Insurance, whether it’s for health, life, or property, is a part of the financial planning recommended for everyone. If, besides looking at your insurance needs, you have questions about the integrity of insurers, we will take you on an interesting journey this week.

How much insurance you need will depend on the amount needed to replace the asset for which you are seeking coverage, the types of critical illnesses which may occur, or estimated sum needed to take care of your family if you pass on.

The question those without insurance may ask is: Will insurance companies pay up in the event of disaster or sickness?

To give you a picture of what happens in the industry, we went digging through the most recent statistics provided by the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ), released in December 2020 for the 2019 period.

The Life Insurance Sector for 2019 encompassed five entities – Cuna Caribbean Insurance Company, Guardian Life, National Commercial Bank Insurance Company, Sagicor Life, and Scotia Life. Canopy Insurance is included in the Group Insurance section.

Collectively, the companies ordinary long-term premium income of $7.33 billion in 2019 was eight per cent over the previous year.

The amount related to 111, 640 policies with face amount payable (coverage) of $ 281.98 billion, a seven per cent increase over the previous year. This means that, if all of the insured were to make claims in one year, the companies would have been liable for $281.98 billion.

The kind of policies in this mix included term, whole life, personal accident, critical illness, annuities, and others which were investment-linked.

Life insurance policy benefits paid out for the year amounted to $23.28 billion, including death payouts of $3,792,348,723 and there were also encashments of $14.15 billion.

The industry paid out $786,393,150 for critical illness claims.

In another product segment, companies offering group life include seven companies, Cuna Life, Guardian Life, Sagicor Life, JN Life, NCH Insurance, Canopy Insurance, and Scotia Group Life in 2019.

During 2019, there were 1,871 contracts with group life sum assured for $700.91 billion covering 259,067 employees or pensioners.

Health insurance continued coverage continues to be a very important aspect of living with confidence and the level of coverage in 2019 reflected this.

Individual health policies numbered 687 for which premiums of $70,768,493, in total, were paid.

More numerous were group health life contracts. There were 2,214 group health contracts for the year, covering 279,133 employees and pensioners with 168, 686 dependents. Total lives were 451,349. Annualised premiums for these group health policies were billed as $21.45 billion.

The industry paid out health claims in the amount of $21.52 billion. This amount covered hospitalisation, surgery, doctor’s fees, lab/xray, prescription drugs, maternity, and dental.

The industry signed 192 creditor life contracts, these are policies which cover loans. The contracts covered 2,020,782 employees with a sum insured of $765.94 billion with annualised premiums/fees billed of $5.58 billion.

The IAJ said that, overall, 2019 was a good year for the life insurance industry, which continues to cater to the needs of the insurance-buying public, with a constant desire to take actions that lead to clients’ satisfaction.

We have taken you on an unusual journey in seeking to advise you on adding insurance to the mix in your financial planning.

The industry is functioning fully, paying out benefits on behalf of those who have claims in the event of illness, death, and disaster.