The principles of equity and fairness applied by the Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance (OSTI) when assessing complaints, introduce a degree of uncertainty insofar the performance of short-term insurance policy wordings. This newsletter will not delve into the ‘rule of law’ versus ‘equity and fairness’ debate; but rather focus on the short-term insurance broker’s responsibility to refer clients to the OSTI, especially when the reason given by the insurer for refusing to honour a claim seem unfair. We contend that any claim rejection based on a policy wording that, upon reading, leaves you with a sense of unease, is worth reviewing.

It will take years for life insurers and reinsurers to get to grips with the behavioural changes introduced during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Neil Parkin, chief pricing actuary at RGA South Africa used a phrase attributed to a Prussian writer to introduce his aptly-titled ‘COVID-nomics’ webinar, hosted 12 June 2020. The “fog of war” explains a dynamic in which we do not understand the extent of the threat posed by our enemies nor our capacity to combat that threat, he explained. We can create our current reality by substituting ‘pandemic’ for ‘war’ and ‘coronavirus’ for ‘enemy’.