prefer, sets a profitability floor below which the earnings from your savings will never fall. Giving you a guarantee, however, has one condition: you invest your savings in the portfolio in which the insurer does, without being able to make any decision about it. If the insurer is the one who assumes the financial guarantee, logically, it also demands total sovereignty over what it will invest your savings in, although it will periodically inform you of the assets in which it invests them.

However, what if you don't agree with that? What if you want to manage your savings, that is, to be able to move them from one place to another looking for the best profitability? Well for that there is Unit Linked insurance:

The client assumes the investment risk and decides at all times where he wants to invest

Thus, unit-linked insurance is a product that offers you certain investment alternatives, up to a maximum of ten. The day you "enter", that is, when you make your first contribution, you decide how much of that contribution goes to each of the alternatives; you can put all your money in one, or distribute it between two, three, or more. You command.

Unit linked insurance is formed as an insurance in which you, the client, assume the risk of the investment. It is, therefore, an insurance that does not guarantee you any profitability but, in return, allows you to decide at all times about where you want to invest your savings. Insurance is at your command.

In fact, the normal thing is that you can change your mind whenever you want. You can, then, relocate the savings, take from here to put there, according to your criteria. Because, again, it's your criteria that rules.

Advantages of Unit Linked savings insurance

In addition to flexibility, Unit Linked units offer a number of additional advantages:

Advice. The insurance companies have the best professionals to help you select among all the investment alternatives the ones that best suit your preferences. That is, they are responsible for making a pre-selection.

No minimum contribution. Unit Linked units do not require initial or minimum contributions, allowing savings to be created with periodic contributions, even if they are small

 additional coverage in the event of death, which may be higher or lower depending on your family situation.

Additional coverage for death. They are life insurance, so they give you

Is unit-linked successful in Spain? At the end of 2018, they had 700,000 clients, a figure in which savers who have combined it with an individual systematic savings plan (which are 1,700,000 as a whole) are not being calculated. The unit-linked already manages savings of more than 13,000 million euros. Every hour of the year, this insurance pays almost 420,000 euros to its clients who have decided to recover their savings

Possibility of combining with other products. They can be combined with other life insurance with tax benefits such as individual systematic savings plans (PIAS). In this case, if you collect them in the form of a life annuity, you will not be taxed on the income generated by your savings.

One more alternative, then, that can be very interesting for you if you have a saver profile that adapts to your possibilities.