Insurance officials support call for regional insurance pool

Insurance officials are calling for a serious shift in how the region approaches insurance coverage, in the light of increasing economic challenges and the threat of natural disasters.

Gerald Cruickshank, the incoming president of the Caribbean Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (CARAIFA), was among the regional insurance leaders urging a bold, unified approach to financial protection.

Speaking to media on the sidelines of the second day of the 36th Annual Sales Congress of the Barbados Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (BARAIFA), being held at Wyndham Grand Barbados, Cruickshank expressed support for pooling financial resources to provide affordable, accessible insurance for all Caribbean citizens.

The suggestion came from Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, on the first day of the Congress, who said the Caribbean needs a coordinated regional approach to insurance to protect the livelihoods of citizens

“The Minister said within the region we have about $50 billion US dollars sitting down here and we should find ways where we can return a benefit to our citizens, and I think it’s… an alternative thinking concept, out of the box, but it’s really hitting it on the head because we are the gem of the world . . . we have so many persons . . . within this Caribbean, and if we come together, we are very unstoppable,” Cruickshank said.

To implement such a system, Cruickshank said, regional governments should seriously look at providing incentives by introducing tax breaks for citizens who take out property and life insurance policies.

He explained, “In the Caribbean, I think it’s mandatory that you have vehicle insurance, but it’s not mandatory you have life insurance. I think it’s in Belize they have tax breaks [where] if you do insurance on your home, you have a tax cut that you will get back.

“The entire region needs to start thinking that way that if you protect your property, whether it’s a boat, whether it’s a vehicle, then there will be a tax break to give you that encouragement to do it the right way, and that will bring back a great deal of trust because it will reduce the cost of insurance for our citizens.”

Cruickshank added, “Keeping what the minister said in our minds and not acting on it is going to put us in some problems.”

Outgoing CARAIFA president, Hugh Meredith, also reinforced the call for homegrown solutions. He urged Caribbean leaders to refrain from relying on foreign perspectives to solve regional problems and instead adopt a more self-reliant, strategic approach, particularly when it comes to preparing for disasters.

“We have to start to understand that we need to learn more about ourselves and we need to learn more about our region. We need to learn more about the environment that we’re in and we need to create our own path as it relates to the many different natural disasters that surround us.

“Now we can’t expect someone who resides in North America or Europe to understand our system and our people better than us. So moving forward, we have to look at the different islands. We have to see where the different resources are, we have to see where the landscape, how the landscape, is in different areas,” Meredith said.

(SB)