When you take out an insurance policy are you sure you are dealing with who you think you are?

Question

The reasom is thatI have inssured with a British Insurance company and find that it is a subsid of another company which in turn is owned by a foreign company. I ask is it wise for HMG to allow this to persist?

Answer 1

MOST policies, are written in the name of a subsidiary company.  That's because insurance companies want to offer different rates - the super preferred rates, for example, will be through  Zurich American , the standard rates through Maryland Insurance.  If you have a substandard risk, you might have to put it through Foremost Insurance company - but ALL of these companies are OWNED by Zurich Insurance group, the third largest insurer, in the WORLD.

You can always ask your agent who the parent company is.  But this is  a VERY common practice.

Answer 2

It does not matter which company you bought from as the PDS (Product Disclosure Statement) will inform you who is the insurer. The biggest insurer in the world is AIG. Go with the biggest insurer as the claim history is cleanner than the rest and a rich company can pay out the claims.

AIG is the only insurer for NASA, military and commercial vehicles (planes, ships, etc). Why? Because they are rich enough to offer the insurance. Financial standing of an insurer is very important. Check out your insurer S&P (Standard & Poor) rating.

Answer 3

Sure there are many large companies like AIG, ING, AEGON, etc... that own many smaller companies and even some of those companies own companies.  It's pretty common and common to keep them separate.

It's not a secret though.