Take for instance the new kidnapping insurance from AIG. With the recent spate of kidnappings in the country, this could not have come at a better time.

Lets see more of this kind of innovation from the Kenya insurance industry.

A short while ago I heard talk of an insurance package to cover drought. If this package exists, it needs to be publicized more among farmers and keepers of livestock.

What could be better for a farmer than to know that if his crop fails as a result of drought or his livestock die, he will be compensated and can start over in a better season.

Another kind of package I’d love to hear about is insurance for smokers. I’m really being quite serious. We smokers engage in this risky behavior all our lives, but it usually takes a long time to kill us.

Think about the premiums the Kenya insurance industry could collect from smokers, who are after all guaranteed that unless they quit the habit, it will kill them.

So let them engage in their habit and enjoy. At the end, how much can it cost to pay for smoking-related health expenses.

Speaking of health, poor health and where it eventually leads. We really need a funeral insurance to shore us over the death of a loved one. Everyone has experienced first hand the expenses that come with funerals.

A policy to cover these expenses would likely be quite welcome, not to mention a great help to those struggling to deal with loss. This is certainly not the time they want to be thinking about money as well.

Indulge me a while longer; I’m think an exam failure insurance package might be worthwhile as well. As our KCSE candidates sit their final exams, this would surely set their minds at rest.

The reality is, the exam is designed with failure in mind. There are simply not enough universities and colleges to accommodate them all, so we make an exam that ensures the majority will fail.

These poor kids need an insurance that will give them some options when they fail.

They could repeat the year in hope of doing better next time; they could start a business and be done with school, or they could take a holiday to recover from the torture of the exam.

Customer dissatisfaction is nothing to sneeze at under the best of circumstances. Service providers are slowly but surely learning that “the customer is always right.” Insurance providers too need to acknowledge this.

If the customers are dissatisfied with the insurance industry in Kenya, then the customers are right to be dissatisfied.

If it’s any consolation, the problem is not unique to the insurance industry in Kenya. According to a recent study, there is…

“confirmed widespread customer dissatisfaction in the insurance industry, stemming from poor service design and delivery.

Ignorance of customers’ insurance needs (the inability to match customers perceptions with expectations), and inferior quality of services largely account for this.”

So if you are dissatisfied, you are clearly in good company.

So what does the insurance industry need to do to mend its poor image? For starters it need some serious public relations. Other than pretending that they follow the Kenya Insurance Act, they need to be serious.

If I were them I would begin with the “yes we can” approach popularized by U.S. President Obama during his campaign.

People love change, if only because human nature tends towards dissatisfaction with what we have and a longing for something else; sort of a “grass is always greener on the other side” attitude.

An industry attitude change would be most welcome. Let us know that from now on the customer is king (and queen). Let us know that we matter more than our prompt payment of premiums.

Let us know that you actually care about our health, our road safety, safety in our homes.

Let us know that you care about our lives!

You’ll be surprised how a new and caring insurance company in Kenya will inspire your clients. Don’t be surprised if you begin to see more prompt payment of premiums, less angry and demanding clients at your door, and an increase in clients.

Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

You know how a salesman will always smile, bow and generally act courteous when he’s trying to sell you insurance? Have you ever noticed how nobody smiles when you go to make a claim?

That’s the other change that would make a huge difference. Come on insurance industry in Kenya; you can do it. Let us see your smile when we come to make our claim as well.

The Kenya Insurance Act requires all insurance companies in Kenya to register. Any kind of insurance you get must be from an insurance company registered in Kenya.

The Act also requires disclosure of all insurance companies’ rates and terms of payment to the regulatory body. This again ensures that if they are charging you an arm and a leg or not making payments, someone knows about it.

Why do you, the consumer, need to know all this? What does it have to do with you? you may be wondering. Truth be told, it has everything to do with you.

While you don’t need to know or memorize the Kenya Insurance Act word for word, you need to know that you are not alone out there in the world of Kenyan insurance brokers.

Just knowing that laws govern this industry is an excellent first step. Knowing in brief how they protect you is certainly to your advantage. It puts you one step ahead of the game.

The first thing you know to look for as you shop for insurance in Kenya is whether the company is registered in Kenya as required by the Act. You also know that they cannot change their premiums and payments haphazardly.

This makes shopping for insurance less threatening. It’s kind of like having a big brother you can run to and tell if the bullies are after you. We’ve all been there (except the bullies themselves) and it’s okay to be scared.

Of course the optimists among us may prefer to think about insurance companies in Kenya as friends, not bullies, and that’s fine as well.

A piece of advice though; if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this world – it’s everyone for himself, God for us all. Insurance is big business and business is about profit.

So do yourself a favor; remember the Kenya Insurance Act and be prepared to yield it as a shield as well as a spear. That means you can throw it in the face of your insurance company if they’re not behaving. Then watch them take cover.

Lets begin with the more obvious of the two – the institutions of learning that produce insurance professionals for the industry.

At a college of insurance in Kenya, you will usually receive a diploma or certificate in matters insurance. The language of instruction will be English.

At the college of Insurance Kenya you are likely to study courses including pension, health insurance, marine insurance, risk management, insurance marketing and information technology.

In Kenya, insurance agency professionals are actually required to attend such a college, which is a good thing because it means we have qualified people working in the industry.

Now the College of Insurance of hard knocks aka the real world is another matter altogether. This school is exclusively for insurance clients. It has proven to be one of premier Kenya financial services provider.

It is here that we learn the most important things we need to know about insurance. For instance, some have learned that the fine print in an insurance contract actually matters.

If you stretched the truth about anything on your insurance application, such as your age, the age of your car, your health status, whether you smoke or not, etc. you are the perfect candidate for the school of insurance of hard knocks.

One area in which the school of hard knocks loves to teach is the car insurance policy. It is here that parents of teenagers often learn a thing or two.

The first lesson is, don’t let your teenager drive without a license.

The second lesson is that a provisional license is not a license for your teenager to drive on his own.

The third lesson is that leaving your car keys where you know your unlicensed teenager can find them on a Friday night and then going away for the weekend is a no-no.

If you didn’t read your insurance policy the first time (and ignorance, we all know, is not an excuse) it may be too late to discover after an accident caused by your young one, that it actually says something about unlicensed drivers.

So there, we have it in a nutshell: The College of Insurance Kenya – both the academic and the school of hard knocks. Enjoy your lessons.

Truth be told, we ignore it at the peril of our loved ones – our families and dependents, who are without doubt the ones most affected in case of a fatality.

This is the most relevant time to be thinking about life insurance – today, while we are in good health and in a position to provide for our families.

Ironically, it is also the time when we are least likely to take time to consider life insurance; that is, unless that annoying life insurance salesman comes knocking and you fail to avoid him.

As far as who to buy from, it doesn’t really matter. You can actually go to the yellow pages and look up “Kenya life insurance.” Chances are, you will find an insurance broker who has what you’re looking for.

What matters more is the type of life insurance that is appropriate for the needs of your loved ones.

The two basic types of life insurance are:

· Term life insurance
· Whole life insurance

Others are merely variations of these two. The first offers cover for a specified period of time while the second does not have a time limit.

The good news is, the terms used in the industry sound more complicated than they really are. The bad news is, you may have to sit a while with the annoying insurance salesman to determine what’s right for you.

Think about the basics as you listen to him. You’ll want to think about your general health, job risks, age and needs of your family, how much you can afford to pay, etc. There are no hard and fast rules.

When he’s done talking (and he will be at some point) ask lots of questions.

Ask about payments and charges. Ask about how they deal missed premiums. Ask about the payment process. Find out whether you need to take a medical exam. It is extremely important to ask these questions when you get Kenya Insurance.

Be sure to ask him why you should get your life insurance from his company. This is mostly to get back at him for being an annoying insurance salesman.

Remind him that you have done your homework in the yellow pages and now have a comprehensive list of Kenya life insurance providers. Now sit back and watch while he picks up the check.

A stay in hospital, even for one night can set you back a long way if you don’t have health insurance. Several days in the hospital will have you really hurting in the pocketbook.

So how do you go about choosing your Kenya health insurance?

There is no shortage of health insurance brokers in Kenya, but you can’t quite wait until they come to you (which they eventually will); you want to take control of the situation, do your homework, and get what’s right for your needs and your pocket.

There are a number of considerations you need to keep in mind. These include:

• Your current health and age,
• Your income
• The size of your family

When you speak to the Kenya health insurance broker or representative, ask a lot of questions. There’s a lot of fine print and you want to know exactly what you’re buying. You need to know:

·      Whether the insurance covers preexisting conditions
·      Which hospitals you can go to under the plan
·      What exactly is covered. e.g. hospital stay, operations, medicine
·      Are your dependents covered?

Shop around before you purchase your Kenya health insurance. Take your time; you’ll be glad you did when you get the best deal possible. It could be a matter of life and death.

For the uninitiated, financial services include insurance, banking, credit cards, stock brokerage, foreign exchange services, among other that deal with money and its management.

Insurance financial services available in Kenya include:

• Insurance underwriting
• Insurance brokerage
• Reinsurance

Banking services in Kenya include

• Keeping your money for you to withdraw at your convenience
• Credit and debit cards to use in place of cash
• Checkbooks
• Wire transfers
• Loans for individuals and businesses

Foreign exchange services are quite common in Kenya. Numerous forex bureaus and banks allow you to buy and sell foreign currency.

A comprehensive review of Kenya financial services is best left to the experts. This piece is meant merely to give you the gist of it; sort of an extreme for dummies guide.

However, it’s worth mentioning that financial crime is quite common. For instance, forgery of currency, identity theft, and money laundering, which is usually related to other crimes such as drug dealing.

We look forward to seeing a detailed review of Kenya Financial Services online and hope the experts will come forward soon and let the world know exactly what is available in Kenya. A rating of Kenya financial services would also be an excellent and useful idea.

There are times you celebrate when insurance companies in Kenya come up with products that are useful. However, in this particular case, it is just a sign that Kenya is slowly moving towards a Central American country.

AIG Insurance company in Kenya has come up with the new product aimed at coming up with cash ransom from the kidnappers. I personally think that this means that the Kenya insurance company is coming up with a kidnapper’s market….but what do I know.

An insurance company has introduced a cover against kidnap and ransom. The launch of the Kidnap or Ransom Insurance cover is informed by the wave of abductions.

In a move likely to ruffle the security agencies, AIG Kenya Insurance Company has come up with proposals for kidnap and ransom or extortion cover.

In the product to be launched next month, the insurer will meet cash ransom demands by kidnappers to ensure safe return of victims.

The insurer will also provide services of experienced response team that will work closely with relatives of the kidnapped.

“Having a professional response team brings a higher degree of probability that there will be a safe conclusion in most cases,” said a manager at AIG who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

You can read more about the new Kenya insurance product here

The only time that you can get any information on the products that are offered by insurance companies is when an insurance salesperson enters your office to sell a Kenyan education insurance policy of one kind or another. Yet, I have some one million questions to ask.

For example

1. Do you offer Kenya travel insurance?

2. Does your company pay its claims?

3. How long does your company take to pay the claim?

4. What about customer service, or do I have to travel all the way to Nairobi to complain about petty issues?

5. What are the benefits accrued to me if I get to be a member of your insurance company in Kenya?

The truth of the matter is Kenya insurance companies have decided that the only way I can get to know the true picture about their organization is if I am a member. I can pay my premiums diligently for a number of years. It is only when I make a claim that I learn exactly how bad the company is.

Let us take the case of my uncle who had been insured by one of these Kenya insurance companies for over 10 years. He had paid his car insurance premiums without fail. He got into an accident as is inevitable on Kenyan roads.

It is now 4 years down the line and he has yet to receive a penny from his insurer. Turns out, he is not alone. The only reason why Kenyans even bother with car insurance is that it is the Law to own such insurance. Left to his or her own devices, no one would buy Kenya car insurance.

It may take some time but it is time to set up a system where we can review Kenya insurance companies. I would rather trust another user than a sales representative who is obviously underpaid and only interested in making a commission from me.

No, I do not need education insurance; I do not have a child. No, I do not need car insurance if it takes forever to pay a claim. All I need is good Kenya insurance that will serve my needs!