Hong Kong insurers mobilise to help fire victims claim payouts on 12,000 policies

The Hong Kong Insurance Authority has directed insurers to move quickly to assist victims of the Tai Po fire by directly contacting policyholders to help them claim compensation for about 12,000 insurance policies, according to CEO Clement Cheung Wan-ching.\nCheung on Monday updated the figures on insurance policies affected by the 43-hour blaze that started on November 26 at Wang Fuk Court, saying 35 life insurance companies – including AIA and Manulife – had identified 10,000 life, medical and annuity policies owned by residents of the estate.\nAnother 35 general insurance companies had issued 1,800 policies covering property, personal accidents and domestic helpers.\nThe tally has increased from initial estimates last Friday, when the authority said about 30 insurers had issued 7,600 life policies and 1,100 general insurance policies to Wang Fuk Court residents.\n\nCheung said the identification work was complete, and the total number should not increase further.\n“Now we have started the next stage of work by asking all insurance companies’ staff and agents to directly contact policyholders to make claims and provide immediate payments if needed,” Cheung said on the sidelines of the Asian Insurance Forum in Hong Kong. “This will provide immediate help to the victims, and that is the important role played by the insurance sector of Hong Kong.”\nCheung said the findings were based on insurers’ records of policyholders’ addresses. Some insurers told the Post that they discovered cases of people applying to change their addresses to the affected estate, allegedly in an attempt to secure payouts.\n“If any fraudsters try to cheat insurers by changing their addresses to the affected property, they would fail because insurers have clear data and a timeline of when addresses were changed. We would easily identify those who changed after the fire,” Cheung said.\nHe added that insurers would verify the identity of the policyholders during the compensation process. “We will make sure the process is simple and speedy, but at the same time ensure benefits are given to the right people,” Cheung said.\nThe fire – the city’s worst fire in seven decades – killed at least 159 people, injured 79 and left an estimated 4,000 residents homeless.\nHong Kong’s insurance sector was expected to face record claims of more than HK$2.6 billion in property, medical and life insurance compensation related to the blaze that seriously damaged seven of the eight buildings in the estate, according to industry insiders.\nState-owned China Taiping Insurance (HK) was the insurer for Wang Fuk Court, with coverage of HK$2 billion (US$257 million) for property and fire-related damage, and public liability of HK$20 million per incident of death or property loss.\n“China Taiping is well capitalised under the Insurance Authority’s capital requirements,” Cheung said. “The insurer would be able to cope with the compensation.”\nHe added there was no need to worry about premiums rising as a result of the incident, since global reinsurers would share the loss and would not be affected by a single incident.\n