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Thomas Hickey

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Fitch has affirmed Standard Life’s insurer financial strength (IFS) rating at ‘A’ and their long term issuer default fating at ‘A-‘. Both ratings are stable. Fitch also affirmed the companies subordinate debt at ‘BBB’.

The rating affirmations reflect Standard Life’s strong and resilient capitalisation. Standard Life’s ‘capital-lite’ product mix with low levels of investment guarantees reduce its sensitivity to financial market volatility compared to other UK life insurers. Standard Life is one of the leading players in the UK life and pensions market, a position achieved through continued success in the self-invested personal pensions markets.

Standard Life’s earnings power is dependent on the value of its assets under management, leaving the company exposed to falls in financial markets and increases in policyholder surrender rates. Managing its cost base and retaining customers is crucial to the insurers profitability. However despite adverse market conditions, Standard Life has managed to maintain strong net inflows over the past year.

The main driver of Standard Life’s ratings is its ability to maintain its position and profitability in its key UK pensions market in the face of increasing competition.

The key rating triggers that could result in an upgrade include greater product diversification beyond the UK pensions market or enhanced profitability within it, as indicated by operating return on assets or improved profit margins.

The key rating triggers that could result in a downgrade include a failure to maintain its position and profitability within the UK pensions market.

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Britain’s state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group said Friday that its boss Antonio Horta-Osorio, who returned to work this week after a two-month break due to fatigue, has declined his 2011 annual bonus.

“As chief executive, I believe my bonus entitlement should reflect the performance of the group but also the tough financial circumstances that many people are facing,” Horta-Osorio said in a group statement.

“I also acknowledge that my leave of absence has had an impact both inside and outside the bank including for shareholders. On that basis, I have decided to request that the board does not consider me for a 2011 bonus.”

Horta-Osorio became chief executive of the bank in March last year and has since announced a massive cost-cutting drive and thousands of job cuts.

His announcement on Friday comes soon after British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to crack down on sky-high pay in the financial sector, which could include a binding vote for shareholders on executives’ salaries.

Portuguese national Horta-Osorio, 47, has declined to take his potential annual bonus of about £2.4 million ($3.7 million, 2.9 million euros) which would have been paid in March.

The bank boss returned to work on Monday after temporarily standing down in November because of serious sleeping problems.

Lloyds saw its shares slump when he took leave, amid fears that the move could be permanent and damage the progress made on reviving the troubled group.

“Under Antonio’s leadership, the bank made significant progress last year in its transformation against a very difficult economic backdrop,” said LBG Chairman Sir Winfried Bischoff in Friday’s statement.

“However, given the economic circumstances, the financial challenges that many people are facing and his recent leave of absence, Antonio felt it appropriate not to be considered for any award he might receive under the group’s annual bonus scheme for 2011. The board has accepted Antonio’s request.”

His total pay package for the year still stands at an estimated potential maximum of just over £10 million, which includes a basic annual salary of £1.061 million.

However, £9.0 million of this package is payable in shares in three years’ time and is subject to share price fluctuations, performance targets and agreement by the bank’s remuneration committee.

LBG, which is 40.2 percent state-owned after a huge bailout at the height of the global financial crisis, has slashed more than 40,000 posts since 2009 as it looks to nurse its way back to health after its part-nationalisation.

“I joined Lloyds Banking Group to rebuild the pride in the bank,” Horta-Osorio added on Friday.

“As a group, we have a significant impact for over 30 million businesses and households and therefore I believe we can make a real positive contribution to the economic and social well-being of the UK.

“My goal remains to restore the bank to profitability enabling us to support the country’s economic recovery sustainably and giving taxpayers the opportunity to get back their money.”

The lender, which was sunk by the global financial crisis and Lloyds TSB’s ill-fated 2008 takeover of rival bank HBOS, subsequently received a huge bailout from the British government.

Horta-Osorio was formerly head of Santander UK, the British wing of the Spanish bank. His predecessor, Eric Daniels, left LBG amid shareholder anger after he oversaw the government-brokered takeover of HBOS.

Source – AFP

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Brokers including Bollington, Carol Nash and Lark are up for sale, as Groupama gets rid of it’s UK operations in an effort to shore up its EU debt position.

According to Insurance Age, the group is looking to raise over of £300 million with the sale in an effort to combat its exposure to the EU debt crisis.

Groupama, the French based insurance and banking group, has been having credit troubles recently with Standard & Poor’s placing them on rating watch negative and warning of a potential credit rating downgrade.

Eric Galbraith, chief executive of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, said he was sad to see Groupama go but hoped that it would be business as usual for brokers, Insurance Age reported.

“Brokers just have to watch what’s going on – I hope the service and business’ position will carry on as usual and hopefully there won’t be too much uncertainty,” he said.

“My concern would be that this is perhaps a further reduction of the market which reduces competition and from a broking point of view, a reduction in competition is a concern.

“Groupama has always been a player in the market and a supporter of brokers so I am sorry to see them go” he added.

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The Transport Committee has called for tougher restrictions for whiplash compensation claims, in an attempt to curb “the runaway cost of motor insurance”.

In their follow up report, the committee credited the recent rise in motor insurance premium to market dysfunction and the escalation of uncontested claims for whiplash injury.

Launching the latest report, Louise Ellman, Transport Committee Chair said, “Insurers, solicitors and claims management companies have themselves driven up the cost of motor premiums by encouraging people caught up in road accidents they did not cause to claim for personal injury, car hire, and other legal costs.

Although we strongly support access to justice, drivers should not be railroaded by cold callers into launching legal action. The insurance industry must abandon sharp practices that push up premiums such as passing drivers’ personal data to other parties or taking secretive referral fees from solicitors, garages and car hire firms.”

The Committee said the rise in personal injury claims is the main reason behind rising premiums.

Many of these claims are for whiplash, an injury where diagnosis is often subjective and therefore very costly for insurers to challenge. The threshold for receiving compensation in whiplash cases should be raised and, if the number of such claims does not fall significantly, the Government should bring forward primary legislation to require objective evidence – both of a whiplash injury and of it having a significant effect on the claimant’s life – before compensation is paid,” Ellman added.

The report also questioned the practicality of the governments recent decision to ban referral fees relating to personal injury cases.

The Government should ensure that the new legislation is implemented in a manner that will prohibit insurers from receiving referral fees across the board rather than simply in relation to legal action.”

While the report focused largely on personal injury claims, it noted that there are numerous factors that contribute to high insurance premiums and that tackling any one in isolation would have minimal or no effect.

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The British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) said it is mainly happy with the Transport Committee’s follow up report on the cost of insurance, but it disagrees with the Committee’s stance on the banning of referral fees.

While BIBA agreed with the report on most issues, they raised questions about the idea of banning referral fees.

Although the current system is flawed, BIBA does not believe banning referral fees is a panacea in itself, or that the end of these fees will directly reduce motor insurance premiums,” said Graeme Trudgill, Head of Corporate Affairs at BIBA.

The real solution is to deal with the fraudulent element of the £2 billion cost of whiplash claims. More rigorous testing of alleged whiplash claims and a reduction in legal costs in this area is very important.

We believe the attack on whiplash culture has to come from medico-legal evidence.”

While disagreeing with the issue of referral fees, BIBA’s response was generally positive. They were happy with the reports view on insurers having access to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database, and said they would continue to push for the introduction of this service.

The issues of data protection and measures to curb uninsured driving were also welcomed by BIBA.

Trudgill continued, “BIBA was delighted to see the introduction of Continuous Insurance Enforcement in 2011. Any review of sentencing guidance which would help reduce uninsured driving would be welcomed.”

BIBA also said that they would be keen to engage with the establishment of a cross departmental ministerial committee on the reduction of the cost of motor insurance.

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Technology which measures how a person drives so that insurers can more accurately price premium is already fitted in thousands of British cars.

The devices, known as telematics devices, track “every single movement” of the car, measure things such as speed, distance, acceleration and deceleration. The information is then used by insurers to adjust the price of insurance accordingly.

Johan van de Merwe, Managing Director of telematics-based car insurer Coverbox, says the technology can also help tackle the recent influx in fraudulent whip-lash injury claims.

“When a driver takes out an insurance policy with a telematics insurer, we install a small box which records the distance the vehicle covers, and charge accordingly.

“But the equipment also records many more parameters – including acceleration, deceleration, speed, and so on – which helps us determine driving standards. But telematic insurers can also use the equipment to measure the magnitude of an impact which can serve as a very useful guide in distinguishing claims needing investigation from those where a high probability of whiplash exists.”

The technology has seen a recent rise in demand with insurers looking for ways to avoid price increases when complying with the new EU gender laws. The effect of the laws will be minimised, with telematics technology giving unique prices for each customer.

Van de Merwe continued, “One of the reasons telematics insurance is always going to be more accurately priced – obviously to the benefit of careful drivers – is because we have that absolutely accurate information about driving behaviour, which allows us to be far more discerning in terms of who we insure.”

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Mark Chambers has left his role of Deputy Finance Director at Giles Insurance to rejoin his old company, Coral Bookmakers.

According to Giles, the departure was “very amicable” and caused no disruption to the company. In a statement, the company said that Mr Chambers left with the best wishes of everyone at Giles.

The company looked internally for Chambers’ replacement, promoting Alastair Hessett to the role of Deputy Finance Director. Like Chambers, Mr Hessett will report to the CFO, Paul Matson.

Mr Matson will replace Chambers’ position on the boards of the regulated companies.

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Standard and Poor’s has lowered their credit rating on United Arab Emirates insurer, Noor Takaful Family, to BB+ with a stable outlook.

The movement comes after the company “marginally underperformed” last year and “significantly eroded it’s capital and liquidity strength”, Standard and Poor’s said.

Its capital levels, even after the proposed capital injection, are still close to the notional regulatory minimum. In our opinion, Noor’s underperformance and the slowdown in its trading volumes demonstrate that its business development model and competitive position were weaker than we originally considered.”

The ratings agency said that while the company maintains strong liquidity and good financial flexibility, their competitive position and operating performance is not up to scratch. They also said that capitalisation is just ‘adequate’, despite new capital due to be paid at the end of the month.

They predicted that policyholder and shareholder funds are unlikely to achieve a break even this year.

Although shareholders have provided capital injections to Noor Takaful when necessary, we consider the need for continual support to be an operational weakness,” the ratings agency said. “The scale of the capital erosion suffered in 2011 now causes us to view the management and corporate strategy as a negative factor for the ratings.

The stable outlook signifies that their capital adequacy and financial flexibility alleviate the pressure on the ratings”

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The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) release its 2012 annual Manifesto today, outlining its priority lobbying issues for the year ahead.

The main focus for the association will be achieving appropriate, proportionate and cost effective regulation for members and working with Government, businesses, regulators and consumers to help ensure a sustainable recovery and support growth.

The manifesto, which draws on consultations with BIBA’s committees and members, highlights four main themes: empowering UK consumers, businesses, the insurance sector and UK worldwide trade.

Graeme Trudgill, BIBA Head of Corporate Affairs, said, “Growth is a big focus for the government, and in our Manifesto we have outlined how our sector can support this aim while achieving necessary change to improve the business environment for both members and customers.

The Manifesto will provide us with opportunities to engage relevant stakeholders and ensure that we are at the heart of representing brokers.”

Chief Executive, Eric Galbraith, added, “Producing an annual manifesto has proved highly effective for us in recent years. It allows us to get across quickly and concisely what we are seeking to achieve and what we believe in – it also shows the importance of brokers to the UK economy. This is our primary calling card with government, the regulator and the media.”

The 2012 Manifesto is the fifth produced by BIBA and will be distributed to all political stakeholders who are influential on the issues affecting insurance brokers. It will be used to outline BIBA’s lobbying position to protect and promote BIBA’s members on the key issues affecting them.

A copy of the manifesto is available on the BIBA website.

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Jelf, a leading UK consultancy firm, has raised £729 to go towards the international charity Save the Children.

Money was donated to the charity for every staff member who completed the company’s annual survey.

Alex Alway, Jelf’s Group Chief Executive, commented, “Our staff survey offers Jelf employees the opportunity to have their say about their experiences working at the company. This year we decided to make a contribution to Save the Children for each person who completed the survey.

Thanks to a strong response rate from our staff, the best we have had to date, we raised £792 for an extremely worthy cause.”

Helen Johnson, Fundraising Manager from Save the Children added, “We’re delighted to receive this fantastic support, which will help us reach out to the most vulnerable children, both here in the UK and around the world. We would like to say a huge thanks to all Jelf employees who took part.”

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AA Insurance has welcomed a report by the Transport Committee today, following its inquiry into the cost of car insurance.

The report comes after Prime Minister David Cameron announced his new year resolution to “kill off the health and safety culture for good”.

In their report, the Transport Committee said that the sharp increases in car insurance premiums have been largely driven by an increase in personal injury claims.

We must kill the compensation culture that has sharply driven up car insurance premiums,” said Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurances. “The recommendations from the Transport Committee are a positive step towards doing that.”

The Transport Committee noted in it’s report that despite the number of collisions on UK roads falling the number of personal injury claims has increased, adding substance to the PM’s words last week.

The AA also raised concern about the type of injuries people are claiming for.

A claims culture has developed to the extent that it has become accepted that if another vehicle hits your car, you should make an injury claim,” Douglas continued. “That’s regardless of how serious the injury is, or even if no injury has actually been suffered. The Transport Committee has clearly recognised that this has driven up premiums for everyone.

Of course, those who are injured in crashes should gain access to justice and compensation for their injury. But too many people are claiming for minor whiplash that is almost impossible to clinically prove.

The majority of drivers don’t make injury claims yet they are paying the price of those who do. I hope the Committee’s recommendations are taken on by the Government.”

Mr Douglas said that the influx of personal injury claims has only encouraged more people to do the same, and has even encouraged fraudulently staged collisions to make claims.

But the insurance industry is investing heavily in fraud detection and successfully contesting false injury claims. Formation of the new police Insurance Fraud Unit this month, which is one result of the earlier stages of the Transport Committee’s inquiry, will also go a long way to help bring fraudsters to book,” he says.

Mr Douglas said that the MPs’ call on the Government to impose a higher threshold for the payment of compensation in whiplash cases should be welcomed.

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Lloyd’s broker Cooper Gay & Co has named John Sullivan as a new Director of its reinsurance division.

Sullivan joined the company from Aon Benfield, and will work with Cooper Gay’s marine reinsurance team focusing predominantly on business coming from the UK and US.

Since joining the market with Bell Nicholson Henderson in 1975 he had until now only worked for one employer. During this 37 year period, however, its ownership moved via Minet to Aon Benfield.

Andrew Hitchings, Chief Executive Office, Reinsurance at Cooper Gay & Co said: “We are delighted that John has decided to move to Cooper Gay after such a long tenure in his previous position. His considerable experience will certainly strengthen our well-established marine team while enhancing our specialist capabilities in both the UK and US markets.”

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Fitch Ratings has affirmed Zurich Insurance Company’s (ZIC) Insurer Financial Strength rating at ‘A+’ and Long-term Issuer Default Rating at ‘A’. The Outlook is Stable. ZIC is the core part of the Zurich Financial Services group.

The rating was based on a solid capital position of the parent company over the first nine months of 2011. Another factor in the decision was the groups continued strong earnings despite high natural catastrophe losses.

Fitch said that the group is in a good position to manage peripheral eurozone bonds without too much damage to their investment portfolio.

Some offsetting factors outlined by the company included a relatively high amount of goodwill intangibles, and the headwinds the company faces due to the difficult economy, competitive market conditions and challenging capital markets.

Fitch said the main factor that could result in a ratings upgrade for the group would be if they maintain their current capital position and continue their strong operating eranings.

There were a lot more downgrade drivers listed, including capital drops, a fall in the quality of underwriting and any acquisitions that are out of the groups “area of expertise”.

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XL Group Insurance has combined its Property Underwriting and Global Asset Protection Services (GAPS) to form a global team of nearly 200 risk engineers. As part of this movement, the Group announced the appointment of six new Regional Engineering Leaders across Europe and America.

XL’s new Regional Engineering Leaders include:

· Huw Chandler for Northern Europe/Australia Pacific: Based in London, Mr. Chandler has more than 30 years of experience as a fire protection engineer, industry safety consultant, construction and property account consultant.

· Jan Van Caesbroeck for Western Europe: Mr. Van Caesbroeck has considerable experience providing loss prevention services to Fortune 500 companies, with particular expertise in the Auto, Diversified Chemical and Steel industries.

· Martin Vinkenfluegel for Central and Eastern Europe: Mr. Vinkenfluegel has been with XL since 1987. He will retain his business development responsibilities in addition to taking on this new risk leader role. He is based in Zurich.

· Marc Musikoff for North America/ Eastern: Based in New York, Mr. Musikoff has 25 years of risk engineering experience gathered from his experiences including at Factory Mutual Engineering and Association, Alexander and Alexander.

·James Lemanski for North America/Central: Mr. Lemanski will remain based in Chicago and will direct risk engineering resources throughout the Central US.

· Anthony Forester for North America/Western: Mr. Forester’s has loss prevention and risk management experience from GE Insurance Solutions and XL GAPS. To take on his new position, he is relocating from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Matthias Horntrich, Chief Underwriting Officer of XL’s International Property Insurance group said, “Our customers should have a choice! That’s why we are proud to be able to offer them the flexibility of a customized approach to their risk management needs with a highly qualified global engineering team which can provide input for superior underwriting decisions. Our new Regional Engineering Leaders will play a key role assuring that we optimize our risk engineering capabilities to their fullest.”

According to Tim Heinze, Head of XL GAPS, “XL GAPS remains committed to our loss prevention customers – those businesses that rely on us for loss prevention surveys, employee training and other loss prevention services outside their insurance program. We look forward to growing with our customers them and helping them keep their operations running profitably.”

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Willis UK & Ireland have launched the Willis Client Academy, a series of free training workshops aimed at supporting insurance buyers across the UK.

The program is in response to last year’s Mactavish research findings that firms have an insufficient understanding of insurance law and what this means for them.

With the aim of helping companies save unnecessary time and revenue loss, the Willis Client Academy will help insurance buyers in all business sectors develop confidence and expertise in the key areas of risk and insurance. Courses will also focus on specific areas of risk, such as Cyber, Directors’ & Officers’ Liability and Professional Indemnity and practical applications such as Business Continuity Planning.

Education is key to enabling insurance buyers make the right decisions for their businesses,” said Dan Wilkinson, CEO of Willis UK & Ireland. “The Willis Client Academy demonstrates our commitment to providing real help to businesses in these challenging economic times.

Our partnership with our clients is one based on knowledge transfer and education, not solely around the purchase of insurance.”

The 2012 programme kicks off on 10th February with courses running at least once a quarter at various locations across the UK.

Sue Newton, head of the new Academy said, “We piloted these courses last year and received excellent feedback from attendees, which we have taken into account in designing this year’s programme. We are delighted to be rolling this educational initiative out on a larger scale across the UK and Northern Ireland in 2012.”

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Planning on adding another room? Building a patio? Extending the garage? While it may save you a few pounds in the short term to cut corners on your insurance, it is important to make sure you find the right cover for your project.

Even if you are doing a small project by yourself, you should take the right steps in getting yourself covered. Just because there aren’t builders or contractors involved doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be insured by an extended insurance policy just like any other new building.

If you are within the term of your current insurance, contact your insurer to check what the situation is with regards to the extension. Your building insurance premium will most likely increase, but don’t forget that the value of your contents may also increase – you now have extra furniture, carpets etc. While it is rarely cost effective to change insurers mid-term of a policy, you can chose to insure your extension with a different policy to that of your house. While that may mean added paper work for you, sometimes it is beneficial to use a specialist self-build insurer for the project.

If you are coming to the end of your current insurance term then ring around to find the best deal. You can often use the renewal quote from your current insurer as a bargaining point for getting a good deal.

For those bigger projects there are a number of different providers who can offer tailored cover from builder liability and damage to the existing structure right down to tool damage. These policies are good, especially if you want to hire workers to help you. The National House-Building Council (NHBC) offers a policy where it will let you work on the construction yourself while checking at various stages to make sure the work is up to standard. You can project manage the build yourself, but the NHBC recommend using a surveyor, architect or professional project manger to supervise the policy checking stages.

Depending on what policy you take you can often stay with the company after the build is completed, however if you took a different policy for your build than for your house, this can get confusing.

As with all insurance matters it is important to consider as much as possible before making a decision. Every case is different, so make sure you have taken all of your circumstances into account – taking the first option can leave you without cover and you may only realise this when it is too late. And as with all insurance, always read the entire policy and understand exactly what is and isn’t covered.

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Moneysupermarket said strong trading in the fourth quarter of 2011 has resulted in good results for the company.

They estimated that last years revenue will be around £178 million, up about 20% on the year before (£148.9 million in 2010). They expect earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amotization to be around £49.5 million, an increase of 21% on last years £41 million.

The UK based financial services comparison site said high marketing spend in the fourth quarter resulted in a 19% increase in revenue for the term compared to the year before.

Analysts at Numis and Credit Suisse were predicting core earnings of 49.8 million pounds, Numis increasing its forecast after the company’s third quarter results in November.

The company said that at December 31 last year they had cash balances of £34.9 million and no debt.

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AXA PPP Healthcare, one of the UK’s biggest health insurance providers, has joined Aviva in removing all limits on its cover for licensed cancer drugs on its standard policies for individuals and small and medium enterprise’s (SME’s), with immediate effect.

Previously, the insurer covered “prolonged cancer drug treatment” for up to one year or for the period of the drug license, whichever was shorter. Those who took out “Cover 1” had up to three years of cover.

These limits have now been dropped meaning patients will be covered for the duration of their treatment. The insurer will now also include cover for chemotherapy or other biological drugs given to prevent the return of the disease.

AXA PPP’s commercial director said, “We want our members to be confident that, if they need treatment for cancer or a heart problem, we’re committed to supporting them – not just by settling their medical bills but also by…providing additional benefits that can help to make life a little easier when they need it most.”

The changes mimic those which Aviva made last year. Aviva, one of AXA PPP Healthcare’s largest competitors, removed limits on cancer cover last year and began funding all treatments recommended by medical specialists.

As part of the changes, AXA PPP Healthcare is also getting rid of monetary limits that apply to outpatient tests and consultations for cancer treatment.

SME customers will also benefit from the changes. The company announced that it has removed the 12 and 36-month time limits on cancer drug treatment and will now provide cover for treatment with licensed cancer drugs without time or monetary limits, and for as long as the patient needs them.

The Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII) gave its approval to the moves, calling the broader cancer coverage ‘positive’.

We are delighted to see that insurers are working hard to improve the cover for our clients,” said Andrew Chipp, chairman of AMMI.

Other changes to policies include a donation of £100 per night for care provided in a registered hospice or for hospice care provided at home (compared to £70 per day from Aviva UK Health up to a maximum of £10,000), without a time or monetary limit.

They will also pay up to £150 for wigs and up to £5,000 for external prosthesis, depending on the level of care customers have chosen.

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The AA reported five fold increase in car insurance claims over the first five days of this year compared to the same period three years ago.

There were also significantly more claims than the same time last year. This January 1-5 saw 28% more car insurance claims than the same period in 2011, when the country was blanketed in snow.

Claims in the first five days of January for the past four years went like this:

1-5 January 2009 – 199 claims

1-5 January 2010 – 418 claims

1-5 January 2011 – 711 claims

1-5 January 2012 – 991 claims

The main driving factor in the rise in claims was the weather, with the wild storms of last week provoking a tsunami of claims for insurers. In Scotland, 65% of all claims in the first five days of January were weather related.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said that the most common cause of damage was from dislodged roof tiles and trees or tree branches.

Other claims are from items not fixed to the ground – including eight cars damaged by trampolines, dozens of wheelie bins, garden sheds, TV aerials, a church hall roof and even a dinghy.

Several customers also had their car door whipped out of their hand by a gust of wind, breaking hinge mechanisms, smashing glass or damaging a vehicle parked in the next space,” he says.

Other weather-related claims over the first stormy days of the year involved cars stranded in flood water, being hit by vans or lorries blown off-course into the oncoming lane of traffic or drivers simply losing control in a sudden gust.”

The AA said that car related claims accounted for 9% of claims last week. These included cases of trampolines hitting cars while blowing down the street, wheelie bins being blown over the road, one case of a greenhouse being tossed onto a car “sending glass everywhere”, and a few cases of flying sheets and tarpaulins blocking peoples view and causing accidents.

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The Hyperion Group has confirmed that it has entered into talks with Windsor Limited, a syndicate of Lloyd’s of London, about an acquisition of the company.

The move could be a sign that the company is close to making a public offering.

Hyperion said the discussions were at an early stage, and couldn’t comment further when News Insurances contacted them.

Windsor also declined to comment on the issue.