A decade on from Ireland's 'lawyerless' PIAB model, insurance
press reports of its potential in the UK have been played
down.
The UK has left it too late to adopt a personal injury compensation
model similar to Ireland's, according to Patricia Byron, chief
executive of the Emerald Isle's Personal Injuries Assessment
Board.
She told Post Magazine the issue of referral fees 'enmeshed'
between the legal profession and claims community would rule out a
board model in the UK.
The board in Ireland was set up to combat the rising cost of
insurance. The government body handles personal injury claims and
compensation for accidents on the road, workplace or in public
places.
However, Patricia Byron is quoted in the Post as saying: "The UK
would be starting from a much more tricky location."
Motor insurance rates will tick up in 2015 says
analyst
Meanwhile, insurers here in the UK could get their wish in 2015 as
rates will start to rise next year after nine quarters of
reductions.
According to analysts at Oriel Securities, the sector is going to
hit the floor pretty soon. The company said: "Motor rates have
fallen for nine successive quarters and by 30% since peak rates in
2011. However, we would note that rates are still 18% higher than
2008, prior to a sharp upturn in bodily injury claims."
Oriel analysts believe increases will be moderated by the strong
balance sheets of the sector's largest businesses, along with
continued appetite for motor risks.
New categorisation for serious spinal and brain
injuries
In a month where personal injury topics took up a lot of news
coverage, Post also reported that the Institute and Faculty of
Actuaries (IFoA) has produced a new categorisation for serious
spinal and brain injuries to help insurers estimate future
liabilities more accurately.
The new system is based on long term IFoA analysis of motor
insurance data that showed claims of £1m or more were likely to be
paid as periodic payment orders (PPOs), meaning they often remain
on balance sheets for decades.
Report author Sarah MacDonnell said previously there had been no
standard way of capturing the impact of a severe injury on
mortality.
She was quoted as saying: "With advances in medicine it is not a
stretch to see a baby involved in an accident living to 100 and
requiring support for the entirety of their lives. By categorising
the severity of injuries, we will capture data that can help to
provide more accurate mortality estimates."
The driverless car worries Warren
Buffett
A report in the Guardian that Google's fleet of driverless cars had
covered 500,000 miles on Californian roads with only one minor
accident (caused by human error) has profound implications for
insurers.
This was a theme also picked up in the Wall Street Journal, which
revealed driverless cars could pose a serious threat to Geico, the
cash-cow insurance business of Warren Buffett, the world's greatest
investor.
However, Warren remained upbeat about the future of Geico. He was
quoted as saying: "I feel very, very good about Geico and its
management's ability to measure risk. Self-driving cars are a real
threat to insurers if it's successful. It can happen, but I don't
know how to forecast it. It certainly could happen, but we're not
for one second-thinking about selling Geico."