Tower Insurance is on a mission: To lif t confidence in the industry

New Zealanders are more likely to lose their home because of a fire than anything else, other than a natural disaster. But “sum insured” policies, the industry standard since 2013, mean customers don’t necessarily get their home fully rebuilt if they have

IN A DEVASTATING life event, customers with an insurance claim want to be listened to, and for things to be resolved quickly, says Tower Insurance Head of Claims Helen Quirk.

“Tower’s mission is to give people the confidence that things will return to the way they were, if something unexpected happens in their lives,” she says.

In October, Tower Insurance reintroduced full replacement cover for New Zealand houses destroyed by fire, bucking the industry trend which, since 2013, has been to cover only for “sum insured”.

Quirk said Tower Insurance has been amazed at the way customers have responded to our move.

“I have been stunned at the response. Customers are sending in hand-written letters, saying how glad they are to have the Full Replacement for Fire cover. And when we sent emails to our customers telling them that the cover was now included in their existing policy at no additional cost, we were inundated with emails of gratitude.” she says.

In 2013, the New Zealand insurance industry generally made the move to a new type of home insurance known as sum insured, which is the maximum amount an insurer will pay out on a claim.

Which essentially means that if you lost your house due to an insured event, an insurer would pay the costs for the rebuild up to the sum insured. If it cost more than the sum insured, you would make up the shortfall.

“While sum-insured looks simple on paper, in practice, it can be problematic. People have found it hard to understand,” Quirk says.

Quirk concedes there may be an element of distrust among the public about insurance companies and their ability to look after their customers' needs, following the Christchurch earthquakes and the reported problems with claim settlements.

“We want to fill that gap,” she says. “Our Full replacement for fire benefit gives people the confidence that if they lose their house to fire, things will be the same as they were before, regardless of the cost or the sum you’re insured for” says Quirk.

“We will look at things like your house fittings, and replace them with a modern equivalent. If you had beautiful, ornate fittings, we’ll try to get you something as close to that as possible,” she says.

“The same policy is applied to house contents. If you got your jeans from Kmart, Jeans West or Gucci – we’ll settle your claim accordingly” says Quirk.

Tower Insurance understands that a house fire can happen to anyone, and the impact is totally devastating, she says.

At the time of writing, one of Quirk’s claim team was dealing with a customer who had lost their house due to fire and there had been a fatality.

“They are on-site with the customer, and giving them moral support. That’s important for us; it’s about that moment of empathy and helping and guiding people through what can often be an extremely hard situation.”

Only about 10% of Kiwis consider losing their house to fire to be a high risk, despite fire being the most common reason for the loss of a home, after natural disasters, according to a Horizon Research survey.

“We understand that people don’t think a fire will destroy their house, and when it does, it can be very traumatic and stressful. We know customers want quick resolution, support and security when they lose their home, or their house is badly damaged by fire.”

“We’re pleased to be able to offer an improved level of cover for people’s biggest asset – their homes. We can guarantee that level of service to our customers, backed up by our total fire cover policy,” says Quirk.